Category: Rural Headlines

Brad Finstad, longtime president and CEO of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, has announced his resignation effective Nov. 24, 2017, to receive a presidential appointment as the Minnesota State Director of USDA Rural Development. Finstad has been the president and CEO at CRPD since 2008. In announcing his resignation, Finstad said, “I’m sad ...

EXCERPT: “Citing a lack of beds and staffing concerns, a central Minnesota hospital says it’s no longer accepting people committed by courts for psychiatric care. St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd will admit to its 16-bed behavioral health center only those patients who are seeking treatment voluntarily . . . Minnesota Human Services Commissioner Emily Piper fears St. ...

EXCERPT: “It’s a dilemma many Minnesota parents face – trying to find affordable child care. The problem is especially prevalent in rural Minnesota, where the number of providers has dropped significantly in the past few years. It’s gotten so bad that both providers and families are calling this a “crisis.” Providers say the cost to ...

EXCERPT: “Obtaining surgical care can be a troublesome task for patients in rural areas. Not only is quality care often hours away by car, but rural hospitals commonly face financial difficulties in recruiting and keeping surgeons on staff. However, a research team from Texas Tech University Health Sciences, Odessa, Tex., has developed a novel methodology ...

EXCERPT: “Two top priorities under the Trump administration —an infrastructure spending package and tax reform — are controversial topics that, if they move through a deeply divided Congress, stand to directly impact the wireless industry. But a panel of administration officials and industry lobbyists said Wednesday that although the broad legislation could potentially split Congress, the provisions relating ...

EXCERPT: “The infant mortality rate is more than 25% higher in rural counties compared to large urban counties. The good news is that infant mortality is down in all counties from 2007 to 2015. But the fact remains that it is 25% riskier to be born in a rural county (6.8 infant deaths per 1,000 ...

EXCERPT: “Large manufacturing firms in rural America are at least as likely as similar urban firms to use innovative methods that can contribute to job creation and increased earnings, a new report says. Though preliminary, the study may indicate that there are exceptions to the oft-repeated rule that economic innovation is the nearly exclusive purview ...

EXCERPT: “The cost of building out broadband infrastructure is a significant barrier. By some estimates, it can cost as much as $30,000 a mile to run fiber optic cable, meaning it could take many decades to recoup installation costs for broadband internet. This problem is compounded if subscriptions are expensive and adoption is spotty in sparsely ...

EXCERPT: “Jessica Rabe, co-founder of DataTrek Research, analyzed data from Google Trends, a tracker of what people all over the world are searching for. That tool offers what Rabe calls ‘a novel take on a two-speed job market.’ The two speeds, of course, are urban and rural. The most search interest in ‘job openings’ comes from southern or ...