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.

Why not just fill up White Bear Lake from one of the rivers?
The city of White Bear Lake last week was allowed to join the defense in the lawsuit over the level of the lake, a reminder that the case is simmering along as a mediator tries to help forge an agreement. • Beneath the Surface: Minnesota’s Pending Groundwater Challenge Homeowners and businesses near the shrunken lake Read more →
Water scarcity presents opportunity for Minnesota companies
Although concerns about sustainable water use is usually considered a problem, they also can present a business opportunity. That’s the topic for a “water technology summit” the state Department of Employment and Economic Development is holding on Tuesday.
Health facilities could use more local food than schools
Two studies in northwestern Minnesota show the health care institutions can be a bigger market for local food than schools but that so far most producers of specialty crops prefer to stick with direct sales like farmers markets.
A Department of Natural Resources request for a bigger stick to deal with irrigators and other big water users who violate permit requirements has run into both backing and criticism at the Legislature.
Why would a farmer drain land and irrigate it?
The short answer is he or she doesn’t very often. • Beneath the Surface: Minnesota’s Pending Groundwater Challenge To a number of questioners in the Public Insight Network, it seems an anomaly that Minnesota experiences two things that seem contradictory: a lot of irrigation and a lot of land drained to dry it out. A Read more →