Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “A decision earlier this year by Nobles County Commissioners to spend more than $1.8 million to join the county-based purchasing group, PrimeWest Health, to provide managed care, Medicare and Medicaid for individuals on government-funded healthcare appears to have hit a dead end, at least for now. The county was one of 11 hoping to ...

EXCERPT: “It’s National Farm Safety And Health Week, and today is focused on the rural opioid epidemic and mental health. For some farmers and ranchers, the rising cost of prescription drugs only worsens the rural healthcare challenge. Research by AARP found the average older American takes 4.5 prescription drugs, typically on a persistent basis, and 72 ...

EXCERPT: “The Mahube-Otwa Community Action Partnership is a nonprofit organization that operates a small network of family planning clinics serving low-income patients in rural Minnesota. Like so many other clinics across the country right now, it withdrew from the Title X family planning program after the Trump administration’s gag rule went into effect, prohibiting providers like Mahube-Otwa from receiving ...

EXCERPT: “The questions of how to provide recycling services in Lyon County, and how to pay for them, are complex. But county officials aren’t the only ones dealing with those problems. The factors that affect the cost of recycling programs reach as far as regional recycling facilities and overseas markets, say area waste haulers, recyclers and ...

EXCERPT: “Don’t overlook the big benefits of retiring to a small town. On top of the peace and quiet you’d expect, smaller places to live can also offer tight-knit communities, active senior groups and lower crime rates. Plus, many small towns come with relatively low living costs compared with big-city neighbors. To identify the best places to retire ...

EXCERPT: “The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will bolster its efforts to crack down on the flow of methamphetamine, opioids and other illicit drugs into the Northland with the addition of a Duluth office, officials announced Wednesday. Richard Salter Jr., special agent in charge of the DEA’s Omaha Division, said a new partnership with the Lake Superior ...

EXCERPT: “Greater Minnesota has given many refugees eager to make their mark in the American economy what the Twin Cities could not: ample jobs. That was especially true about a decade ago, coming on the heels of the Great Recession. Unemployment was high, and a lot of companies in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region could afford ...

EXCERPT: “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today announced it has authorized over $121 million in funding over the next decade to expand broadband to 36,579 unserved rural homes and businesses in 16 states, representing the fourth wave of support from last year’s successful Connect America Fund Phase II auction. Providers will begin receiving funding later this month. ...

EXCERPT: “When Bisharo Aded was hired onto the production line at Pilgrim’s Pride chicken processing plant in Cold Spring, Minn., in 2014, her co-workers warned her bluntly: Don’t lose your job, or you’ll risk becoming homeless. She had lived only three years in the United States, and the thought of ending up on the streets frightened ...