Bob Collins
Should chickens have the freedom to flap their wings?
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for July 2012
Ode to the family reunion
From Itasca to New Orleans, the dream of infinite flight, where was God in Aurora, was chivalry ever alive, and the wireless generation.
Paul Tosto
Happily, I haven’t caused a car accident in 34 years of driving. But, yeah, on occasion I’ve ridden the bumper of the car in front of me, hit the gas fast to get past the senior citizen at the light and weaved through traffic like a NASCAR driver with a grudge. Unlike drinking or texting Read more →
Americans have ranted for decades about tape delays and overseas Olympics. We want to see stuff as it happens. But the network that pays a king’s ransom for the broadcast rights makes its money showing the high demand events during American prime time. Network wins. That used to be the end of the discussion. Not Read more →
Derek Montgomery for MPR Among all the worries about the massive flooding that hit Duluth last month, there were concerns about whether the hard-hit Fond du Lac neighborhood had been inundated with toxic sediment from flood waters. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency today helped cross that worry off the list. The agency reports: The lab Read more →
David Cazares
By Molly Bloom MPR News Opening ceremonies for the the 2012 Summer Olympics take place today in London, and here at MPR News we’re going to be closely following the Minnesotans competing in the Olympics — and that means anyone with a connection (even a slight one) to the Gopher State. So if you want Read more →
Minnesota’s Angel Tax Credit — a tax break designed to spur small business investment — has been incredibly popular in the two years it’s been around. State officials today announced that the $12 million they budgeted for the credit for all of 2012 is spoken for already. Officials have applauded t the credits attracting $140 Read more →
We’ve written before about how the self-employed in Minnesota took a hit during the Great Recession. Nationally, though, there’s evidence of a rebound — and maybe a larger trend going forward. Data crunched by the Idaho-based economic analysis group EMSI show the percentage of self-employed Americans has bounced back the past couple years. While still Read more →
I wrote about a lot of students and their work in my years as an education reporter. The kids that stand out, though, are the ones that used their brilliance to find simple solutions to basic problems in developing countries. I remember Patrick Delaney, a University of Minnesota electrical engineering student, who helped design low-cost, Read more →
By funny, I mean “Ha, Ha” funny. College athletics are very tense these days. But it’s OK to laugh at a new video from Notre Dame athletics that is pleading with fans to stop recruiting players online. Apparently, some Irish fans feel so much a part of the team that they also feel one with Read more →
It’s hard to remember but the economic recovery began officially three years ago. While it’s a positive that the most recent data show Minnesota adding jobs, those numbers mask at least one seriously troubling trend: The number of Minnesotans out of work for more than a year has skyrocketed during the “recovery.” According to the Read more →