Tag: rural

Pandemic paints a different employment picture in rural Minnesota January 2021 By Kelly Asche, Research Associate, & Marnie Werner, Director of Research For a printable version of this report, click here. Our podcast episode diving deeper into this research can be found here. On January 21st, 2021 we hosted a webinar presenting this research as ...

Today marks the start of the 2021 MN Legislative Session. A session that will likely be very different than any other legislative session since it will begin and likely remain an online affair. Our CEO, Julie Tesch got an opportunity to chat with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership about the ...

Rural communities across Minnesota are tapping a new program to help bring a fresh set of ideas to their community development toolbox. Offered in partnership by Rethos and Springboard for the Arts, staff from these organizations will come and assist communities in planning and implementing artist-led projects. Assistance comes in the form of training, one-on-one ...

Kathy Draeger, the statewide Director of the University of Minnesota Extension –  Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, wants rural communities to see their local grocery stores as the assets they are. Small town grocery stores have been facing an uphill battle against increasing competition from the big national chains. In this interview, Kathy and Julie will ...

  It’s the beginning of December, in one month 2020 will finally be over, and the 2021 legislature will begin looking at a Minnesota beyond COVID. Yes, there are still many current COVID issues that will need to be addressed: supporting people out of work and the small businesses that employed them, shoring up our ...

So just what is the Association of Minnesota Counties? Our President and CEO, Julie Tesch, talks with AMC’s Executive Director, Julie Ring, about the association that supports and advocates for Minnesota’s 87 counties. This year of Covid has been especially challenging for county governments. Julie discusses the difficult issues counties have faced and are still ...

On this episode Julie Tesch and Marnie Werner talk about two topics that only come around every ten years, the Census and legislative redistricting. They discuss  why redistricting is so important but has been so troublesome in Minnesota history, the role of accurate census data and how a salamander became a symbol of democracy in ...

  By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research, & Jordon Barthel, Research Intern To listen to a conversation with Marnie Werner about this research, check out our podcast – Episode 11: CRPD Research – Census and redistricting in Rural Minnesota. After months of back-and-forth wrangling among different groups and interests the 2020 Census count finally came ...

By Whitney Oachs, Research Intern As discussed in our recent 2020 State of Rural Report, most farmers were barely getting by before the onslaught of COVID-19. While agricultural land values have remained at historic highs, low commodity prices and increased costs of production have resulted in negative net income, contributing to declining mental health for ...