Bob Collins
We will not succumb to the temptation for cheap Wisconsin jokes with the video of what happened in Milwaukee the other day. 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.
As the debate over water quality vs. mining rages in the northern part of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the southern part of the region is providing a good lesson in pollution: You never know what’s going to cause it. Read more →
If they told people how heartbreaking parenthood is from time to time, nobody would ever have kids. You go into it with no experience, you suffer with an 18-year case of imposter syndrome, and on the first day after your kid asks you to drop him off a block away from school because of his embarrassment, some punk couple, expecting their first child in a couple of months, offers you an opinion on how you could’ve been a better parent. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
The reaction a Brooklyn Park church is getting for spreading some interdenominational love is jaw-dropping, even when viewed by 2018 standards. Read more →
The decision by Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo to forbid his officers from being in uniform for the city’s annual Pride parade is certainly going to drive a wedge between the LGBT community and police supporters. Nothing occurs in a vacuum where the police are concerned — as the national crisis over NFL players taking Read more →
There probably isn’t a more ethical and conservative (small “c”) news organization in America than the Associated Press, so today’s decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to deny the AP entry to a speech being given by EPA head Scott Pruitt is an escalation of the showdown between the administration and the free press. Read more →
Today’s confirmation that life is utterly unfair comes from Iceland where a couple from Le Crescent, Minn., died while fishing. Read more →
Alex Lingor, 17, of Sioux Falls, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in February after he chased down a car when its occupants took off with the marijuana he was trying to sell them. Kareem Cisse, 15, died in the crash.
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Pulitzer Prize-winner Kendrick Lamar has made clear who gets to say the ‘N word’ at his concerts. Read more →
From the sound of things, Forest Lake is taking Lake Elmo’s title of Washington County’s most combative city goverment. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
A 15-year-old boy in Oregon is going to have to arrange a payment plan for restitution for his part in some vandalism last year. He owes $36 million. Read more →
About half of the nation’s non-union employers require employees to workers are employed under some sort of arbitration contract that requires them to face down their company one-on-one before an arbitrator. Today’s Supreme Court decision will drastically reduce the number of claims against them. Read more →
This will come as bad news to about half the country (according to polls), but the movement to save a free press just got reinforcements.
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