Bob Collins
The Kern Bridge, which has spanned the Le Sueur River in rural Mankato since 1873, somehow has survived its 145th winter and spring flooding season. Soon, it will be gone. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Mankato
If the hogs in Mankato were smart, they’d have made a run for it today when the semi they were in crashed on highway 169. Read more →
It’s safe to say that at least in Mankato, quarries make lousy neighbors. The Mankato Free Press reports a blast from a quarry yesterday sent bowling-ball-size rocks into the neighborhood, smashing siding on at least one home.
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Sidewalks hearken back to a day in America where people walked to places, maybe even stopped to talk to neighbors. But that romanticized view has no place in America, judging from the reaction of people at a meeting Monday night.
Homeowners in Mankato hate sidewalks. Read more →
A custom rifle manufacturer has apparently decided to halt the sale of a Mankato-themed rifle after complaints that it used a noose to depict the Dakota Conflict. Mankato was the site of the largest mass execution in history when thirty-eight Dakota men were hanged.
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It was all smiles a couple of weeks ago in Mankato when a mural on a new flood wall was unveiled featuring images of fishes painted by several artists. Who could create controversy out of a flood wall?
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It was a good deal for drivers — they got their gas at about 20 cents a gallon less than drivers in the rest of the state — but there was just one problem: the government controls the price of gasoline. Read more →
The numbers are in from Mankato’s large air show in June and they’re not particularly good, even though it attracted the Air Force Thunderbirds as the signature act. Read more →
Anarchy reigned in Mankato for a short time last week before authorities stepped in to curb the scourge of outdoor dining without enough live plants in the vicinity.
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The Mankato Free Press this week provided an unusual glimpse of the sacrifice some Minnesota lawmakers have to make to be legislators. Rep. Jack Considine’s parents died within days of each other, just as the session started. Read more →
Before we bid adieu to winter, we tip our hat to the season that allows us to start a week with a paragraph like this in today’s Mankato Free Press about the inaugural Duct Tape Derby at Mt. Kato on Saturday.
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A Minnesota State University Mankato student shot himself to death in the university library Monday afternoon. He was a philosophy major. He was also a veteran of the war in Iraq. For the most part, the news was met with a shrug. 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 →
A Mankato City Council members has started a petition calling for a presidential pardon for the 38 Dakota men who were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. Read more →
Nothing keeps a community together like a cup of coffee in the right setting. In cities all over the Midwest, especially those where businesses have moved out and the people remaining aren’t far behind, the town cafe holds it together. Read more →