Oregon Public Broadcasting

When we met Mike Rust last month, he had been out of work for seven months, and had just received even more bad news.  There was no health insurance coming.

Mike Rust: “Yeah, we were hoping to get the insurance reinstated, well if we can’t, we’ll get by – the Lord will help me.”

Mike Rust is 61 years old, and he lives in Burns, in Harney County.  He laid natural gas pipelines for a living, but slumping energy prices and the credit crunch have slowed a lot of projects. 

We profiled Mike Rust as part of our Hard Times series, and we have him on the phone for a follow-up.  Mike Rust, good morning.