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.
Trucks. It’s always the trucks causing the havoc on Minnesota highways after a storm.
The trucks sit out in the blizzards, accumulating an armory of ice and snow and then hit the highways with predictable results, as a Dakota County ranger learned anew. Read more →
In a book of women who fly, Tammie Jo Shults recalled her senior year in high school in 1979 when an airman — a retired colonel — gave a lecture on aviation.
She was the only girl to show up and the colonel asked her if she was lost.
Read more →
In the 11 years of NewsCut, Wally Englund stands out as one of the most memorable people I’ve met in the course of learning of and telling their stories. Read more →
Here are the topics and guests you’ll hear today if you’re wise enough to listen to MPR News. Read more →
Personality, comedy, and the buttoned-down world of serious public radio were never really friends until Kasell proved you could be both a serious news person and funny. Read more →
This is an extraordinary video from today’s emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines jet in Philadelphia. Read more →
It’s still slow going to get broadcast meteorologists to talk about their views on the science. Read more →
Mark Kennedy was only 20 months into the job when he applied for an opening for president at the University of Central Florida, a job that paid more and wasn’t located in Grand Forks. If you’re going to apply for a job 20 months after getting one in North Dakota, you better get it. Read more →
Things are quiet — too quiet — in the schools of Laporte, Minn., (pop. 114). Read more →
The Cranky Flier — Brett Snyder — today gives the airline his Cranky Jackass Award because it abandoned its customers in another country, and is still trying to talk its way out of responsibility for doing so. Read more →
Because Mother Nature won’t cut us a break, there’s nothing we need more than the warm feeling of love conquering all, especially Mother Nature. Read more →
These are the topics and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
If a kid wants something bad enough, he’ll do just about anything. Seth Holloway really wanted to fly. So he raised chickens and sold eggs. Read more →
Every year we learn something knew about the world of marathons.
This year we learned that runners make pit stops, as Shalane Flanagan did today at the Boston Marathon. Read more →
Washington Capitals right wing Brett Connolly couldn’t possibly have been more clear who he wanted to have the puck he was tossing over the glass: the little girl. Good for him. But the males of the species made sure they got taken care of first. Read more →
Bob Collins