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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.

In Cook County, clogging the highway to get high-speed Internet

On Wednesday, I noted that nearly 75 percent of Minnesota households now have Internet access at speeds that reach the state’s goals, yet three Minnesota counties still have no access at those speeds. One of those is Cook County, the northeastern Minnesota recipient of federal stimulus dollars to make fiber available to all residents. So I called Joe Read more →
by Dave Peters

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Mobile broadband boosts Minnesota access figures

Mobile broadband boosts Minnesota access figures

Those tracking broadband speeds in Minnesota say some mobile service recipients have fast enough connections to count toward the state goal of ubiquitous high-speed Internet connections by 2015. As a result, three-quarters of households now have access, by that definition.
by Dave Peters

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Feds: Rural job growth flat

Feds: Rural job growth flat

As we were wrapping up work in International Falls this week for the Daily Circuit special “Rethinking a Company Town,” the federal Economic Research Service put out a sobering view of rural employment. This is how our friends at the Daily Yonder put it: “Folks looking for good news in the 2013 “Rural America at Read more →
by Dave Peters

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Rethinking International Falls — a live chat

We’re doing a live chat while the Daily Circuit – Ground Level special on International Falls is being broadcast this morning. Go here to take part.
by Dave Peters

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Houseboat captain says get behind tourism in International Falls

Houseboat captain says get behind tourism in International Falls

Bill Dougherty runs a houseboat rental business on Rainy Lake and he thinks he’d benefit if International Falls and Koochiching County put more effort into promoting tourism.
by Jennifer Vogel

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Nice guy mends fences between Voyageurs and International Falls

Nice guy mends fences between Voyageurs and International Falls

Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Mike Ward is exactly the kind of person who can bring nature-loving tourists and International Falls residents together.
by Jennifer Vogel

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Willing success in the back room of the Coffee Landing

Willing success in the back room of the Coffee Landing

We invited nine International Falls residents — natives, newcomers, left-and-came-backers, old, young, layoff sufferers and entrepreneurs — to the back room at the Coffee Landing to share with us and themselves the hopes and misgivings they have for this place.
by Dave Peters

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Koochiching economic development director takes shotgun approach

Koochiching economic development director takes shotgun approach

Koochiching Economic Development Authority Director Paul Nevanen is exploring all avenues to diversify the job base in International Falls, from manufacturing to entrepreneurism.
by Jennifer Vogel

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