This spring’s floods devastated farming and rural communities in the middle of the U.S. that were already struggling with economic and social decline, writes Nathan Beacom. But ”blue” America may find it difficult to sympathize.

Income is perhaps the unifying indicator of health care in crisis across all the margins of America—a reliable predictor of poor health outcomes from inadequate treatment for common illnesses—leading to the final measure of all: substantially lower life expectancy.

According to the National Trust for Canada, close to 9,000 churches could be closed within the next decade, citing the fact that they are becoming “surplus to the needs of society.”

The latest five-year farm bill continues a pattern of subsidizing corporations while squeezing every last drop of use out of farm families and cropland.

The farm bill that passed both houses of Congress by wide margins doesn't have money in it to protect endangered species, but it did preserve one that had been on the threatened list: bipartisanship.

"It's a struggle. You feel frustrated because our local government seems to care more about the tourism industry than the hard-working people."