Year: 2016

Center for Rural Policy & Development President Brad Finstad talks about the upcoming MN Legislative session and the challenges ahead.  

In this week’s podcast, Julie Nelson from the Small Business Development Center at Minnesota State Mankato talks about a small business program aimed at helping veterans become entrepreneurs.

There’s been a lot of interest in the Center’s latest article, “A quiet crisis: Minnesota’s child care shortage,” and in fact we were invited to speak this week to the MN State Legislature’s joint task force on affordable child care, which was set up to look into the issue of the current shortage. The circumstances and effects ...

Frank Frederickson, general manager of hydro and biomass renewable operations at Minnesota Power, located in northeast Minnesota, joins us again this week to talk about hydroelectric power. Minnesota Power started out as a hydroelectric power company and is still largest operator of hydropower in the state.

Our guest this week is Frank Frederickson, general manager of Minnesota Power’s hydro and biomass renewable operations in northeastern MN. Frank and Jim talk about MN Power’s journey into renewable energy with wind, biomass, and hydropower.

Crow Wing County Administrator and CRPD board chairman Tim Houle joins us again this week to talk about the workforce shortage. This time we discuss why young families are moving to rural areas and what we need to do to attract them to our towns.

This week on RuralMN Radio, Crow Wing County Administrator Tim Houle joins us to talk about the wave of people leaving the workforce as Baby Boomers reach retirement age. Greater Minnesota communities are already feeling the pinch.

This week on RuralMN Radio, Jim is joined by Emily Steinmetz, the central MN regional coordinator for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and Michelle Kylie, of the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, to talk about the impact of nonprofits in rural areas. Nonprofits exist in just about every town in Greater Minnesota to help people locally, ...

Following up on their discussion of small business development, this week Jim and Tim Penny talk about the shortage of skilled workers in Greater Minnesota, the education community’s efforts to help, and the potential for immigrants in today’s workforce. Small business development with Tim Penny, part 2