Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “At the weekly Herreid Livestock Auction here, area ranchers no longer see as many cattle buyers checking out the cattle as the animals move through the ring. ‘We’ve still got 12, 15, 18 buyers there, but it’s not like it used to be,’ says Joe Vetter, auction co-manager. But the buyers really are there ...

EXCERPT: “The problem of housing affordability, long a concern in popular big cities, has moved to rural America. Nearly one-fourth of the nation’s most rural counties have seen a sizeable increase this decade in the number of households spending at least half their income on housing, a category the federal government calls ‘severely cost-burdened.’ Those counties, none ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Opioid Prevention Pilot Project involves eight communities across the state. Based on six months of data, these communities are expected to cut patient pill use by nearly 765,000 pills per year. In addition, 147 patients are receiving care for opioid use disorder, and Greater Minnesota now has 21 new ...

EXCERPT: “The current state of Minnesotan day cares is anything but child’s play. And, when child care is one of the top issues facing Minnesota’s labor force, the industry’s decline in recent years could mean rough sledding for the economy if a solution isn’t reached effectively and expediently. As executive director of the Greater Minnesota ...

EXCERPT: “A new report released this week shows that homelessness is on the rise across Minnesota. A Wilder Research study says more than 10,000 homeless people lived in Minnesota in 2018, the highest number recorded since Wilder Research began tracking these numbers in the 1990s. Wilder Research studies Minnesota’s homeless population every three years. From ...

EXCERPT: “As more and more licensed child care providers close up shop, worsening the child care shortage, lawmakers are considering a number of reforms geared toward reversing that trend. Sponsored by Rep. Ami Wazlawik (DFL-White Bear Township), HF1685, as amended, would allow child care providers to use a substitute caregiver for up to 300 hours ...

EXCERPT: “$25,000,000 could be coming to southeastern Minnesota. State lawmakers will introduce a bill on Thursday to potentially generate new economic growth. Both state senators and representatives from the area believe the eleven county region of southeastern Minnesota has a strong economy, but they see a few areas that could use a boost. Healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, ...

EXCERPT: “In 2015, residents of Chatfield approved a levy request from the local school district, which was seeking more money to cover its operating expenses. The next year, voters approved another request – this time for $10.8 million for improvement projects at the high school. The city got into the act in 2017, asking for ...

EXCERPT: “Activists are making another push for more passenger rail in Greater Minnesota—and this time around, they’ll have Brainerd resident Robert Owens alongside them. Owens was invited by the nonprofit All Aboard Minnesota to a public rally March 6 in St. Paul to stump for passenger rail all over the Upper Midwest—which, in terms of local ...