Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “The course of the Covid-19 pandemic in rural Mower County, Minnesota, is hand-written across six easel-sized sheets of paper affixed to the wall of the local Emergency Operations Center. Six cases and no deaths were recorded on March 22, the first entry. Pam Kellogg, Mower County’s community health division manager, points to the fourth sheet, covering ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced today that it has awarded $919,522 in grants to infrastructure projects in Greater Minnesota. The funding awarded from DEED’s Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure Grant Program (BDPI) was approved for International Falls, Pequot Lakes, Princeton and Winsted. It is expected to retain and create ...

EXCERPT: “Because she’s a fan of small towns and the people who populate them, psychologist Kristi K. Phillips wants to talk openly about the mental health issues that plague rural communities. As chair of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Committee on Rural Health, Phillips, who lives with her family in Litchfield and works for Meeker Memorial Hospitals and Clinics, has a ...

EXCERPT: “Rural hospitals are more likely than urban facilities to have access to telehealth, a once-underused service that now is playing a key role in treating COVID-19 patients, according to research by two health administration professors in Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. Drs. Neeraj Puro and Scott Feyereisen say the research can help U.S. hospitals understand the ...

EXCERPT: “Tuesday, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan announced a public-private partnership to help meet the technology and connectivity needs of families with school-aged children. According to a release from the governor’s office, the state is working with Best Buy, Comcast, Blandin Foundation, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and the Minnesota Business Partnership ...

EXCERPT: “Minnesota lawmakers on Friday passed a bill to hike the state’s meager reimbursement payments for child care providers that serve low-income families, an injection of new money into a subsidy program that is facing federal sanctions and has struggled to prevent fraud in recent years. While many in the GOP had previously been uneasy about ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) today announced Small Cities Development Program (SCDP) grants totaling nearly $19 million for infrastructure and rehabilitation projects in 32 Minnesota cities. SCDP grants are part of the Community Development Block Grant Program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The SCDP grants ...

EXCERPT: “Lawmakers are preparing to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars to Minnesota cities hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The money is Minnesota’s share of $150 billion distributed to state and local governments under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act. About $316 million went directly to the state’s two ...

EXCERPT: “The coronavirus outbreak has exposed the financial vulnerability facing small, rural healthcare facilities, many of which were already struggling to stay financially viable, according to a review of health care financial records and interviews with hospital administrators. The pandemic cost hospitals cash they did not have, while at the same time eliminated revenue those facilities ...