Bob Collins
An emergency landing on a highway near Hawley, Minn., Tuesday turned out OK. But it’s clear from the photos that the driver is lucky to be alive. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for March 2015
My airline pilot friends reported to me last week that in the aftermath of the Germanwings tragedy, passengers stepping onto their jets were asking them “do you feel alright?”. Funny stuff.
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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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Over the years, the NewsCut staff has lived vicariously through the cross-country journeys of others. Quite often, they’re canoe trips down the Mississippi River.
We also have a fondness for those who paddle against the current, which is why it’s worth noting today that five paddlers, four of them from Saint Cloud, have made it to Minnesota in their quest to travel from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. They say no one has ever traveled the route in one trip. Read more →
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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If he’s frustrated by it, Bill McGuire, the man behind the effort to bring MLS to downtown Minneapolis, can end the speculation on whether he’ll be seeking public subsidies for a new stadium anytime he wishes. He just has to answer the question. That he is shying away from the answer is understandable; it’s a Read more →
A lot of newspapers are pretty shy these days about running editorials; margins are so thin, it’s not worth angering the readers.
This morning, the Indianapolis Star isn’t like a lot of newspapers. Read more →
With increasing frequency, some large envelopes have been arriving in my mail lately. My mother has been sending me her treasures — the remnants of my childhood. She’s 93 now and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why, particularly since she’s been voicing alarm that she’ll die one of these days and nobody will find her. There are things to do, and, for her, one of them is distributing her keepsakes. Read more →
It’s been a little over three years since I first told you the story of Joel Beeson of West Virginia, whose difficulty getting a liver transplant from a living donor is typical of many in his situation. Here’s an update on how he’s doing. Read more →
I tried out a new burger joint in the Saint Paul skyway a few weeks ago. The food, though overpriced, was decent, especially by Saint Paul skyway standards.
I’ll never go back, however.
Why? Because after you give the cashier your credit card, she turns the monitor around so you can add a tip. Read more →
Stevie Wonder brought his big tour to the Twin Cities Sunday night. But a smaller performance at New Salem Missionary Baptist Church stole the show. Read more →
For the last 10 months, CBS has been following the experimental therapy, in which a modified polio gene — modified so it wouldn’t reproduce — “wakes up” the body’s immune system to attack cancer. Read more →
Whatever progress Americans have made in understanding and accepting mental illness — and it wasn’t much — has been fairly well undone by the breathless coverage of last week’s Germanwings Airbus crash in the French Alps. Read more →
We are appropriately reminded from time to time to be careful what we put online because the Internet is forever, and people in the future can find our past.
That’s also its strong suit.
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It’s not fashionable to like newspapers anymore, but Baird Helgeson’s tweet today is a solid reminder of the daily miracle that happens each day. Read more →