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Ground Level®: Amplifying Community Voices

Your story is powerful. The stories you share with others honor the complexity of our communities while forging a more equitable and vibrant future.

Call 651-228-4800 and leave us a voice memo. If you're more comfortable texting, you can text “Hello” to 1-833-870-4111. You can also email us at tell@mpr.org and join in on conversations in our Ground Level Facebook group.

We’d like to hear your thoughts and questions. Your ideas about solutions. How are your communities? What are you seeing today? And what do you want to see tomorrow?

Note that while we will exercise editorial judgment for language, length and avoiding personal attacks, we will not sacrifice your meaning. We will ensure your main message comes through on air and online.

Drinking from a limestone quarry in Burnsville and Savage

Drinking from a limestone quarry in Burnsville and Savage

Burnsville and Savage find a water solution that preserves a sensitive environmental area and gives some assurance for a long-time supply of drinking water.
by Dave Peters

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What would you do with $1 million to spend on water?

A symposium on water in Minneapolis ended with the question, what would you do with a million dollars to spend on water in Minnesota? It got three different answers that had something in common.
by Dave Peters

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Gov. Dayton backs broadband spending

Gov. Dayton joins the call to spend money on broadband infrastructure. So far, the House wants to spend $25 million; the Senate has not approved any spending.
by Dave Peters

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Senate approves tougher water permit rules for DNR

Senate approves tougher water permit rules for DNR

The Minnesota Senate approved legislation that would give the Department of Natural Resources more authority to fine irrigators and others who use large amounts of groundwater without a permit.
by Dave Peters

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Environmental group questions Senate funds for White Bear Lake solution

Environmental group questions Senate funds for White Bear Lake solution

Friends of the Mississippi River says a Senate proposal to spend $800,000 studying whether to fill White Bear Lake with river water is a bad idea. It doesn’t solve the larger problem and it’s already being studied by the Metropolitan Council, the group says.
by Elizabeth Dunbar

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Minnesota’s rural broadband gap shrinks

Minnesota’s rural broadband gap shrinks

Broadband adoption continues to rise slowly among Minnesotans, and the gap between rural and urban use is shrinking. But more than 100,000 school-age children do not have access at home.
by Dave Peters

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How we did the irrigation well permit story

How MPR News found hundreds of irrigation wells pumping groundwater without a required state permit.
by Dave Peters

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Can we use grass that needs less water?

Can we use grass that needs less water?

A number of drier cities in the United States have been offering incentives to get rid of lawns, but in Minnesota the question might more likely be about finding grass that needs less water.
by Dave Peters

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