Given advancing age and my inability to get out of the cubicle much anymore, I often wonder if I’ll ever meet as unique an individual as Daniel Alvarez again, the Florida man who kayaked from the Northwest Angle to the Gulf of Mexico and then, because it seemed like a good idea at the time, kayaked back via a different route. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for May 2016
If a police officer enters your secured condominium building without a warrant and a drug-sniffing dog outside your door detects the presence of drugs, is it an illegal search?
No, a divided Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today.
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In 1984, a woman who gave birth in her dorm room at San Francisco State University, put it in a box in the laundry room, and walked away. The baby has been putting up a big fight since then. Read more →
Paul Shol, a 29-year-old Fergus Falls native, is planning an Oregon-to-Maine trip to raise money for Legacy Children’s Foundation, a Fargo organization that focuses on closing the achievement gap for low-income students. Read more →
She’ll host a public celebration at the lift station named in her honor on June 15.
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In a country full of talented radio broadcasters, there were few who were better at it than Ron Rosenbaum, 68, who died on Sunday morning. Rosenbaum, who as an attorney represented many of the Twin Cities media elite (including Tom Barnard), parlayed his legal acumen into successful radio stints at WCCO, KSTP, KFAN and, finally, Read more →
Authorities had to shoot and kill a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo this weekend after a toddler fell into the exhibit and was grabbed by the animal. Read more →
A wild ending gives the Twins another win in Seattle. Read more →
Vietnam didn’t get Gary Bipes, of Hector,Minn. The CIA didn’t get Bipes. And a knoll in a farmer’s field in Glencoe didn’t get Bipes. Mosquitoes almost did. Read more →
Generally speaking, Minnesota architecture can be a boring series of right angles. Folks seem to like it. The style feels like a comfortable pair of slippers.
So you might want to think about the design of the new Minnesota United stadium for awhile and not react right away. Read more →
So far during commencement season, we have been generally unimpressed with most of the speakers whose speeches have made a social media blip.
The exception is Donovan Livingston, who spoke this week at the convocation exercises of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. Read more →
The Greatest Generation might be the last generation of great letter writers, missives home that read like great literature. We had a greater command of the English language back then. A formality,too. We may never approach such writing again. Read more →
Because it’s a pig surfing, it’s a nobody-goes-to-work Friday, and there’s no news today, that’s why. Read more →
It’s been a pretty rough spring for the most famous eagles in America. The Decorah, Iowa webcam this spring has documented nature’s dirty little secret: there’s a lot of dying going on. Read more →
It’s a bit of a shame that NPR often doesn’t air media commentary by its gifted media correspondent, David Folkenflik, because his takedown of Katie Couric for her documentary on guns today deserves a wider audience. Read more →