Bob CollinsResults from the Minnesota State Patrol’s crackdown on distracted drivers suggest maybe it shouldn’t be a short-term crackdown. The Twitterverse, however, is pushing back. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
If you go to a Twins game, you’ll have to pass through metal detectors. Major League Baseball this year has expanded its security procedures that it tried out late last season.
Is there a big problem at ballgames? No, security expert Bruce Schneier argues in the Washington Post today, it’s just part of the theater to make you feel safer from a threat that isn’t that big to begin with. Read more →
The Maryland parents who got into trouble in January for allowing their children to walk the streets alone were worried this weekend when the 10-year-old and 6-year-old didn’t come home from the park.
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It’s believed that only one in three rape victims report their attack. It’s not something we didn’t already know. Darren Sharper’s case, though, shows it’s something that doesn’t seem to change.
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Alan Page, the former Minnesota Viking and current justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, will turn 70 in August, and by the end of that month, he has to retire. It’s the law in Minnesota.
Why? Read more →
Turning aside a request from the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that data from an agency created by the Minnesota Legislature to help high-risk doctors, hospitals and nursing homes get malpractice insurance can stay secret. Read more →
We can’t watch this horrible video without wondering, ‘What if?’. What if someone wasn’t in a perfect position to see a South Carolina cop execute a black man, who had been stopped for a broken tail light. Read more →
A lot of people are ripping off the system, the Pioneer Press reports today, citing an audit showing Green Line riders in particular are dodging fares. Read more →
A split Minnesota Supreme Court Wednesday threw out a man’s first-degree-murder conviction for killing his girlfriend as justices wrangled over the legal definition of domestic abuse. Read more →
An incident in Saint Paul yesterday afternoon should give everyone who likes to debate the concealed carry law a chance to say, ‘See? I told you.’
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The Transportation Security Administration — the pat-down people at the airport — is going to stop searching black women’s hair for no reason.
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Almost every news organization in the Twin Cities has a policy against naming suspects, and almost every one ignores it when it’s convenient to do so. This is not generally how ethics in journalism works. Read more →
History says the St. Paul effort will fade, and drivers — if they change their behavior at all — will go back to being the inconsiderate oofs they often are in the city. Read more →
The Mall of America built dossiers on demonstrators with Black Lives Matter prior to the December protest that resulted in the arrest of about a dozen people, The Intercept is reporting today. Read more →
The Minnesota Supreme Court today upheld Bloomington’s right to deny a permit for expansion of a senior care facility, a blow to some groups who said it gives neighbors of projects too much power. Read more →