Frank Morris

Freight railroads could stop rolling at midnight Friday if negotiators don't stop a looming strike over working conditions. Congress could end a strike quickly, but a brief shutdown hurts the economy.

White residents took the boulder to Lawrenceville, Kansas, nearly 100 years ago. The Kaw say it is a reminder of everything that has been taken from them and what some see as invasion and genocide.

Labor issues are making staples of school dining hard to find, triggering the worst supply chain headaches these institutions have faced in years. "It's like a ginormous hurricane," one official says.

Ida's ferocious 150 mph winds decimated parts of Louisiana's electrical grid. At the height, more than a million homes and businesses were without power. The remaining 117,000+ are having to make do.

A new universal mask mandate goes into effect Monday in Kansas City, where COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising. The last mask mandate there sparked a mayoral recall effort.

Millions of people headed outside for recreation during the pandemic, sparking a banner year for many outdoor gear companies. Now, those companies hope to lock in their newly expanded markets.

A wave of departing medical professionals in rural areas threatens to leave gaping holes in these health care systems and local economies, triggering a death spiral that may be hard to stop.

A smaller student body and shared sense of purpose make it easier to gain compliance with university policies on things such as mask usage and social distancing.

Many of those institutions hung on year-to-year even before the pandemic. Now COVID-19 threatens to cut off the oxygen sustaining these schools, and the sports programs that drive enrollment.

Hundreds of small universities across the country may need to be shuttered due to COVID-19, and that means many tiny college towns across the country are also at risk.