Crow Wing County Administrator and CRPD board member Tim Houle joins us this week to talk about the complicated relationship between the county, state and federal governments.

EXCERPT: “The gurgling shriek of a milk steamer and smell of fresh pour-over coffee fills the air of Bean and Brush Creative Coffee. Vintage-inspired asterisk-shaped chandeliers illuminate the art on the walls. Four children chase each other, dodging brightly colored chairs and glancing every so often at their moms, who are relaxing in armchairs in ...

EXCERPT: “Decades after their arrival, the Kurdish immigrant community in Fargo-Moorhead – now into its third and fourth generation – is doing so well it’s hard to get members to sit for an interview . . . Many of the 1,000 people or so of Kurdish descent who live in the Fargo-Moorhead area were either ...

EXCERPT: “The patrons of the Le Center Liquor Store don’t just enjoy some good company and a couple of drinks — they help out the city’s swimming pool. The town’s ‘muni’ is once again one of the most profitable, per capita, in southern Minnesota. ‘It’s always been profitable. This was probably their best year ever,’ said City Administrator ...

  The Center for Rural Policy & Development’s new president Julie Tesch visits with us to go over the Center’s latest research, including on the workforce shortage.

EXCERPT: “Far from being an ‘urban only’ issue, both urban and rural communities in Minnesota struggle to achieve racial equity and immigrant integration. Two efforts within the state, Thriving by Design and One Minnesota Equity Blueprint, are working to spread the facts about these shared challenges, create opportunities to tackle them together and address the urban-rural divide as ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Health is conducting a study on chemicals that may harm development in children, and volunteer families from Becker County are among those taking part. The Healthy Rural and Urban Kids Project measures preschoolers’ exposure to metals, air pollution, diesel exhaust and different agricultural and home pesticides through urine samples provided by ...

  Thad Shunkwiler, assistant professor in the department of Health Science at Minnesota State Mankato, joins us again this week for part 3 of our discussion on addiction. We have already covered how methamphetamines are the drug of choice in Greater Minnesota these days, and a shortage of licensed treatment providers is leading policymakers to think ...

EXCERPT: “There will be 50,000 more people living in southeastern Minnesota in the next 25 years. There will be 44,000 more jobs. And there will need to be 14,000 more housing units. That’s according to an economic forecast study released Tuesday by the Southeastern Minnesota League of Municipalities, a municipal organization of 65 communities in Dodge, ...

EXCERPT: “If employers thought they were having a hard time hiring this year, companies looking for seasonal holiday workers are expecting an even tougher time finding help. According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, there are more job vacancies in greater Minnesota than unemployed people for the first time since DEED started tracking job ...