The Minnesota Twins threw in the towel on their playoff hopes nearly two weeks ago, trading a starting pitcher it had acquired for a playoff push days earlier, and sending away its All-Star closer. That earned the scorn of local scribes who ridiculed the team for believing it had a chance at the playoffs in the first place. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for August 2017
An all-staff meeting at Google in the wake of a fired-employee’s memo on women and diversity had to be canceled because of online harassment of employees. Read more →
Bernetta Kouba is hanging it up as a newspaper carrier. She can’t see well anymore and her health isn’t much to write home about.
That’s the way things go when you’re 91.
Read more →
Anybody can support the rights of people we like. But it takes a true American patriot to recognize that the rights granted by the Constitution should be argued and defended on behalf of those we despise, too. Read more →
Ever since it became the first state to adopt a voter ID law, Indiana has been the poster child in the debate over whether it’s actually an attempt at voter suppression. Read more →
In Harrisburg, S.D., southeast of Sioux Falls, two years ago, high school student Mason Buhl, then 16, walked into the principal’s office and shot Kevin Lein.
In the 23 months that Buhl has been sitting in jail awaiting trial, Lein has been one of the boy’s biggest advocates.
Read more →
It was a good decision nearly two weeks ago when Bob Brott, 55, of Eden Prairie, and his cousin, Gary Soucie, 58, of Fairfield, Neb., realized their boat was taking on water on Lake of the Woods and the bilge pump was blocked.
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There’s a fair amount of theater in matters involving football but University of Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck, a showman of the first order, provided a genuine moment yesterday when he gave a big nod to a kid who’s been showing up for the team and never played a game. Read more →
Major League Baseball will reach peak silliness later this month when it holds ‘Players Weekend’, outfitting its players in silly jerseys with the nicknames of players on the back.
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Erik Paulsen, the Third District congressman who represents the area including the Islamic Center, bombed on Saturday, tweeted his solidarity with members of the community. Read more →
Suicide attempts don’t generate news stories but this time people in the area took cellphone video of the rescue attempt, so it was only natural that the focus on the story is the heroic work of officers who told the woman that people really do love her. Read more →
It’s safe to say that at least in Mankato, quarries make lousy neighbors. The Mankato Free Press reports a blast from a quarry yesterday sent bowling-ball-size rocks into the neighborhood, smashing siding on at least one home.
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Of course, reality is different than what’s on the op-ed page. Kids are still going to get homework, classes will start at sun up, and teachers will still have to spend their own money, if they want the supplies they think their students need. Read more →
It’s impossible to imagine that there’s anyone walking the planet who doesn’t realize what will happen in a nuclear war, and for decades that fact alone has been enough to prevent a holocaust that destroys the blue dot. And yet, here we are, comforted only by the thought that two of them can’t possibly be insane enough to try. Read more →
Three days after someone bombed out the imam’s office at the Bloomington’s Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center with an improvised explosive device, the White House is weighing in. Read more →