Bob Collins
The lingering furor over Bill Simmons’ suspension confirms one other suspicion: A larger number of people who said they were done paying attention to the NFL are still paying attention. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for September 2014
When the Green Line light rail project started, businesses and property owners took a serious hit. Now they’re being charged for ‘improvements’ to the road. Read more →
A picture in the BWCA or other wilderness might cost you $1000 if you snap it without a permit. Is this a threat to First Amendment rights?
Read more →
Teri Tacheny’s effort is admirable and the results are inspiring. But she got the idea while watching the ‘lethargic’ gorillas at the zoo.
Read more →
The game didn’t mean anything at Target Field this afternoon. The Twins were never in a pennant race this year and this was the last game of the year for the team in Minnesota.
But it meant something to Phil Hughes. If Hughes got one man out in the 9th inning, he’d earn another $500,000 from the Twins under the terms of his contract, an incentive to stay healthy during the year and contribute to the squad. Read more →
Today’s Minnesota Supreme Court decision on the appeal of a murder conviction of Minneapolis gang member leads a reader to head-shaking moment.
The legal underpinnings and the decision surrounding the killing during the Juneteenth celebration in 2007 are almost secondary to the narrative of gang members’ disregard for human life. Certainly that doesn’t come as a surprise, but it assaults the senses nonetheless. Read more →
There’s a line that schools seem to blur between history and propaganda. If they didn’t, more of us would’ve grown up knowing that Abraham Lincoln ordered the largest mass execution in the nation’s history, for example. Or we’d know that Lake Calhoun is named after an ardent supporter of slavery, state’s rights, and the architect of the forced removal of Native Americans from their land. It’s not the sort of thing we can be proud of.
Read more →
Jared McCallum, originally from Florida and now a Knoxville resident, is trying to hike the entire 2,180 miles of the Appalachian Trail and paddle the entire 2,350 miles of the Mississippi River in the same year. Read more →
Robert Poli, the leader of PATCO, the air traffic controllers union, never thought Ronald Reagan would fire them all. But he did, crippling the American union movement. Read more →
Barb Goodwin tried to blow the whistle on Community Action of Minneapolis. Other politicians ignored her, for 17 years. Read more →
The Pew Research Center says today that the number of Americans who have never married is at an all-time high.
Read more →
As he jumped off Marine One in New York yesterday, Obama saluted his military escort. But he had a coffee cup in his hand at the time.
Read more →
A study shows that people will mostly take their purchases somewhere else online, but will spend more money locally. Read more →
It was odd staging when President Obama announced a new war for the United States today. He did so on the lawn of the White House rather than behind a desk in the Oval Office. Read more →
The family of a Minnesota Marine is alleging the local Veterans Administration clinic falsified its records to cover up delays in providing treatment. Read more →