Cities in Illinois and Oklahoma are latest to lure remote workers with free land, cash
CBSN
A new trend is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic: Cities across the U.S. are dangling financial incentives in front of remote workers who are considered up for grabs, now that they can work from anywhere.
Dozens of U.S. cities, many in middle America, are competing for remote talent. Take Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is offering individuals $10,000 cash, plus other benefits including office space and professional resources, to workers who put down roots in the southern city. Or Grafton, Illinois, which is giving free land to transplants who want to build homes. Move to Lewisburg, West Virginia, with a full-time, remote job and you'll pocket $12,000.
Makemymove.com, a website that advertises remote work opportunities, has compiled offers from 52 American cities, from Maine to Oregon, that want to grow their populations and local tax bases.
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.