Bob CollinsThe Texas kid who started a national furor when he took a clock he made to school and got detained for suspicion of making a bomb is getting his trip to Washington at the invitation of the president. But Ahmed Mohamed,14, won’t be getting any time with President Obama after all. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for October 2015
Do people buy more expensive grades of gasoline when the price of gasoline drops? Read more →
Fall foliage from spaceIt’s only Monday but we already have a clubhouse leader in the “I didn’t see that coming” competition. It stems from last week’s Star Tribune feature on the senior dancers at Lynx and Timberwolves games. The women of a certain age might be the most beloved half-time and game-break act in the Twin Cities. Today, Read more →
A mining company based in Cleveland is threatening to throw more people out of work on the Iron Range if a mining company based in India opens up a taconite plant in Nashwauk. There’s your global economy in one sentence that seems to ignore the actual people who live on the Iron Range. Read more →
A high school football player stops what he’s doing at a game to meet WWII vets. Read more →
In Madison, Wisc., the king and queen are dead. Long live ‘Regent Royalty.’ Read more →
On its Facebook page today, the Minnesota State Patrol provides a little shaming for the anonymous driver who was cited during the Patrol’s crackdown on seat belt non-usage. Read more →
The Star Tribune reports the Twin City Model Railroad Museum has been told by landlords to pack up the trains and get out.
Read more →
Hardee’s has reportedly apologized to a police officer in Milaca, Minn., after a cook refused to make any food for her because she’s a cop, the West Central Tribune says.
Read more →
What should the U.S. do about Afghanistan? I don’t know. Read more →
If it becomes law, it’ll be over the strident objection of the Star Tribune, which ran a lengthy editorial today against the city’s involvement in private business. That’s a notable adversary, considering the generally left-leaning principles of the editorial board. Read more →
Mary Norris’ job at the New Yorker includes pulling out the two spaces that some people leave after a period, leaving one, an issue that tears newsrooms and offices apart.
Who would do such a thing? Read more →
Showtime’s ‘Homeland’ has long been criticized for Islamophobic stereotypes. ‘In just a few steps, the show has neatly stitched together all the current bogeymen of U.S. foreign policy,’ filmmaker Laura Durkay said last year as the show got more and more critical acclaim from the Hollywood press.
Now, a group of street artists, including a former Minnesota college student, has exacted some revenge. Read more →
Lies, damned lies and statistics. Once a month, Benjamin Disraeli’s characterization of the power of numbers is on display when economists release unemployment figures. Read more →