rural Alabama

Fairfield native, former U.S. Senator for Alabama and former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones. Ever wonder what he's up to these days or how he likes to eat his grits? He tells Quick-Fire Quips host Baillee Majors all about it. Plus, they talk childhood heroes and Alabama stereotypes.

Alabama lawmakers are working on a bill that could bring more doctors to rural parts of the state. The measure would extend tax credits for physicians who practice in rural Alabama. It would eliminate earlier wording that denied that tax break to doctors who live outside the community they serve.

The Associated Press is finishing up 2025 by remembering notable news makers who died this year. One may be familiar to longtime listeners to Alabama Public Radio. Pete Buxton died in May at the age of eighty six. He was the federal health care worker who blew the whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment.

A team of University of North Alabama faculty is working to understand and address gaps in STEM higher education for rural, academically talented, low-income students through a collaborative grant led by Mississippi State. The National Science Foundation has awarded them a $2M grant to collect data and create research networks for the programs.

Governor Kay Ivey has awarded nearly $42 million for “last-mile” high-speed internet projects in 23 Alabama counties. The latest Capital Projects Fund grants will cover 2,347 miles and provide broadband availability to more than 15,000 households, businesses and community anchor institutions that currently do not have access to high-speed internet.

Public health experts from some of the nation's leading research universities have deployed a massive medical trailer to rural parts of the South as part of an ambitious and unusual new health study. The researchers aim to test the heart and lung function of rural residents of Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The University of Alabama has joined the STARS College Network, a coalition of 32 of the nation’s most prominent institutions. These are outlets dedicated to ensuring that students from rural and small-town communities have the resources they need to be successful throughout their college journey.

Governor Kay Ivey is announcing she has awarded nearly $53.5 million to continue the expansion of high-speed internet service in Alabama. The grant will help develop the second phase of the state’s “middle-mile” broadband network deployment to 24 counties in the state.

Inefficiencies in broadband service have persisted for underserved communities, like HBCUs and their neighboring areas, since before the Covid-19 pandemic. But the shutdown highlighted both the importance of and disparities surrounding affordable and accessible high-speed internet access for vulnerable populations.Although $18.4 million dollars have been designated to expand broadband services at HBCUs in the state of Alabama, it will take until the end of the decade to see sustained progress.In this season finale of Crunk Culture, Robin Boylorn highlights why closing the digital gap is necessary now rather than later.

This week on Crunk Culture, Robin Boylorn breaks down food deserts - what they are, the communities most affected by them and some of their lasting effects - and she offers some right-now remedies to improve equitable food access for the people that need it the most.