As COVID-19 cases increase, many rural communities, places which were largely spared during the early months of the pandemic, are now contending with a spike in infections and hospitalizations.

With a deadline looming, Census workers in Colquitt County are racing to count as many people as possible. At stake, they say, is $500 million for this rural county in southwest Georgia.

The agency serves areas where private carriers won't go. And in those remote communities, which helped elect the president, the Postal Service can be seen as a lifeline as well as a human connection.

As the world’s attention was fixated on the horrors in Italy and New York City, the per capita death rates in counties in the southwest corner of...

Rural America is often painted in broad strokes. Small towns have been hit hard by population declines as more Americans flock to urban and suburban...