Kirk Siegler

Despite alarming rises in COVID-19 cases and deaths in rural America, some schools are under pressure to stay open for in-person learning while resisting requiring masks and other measures.

Many American schools are back in class via distance learning. It's stressful everywhere but especially in rural districts where most students lack high-speed Internet and cell phone service at home.

Rural "critical access" hospitals, often some of the largest employers in small towns, have been operating on razor-thin margins throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

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.

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.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing changes to a landmark environmental law that would allow it to fast-track some forest management projects, including logging and prescribed burning.

Many of Cliven Bundy's supporters are gone, but the rancher is as defiant as ever since an armed standoff with the U.S. government. For now, it feels like each side is waiting for the other to blink.

Las Vegas police are now confirming that law enforcement officials made three prior contacts with the suspects of a recent shooting spree that left five people dead, including two police officers. Authorities found no indication during those visits that Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda, planned to carry out violence. The couple's anti-government and anti-law enforcement sentiments continue to be the focus of the investigation.

Since an increase in 2013, the minimum wage in San Jose is now one of California's highest. Some businesses have thrived in the past year, but for others, it's a more complicated picture.

A married couple apparently killed two police officers and another woman in Las Vegas. The husband and wife, also killed in the shooting, appear to have held anti-government and anti-law enforcement views.