Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Some Minnesotans are struggling to put food on their table. This includes areas in greater Minnesota where food shelves are seeing more demand now than they did during the height of the pandemic. Community Pathways of Steele County in Owatonna has seen a 65% increase from last year. ‘We’ve been seeing about 250 families each week ...

EXCERPT: “When the COVID-19 pandemic began, ridership of the Northstar Line commuter rail service between Minneapolis and Big Lake was decimated. Since then it has averaged between 100 and 300 weekday riders, making it one of the lowest performing commuter/regional rail routes in the country. Facing an uncertain future, the Metropolitan Council will be conducting ...

EXCERPT: “The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on several rounds of programs to upgrade internet speeds in rural areas over the past decade. Despite those efforts, many residents are still stuck with service that isn’t fast enough to do video calls or stream movies—speeds that most take for granted. Many communities have been targeted for ...

EXCERPT: “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking the state Legislature for $1.8 million to fund seven more full-time prosecutors and two legal assistants to provide help in county attorney’s offices statewide. In the Attorney General’s Office Criminal Division there are currently three full-time prosecutors, up from one when Ellison took office. When counties can’t handle ...

EXCERPT: “Job openings in Minnesota climbed to a record high in fourth quarter 2021, surpassing 214,000 total openings even as Minnesota employers continue to add jobs, according to figures released today by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) . . . The seven-county Twin Cities metro had nearly 127,000 job vacancies (59% ...

EXCERPT: “Buckling up. It’s a two-second step that helps parents come home to their kids, teenagers graduate and pursue their dreams, and families avoid the heartache of losing a loved one in a crash. Too many Minnesotans skipped that step the last two years and the consequences are permanent and tragic. The number of people ...

EXCERPT: “Employment data released last week showed Minnesota hit its lowest unemployment rate ever recorded, 2.2 percent statewide, and a little higher in some parts of the state, last month. That astonishingly low number might feel like cause for celebration — especially less than two years after unemployment rates spiked to 10.8 percent in May of 2020.  But ...

EXCERPT: “Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Thursday made a $1.8 million ask of state lawmakers that he said would help his office bring on additional prosecutors and yield more criminal convictions in greater Minnesota. Ellison, a first-term Democrat, said he has proposed additional funding for his office’s criminal division three years in a row with ...

EXCERPT: “By day, Martin Healey teaches science classes at Waseca High School. At home, his pager stays on for 12-hour stretches two nights each week and on occasional weekends, alerting him to calls for the Wells Community Ambulance Service, with which the 48-year-old has served over the last dozen years. Such is the life of an EMT ...