Ground Level Blog

The city of Tenney voted 2 to 1 to dissolve, becoming the third Minnesota city to do so.
The voters of Tenney, Minnesota, are deciding today whether to dissolve as a city. It is tied for Minnesota’s smallest city, with five people.
MPR News’ Ground Level project is launching a collection of stories and information about rural health care, the pressures coming to bear on that system and what people are doing about it.
Health care reform creates new wave of IT workers
An $800,000 federal grant is behind a health IT program at Normandale Community College, designed to help health care providers adopt electronic medical records.
Dental therapists to fill rural gap
The first class of dental therapists–who will provide some of the same services as dentists in underserved areas–graduates from Metropolitan State University on June 23rd.
Rural health leaders gather to worry about reform
Concern about national health care reform’s unintended consequences for rural institutions will likely dominate the conversation at the Minnesota Rural Health Conference June 27-28 in Duluth.
Ground Level adds Minnesota hunger to coverage
MPR News’ Ground Level project has added a topic page on hunger in Minnesota, collecting the reporting of MPR News reporter Julie Siple and adding data and other background material.
The League of Minnesota Cities is telling city officials their local government aid doesn’t take any more legislative action for checks to be sent out in July. But they’re also noting that a state shutdown might mean no employees will be available to mail them.
Minnesota growers said told surveyors they were satisfied with the prices their products fetched when they told them to schools near their farms and orchards, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.