Bob CollinsDrive down Post Road near MSP International Airport and you’ll see the sign of a changing economy. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.
Public Radio listeners, appropriately so, are sticklers for accuracy. So it’s at least a little amusing to read this week’s NPR Public Editor (formerly ombudsman) column which tackles the complaints of listeners who object to reporters and hosts pronouncing things correctly — specifically, non-English names.
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Some white people have gotten their feelings hurt — again — because the Minnesota Historical Society has pointed out that Minnesota history didn’t begin with them. Read more →
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Jay Johnson inherited from his mom a priceless home full of buried treasures that have consumed his later years and kept him where he says he’s been all his life: poor. She left him something else: a keen interest in history, and a desire to tell the family story by preserving her grandfather’s Old Prospect Inn. Read more →
An elderly woman was eating alone last Thursday evening when Jamario Howard, JaMychol Baker, and Tae Knight walked into Brad’s BBQ in Oxford, Alabama. Read more →
Sometimes, kids don’t cooperate, as was the case last night in Baltimore when a fan of the Chicago White Sox wanted nothing to do with the thing. Read more →
Dr. Brenda Cassellius, 51, who left her job when the Dayton administration was replaced in January, told a panel interviewing school superintendent candidate finalists in Boston on Tuesday that she’s been looking for ‘a district that’s ready to move the agenda for vulnerable kids.’ Read more →
Apparently, we are supposed to feel sympathy for the businesses that are making job offers to potential employees, only to hear nothing in return.
No, thank you.
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Exhibit A: Last night’s NBA playoff game between the Portland Trailblazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Game tied with seconds left in a series Portland led three-games-to-one. Read more →
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Only in these times could a candidate launch a campaign with a campaign ad about a campaign ad she used in a previous election that she lost. Read more →
If a person is walking naked down the streets of Crookston, it may take longer before the residents can read about it in the newspaper.
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Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, makes an excellent point: shouldn’t the media be learning something from the way it reported the material stolen by Russia and used to influence the election in 2016? Read more →
Nelson and his gang escaped with $30,000 — about $500,00 in today’s dollars. With mining operations and the railroad in full tilt, Brainerd had a lot of cash around town.
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