Bob CollinsLast week, as I’m sure you know by now, President Barack Obama broke into song at the funeral of Clementa Pinckney, killed in the attack on a Charleston, S.C., church. It was Amazing Grace, a song with a significant history of its own. MPR colleague Tesfa Wondemagegnehu today forwarded this essay from a friend he Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for June 2015
In Waltham, Mass., a Boston suburb, the summer reading list has substituted a podcast for a book. For the record, you can’t read a podcast. Read more →
A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study claims that Fourth of July fireworks increase pollution by 42 percent.
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If you can stay up until close to midnight tonight, you’ll get to tell your grandchildren about the time you stayed up until midnight for no good reason.
At 11:59:59, the world will add one second to time. Read more →
Wade Yarbrough, of Apple Valley, waded into hostile territory in today’s Star Tribune with his op-ed urging restraint in judging people who fly the Confederate flag.
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United Airlines will make a pretty significant announcement today. It will announce the first investment by a domestic airline in a company that will provide alternative fuel.
Fulcrum, a California-based company, turns household trash into jet fuel.
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As the face of the Minnesota State Patrol in western Minnesota, Sgt. Jesse Grabow, the public information officer, has been expert as using social media to get people to drive more safely. Read more →
A suspect takes off in a running police vehicle, crashes into another car, killing its driver and seriously injuring its passenger. Is the officer liable? Read more →
The Milwaukee Art Museum today is stoking the ongoing debate over what is art and what is vile trash. Read more →
In all the big news last week, the death of Marva Collins seemed to slip under the radar.
Too bad; she was an education superstar.
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When you’re riding a bicycle across the entire United States — from Baltimore to Seattle — this has got to be an uplifting sight — the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis.
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The defenders of the Confederate flag who have insisted that it represents only pride in history are proving that it doesn’t.
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On my list of people I want to interview someday sits Gene Wiley, the more-than-affable shoeshine man at St. Paul’s Hamm Building.
I may have missed my chance.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Wiley has suffered ‘a series of strokes’ that’s left him hospitalized. Read more →
A flight over S. St. Paul’s Fleming Field shows the challenges of a small airport coexisting with neighborhoods. Here’s the video. Read more →
Garrison Keillor has hinted at retirement from A Prairie Home Companion so many times that it’s a wonder there isn’t a nationwide grain-of-salt shortage.
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