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 was a bad case of the Mondays for the production crew of The Weather Channel this morning. They’d set up at the perfect spot to broadcast today’s demolition of the Georgia Dome on its Facebook page.
For forty minutes, the channel provided coverage, until the big moment. Read more →
Bernie Ockuly took a job as a long-haul trucker when he got swept up in a dying economy years ago, and he’s been driving across the country ever since, stopping every now and again for a bit to eat and a word or two with people along the way about why they do what it is they do. Over the weekend, he learned about what it takes to keep the show going in Fairmont. Read more →
What we have in the case of Al Franken now is a test of whether a politician can survive by seeking cover and issuing statements. The Minnesota senator has not done any interviews nor held a press conference to address last week’s allegations of sexual misconduct against him. And now there’s another. Read more →
There is no law in Minnesota that says an employee of the state can’t live half a continent away and work remotely, but Fox 9 says it’s been stymied in an attempt to find out how pervasive the practice is. Read more →
Eliahu Pietruszka, 102, thought he was the only member of his family still alive. He thought the rest had perished in the Nazi extermination camps. He found out recently, however, that his brother had lived, and had a son. Read more →
If you couldn’t do what you love doing, what else would you do?
Hands up if the answer is ‘blowing up stadiums’. Read more →
The cult leader was a waste of good carbon who spread nothing but misery during his 83 years on the planet. It’s unseemly to speak ill of the dead, of course, but Manson is an exception. Read more →
Here’s today’s schedule of topics and guests on MPR News. Read more →
Jill Abramson’s worry assumes that there no people capable of fighting for women who are not guilty of sexual misconduct. Read more →
Bill O’Neill isn’t just anybody; he’s a sitting justice on the Ohio Supreme Court. And he wants to be the governor of the Buckeye State.
And today on Facebook, he made a good argument for why, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations in which people are finally listening to what women have to say, it’s a good time for men to listen more and talk less.
Read more →
Chris Hawkey, a radio talk show host in the Twin Cities, is certainly doing his part to convince people — especially men — to talk about mental illness and depression. Read more →
New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg has given voice to the conflict that supporters of Sen. Al Franken may have in the wake of Thursday’s bombshell. Read more →
Having apologized for a tweet that seemed aimed at the election of two transgender candidates to the Minneapolis City Council, an Alexandria state representative is now saying it had nothing to do with the election.
Read more →
What we have here is the latest lesson in the First Amendment, courtesy of a sheriff in Texas who posted this image on his Facebook page, seeking to identify the driver so he could have a little chat with her. Read more →
A Shakopee man has canceled his annual toy drive in a dispute with the city over the ordinance that bans the metal storage container that’s in his driveway. Read more →
Bob Collins