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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

MN Rural Broadband – a Boost or Bust for Small Business?

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Monday, May 10, 2010   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Legislature recently passed an ambitious law aimed at giving all Minnesotans access to broadband Internet service by 2015. Proponents say it could mean a great boost for rural economies. However, with no funding provisions attached, Steph Larsen, rural policy organizer with the Center for Rural Affairs, says that relying on federal dollars alone won't begin to address the need.

"It's going to take a lot more investment by both government and private entities to make sure that all rural Americans have the access to broadband that's really going to expand their economies."

Minnesota has received part of the $150 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for the project. While the stimulus program money did help Northeast and Southwest Minnesota with broadband expansion, Larsen says it's simply not enough.

"As long as millions of rural Americans are without broadband service, and others are served marginally with very expensive or not very fast Internet service, rural America will continue to fall behind."

Larsen says investing in rural economies by expanding broadband is critical since small business is one area of the economy that often sees growth during recessions.

Al Wessel's rural Minnesota auction company has seen the benefits of high-speed Internet access.

"We do a lot of online bidding, which allows our folks to stay home and participate in the auctions. Without broadband, I think it would be very difficult for them to participate, and it's certainly been an added advantage to us over some of the other companies in our area."

For many of the farmers he works with, broadband is fast becoming essential to existing in today's global economy, says Wessel.

"The South American grain markets directly affect all of our producers, and it's important that they keep abreast of market trends and what's happening, weather conditions, and various other things that would be difficult to obtain without the technology provided by the broadband."


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