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 ...
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 ...
