Thad Shunkwiler, an assistant professor in the Department of Health at Minnesota State University, Mankato, joins us again this week, this time to talk about the issue of substance use treatment providers. Minnesota has many programs to incentivize other health care professionals to practice in rural Minnesota, but not treatment providers. On top of ...

EXCERPT: “The views of Minnesota’s future provided by its major candidates for governor could hardly be more different. During a 90-minute forum Tuesday in Willmar, they stuck to some main themes. Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate Tim Walz returned frequently to his plan to build coalitions and find solutions to problems that work for the state as a whole. Republican ...

EXCERPT: “Practice is still on for this late-summer weekday afternoon, despite barely escaping a rainstorm that passed through this southern Minnesota city of 13,000 people in the last few hours. Nearly 60 teenage boys are already here, stretching and getting ready to begin. The school’s girls soccer team, of which about 50 students showed up ...

  We have a conversation this week with Thad Shunkwiler, assistant professor of Alcohol and Drug Studies at MN State University, Mankato, about addiction problems around the state besides opioids and a few of the issues that need to be addressed to tackle the problem.

EXCERPT: “A new report from the national nonprofit Environmental Working Group says the problem of nitrate contamination in drinking water is hitting small, rural communities like Randall the hardest — and they are the ones least able to afford treatment costs. Randall addressed the problem by digging a new well at the same location, but in ...

Ask business owners in Minnesota what their biggest challenge is today and most will tell you: “finding help.” Economic growth coupled with an aging workforce heading toward retirement and fewer young people to replace them is putting significant pressure on Greater Minnesota’s employers, making hiring significantly more challenging. Over the next several months, the Center for ...

EXCERPT: “You would expect to look up to see Frontier Communications telephone lines in the town of Ceylon, neatly swaying from traditional wood utility poles. But in parts of town, look down. There they are — black cables snaking through the grass. ‘There’s three lines there, that are just laying across the ground,’ said John Gibeau, ...

EXCERPT: “The decline in Local Government Aid for East Grand Forks has caught the attention of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities. The lobbying arm for rural Minnesota says a fix in the complicated L-G-A formula is needed during the 2019 legislative session. The Coalition’s Marty Siefert told city council members this week – it’s ...

  Last week Diana Anderson, president of the Southwest Initiative Foundation in Hutchinson, talked with us about the work they’re doing to close the opportunity gap for low-income families in southwest Minnesota. She joins us again this week to talk about their Grow Our Own summit coming up Nov. 8 in Marshall. At the summit ...

EXCERPT: “Not all that long ago, the central Minnesota community of Long Prairie was in a period of decline. The town, anchored for years by agriculture and local employers like Long Prairie Packing, and Dan’s Prize, was struggling. Many downtown businesses were closed, homes were up for sale and, at the local school district, always a bellwether of the economy, ...