From where Peggy Sheahan stands, deep in rural Colorado, the last eight years were abysmal. Otero County, where Sheahan lives, is steadily losing population. Middle-class jobs vanished years ago as…
By MARTHA WAGGONER In the little town of Navassa, work has always been hard and dirty. From antebellum rice plantations to Jim Crow-era fertilizer factories and more recently, a massive…
By BRUCE SCHREINER Tripp Foy’s sing-song chant rang out like a sentimental oldie for die-hard farmers clinging to the old way of selling tobacco, as a small procession of buyers…
By TAMMY WEBBER and KERRY LESTER Allan Umscheid, owner of Yards By Al in Lawrence, Kan, feels the bitter wind and catches drifting snow on his face as he runs…
By DINA CAPPIELLO In this Oct. 21, 2013, photo, construction continues at the Mississippi Power’s Kemper County energy facility in central Mississippi near DeKalb, Miss. The power plant is designed…
File- This Sept. 26, 2013 file photo shows Ryan Jensen, 33, front, and brother Eric Jensen, 37, leaving the federal courthouse in Denver. The two Colorado cantaloupe farmers who pleaded…
By GILLIAN FLACCUS In this Oct. 28, 2013 photo, Mia, a 5-year-old Harris hawk eats a bit of meat after working at the Olinda Alpha landfill in Brea, Calif. The…
By DINA CAPPIELLO and MATT APUZZO In this July 20, 2013, photo, a plant that produces ethanol is next to a cornfield near Coon Rapids, Iowa. Government mandates to increase…
