This stark photo taken this week in Knoxville tells a very different story about the economy

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. 2018: Northam to visit free health clinic in Southwest Virginia

{Edited:} I had not seen dameatball's post when I made this post.

Dates set for free health clinic in southwest Virginia
by The Associated Press
Monday, June 25th 2018

WISE, Va. (AP) — The dates have been set for a free annual health clinic in southwest Virginia that typically draws thousands of patients.

This year’s Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County will take place July 20 through July 22 at the county fairgrounds.
....

Northam to visit free health clinic in Southwest Virginia
By The Associated Press
July 20, 2018 2:25 am

WISE, Va. (AP) — Gov. Ralph Northam is set to visit a health clinic in Southwest Virginia that’s expected to draw thousands of people seeking free care.

Northam’s office announced that he will attend the Remote Area Medical clinic at the Wise County Fairgrounds on Saturday.

This year’s Remote Area Medical clinic in Wise County will take place July 20 through July 22 at the county fairgrounds.

Northam is a pediatric neurologist who has treated patients at the clinic in the past.
....

{Edited a second time to add:}

Virginia Politics
Thousands flock to free medical clinic, as Washington dithers on health care
By Gregory S. Schneider July 21, 2017



Hundreds waited overnight in a parking lot for the gates to open at 5 a.m. in hopes of getting free medical or dental treatment. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

WISE, Va. — The sick and the disabled pour out of these mountains every summer for their one shot at free health care, but this year was supposed to hold hope for a better solution. ... Donald Trump won the White House in part on a promise to fix the nation’s costly and inefficient health-care system. Instead, Republicans in Congress are paralyzed and threatening to dismantle the imperfect framework of Obamacare.

[Trump’s promise to “very quickly” repeal and replace Obamacare runs into reality]

No relief is in sight for someone like Larry McKnight, who sat in a horse stall at the Wise County Fairgrounds having his shoulder examined. He was among more than a thousand people attending the area’s 18th annual Remote Area Medical clinic, where physicians and dentists dispense free care to those who otherwise have none. ... “I really think that they don’t have any clue what’s going on,” McKnight said of political leaders in Washington. “You watch the news and it’s two sides pitted against each other, which in turn just makes them pitted against us, the normal person.”

About 1,100 such people descended on the fairgrounds Friday, with more expected Saturday and Sunday. Medical personnel from across the state were there with makeshift examination rooms in tents and sheds. Sheets hung from clothespins for privacy; giant fans pulled hot air through buildings intended for livestock shows. ... These events are staged nationwide, but the Wise clinic is among the biggest, drawing people from throughout Appalachia and casting Washington’s sterile political debates into the starkest human terms.
....

Stan Brock, the English philanthropist who founded the RAM clinic program more than 30 years ago, said there was one more visitor he’d like to see at the clinic. ... “It’s absolutely imperative that the president of the United States come and visit one of these events,” he said. “I believe if he did, he would take some immediate action.”

Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post. Follow https://twitter.com/SchneiderG