EXCERPT: “Open enrollment has increased across Greater Minnesota over the last decade, according to research by the Center for Rural Policy and Development. The percentage of students choosing to open enroll in rural Minnesota districts increased from 9 percent in 2006-2007 to 15 percent in 2016-2017. For non-metro districts that are regional centers, open enrollment increased ...

EXCERPT: “According to the tenth annual State of Manufacturing®, a comprehensive survey project sponsored by Enterprise Minnesota and its partners, manufacturers have almost a surreally high level of optimism with expectations of record revenues, record profitability, record-level of investment in their companies, and increased wages. Sixty-four percent anticipate economic expansion – a record high in the survey’s ...

  We catch up Anna Wasescha, president and CEO of West Central Initiative in Fergus Falls, one of the McKnight Foundation Initiative Foundations. This week Anna talks with us about WCI’s “Live Wide Open” campaign to attract people to the region for jobs and for the lifestyle.

EXCERPT: “A new report benchmarking the health of seniors in America finds poorer health outcomes for rural senior citizens compared with their urban and suburban peers and increased national suicide rates. An analysis within the report also highlights the risk of social isolation and its association with poor health for seniors . . . Key findings across states ...

EXCERPT: “Given these benefits, and the state support, the solar explosion in Minnesota is not surprising. But, as in any new market, there have been growing pains. Many installers complain that they can’t get enough labor for the demand. They cite a State Board of Electricity rule that solar construction is considered electrical work and must be ...

EXCERPT: “Sarah Smarsh reports on socioeconomic class, politics and more for national and international outlets, including The Guardian, The New Yorker and The Cut. Her forthcoming book, Heartland: A Daughter of the Working Class Reconciles an American Divide, delves into her experiences with class and place growing up on a working farm in Kansas. Smarsh spent the spring of 2018 at Harvard as a ...

EXCERPT: “Newspapers are sounding the alarm about a new tariff on newsprint that is having unexpected consequences. Following a complaint from a Washington state-based paper mill that Canadian paper producers were dumping product in the U.S., the Commerce Department imposed substantial new tariffs on Canadian newsprint. At the same time, the U.S. doesn’t have enough mills ...

  Market forces in small rural communities almost guarantee that it will cost more to build a new starter home there than young families can afford, says the Center’s research associate Kelly Asche. Discussing his new report on the housing shortage, Kelly tells how some public-private partnerships are making it happen in places like St. ...

EXCERPT: “The major hurdles facing child care providers, as well as those seeking care for their children, remain staffing and affordability. That’s led to a child care shortage across the state, and especially in Greater Minnesota. That was the main theme of a meeting Tuesday in Bemidji put on by the office of Democratic U.S. ...

EXCERPT: “University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler wants outstate residents to know the state’s largest institution of higher education is working for them, too. Kaler shared his commitment to the ‘Block M’ brand and what it represents to Minnesota residents Friday, May 4, at a Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce luncheon hosted at Cragun’s Resort ...