Over the past decade, Minnesota has seen a 38% increase in residents who identify as Latino or Hispanic. Amid a tight labor market, a new report suggests they could play a big role in bolstering the region's workforce.

This spring, the state Department of Economic and Employment Development issued findings that lay out opportunities and challenges for this population when it comes to economic well-being.

For example, Latinos have the highest regional labor force participation rate of any race or origin group - but there are disparities, such as household income.

Henry Jiménez - board member for Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL-MN), which is a member-based organization leading social change - suggested employers improve their hiring efforts for well-paying jobs.

"I can tell you right now I hate hearing when folks say, 'Oh, we're having a hard time finding talent,'" said Jiménez. "I can tell you that there's a lot of talent here in Minnesota, and again there's a disconnect with connecting the current pool of qualified candidates."

He encouraged businesses to do more outreach through media outlets that serve Spanish-speaking audiences.

The report says in 2021, 14% of the state's Hispanic or Latino population had incomes below the poverty level, compared with just 7% of white residents.

Jiménez said he also hopes Latino entrepreneurs take note of the population surge and seek out ways to expand their reach.

"There's clearly a need for more produce, products and services by Latinos for Latinos," said Jiménez.

But Jiménez, who also is president of Minnesota's Latino Economic Development Center, noted that access to business loans is a barrier for Latinos.

Meanwhile, manufacturing is the biggest job sector for the state's Hispanic or Latino population. But within the past decade, there's been a more than 300% increase in these individuals being hired for health-care and social-assistance jobs.

A piece of legislation is headed to Gov. Joe Lombardo's desk which would allow medical aid in dying in Nevada.

Last week, Senate Bill 239 made its way out of the state assembly on a 23-19 vote, which could give terminally ill adults the option to request a medical prescription for a peaceful death in the Silver State.

Sara Manns, Nevada campaign director for the Compassion & Choices Action Network, said she is thankful to Sen. Edgar Flores, D-Las Vegas, "for shepherding it through" what she called a "challenging legislative obstacle course."

Manns added the support for the law is "overwhelming," and according to a new poll by the group, 82% of Nevadans support medical-aid-in-dying legislation.

"Regardless of political affiliation, regardless of religion, regardless of rural, urban," Manns outlined. "This is something where once people know what it is, they would want to have it available to them. Would they all want to do it? Of course not."

Manns emphasized it has taken the Nevada End of Life Options Act eight years since its initial introduction in 2015 to get to this point. She noted her group, like many, is hopeful the governor will sign the bill. She added once the bill reaches his desk, he will have 10 days to sign it.

Lynda Brooks-Bracey, 57, a Las Vegas mother of four with terminal metastatic pancreatic cancer, said she was "excited" and feeling "anticipatory" when she found the bill had made it past the second house.

Brooks-Bracey learned she was terminally ill in February 2021. During her last months of life, she has made it her mission to be an advocate for the measure. Brooks-Bracey stressed she and her family feel hopeful Lombardo will approach the bill in a neutral manner and pay attention to what Nevadans want.

"It has taken time to get the right bill, at the right time, that's clean, in front of this new governor here in Nevada that we have elected," Brooks-Bracey recalled. "And that he is neutral, that he is considering it, that he's looking at it. I think all things have come together in an appropriate time frame that Nevadans want it. They're ready for it."

Eleven jurisdictions have authorized medical aid in dying including 10 states and the District of Columbia. Compassion & Choices said no governor has ever vetoed a medical-aid-in-dying bill in any of the six states passing laws via legislative action.

The rise of medical cannabis dispensaries in Georgia is highlighting the need for reform and equitable access.

One of the state's first dispensaries opened in April, offering easier access to low THC medical cannabis oils for some patients.

Valeria Valdepeña, executive director of the advocacy group Peachtree NORML, stressed there are still questions about cannabis equity and accessibility in the program, among other concerns.

"Reforming laws in general will have a wide effect on a lot of different aspects of people's lives," Valdepeña pointed out. "There's overcrowding in our prison system, there's people dying there for drug charges there's people that have felony records that impacts housing, school loans and keeps them in this poverty-stricken cycle."

Currently, first-offense possession for an ounce or less of cannabis carries a maximum penalty of up to one year in prison, and more than 40,000 Georgians are arrested every year for marijuana possession.

Apart from laws reforming marijuana arrests, Valdepeña highlighted the challenge faced by rural residents in accessing necessary resources due to the locations of existing dispensaries.

"I think we are going to need more dispensaries," Valdepeña asserted. "We are going to need delivery obviously because if you live out in rural areas it's going to be hard to come into Metro Atlanta to pick up your medicine, you can't get to the dispensary if they are a far enough distance. So I think from an accessible standpoint -- from a practical standpoint -- those are things that are going to need to be addressed."

Since 2015, the number of patients in the Georgia Department of Public Health's Low-THC Oil Patient Registry has surged more than 50%, from 13,000 to more than 27,000.


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Texas educates more rural students than any other state at nearly 700,000, and there is concern a new law meant to simplify applying for college financial aid could make it more difficult for farm kids to attend.

In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, a formula used to determine how much financial aid students can receive. It eliminated a long-standing provision for how farm families determine income, excluding nonliquid farm assets, such as farmland, equipment, storage structures and more.

Nick Fouriezos, a journalist for Open Campus, said without a fix, college could be out of reach for a whole generation of farm-raised kids.

"If you had a family farm, you didn't have to calculate the net worth of the farm because a family farm isn't something you can just piece up and sell when it's time to go to college," Fouriezos explained. "Maybe if it was a stock, you could sell it. You can't sell the auger that you're using to make a living on the family farm."

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators led by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has introduced a bill to restore the exemption. Last year, the average farm family was expected to contribute around $8,000 to their college student's tuition. The figure would climb to $41,000 next year, according to an Iowa College Student Aid Commission study.

Fouriezos acknowledged rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than those in urban areas, but are less likely to obtain a two- or four-year college degree, and do not need more barriers to attending postsecondary education.

"You add something like this, which could greatly, greatly increase the actual costs that they're bearing, and their inability to access certain scholarships and resources and, I mean, it could make a huge difference," Fouriezos observed.

It is estimated more than 85% of college students, or almost 18 million, currently receive some type of financial aid.