Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “When the Lake County Board of Commissioners voted last week to approve a $3.5 million purchase agreement for Lake Connections, the county’s municipal broadband Internet project, there were some gasps that the federal government and taxpayers could lose up to $45 million in the deal. Pinpoint Holdings in Lincoln, Neb., submitted the bid for the ...

EXCERPT: “Talk about unfair. Millions of broadband customers in rural and underserved urban markets are paying nearly identical prices for slower DSL service as customers who have access to high-speed fiber services. That’s the conclusion from a report published this week by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA), which advocates for more equitable broadband deployment. In places where AT&T ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Public Facilities Authority (PFA) approved $7.06 million in loans and grants for water infrastructure projects in six Minnesota communities. Funding was approved for projects in Lowry, Eden Valley, Rice Lake, Mankato, Courtland and Pemberton. ‘Communities across Minnesota face serious water-quality challenges,’ said Governor Mark Dayton. ‘This funding supports improvements that will give residents ...

EXCERPT: “In medieval times, rust was a hassle. Knights would battle in the rain, blood slicking their armor. Back at the castle they’d remove their chain mail and place it in casks filled with sand; children rolled the casks around the keep. ‘That would polish it up and get rid of any rust,’ Edie Ramstad says. ...

EXCERPT: “Fiber cables generally offer the fastest internet speeds, but broadband providers have spent years wringing their hands over running expensive cabling to rural areas with small customer bases. Thankfully, so-called fixed wireless hardware appears set to change that equation, as Midcontinent Communications (Midco) is now offering wireless internet service to historically underserved communities within the U.S.’s ...

EXCERPT: “When John Landgaard became superintendent of Worthington Public Schools 15 years ago, students of color made about 38 percent of the southwestern Minnesota district’s student population. Not anymore. Today, that number is 67 percent. In the 2007-08 school year, Worthington became the first district in Greater Minnesota — aside from a handful of districts ...

EXCERPT: “Unlike folks working in literature, music and computer software, city leaders don’t mind if others steal their best ideas. That’s part of the reason the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities moves its summer conference to different municipalities every year. ‘It’s a great chance for our cities to see both serious and fun things that other ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Health has announced new grants for nearly one-third of the counties in the state to increase family home visiting. The programs serve at-risk families such as first-time moms and families facing challenges like mental illness, domestic abuse or substance abuse by providing a nurse or other trained professional to provide ...

EXCERPT: “For the past year, I have been reporting on the rural economy – a broad category that has allowed me to write about a labor shortage in parts of Minnesota, the transformation of an old mining town into a biking destination, and the plight of small-town newspapers, among other stories. In visiting about a dozen small towns ...