site logo
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Posts
  • Get Involved
Homepage > Health Care
Doodle Dust deposits on right bank of Peak Creek. "Doodle Dust" deposits on the Right Bank of Peak Creek, June 2019 (courtesy of Virginia Tech)
December 10, 2019  |  By Jill_Williams In Community Organizing, Environment, Health Care, History, Inequality, Profiles

Pulaski County is…Doodle Dust?

Google “environmental justice in Appalachia” and nearly every returned link will exclusively describe the impact of coal extraction on the region. It’s no surprise, then, that here in Pulaski, VA, many of us only feel peripherally connected to that conversation. Although we have had a few coal mining operations in this County historically, most of […]

Read More 1
OpioidsNationally
August 30, 2018  |  By Andy King In Congress, Health, Health Care, State Politics

Hiding in the Opioid Numbers

If there is one thing that Americans can agree on at this moment in our history, it’s that we have an opioid problem. An epidemic that touches every state and county. In fact, we all likely know someone who has become addicted to oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl, or any of the other countless prescription painkillers that […]

Read More 0
Clad in a bulletproof vest, Ashley White arrives for a court hearing on the death of her five-year old son, Noah Thomas.
June 13, 2018  |  By Jill_Williams In Economy, Health Care, Inequality, Uncategorized

Finding Truth in Noah Thomas’s Death

I have spent the majority of my adult life working on, consulting with, and learning about truth and reconciliation commissions. These bodies are generally tasked with investigating human rights abuses or other injustices so that a community or nation can learn from the past, establish accountability for what happened in some way, and make recommendations […]

Read More 6
oxycontin
May 30, 2018  |  By Mike Reis In Economy, Health Care, Pulaski Explainer

Pulaski Explainer: Should Pulaski Join the Opioid Lawsuit?

Some of you may have read about a large lawsuit being brought against the manufacturers of opioid prescription drugs by many localities throughout the country.  In our neck of the woods, Smyth, Wythe, and Russell counties have joined and their lawyers have attempted to add Pulaski County to their client list.  I’ll attempt to explain […]

Read More 1
collage
December 18, 2017  |  By Andy King In Health, Health Care, Inequality

Death in a Small Town: A National Tour

What if we woke up tomorrow in a completely different small town? Would we feel at home in Summerville, GA, with 4 colleges just a county over? Or in Hartford, KY, among generations of coal miners? I imagine our neighbors in Greensburg, IN, heading off to the Honda plant every day, would be a little […]

Read More 0
ExpandMedicaidSign
December 14, 2017  |  By Jill_Williams In Economy, Health, Health Care, Inequality, State Politics, Taxes, Uncategorized

On expanding Medicaid: “Virginia’s money needs to stay in Virginia”

One of my hardworking colleagues just found out that her family’s health insurance premiums are about to go from about $250 to $1200 a month. Upon hearing that, I was tempted to sarcastically exclaim, “Thanks Obama” and rethink my limited support for the Affordable Care Act. But then I looked into the reason her premiums […]

Read More 1
From www.countyhealthrankings.org/
October 27, 2017  |  By Andy King In Health

Death in a Small Town: A Geography of Health

Like I said in my last post, I’ve spent several months staring at county health data. Countyhealthrankings.org has become my de facto homepage. And in that time of poring over numbers and statistics, I fell into a stereotypical mindset that I think is pretty common for Virginians. The picture in my mind was of a […]

Read More 0
Oakwood
October 3, 2017  |  By Andy King In Health

Death in a Small Town: Our Other Neighbor

As a pastor, death has been a normal part of my professional life. Seminaries prepare us to sit with the dying and the bereaved, to craft a funeral service, and to recognize the place of death in our faith lives. One thing seminary doesn’t prepare us for is difference in shape and scale death takes […]

Read More 1
16722618_1352097724848532_4177909555413384525_o
September 13, 2017  |  By Mike Reis In Congress, Health Care, Morgan is Missing

Morgan is Missing: 70,000 Area Residents to Lose Health Insurance in 2018

After the departure of Optima insurance, large portions of the 9th District will be the “the only places in the U.S. without at least one insurer” who provides coverage under the ACA. This will affect over 70,000 individuals in this area, including thousands in Pulaski County.  This issue, according to the insurers is the uncertainty […]

Read More 0
life-expectancy-vs-health-expenditure
July 16, 2017  |  By Mike Reis In Budget, Community Organizing, Education, Health Care, Inequality, Pulaski Explainer, Taxes

Pulaski Explainer: How rising healthcare costs hinder our schools

If your news feed looks anything like ours right now, it is probably full of stories about Russia, the proposed new Pulaski County Middle School, and the Senate’s health care plan, in that order. We’re not going to touch the Russia story at this point, but we do want to take a look at how […]

Read More 2

Posts navigation

1 2 Older

Search

Browse by Topic

Follow Peaksknob.net

Get our commentary, perspective, and hyper local stories delivered hot off the press to your inbox daily.

Trending

  • Reapportionment in Verse
    Reapportionment in Verse

Recent Stuff!

  • Would you Re-Live High School? May 27, 2021
  • Planning with the End in Mind: Feedback on the Pulaski Co. Solar Farm Plan February 26, 2021
  • Pulaski County is…Doodle Dust? December 10, 2019
  • Who can represent the diverse landscape of the Ninth District? November 4, 2018
  • Hiding in the Opioid Numbers August 30, 2018

Like on Facebook

Like on Facebook

Get Updates

Follow on Twitter

My Tweets
Magazine WordPress Theme made by ThemeFuse