Business and Economic News

COVID-19 looms over sugar beet harvest
Sugar beet growers and processors hire thousands of workers each year of the harvest. This year they need to protect them from COVID-19 to ensure the harvest is brought in.
MPR News host Cathy Wurzer spoke with Dylan Thomas, a reporter at Minneapolis – St. Paul Business Journal who has been following worker efforts to unionize at several Twin Cities establishments.
Gyms beckon a cautious public back
Gyms are reopening with fewer people and more protocols, and they want to rehabilitate their pandemic-battered image. Although there's not much evidence, they say the science is on their side.
COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system
From the Commonwealth Club’s Climate One series, “COVID-19 and climate change: Implications for our food system.”
State aims for quick turnaround on $300 unemployment boost
After securing federal approval for enhanced benefits over the weekend, Minnesota’s unemployment officials hope to quickly dispatch the extra $300 in weekly aid to qualified recipients.
Judge allows Minnesota wineries to use out-of-state grapes
A federal judge has struck down a Minnesota law that required wineries in the state to use mostly Minnesota-grown grapes, in a ruling that could have implications for other states.
The rural economy in Middle America showed improvement in August, despite the effects of a global pandemic and a rare devastating wind storm earlier in the month, according to a monthly survey of nine Midwest and Plains states released Tuesday.