Bob CollinsOdin Stutrud, 94, survived the rigors of the United States Army from 1942 to 1946, including fighting the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands campaign in World War II. It’s some jerks (or jerk) in Wahpeton who have him steamed. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
We scoff at Chicago but is downtown Minneapolis safe? Read more →
That was quite a piece of audio on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning when NPR reporter David Schaper was interviewing a woman in a South Side Chicago neighborhood about a city effort to more closely track gun sales. Just after the woman insisted the block was safe, gunfire broke out. Read more →
For utter incomprehensibility, nothing beats this quote in the news today: “I killed my daughter as she had insulted all of our family by marrying a man without our consent, and I have no regret over it.” A pregnant woman, Farzana Parveen, 25, was stoned to death today as she headed to court for a Read more →
A medical marijuana prescription from a state where it’s legal will not prevent you from being busted in Minnesota, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed today. Read more →
In a case that seemed to pit laws to protect domestic abuse victims against those designed to protect other drivers from drunks on the road, the Minnesota Supreme Court has sided with the latter.
Read more →
In Minnesota it’s a crime to refuse to submit to chemical testing when a police officer thinks you’re driving under the influence. Read more →
It was the perfect plan. How could it possibly have not worked? Danielle Shea of Quincy, Mass., was supposed to graduate from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut over the weekend. The whole family was going to be there to watch. They would, no doubt, be so proud. Her mother had given her thousands of dollars for Read more →
Isaac Kolstad, beaten nearly to death outside a Mankato bar last weekend, remains in a coma. Philip Nelson, the former University of Minnesota quarterback, is facing up to 25 years in prison. Both men’s lives will never been the same.
Was it racist of me to point that last part out? Read more →
Here’s a nice thought from Mankato today, where students at Mankato East High School lined up to show support for former player Isaac Kolstad, who was beaten into a coma at a Mankato bar over the weekend. Read more →
Among the elements of our society, few are more despicable than scrap-metal thieves. The Rochester Post Bulletin reports they’ve been hitting cemeteries hard recently, and a particular target is veterans cemeteries because of the brass and copper markers that denote a veteran’s service and hold a small flag. “It’s sacrilegious,” said former Marine Bernie Melter, Read more →
We may never know the identity of a man who apparently brandished a gun at another driver in Brooklyn Park today in what, at least at first, sounded like a road rage incident. Read more →
If a 30-person jury pool in the trial of a black man contains only one black person, is he tried by a jury of peers in a community?
He is unless there’s evidence that the underrepresentation is because of a systemic effort that causes it, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today. Read more →
South Carolina officer Gaetano Acerra delivers on the police promise to protect — and serve. Read more →
In an op-ed in today’s Star Tribune Daniel Wolpert of Minneapolis defends the practice of judging the parents in news stories where a child has done wrong.
Clearly, Wolpert is talking mostly about the parents of John LaDue of Waseca. He’s the 17-year-old boy charged with a plot to set off bombs at schools in Waseca, then shoot kids trying to flee. Reportedly, he planned to kick off his day by killing his parents. Read more →