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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.

The Pulse of Rural Minnesota: "We Need Jobs"

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Friday, October 22, 2010   

GRAND RAPIDS, Minn. - As the country continues its economic slump, a new report out this week from the Blandin Foundation depicts a mixed picture of struggles and hope within rural Minnesota, and the need for jobs takes center stage. According to the Rural Pulse report, 65 percent of rural Minnesotans believe there aren't enough job opportunities in their communities, and 37 percent say quality of life has deteriorated in the past year.

President of the Foundation, Jim Hoolihan, says policymakers should pay heed.

"The health of rural Minnesota is critically essential to the health of the state, and we would like rural policymakers and statewide policymakers to understand what the reality is in rural Minnesota today."

The report also showed that 87 percent of rural Minnesotans felt that they could make a positive difference in their communities. Hoolihan says this important measure of optimism enforces the belief that rural Minnesota can be part of the solution to rebuilding the state's economy.

Chuck Hassebrook with the Center for Rural Affairs says misplaced federal priorities have compounded the economic problems for rural Minnesota.

"That's a pressing problem all over rural America, and it reflects not only the problem we face during recession and hard times, it reflects the fact that year in and year out, in good times and bad, the federal government has simply failed to invest in creating quality jobs, and the future in small towns and rural communities."

Hassebrook suggests capping U.S. Department of Agriculture federal subsidies to the region's largest farms, and reinvesting that money in small business development.

Another option for economic development is green jobs. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed identified alternative energy as a high priority. Hassebrook wasn't surprised by the results.

"When we've looked at polls in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, we find very similar results. People recognize that we need to move to more renewable sources of electricity and energy, and they also recognize that it's a great job creator in rural America because this region really is the Saudi Arabia of wind energy."

The full report can be found at www.ruralpulse.org.


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