 You need a financial advisor with the freedom to focus on your specific needs. Whatever your goals, Reid Potter can create a game plan tailored to you. Call Reid at 432-0777 at Pikeville, Kentucky to learn more. The Appalachian Regional Commission has released the 13th update of the Appalachian Region Chart Book. The report compares more than 300,000 data points about Appalach's economy, income, and education with the rest of the nation. ARC releases what we call a chart book every year, and it is a socioeconomic and data snapshot of Appalachia. We noticed in this year's chart book that Appalachia continues to improve on a number of socioeconomic indicators that are really important for community growth and economic development. These include educational attainment, labor force participation, incomes, and reduced poverty. While the report highlights progress, it also showcases vulnerabilities throughout the region. Certainly we need to celebrate growth and positive trends, right? We also need to understand some key vulnerabilities, I'd say, that emphasize some of the inequities in Appalachia compared to the rest of the country. Those include poverty rates. They've improved, excuse me, they've declined overall, which is an improvement. If you look at a number of counties, a number of states in our region, those poverty rates have either stayed the same or gotten worse. The other that I would point out is broadband subscription rates compared to households in non-Appalachian areas continue to lag behind. And of course, as we all know, having access to broadband is very, very important these days. ARC hopes this data can help highlight areas who need additional funding and resources to improve the region. Through our strategic plan, we documented essentially ARC's five-year guide, if you will, a roadmap to understand how best we can invest and partner in the region. As I said, through providing grants, publishing research, sponsoring experiential learning activities. But the ultimate goal, of course, is to help local residents, families and communities really take advantage of their opportunities, address some of the economic disparities that might be in their communities, and advance prosperity as it makes sense for their particular communities. To view the full report, go to ARC.gov. Reporting for Mountaintop News, I'm Brianna Robinson.