The Institute of Public Policy released two new publications this week focusing on Regional and Economic issues. Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening Rural-Urban Connections, an issue brief written by Erin Meyers and Brian Dabson, describes rural and urban connections in the areas of broadband development, disaster resilience, transportation, and food systems and efforts to strengthen these linkages. Emergency Management in Six Disaster-Prone Missouri Counties, a working paper by Sonja Erickson which contributes to the Missouri Transect Project Community Team’s Integrating Responses to Climate Change within a Regional Resilience Framework and highlights Missouri counties’ strengths and challenges in current Emergency Management structures.