Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, children in parts of Minnesota without high-speed internet have struggled to log on to remote classes, while businesses and employees who lack broadband have strained to connect to customers and co-workers. As Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told Minnesota lawmakers last week: ‘We knew (broadband) was ...

EXCERPT: “Having been rocked by the coronavirus pandemic, cities in Greater Minnesota are calling on the state Legislature to offer them a lifeline and bolster programs that could help speed up economic recovery across the state. In a Friday, Jan. 29, news conference, the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC) announced its legislative priorities for ...

EXCERPT: “The Greater Minnesota Partnership has selected Scott McMahon to serve as the nonprofit’s new executive director. McMahon is a former lobbyist with government relations firm Flaherty & Hood P.A., and has been with the GMNP since 2017, according to a news release from GMNP. He will lead the organization in its goal of advocating ...

EXCERPT: “Area lawmakers say broadband funding will be a crucial issue in this year’s legislative session, but no one is certain just how much the state will spend. COVID-related regulations and lockdown efforts exacerbated Greater Minnesota’s need for better internet access over the past year, giving urgency to the Capitol’s annual debate over broadband infrastructure. ...

EXCERPT: “Unemployment rates have risen in rural Minnesota due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but they mask a bigger challenge. A decade-long worker shortage continues to persist in many industries in rural Minnesota, according to new research conducted for the Center for Rural Policy and Development by Kelly Asche and Marnie Werner. Asche presented the findings ...

EXCERPT: “Getting shots into arms in rural Americans, most of whom see getting the vaccine as a personal choice and not a social responsibility to protect others, is a problem that will require tailored outreach and messaging. It underscores that a cookie cutter approach to vaccine hesitancy campaigns will not work. Even as coronavirus surges in ...

EXCERPT: “After nearly a year of modified instruction in many school districts across the state, some Minnesota students are not giving distance learning high marks. More than a half-dozen students representing various communities shared their frustrations over the learning model during the House Education Finance Committee’s first meeting of the session. They all agreed the ...

EXCERPT: “A strong majority of farmers/farmworkers say the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their mental health, and more than half say they are personally experiencing more mental health challenges than they were a year ago, according to a new American Farm Bureau poll . . . The results of the new poll clearly demonstrate that the ...

EXCERPT: “A new study has found that while the prevalence of neurologic conditions like dementia, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) is consistent across the U.S., the distribution of neurologists is not, and people in more rural areas may be less likely to receive specialty care for certain neurologic conditions. The study, funded by ...