Category: Rural Headlines

EXCERPT: “Does Becker County have a child care shortage? The short answer is, yes — a big one. A total of 648 child care slots are needed to meet the county’s current needs, according to data gathered from a recent survey conducted by the Rural Child Care Innovation Program, or RCCIP. The RCCIP is an ...

EXCERPT: “Nearly 70 percent of Minnesota school districts with operating levies on the ballot got approval from voters in last week’s election, and the success rate for bond referendums was even higher. Nearly all the districts where voters said ‘no’ are in Greater Minnesota — and Greg Abbott with the Minnesota School Boards Association says ...

EXCERPT: “Sometime in 2007, labor and delivery nurses at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center began seeing a disturbing shift in their patient population. The opioid-addiction crisis had taken hold in the region, and its impact was being felt among its youngest and most vulnerable residents. More and more mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD) were giving birth at the hospital to ...

EXCERPT: “A new traveling exhibit is raising awareness of just how and why water is important to Minnesotans and their environment. The Minnesota Humanities Center’s We Are Water MN exhibit is crossing the state, sharing stories of Minnesotans and the water that surrounds them. The goal? To shape a stronger bond between the two. U of ...

EXCERPT: “Ask a traveler where they’d like to visit in Minnesota outside of the big cities. Litchfield, a town of 7,000 west of the Twin Cities, probably isn’t the first place to come to mind. With one-of-a-kind relics and recreational amenities, the community might change that, with a little additional effort. Nearby Willmar and Hutchinson oft overshadow the ...

EXCERPT: “The gurgling shriek of a milk steamer and smell of fresh pour-over coffee fills the air of Bean and Brush Creative Coffee. Vintage-inspired asterisk-shaped chandeliers illuminate the art on the walls. Four children chase each other, dodging brightly colored chairs and glancing every so often at their moms, who are relaxing in armchairs in ...

EXCERPT: “Decades after their arrival, the Kurdish immigrant community in Fargo-Moorhead – now into its third and fourth generation – is doing so well it’s hard to get members to sit for an interview . . . Many of the 1,000 people or so of Kurdish descent who live in the Fargo-Moorhead area were either ...

EXCERPT: “The patrons of the Le Center Liquor Store don’t just enjoy some good company and a couple of drinks — they help out the city’s swimming pool. The town’s ‘muni’ is once again one of the most profitable, per capita, in southern Minnesota. ‘It’s always been profitable. This was probably their best year ever,’ said City Administrator ...

EXCERPT: “Far from being an ‘urban only’ issue, both urban and rural communities in Minnesota struggle to achieve racial equity and immigrant integration. Two efforts within the state, Thriving by Design and One Minnesota Equity Blueprint, are working to spread the facts about these shared challenges, create opportunities to tackle them together and address the urban-rural divide as ...