Year in Review: Five big Greater Minnesota stories (that you may have forgot actually happened in 2020)
Five things that may have escaped your memory during a 2020 full of big things.
Greater Minnesota
A collection of news and stories from around the state of Minnesota.
GOP Sen. Relph remembered for work on mental health issues
Relph in 2020 was named a legislator of the year by the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an award he called “the single-best honor that I’ve received.”
Questions over federal broadband grants roil Minnesota’s rural internet program
Should the state government subsidize competitors to a controversial winner of a federal broadband grant?
How one Minnesota county managed to limit the impact of a second wave of COVID-19
“I do really think it’s based on who we are and our health care culture,” said Rochester Mayor Kim Norton.
The feds just announced over $400 million for rural broadband in Minnesota — three quarters of it is going to one small company with limited fiber optic experience
LTD Broadband’s CEO was confident the company could deliver on its big promises in Minnesota and other states. Others familiar with the challenges of wiring rural parts of the state were skeptical.
Enbridge says it can keep COVID-19 at bay during Line 3 construction, but some worry project could drive cases in rural Minnesota
Environmental advocacy groups, health professionals and several tribal governments have asked the Walz administration to halt construction during the pandemic, touching off a debate over the safety of moving ahead with one of the state’s biggest construction projects.
Facing competition from big boxes, Amazon and dollar stores, Minnesota’s small town grocers adapt
In a recent survey, roughly half of Minnesota’s small-town grocers feared they would go out of business in the next five years.
What’s next for the Enbridge Line 3 project in Minnesota? Construction. And protests.
On Monday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency cleared the way for work to start on the pipeline project. Yet hurdles remain, including ongoing lawsuits and the threat of protests along the route.
Can solar power lead the Red Lake Nation toward energy independence?
In September, the Red Lake Band of Chippewa started working on the second phase of a 12-step solar project, a 240-kilowatt array atop the reservation’s workforce center in Red Lake.
Amid a statewide coronavirus surge, central Minnesota has been hit especially hard
In early November, Benton, Mille Lacs, Sherburne and Stearns counties had four of the state’s top five highest weekly case rates, leading to a rapid rise in hospitalizations and putting acute pressure on the region’s health systems.
What the results from a seesaw political rivalry in Bemidji says about the 2020 election
DFL House candidate John Persell maintains his loss was the result of factors unique to 2020. Republicans see the results as something else: confirmation of a changing political tide.
What the loss of two influential state legislators says about the DFL’s appeal in rural Minnesota
The shakeup raises questions about the future of agriculture policy in a Democratic party increasingly made up of lawmakers from the Twin Cities metro.
Pandemic-era life at Gustavus Adolphus: ‘The safest place for college students may be on a college campus’
A Q&A with Barb Larson Taylor, coordinator of the college’s COVID-19 Response Team, about how the fall semester is going.
What we learned from the Greater Minnesota vote in 2020
Four election takeaways.
Why a race in southern Minnesota is so key to the GOP’s hopes of retaining the state Senate
The state Senate district that includes Austin and Albert Lea is one of few in Greater Minnesota that Republicans don’t control.
Greater Minnesota now bearing the brunt of the state’s COVID-19 death toll
Though more than half the state’s population lives in the Twin Cities metro, residents in Greater Minnesota are currently making up a larger share of people dying of coronavirus.
Poll reveals stark divisions between Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota voters on critical issues
“Place is becoming a political identity now, ” says the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Cynthia Rugeley.
How a citizen-led group hopes to keep invasive species out of the Boundary Waters
The group has managed to boost watercraft inspections on some lakes in the Ely area and to begin inspections on other lakes that have never been monitored for invasive species. But the region is vast.
The curious case of Minnesota’s Senate District 4
On paper, the contest between DFLer Kent Eken and GOP nominee Mark Larson for a crucial Moorhead-area state Senate seat should be competitive. So why has the race been so quiet?
In Mayo’s hometown, DFLers look to put science, and Trump’s response to COVID-19, on the ballot
In the race for Minnesota Senate District 26, which encompasses much of Rochester — including the Mayo Clinic — DFL candidate Aleta Borrud has tried to tie three-term GOP Sen. Carla Nelson to Trump, and particularly to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
