Bob CollinsThe flotsam and jetsam that flies out of trucks, whose drivers ignore the law requiring their loads be properly secured, peppers drivers with an array of material that could kill them.
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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.
Levi Patterson, the coach of a 9-and-under baseball team in Neosho, Missouri, is going ahead with the gun raffle. He owns a gun store in town and says he came up with the idea before the shooting in Parkland, Florida.
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Here are the topics and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
If the slaughter of children cannot bring a nation together, can anything? Read more →
When Dexter Ojeda’s cancer return to his brain last spring, he had to choose whether to resume the painful treatment that seemed to have eradicated the tumors first discovered when he was seven, prolonging his life by an underdetermined amount of time, or get to work on his bucket list. Read more →
A Michigan woman has sparked an outpouring of checks for the campaigns of members of Congress opposed to any restrictions on firearms after Wednesday’s rampage at a Florida school. Fern Malila, of Ontonagon, Mich., wrote a check to her congressman after he tweeted his reaction to the massacre, sending ‘thoughts and prayers.’ Read more →
Editorial cartoons, despite their name, are plenty serious. With a few strokes of a pen, they can destroy whatever reserve you have left. Read more →
You’ll not read a more incredible journey in an obituary than the one told in the Chicago Sun-Times today about Margot Schlesinger, one of the last living people on Schindler’s list. Read more →
Because we need it, and a little kindness won’t kill us. Read more →
As of today, I’ve written 14,318 NewsCut posts and I can tell you a story about most of them, including my favorite interviews with people that made me thankful I got into this line of work.
If there are afternoons I’ve enjoyed more than August 7, 2013, I can’t think of them. Read more →
Let’s get rid of all the rules that prevent students in school from having their smartphones with them at all times. In the current reality, they’re a lifeline. That much seems obvious after the school shooting in Florida.
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‘The cameras are going to move on, the demands of everyday life will intrude again, classes are going to resume, the seasons are going to change, the sun is going to come up, and all we’ll have are each other.’
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Religion and sports has married in the world of soccer where the faithful fans of Liverpool have created an ‘I’ll be Muslim too’ chant to honor their star player, Mohamed Salah. Read more →
Here are the topics and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Research confirms that mental health and mass shootings are not well linked, but who’s going to check when the wagons are circled and the weaponry of blaming mental illness is drawn? Read more →