My Little Town

Stories

15 Stories

April 2008
- Obama Was Right About Pennsylvanian Bitterness
  
  Philadelphia Daily News | Apr 14, 08 4:31 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama was “basically right on target” about Pennsylvania bitterness, the product of one small-town household says: John Baer, in the Philadelphia Daily News , writes that the people he grew up around were, and still are, angry. And they have a right to be, Baer adds: Blue-collar Pennsylvanians see their interests ignored by gutless politicians beholden to special interests. More »
- Obama Slammed for Calling Small Towners 'Bitter'
  
  Reuters | Apr 12, 08 6:16 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Barack Obama is catching flak for comments made to an audience of wealthy Californians about small towners, Reuters reports. Talking about people in towns where jobs have vanished, the candidate said, "It's not surprising they then get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." More »
March 2008
- New Wi-Fi Will Make Web Service Rural
  
  MIT Technology Review | Mar 18, 08 4:14 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A new device will link rural areas to the Internet at low cost and without cables, Technology Review reports. Intel has tested the Wi-Fi platform in Africa, Asia and South America, and will sell it this year for less than $500. What makes it work? The router and antenna are old-style, but radios beam signals back and forth to make sure data was received. More »
February 2008
- Soaring Prices Lure Oilmen Back to Oil City
  
  Wall Street Journal | Feb 19, 08 1:30 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - The world’s first commercial oil well was in Oil City, Pa., which saw its fortunes fall along with the crude supply. Now that prices are at historic highs, Oil City is part of a renaissance. The easy crude is long gone, but a motley assortment of would-be barons is using everything from nuclear scanners to dynamite to churn up those last few drops. The Wall Street Journal pays a visit. More »
- Doggone! Texas Mayor Resigns After Hiding Neighbor's Pup
  
  BBC | Feb 3, 08 1:41 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - It may have been nothing more than puppy love, but the mayor of a small Texas town has been driven out of office after it was discovered she secretly kept the neighbor's dog she claimed had died, reports the BBC. The Shih Tzu named Puddles was later spotted at a dog groomer's. The dogsitting mayor also reported to police that the pooch, whom she had renamed Panchito, was missing. More »
January 2008
- Tenn. Man, 94, Kidnapped, Murdered, Mutilated
  
  Citizen Tribune | Jan 22, 08 1:18 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - A 94-year-old Tennessee man was found dead with his hand cut off after a relative ran afoul of drug dealers who kidnapped him in retaliation, the Citizen Tribune of Morristown reports. "No one deserved to die like he did," the sheriff said of Willie Morgan. "This poor man was supposed to die peacefully on a front porch swing, not like this." More »
December 2007
- Country Life Often Opposite of Healthy
  
  Newsweek | Dec 13, 07 11:23 AM CST
  
  (Newser) - Rural America isn’t all hearty farmland, Newsweek writes: Many country areas are “food deserts,” supplied mainly by convenience stores. With supermarkets distant and healthy food more expensive than junk, impoverished residents often become unhealthy—hungry and fat. “A nutritionist will just say, 'Buy more fruits and vegetables,' when, in fact, the buying part is not simple,” says one epidemiologist. More »
- 3,000 Say Goodbye to Knievel
  
  New West | Dec 10, 07 5:27 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Thousands of mourners, including actor Matthew McConaughey and boxing champ Joe Frazier, gathered today to bid farewell to Evel Knievel, New West reports. The ceremony took place in the famed daredevil’s hometown, Butte, Mont., which marked the arrival of his coffin last night with a 3-minute salvo of fireworks. Knievel died Friday at 69. More »
- Perps Catch Themselves on Candid Camera
  
  Wall Street Journal | Dec 8, 07 9:29 PM CST
  
  (Newser) - Criminals may want to think twice the next time they feel like snapping photos of their exploits: authorities nationwide are using the indecent exposures as evidence against them, the Wall Street Journal reports. “We pray for those kinds of cases,” said an assistant state attorney, while a small-town prosecutor estimated phone cameras supply evidence 40-50 times a year. More »
November 2007
- Water Runs Out In Tenn. Town
  
  Associated Press | Nov 2, 07 7:07 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - If the Southeast drought’s effects on Orme, Tenn., are a sign of things to come, folks in Atlanta should start scheduling their showers. The rural home to 145 people has run completely dry, and what water gets trucked in can be used only between 6 and 9 pm. This means citizens have to rush to get supper made, clothes washed, and baths drawn, the AP reports. More »
September 2007
- Rural America Gets Wired
  
  Economist | Sep 19, 07 7:39 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Measured by President Bush's goal—to give every America access to broadband this year—it's not a success. But the effort to wire rural America has made impressive progress, the Economist reports. The US government has given more than $1 billion to internet providers in distant markets in an effort reminiscent of the New Deal's rural electrification project. More »
- Amish Community Heals, Slowly
  
  Lancaster (Pa.) New Era | Sep 13, 07 12:12 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - It's been almost a year since the shooting spree at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania in which five girls were killed and five wounded. In the Lancaster New Era, the families talk with stunning directness about the particular pain of losing a child and making peace with the "new normal." "You can wake up one day and think, 'You know what? I'm starting to heal," says one mother . More »
- Stay Outta Town, Welsh Tell Truckers
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Sep 2, 07 11:57 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A small British town has resorted to posting signs telling truck drivers to ignore their GPS navigation systems because vehicles too big for the hamlet's narrow country roads were trying to squeeze through. Foreign drivers in particular were relying on what their navigation systems told them and missing signs that warned truck drivers not to drive through town. More »
August 2007
- Cancer Cures Hiding in Poisonous Lake
  
  Wired | Aug 28, 07 6:47 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Two scientists may be fishing cancer cures out of an abandoned, poisonous lake, Wired reports. Don and Andrea Stierle are finding microbes in the green goup of an old Montana pit lake that don’t exist anywhere else – and happen to make compounds that inhibit a lung cancer and an ovarian cancer. So far Big Pharma hasn’t taken enough notice to fund a full investigation of the underwater slime. More »
May 2007
- Bride and Groom Need Not Attend
  
  Chicago Tribune | May 14, 07 3:40 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Who says you need to be present at your own wedding? In Montana, where a World War II–era law allows "proxies" to stand in for the bride and groom, hundreds of couples from as far away as China are sending substitutes to the altar—or in this case, bench—the Chicago Tribune reports. Stand-ins charge $50 to say "I do" before the judge. More »