Kirk Siegler
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In the rural Northwest, far-right elected officials and the militia movements they're aligned with are calling for defiance of stay-at-home orders like the one issued by Idaho's Republican governor.
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Small-town hospitals were already closing at an alarming rate before COVID-19, but now the trend appears to be accelerating just as the disease arrives in rural America.
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There's still a serious shortage of testing for COVID-19 across the country. Many people who are sick and showing likely symptoms say they still can't get tested.
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Some states in the rural West are still reporting very low numbers of COVID-19 cases. But there are pockets with high infection rates: wealthy resort towns with a lot of visitor traffic.
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There was already a shortage of medical personnel in rural America before the coronavirus. Medical staffing firms are now trying to send health workers to underserved small towns.
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Small-town hospitals are under-equipped to deal with the coronavirus, and administrators warn it's a misperception that people in isolated rural areas are safer from exposure.
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America's worsening homelessness crisis can feel like an intractable problem. But Spokane, Wash., may be having some early success trying some new tactics to help its most vulnerable.
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The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's acting chief says the decision to relocate the agency's headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colo., means "locals can come and see us."
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With Pacific Northwest salmon and steelhead on the brink of extinction, there are new efforts being brokered to save the famed fish.
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The denial upholds a lower court ruling that put severe limits on cities' ability to enforce anti-camping ordinances on streets and in public rights of way. Advocates for the homeless lauded the move.