EXCERPT: “A new report released this month found 248,000 acres of public land in Minnesota — land owned by the taxpayers — that you can’t legally get to, with no public access and surrounded by private property. There’s another 55,000 acres of landlocked public land in Wisconsin . . . The plots are national and ...

One of the things people in rural areas talk a lot about is entrepreneurship and building a successful business. On this episode, our president and CEO Julie Tesch will be talking with Lucas and Alise Sjostrum, the owners of Redhead Creamery in Brooten, Minnesota, about their dream of cheese, how they got started in cheesemaking, ...

EXCERPT: “Our neighbors to the west, the Dakotas, are known for their colorful sunflower crops. But the flowers have been popping up in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes, too. For a farmer in Pierz, in rural northwestern Minnesota, the plants started as a good protein source for livestock before turning into a popcorn source for ...

EXCERPT: “St. Louis County is seeking proposals to address mental health, youth substance abuse and food insecurity in the Northland. When a community health assessment was done for the county in 2019, it identified mental health, youth substance abuse, and food insecurity as three priority areas of focus. ‘We were seeing data in the food ...

EXCERPT: “Lynn Barten has been a family child care provider for 22 years, a mainstay in an industry that has a shrinking workforce.  Barten first ran the business out of her Alexandria home, but then bought a second house to have more space for the operation. She has earned child care credentials, an associate’s degree, and ...

This is the time of year that I am usually enjoying some county fair food while looking at 4-H exhibits at local county fairs.  Obviously, this year that is not happening because of the pandemic.  I have been able to track down some fair food, but I’m really missing the sense of community that a ...

Our thanks go out to Tim Penny, president of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation and former First District Congressman, for his opinion piece in last Sunday’s Minneapolis Star Tribune featuring our work on cost of living and how your dollar can go further in Greater Minnesota. The study itself is getting a lot of traction ...

EXCERPT: “ On Wednesday, Minnesota’s infectious disease director said if we don’t limit the spread now, Minnesota could end up with an outbreak like what has happened in southern states. To help prevent that, Gov. Tim Walz announced that 4 million free masks will go to businesses across the state, though resistance remains present against his mask ...

EXCERPT: “Sandy Thielen is still hesitant to reopen her home daycare business after closing at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. She misses the kids and the day-to-day routine of the job, she says, but she’s concerned for the safety of her family. Having 10 extra children around, plus their parents at drop-off and pick-up ...

EXCERPT: “It’s a lofty goal. Get internet access and devices necessary for distance learning to 25,000 of Minnesota’s most technologically disconnected students by the end of summer. The ConnectedMN public-private partnership, spearheaded by Best Buy and Gov. Tim Walz, is trying to do just that. But the approximately 25,000 people identified by school districts as ...