Bob CollinsThe latest New York Times’ op-doc features Yankovic and The Gregory Brothers teaming up to try to make us feel better, just as the dance band on the Titanic did. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for October 2016
In September, Arapahoe County (Colorado) sheriff’s deputy Tom Finley responded to a call of a black man carrying a rifle in a 7-11 parking lot. It wasn’t a man at all. It was a woman. And she was carrying golf clubs. Read more →
What are the ethical implications in reporting on stolen information without reporting where it came from and why it was leaked? Read more →
When we talk baseball, we pull our past with us — our brothers, our grandmothers, our aunts, our sons and daughters — as we hang on for one more season, one more game, one more chance to dream that salvation will come, if not in this life, then surely the next. Or the one after that. Read more →
The Ada-Borup game against Cass Lake was supposed to be just a football game. A young man’s death transformed it into something more. Read more →
Since presidents and vice presidents are not allowed to drive, will either one of them remember how to do it after eight years away from the wheel?
Let’s check in with Joe Biden who, thanks to Jay Leno, had a road test the other day.
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I’m probably in the minority given that I was disappointed — again — when the final Clinton-Trump debate ended. I’ve never seen anything in the American experience that’s quite like this, of course. And yet, I can’t look away. Read more →
Football is knee-deep in hypocrisy when it comes to alcohol. Beermakers are major advertisers, teams play up tailgating and drinking, it’s a tremendous source of revenue at the concession stand, and when the game ends, only a fool would deny that a fair number of fans are getting in their cars hammered Read more →
In preparation for Monday’s show on the art and culture of obituaries, I recommend today another example of a finely written obit that appeared in today’s Star Tribune. Read more →
Peter DeMarco’s letter to the health care workers who cared for his dying wife went viral two weeks ago, as it should have. His message in today’s column by their friend should too. Read more →
The Minnesota Supreme Court today settled a long-running dispute over whether a BB gun is a firearm under Minnesota’s weapons laws.
It’s not, the court ruled, overturning a ruling from the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and reversing the conviction of a Ramsey County man. Read more →
It wasn’t part of a protest, Northland Community and Technical College’s president assured veterans groups. But if it had been, he wouldn’t have tried to stop it. Read more →
Bloomberg Politics wins the Internet today for this video reassuring us — we think — that the coming election is not rigged.
One additional point it makes, however, is that it is, just not the way you think it is. Read more →
It’s gratifying to see some of the real geniuses of Minnesota Public Radio getting some attention in The Current’s just released behind-the-scenes video. Read more →
Alice Seagren didn’t mix words in her criticism of the back-patting over the news this week that the high school graduation rate in the U.S. reached an all-time high of 83 percent in the 2014-2015 school year. Read more →