Bob Collins
Photographer Sean Haffey was in a perfect position to get a shot of Lara Gut, the Swiss skier who fell during her run at the women’s giant slalom at the Olympics. 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.
An exhibit last fall illuminated a racist past at the University of Minnesota, forcing leaders to confront its own history. Now, a student government group is urging a building honoring a segregationist be renamed. Read more →
It comes after Tom Brady threatened to walk from his interview arrangement with WEEI after a host called his daughter “an annoying little pissant” and another host impersonated a Chinese accent when talking about an American- born sports agent of Asian descent who speaks perfect English.
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A cemetery in Worthington won’t be able to cover payroll this month. It’s running out of money because people are living longer and the banks don’t pay much interest anymore. Read more →
Let’s just say parent Mandy Berkhof wasn’t that impressed when she went to a Sioux Falls elementary school on Tuesday to have lunch with her daughter. Read more →
Embracing God and a perverted definition of freedom, we believe that a person should be able to buy a gun intended to kill lots of kids in a hurry, faster than the security guard with a gun that you think is the solution, can put down his doughnut. Read more →
Here are the topics and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Baseball is about fathers and sons over the years and there was no more poignant moment illustrating that than the first game of the American League Divisional Series in 2016 between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. Read more →
In Minnesota, it is illegal to carry a gun while under the influence of alcohol. The literal translation of that word — carry — led to charges being dropped against a man who was stopped by a Maple Grove police officer because he wasn’t carrying the gun; it was in his car’s console. Read more →
Bob Bloomberg’s story is the story of thousands of parents of dead children across the country who didn’t think heroin was targeting their children. He wants to alert anyone else who still doesn’t think it does. Read more →
Murray the tax guy had become a big part of Peter Guthrie’s life over the last dozen years or so. They shared good times, and always laughed over the line on the tax forms that remind us to declare all of our ill-gotten income. Read more →
Here are the topics and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
If people don’t succumb to the temptation to verbalize their first impression — something that never happens on the internet — they might be able to appreciate Aly Raisman’s decision to pose nude in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue.
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One couple is spending $60,000 a year to raise an Olympic figure skater. She’s 11. Read more →
Sting is a good dog.
And there he was last week, on duty at the White Bear Lake Library, waiting for kids to show up to read to him.
Nobody showed up, apparently. Read more →