Television used to portray small towns as tolerant, brimming with life lessons. 'Where have you gone, Barney Fife? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you....'

Big budget cuts at the federal level portend very hard times in small town U.S.A. Tim Collins looks at what's likely to change in alternative energy and social services.

Timothy Collins, of two minds, detects the first signs of fall in rural Illinois: the myths of audible corn and the realities of government-led soil conservation.

We land-lubbing species still depend on the health of Earth's oceans to survive. And the waters' future now depends on humans' capacity to change.