Bob CollinsThe tragedy in Portland, Ore. over the weekend in which two men were killed by a knife-wielding white supremacist, might give some people pause before risking their safety to help someone else. But people whose instinct is to help someone else aren’t the type to pause. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for May 2017
Perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect financially strapped news organizations to pay someone to publicize its flaws. But even if trust in newsrooms weren’t eroding, it would still be true that readers and listeners deserve someone on their side in a position of power. Read more →
Here’s more proof that when it comes to sportsmanship, the track and field kids are the coolest ones. Read more →
Graham Day turned 8 on Sunday and his parents did what parents of 8-year-olds often do when kids turn 8: they planned a party, sent out invitations, and then baked and stocked-up on food. Read more →
Eric Kussin was kind of a big deal in the National Hockey League, where he was the chief revenue officer for the Florida Panthers.
So it’s unusual, to say the least, that he’s posted his email address and cellphone number, asking people to contact him if they’ve experienced personal trauma/professional stress and need some help.
Read more →
It was a short first day in the trial of officer Jeronimo Yanez, charged in the killing of Philando Castile during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights last summer. The jury pool is filling out questionnaires about their potential as jurors. There’s no question on it asking the jurors their race; that’s illegal in Minnesota. So reporters were left today to look at individuals and try to figure out race and ethnicity. Read more →
That seems like a fairly simple question, which is why it was a little odd on NPR’s Weekend Edition this weekend when Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska didn’t answer it.
Read more →
It was a night for adults to show what they’re made of at Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee last week. They’re not made of much, apparently.
Read more →
Homelessness doesn’t look like it’s getting any better in the Twin Cities, but it’s not for lack of trying — and there are successes. Check out La Crosse, Wis.
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Storm Lake, apparently, is considered a model of how to keep rural America alive. Attract plenty of immigrants who’ll work in the drudgery of a processing plant for poor wages, go through the growing pains, and weather the hostility toward them as if what happened to rural America is somehow their fault. Read more →
It’s too late to know now how many of the last men of Luverne wanted to be the last one living.
When their club started in 2010, they bought a bottle of hooch and 24 mugs. When there was only one left, he’d toast the other 23, all veterans of World War II.
Only the aged can reveal the loneliness of losing all of your friends, and nobody really likes drinking alone anyway.
So the three remaining vets aren’t going to wait.
Read more →
Things worked out fine for the Tampa Bay Rays at Target Field on Friday night. They won 5-to-2 over the local nine.
Not so much, though, for Steven Souza Jr., who just missed catching Kenny Vargas’ fly ball to right field in the seventh inning. Read more →
If art is occasionally meant to inflame, mission accomplished at the Walker Art Center where a new installation in the refurbished Sculpture Garden is the portrayal of gallows, one of which is inspired by the largest mass execution in U.S. history, the hanging of 38 Dakota Indians in 1862. Read more →
A lot of problems are going to be solved when self-driving cars become a thing. But first a big problem has to be solved: Consumers don’t want them. Read more →
For more than 70 years, the family of 2nd Lt. Alexander ‘Sandy’ Nininger Jr., who died when he charged alone into a group of Japanese invaders near Abucay, Bataan in 1942, have been trying to get him home.
It may take a Minnesota native to do it. Read more →