Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Commerce will continue to appeal Enbridge Energy’s proposed Line 3 oil pipeline, Gov. Tim Walz announced Tuesday morning, Feb. 12. Walz said his administration, through the Department of Commerce, will petition the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to reconsider the certificate of need it granted to the project, allowing an appeal filed ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota House Ag committee got an update on the latest Minnesota Rural Grocery Survey. The University of Minnesota’s Kathy Draeger says there are only about 250 local “main street” grocery stores remaining in Greater Minnesota. Draeger says rural Minnesota is losing these ‘main street’ stores at an unprecedented rate–which can have a significant ...

EXCERPT: “Nearly 35 percent of rural counties in the United States are experiencing protracted and significant population loss, according to new research released by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. Those counties are now home to 6.2 million residents, a third fewer than lived there in 1950. In all, the ...

EXCERPT: “Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a new toolkit to help support the deployment of high-speed broadband e-Connectivity in rural communities. ‘High-speed broadband e-Connectivity is becoming more and more essential to doing business, delivering health care, and, for schoolchildren, doing ...

EXCERPT: “New Gov. Tim Walz won’t release his first budget until Feb. 19 but some elements of his agenda for rural Minnesota are already starting to emerge. Walz is the state’s first governor from greater Minnesota since Rudy Perpich, an Iron Ranger who left office in 1991. The Democratic former congressman and former high school teacher ...

EXCERPT: “Local governments around the state could get a funding boost to the tune of $30.5 million a year if Gov. Tim Walz’s state budget gets a green light from the Minnesota Legislature. The DFL governor said Wednesday, Jan. 30, that he’d push to get the extra funds to help cities and towns pay for essential ...

EXCERPT: “In preparation for last February’s Super Bowl, held at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Twin Cities boosters pushed a ‘Bold North’ theme that advertised the state’s hearty embrace of winter. In recent years, the Dayton brothers, Andrew and Eric, sons of the former governor, have stressed the “North” in their products, such as the clothing ...

EXCERPT: “A month before being sworn into office, Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan embarked on their ‘One Minnesota Listening Tour’ for which they traveled 2,100 miles across the state. In five days, the duo made three stops in the state’s Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation service area, including Hibbing, Silver Bay and Grand ...

EXCERPT: “Attorney General Keith Ellison told lawmakers last week that he will seek money this year to expand his office’s criminal division. In his first testimony before any legislative committee on Jan. 17, Ellison told the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee that his biennial budget request will seek to bulk up that unit . ...