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The New Hampshire school is one of a handful of universities looking at ways to encourage active living, health and wellness in rural places. Researchers say the work is important because people living in rural communities are at greater risk for obesity, and past research focused on cities and suburbs has often produced conclusions that are a poor fit for rural towns.

“To get kids more physically active, one of the options seems to be getting more kids participating in after-school programs, but the busing situation is such that the bus goes home at 3 o’clock, and if you want to stay later you have to get a ride,” he said. “If you’re from a low-income family, you may not be able to get a ride. Chances are, your parents are already working two jobs, and they just can’t help you out.”

researchers at Plymouth State worked with residents of three rural towns to create a Google-style “active living” map, with captions of certain features — a favorite bike route, for example — provided by residents.

For many Americans, having high-speed access to the Internet at home is as vital as electricity, heat and water. And yet about one-third of the population, 93 million people, have elected not to connect.

the overwhelming majority of people who have Internet access have broadband.

“Now we’re at a point where, if you want broadband adoption to go up by any significant measure, you really have to start to eat into the segment of non-Internet-users.”

A ruling against the agency would likely derail FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's signature policy objectives, including open-Internet rules and the reform of an $8 billion rural telephone fund to provide broadband access in underserved parts of the country.

Consumer advocates argue the opposite. They say that previous FCC moves to ease regulation of broadband providers are now undermining the agency's attempts to address problems in the Internet age. "The same lobbyists who purport to want 'Broadband for America' are now telling the FCC that the agency should not engage in rulemaking that would achieve it," said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a public-interest group. "The commission must have the authority to promote universal access to affordable broadband."

Verizon Communications announced May 13 it would sell about 4.8 million access lines to Frontier Communications Corp., including those in West Virginia, in a move that could lead to expanded broadband Internet access throughout the state.

A relatively large percentage of West Virginia doesn’t have access to broadband Internet services compared to many other states. State officials have pushed for greater broadband access for the state’s rural areas, and the economic stimulus package recently passed by Congress includes $7.2 billion for expanding broadband throughout the country.

$2.7 million grant to provide universal access to broadband for a seven county region in central West Virginia

proposes to bring a wireless broadband system to Braxton, Gilmer, Lewis, Upshur, Randolph, Tucker, and Barbour counties.

“The Zone was created to forge a link between counties and higher education to provide tax incentives and advantages in locating the infrastructure needed to deploy wireless broadband,”

There's 376 pages of dense policy to dig through, so it's going to take some time to completely digest the plan.

Various studies have shown that the major reasons people do not have broadband are: the cost of Internet services and the cost of computers; not knowing how to use a computer; and not understanding why the Internet is relevant.

Last week, Mr. Genachowski outlined a plan to transform the $8 billion Universal Service Fund, most of which comes from consumers’ telephone bills nationwide, from subsidizing telephone service in underserved areas to expanding broadband access in those areas. He said Tuesday that some of the money from this fund could be used to help expand computer classes in libraries.