Rural communities nationwide are often hit hardest by food insecurity, meaning the people who live there don't have enough access to healthy, affordable food. Kentucky, according to recently released national data, is no exception.
Deep within the hallways of Western Middle School for the Arts, a garden-topped fish tank invites passersby to watch food production at work.
Since 2016, more than a dozen grocery stores have closed citywide, often abandoning neighborhoods that already had some of the worst options for fresh food.
Across the country, students from low-income households are enrolling in college at increasing rates — with 39 percent of undergraduates falling at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line in 2016, according to data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study.
Last week, the Courier Journal published a series of stories that explored food access in Louisville. The articles showed how inadequate access to groceries can lead to health disparities in predominantly low-income neighborhoods.
For the past decade, the vast majority of the young people in Louisville’s secure detention facility have been black. A reporter wonders why more people aren't talking about the disparity.
After the state expanded Medicaid under the ACA, Washington state health officials noticed that people who were focused on survival were letting their health needs fall by the wayside.
“I do think you should take the arguments in favor of work requirements seriously,” Vox's Dylan Scott advised. “But also, of course, look at them with a skeptical eye.”
Kentucky’s juvenile justice system has long been one of the most prolific in locking up youth on minor offenses and a recent reform has lessened — but not eliminated — the problem.
States such as Kentucky and Arizona are seeking to change how their Medicaid programs work through new policies that include work requirements, enrollment lockouts and increased cost sharing.
