{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://franken.senate.gov/?p=news&id=2609", "Sen. Franken Visits Forest Lake High School to Discuss the Future of Manufacturing in Minnesota", "2013-11-08", "2013", "2013-11", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Al Franken", "F000457", "franken.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Sen. Franken recently toured Forest Lake High School in celebration of \"Minnesota Manufacturing Week,\" and highlighted his efforts to create partnerships between Minnesota schools and businesses. During his visit, Sen. Franken applauded Forest Lake High School for its work to address the \"skills-gap\"-where jobs go unfilled because businesses cannot find workers with the right skills-and said he hopes the school can continue to build partnerships that promote high-demand jobs in industries like manufacturing, healthcare, energy, and information technology. The Forest Lakes Times printed a column by a former school teacher and administrator:\n \n...\nMac, Mariah, Leighton and other students are gaining from a mission that Massey explained to about 60 community members during Franken's visit: a belief that the school should help \"all students graduate with skills necessary to attend college, university, technical college or training program - and succeed.\"\nFranken responded, \"You could not be doing something any more important. ... Manufacturing is back. We have to get rid of the view that manufacturing jobs are \u2018dark, dangerous and dirty.' ... In fact, it's the opposite. And we have a massive \u2018skills gap' - between one-third and 60 percent of Minnesota manufacturers report that they have jobs they can't fill because they can't find people who have needed skills.\"\n...\n \nSen. Franken introduced the Community College to Career Fund Act in an effort to fill open, high-demand jobs and build strong relationships between community and technical colleges and employers to help reduce the skills-gap.\nClick here to read more of the column from Forest Lake Times.   Click here for more information on the Community College to Career Fund Act and building manufacturing jobs in America.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://franken.senate.gov/?p=news&id=2609"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.728893093764782, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}