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Every year since I can remember, save for a few when I was out of town for school or work, I've been to the Kentucky State Fair. My parents took me when I was a newborn. There's a photo of me sleeping on a cow when I was a toddler. My niece went when she was just a baby. It's our family tradition.
I'm from the city, so the best part of the state fair for me is always whatever new fried dessert concoction I can get my hands on, looking at colorful quilts and cakes my family sometimes entered, watching border collies herd sheep.
But for thousands of other people — adults and kids — who live in rural areas, it's one of the most important events of the year: A chance to show off their livelihood, make connections and money, win awards for their hard work. It's a space all theirs, to educate urban folks about rural life. This week, April Simpson from Stateline reported a great story about changes rural folks are enduring because of fair cancellations during the coronavirus pandemic. It helps put into context fairs' place in rural communities and how much money is at risk of being lost as they are canceled. It also doesn't shy away from fairs' often racist histories and the problems and stereotypes they perpetuate with what they allow to be sold or promoted (i.e. Confederate flags).
The fact that county and state fairs, as well as other major events like the Kentucky Derby, are (thankfully) shutting down or drastically downsizing because of their concerns about the risk of COVID-19 or state orders to do so, means we have some time and space to think about what these types of events mean to a community, how well they support local people, the ways they perpetuate injustice, and who they are still putting at risk.
Most often — even when companies or events are not operating at normal capacity — it's workers who have low-wage jobs, who have no choice but to show up and risk their health, and the health of their families, because there's no social safety net to help them otherwise. It's something we are seeing in the poultry industry and in the food system all over the U.S., in the service industry, in the healthcare industry, among sanitation workers, and now, among teachers and childcare workers. The point that people need more protection, better pay, better healthcare, that employers need to be held responsible, and that monoeconomies aren't benefitting people and communities, has been proven over and over again in the last five months. And there's nowhere that is more evident than the South.
—Lyndsey Gilpin, Founder, Editor, Publisher
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Our Gulf Coast correspondent Carly Berlin has been working for over a month on this story about Moss Point, a small, predominantly Black city on the Mississippi coast that has a long history of environmental hazards and violent policing.
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Moss Point is at the confluence of the Escatawpa and Pascagoula rivers.
Photo by Carly Berlin
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My friend and former colleague Erin Carson wrote this story for CNET about the effort to develop a better tornado warning system. She spoke to folks who lived through the tornado that hit Nashville, her hometown, on March 3 and lost everything. "This won't save property," says Roger Waxler, one of the researchers working on this type of tornado detection, "but I'm hoping we can save lives."
For Ohio Valley Resource, Brittany Patterson investigates how chemical company Union Carbide Corp. has allegedly leaked potentially toxic pollutants into the waters of Davis Creek in West Virginia for decades — and how this pollution fits into the larger narrative of Appalachia's struggle with the industries that dominate its economy. “I’ve been doing environmental law in some form or fashion for 30 years, and I have never seen anything like this,” said Michael Callaghan, the attorney working on the lawsuit. “To walk away from a liability and just leave it on the ground is outrageous.”
Ranchers vs. environmentalists is a common trope. But as Virginia Gewin examines for bioGraphic, it's not so simple — especially in Florida, where ranchers and conservationists are working together on cutting-edge initiatives to protect land and water from rapid development and climate change. "'People criticize and say cattle ranches are terrible,' said Liz White, a University of Florida PhD student who studies burrowing owls. But amidst the region’s dramatic increase in development, 'it’s the best habitat we have left.'"
The Atlantic's latest photo essay in its series about all 50 states is Arkansas. Check out some glimpses of the landscape, wildlife, and people who call it home
All across the country, from Denver to New Orleans to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, trans folks — who face higher rates of homelessness and housing discrimination — are fundraising and pooling their resources to create refuges away from violence and the continued spread of COVID-19. Jo Yurcaba wrote for Buzzfeed about their communities.
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News flying under the radar
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Environmental and conservation groups sue federal agencies claiming the Trump administration has missed deadlines to protect the Bryde’s whale, an endangered species that only lives in the Gulf of Mexico.
North Carolina’s attorney general says he has started an investigation into manufacturers that contaminate the state’s waterways with per-or polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
NPR aired a TED Radio Hour episode with Colette Pichon Battle, the founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, about the displacement of Gulf Coast communities due to climate change.
Multiple colonies of mountainous star coral, restored by the Mote Marine Lab, have spawned. Documented for the first time on Florida’s coral reef or in the Caribbean, they call it "a breakthrough for coral restoration."
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Southerners who can’t afford bills could have power disconnected in the heat of summer
Hundreds of thousands of people in the South are behind on their electric payments. Read the story.
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Too heartbreaking to leave, too expensive to stay: Louisiana coastal communities left in limbo
Disaster aid budgets are being stretched thin, leaving many people needing to elevate or sell their homes in limbo. Read the story.
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