Bob Collins
A blistering essay from the ex-wife of Scott Weiland on Monday was aimed straight at the heart of the music culture, music critics and fans who celebrate their drugged and inebriated heroes.
Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for December 2015
In the aftermath of Ferguson and Baltimore and New York, Steve Locke’s encounter with Boston police last week is the way encounters between the police and innocent people should go. Is it? Read more →
After losing a game Saturday night, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Sam Mitchell tried to embarrass a reporter for asking a question everyone who paid for a ticket was asking. Read more →
You’re a college kid caught with drugs. The authorities tell you you’re heading to prison unless you act as an informant. What do you do?
Read more →
It dawned on me the other day that I’ve now been in public radio longer than I was ever in commercial radio, which was shocking because I’ll always consider myself a loyal son of the AM band. It remains for me the most pure form of community media that ever existed, at least when it existed in some abundance. Read more →
West Concord, Minn., has a full-time bartender and a part-time librarian.
There’s a message there somewhere. Read more →
It was quite a moment in upstate New York this weekend when ‘The Spirit of St. Louis’ took to the sky. It was a recreation of Charles Lindbergh’s plane, which he flew across the Atlantic in 1927. Read more →
A Navy vet who claims to be the first American to swim the entire length of the Mississippi River is wrong, a Minnesota man insists.
Read more →
In his swim to honor the sacrifice of Gold Star families, Chris Ring swam 2,350 miles through 10 states. He’s the first American swimmer to accomplish the feat, and only the second human to do so. Read more →
An airport is once-again ground zero for the fear that’s dominating us. Read more →
The next time you read or hear a story on the state of the news media, think of this picture. It’s a far, far more accurate accounting of it than any research could reveal. Read more →
In the aftermath of the killings in San Bernardino, the nation has retreated to the corners we regularly inhabit. The political fighting that’s underway is exactly the same as what we’d expect. The stories in the media are exactly the stories we’ve come to expect.
Read more →
Here’s today’s moment of sweetness.
It comes from Kenyon, Minn., police chief Lee Sjolander’s Facebook page, which we told you about yesterday.
Read more →
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman has taken the bait set by Pioneer Press columnist/troll Joe Soucheray.
Read more →
The fine Duluth News Tribune columnist Sam Cook asks an important question worthy of dominating the public discourse: Why do we distrust people? Why do we expect the worst? Read more →