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 ...

Across Minnesota, the “opioid crisis” is so much more than just opioids June 2018 By Marnie Werner, VP Research & Operations For the executive summary, click here. For a printable version, click here. If there were any doubt that opioids are the major health emergency of our time, two facts can put that doubt to ...

EXCERPT: “Six Greater Minnesota regional development groups are set to receive more than $1 million in state grants aimed at growing access to child care. The Minnesota Department of Human Services on Thursday, Jan. 17, announced that it would give state and private grant dollars totaling $1.5 million to local organizations in Little Falls, Duluth, ...

EXCERPT: “A comprehensive new report on the perils of speeding suggests that the ever-growing cultural divide between rural and urban America may include shifting views on the wisdom of putting the pedal to the metal. Many Western and Southern states have been raising the speed limit in recent years, despite data showing that noninterstate rural ...

  Anna Boroff is the executive director of the Minnesota Cable Communications Association and a CRPD board member. This week she joins Jim to talk about broadband. MCCA represents cable providers across Minnesota who represent about one million customers throughout the state. Demand for services and for increased speeds is continuing to grow. Anna talks ...

EXCERPT: “While cities and towns in Koochiching County might have fast and reliable internet service, large parts of the northern Minnesota region currently have no good options. Paul Nevanen, director of the county’s Economic Development Authority, says that translates to headaches for the area’s economy. Just miles from International Falls, where broadband access has attracted a significant data ...