 Fox 21 | August 31, 2018
A 2.1 million dollar award is helping families receive in-home help with pregnancy and parenting.
The Healthy Families America Program provides services for first-time mothers, at-risk families such as parents dealing with domestic abuse, substance abuse or those dealing with mental illness. Through the program, medical professionals visit family’ homes providing practical health services and parenting support.
“It’s working to support each other and help educate and give young parents information,” Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said.
Parents receive the in-home visits during pregnancy until the child is three years old.
“I’ve learned everything from this program and his everyday needs and even my older kids needs, it’s a wonderful program,” first-time mother Mariah Columbus said.
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Star Tribune | August 29, 2018
New fare boxes designed to speed up the boarding process are appearing on Metro Transit buses.
The first of the fare boxes, installed on eight buses earlier this month, allow riders with a transfer ticket to simply swipe and ride.
The feature will allow riders to spend less time at the fare box, said spokesman John Komarek, and may someday allow riders to pay with a credit card.
With the current fare boxes, which date to 1992, riders insert their transfer ticket into a slot. The machine reads the transfer, then spits it back out, which can be time consuming.
With the new boxes, riders with transfers will be able get on just as fast as riders who swipe their GoTo or Metropass cards.
“There is no waiting for the ticket to go in and come back out,” Komarek said.
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 PEW | August, 29 2018
A decade after the Great Recession began, at least half of the states could cover a bigger share of spending with rainy day funds than before the downturn. But most still had a thinner cushion against budget shortfalls in their total balances, which count rainy day reserves plus general fund dollars left over at the end of a budget year.
In fiscal year 2017, the 50-state total for rainy day funds increased for a seventh straight year to a record $54.7 billion, enough to run government operations for a median of 20.5 days, also a new high. Early estimates showed savings at near-peak levels in fiscal 2018, which ended in June for most states. The results will probably rise once missing and final data are counted in a year in which higher-than-expected tax revenue led a number of states to increase savings beyond their earlier estimates.
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WZFG | August, 29 2018
More than 13,000 Minnesota youth will benefit from the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School Bike Fleet grants that support pedestrian and bicycle safety education in Minnesota schools.
As a part of MnDOT’s Safe Routes to School program, these $108,000 in grants award communities a trailer, bicycles and supplies that enable teachers, after school programs, and other community groups to share the bicycles while teaching critical safety skills to youth in Minnesota.
“The bicycle fleet grants and pedestrian and bicycle safety education are key components that ensure youth in Minnesota are given the lifelong skills to walk and bicycle safely,” said Dave Cowan, Safe Routes to School coordinator.
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KSTP | August 29, 2018
Minnesota's unemployment rate is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades, according to the Department of Employment and Economic Development.
DEED announced Wednesday the state's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is at 3 percent, the lowest its been since June 2000. Minnesota has the 10th lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
With that announcement, DEED said the state's unemployment rate has been at or below 4 percent for four straight years.
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 MinnPost | August 20, 2018
In a tour of the neighborhood, Bengtson and Dale Slagter, the county’s housing rehabilitation manager, stopped along Lake Avenue Northwest as children played at a nearby park. Some people bought homes here because it was cheaper to buy than to rent, they said – but then deferred the maintenance that has now caught up with them.
“We are just scratching the surface of what’s needed in terms of rehab,” Slagter said. “There is a lot of need out here.”
For 13 homeowners on the Northside, some help is on the way.
Over the next few years, they will be able to fix up their houses with funding from the Small Cities Development Program, which is run by the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. Much of the money, distributed in the form of loans administered by the county HRA, will help to pay for new heating systems now that the city has closed a hot-water district heat program that served the neighborhood. The city’s Public Utilities Commission and a local nonprofit are also providing some funding.
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KEYC | August 23, 2018
The numbers are in. Over 480,000 Minnesotans found health coverage through MNsure during the 2018 enrollment year.
MNsure helps Minnesotans access public programs like Medicaid and MinnesotaCare, along with private health plan enrollment.
Statewide, the average tax credit for Minnesota families is more than $7,000 per year. And in greater Minnesota, the yearly tax credit is over $9,300 per year.
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MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL | August 28, 2018
A ranking of state economies using metrics like poverty rate, home ownership, job growth and education puts Minnesota ahead of California (and, more important, Wisconsin).
USA Today reports on the listing, compiled by financial site 24/7 Wall Street. Minnesota comes in No. 7 overall, just behind Hawaii.
The state scored points for its low unemployment rate (3.1 percent at the time of the survey), GDP annual growth rate of 1.7 percent (the 14th best in the list) and an especially high home ownership rate of 71.3 percent.
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Duluth News Tribune | August, 20 2018
A study ranks South Dakota first and Minnesota second for overall best community college systems. The WalletHub study compared 715 colleges by cost and financing, and education and career outcomes. Pennsylvania came in last.
Seven Minnesota community colleges were ranked in the study’s top 20.
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