Bob Collins
The end-of-the-year awards season is usually fairly predictable stuff but the Comedy in Wildlife Photography award is certainly an exception.
We have our winners in the 2017 competition!
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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.
It feels as though former NHL player Scott Young was talking to the hockey factories of Minnesota when he was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame this week in Boston. Read more →
Let’s pause to observe the half-full nature of an ice storm in Minnesota in December.
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The students walking to McNally Smith each day were a constant reminder that people still chase dreams despite the odds and despite the cacophony from the 2017 economy that says those days are over; chase dreams on the side. What kids need are jobs that can support them. Passion is so yesterday. Read more →
Here’s a list of topics and guests you’ll hear on the air today on MPR News. Read more →
Scientists in Ontario want to know who picked up a meteorite that crashed along Highway 61 in Thunder Bay last night.
A loud explosion shook homes around 11 and while police looked around, they didn’t find any evidence of anything unusual until this morning. Read more →
We’re entering the slow news season and as I patrol the internet looking for items of interest, I’m noticing various stories in many states declaring someone a person of the year.
I’ve thought about opening up a competition for such a thing for NewsCut readers but then decided not to bother because we’re too conditioned to think about politicians and people in the news on an ongoing basis and, well, they bore me after a year of coverage. Read more →
Scott Jensen, a Republican state senator from Carver County, might be a fan of the individual mandate, which requires people to carry health insurance.
That’s unusual in one of the state’s reddest districts.
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In the big scheme of things, renaming Lake Calhoun is pretty small potatoes, so the pushback after Hennepin County signed off on restoring the name to Bde Maka Ska is increasingly stunning.
You could call it Joe the Lake and it’ll still be the same lake. Nobody is required to change any corresponding names so it doesn’t really cost nearby businesses a dime. Read more →
Smiley’s stand appears to carry with it a different strategy than that from others similarly accused. He appears ready to tell — and be questioned about — his side of the story from the start. Read more →
Here’s today’s list of topics and guests on MPR News today. Read more →
Matt Johnson, a former captain of the Minnesota Wild, has fallen into ‘a dark place,’ his mother tells TSN, the Canadian sports network. He’s addicted. She and her husband haven’t seen him in a decade. They hear he’s homeless in Santa Monica, Calif. The $6 million he made playing in the NHL is gone.
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This year’s ads are again dominated by firms in the UK. The ads are better and richer there for some reason. Do we Americans not have the ability to imagine that a carrot would take a bullet — the role is played by a pea — for another carrot?
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Because there isn’t a dog story that can’t provide a human pick-me-up when we could use one, that’s why.
So, here’s to Piper of Traverse City, Mich. Read more →
Ayrton Little, 16, Opelousas, La., just kept hitting ‘refresh’ this week, waiting for word on whether he was accepted to Harvard under the university’s early acceptance program. Read more →