Because it’s Friday, that’s why. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
bcollins@mpr.org • @newscutBob 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.

Here’s a list of topics and guests on MPR News’ programming today. Read more →
Stacey Elsenpeter, of Andover, got the Ellen DeGeneres treatment in a segment that aired today when the show surprised Elsenpeter, a single mom who participated in a parent-kidney exchange to find a match for her son, Zach, who was born with kidney failure.
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Politics is a tough game and Franken is spilling blood in its water right now. It’s a fair bet that sharks in both parties are moving toward it just in case. Read more →

According to a sign at the Olive Garden, you have to have a driver’s license to enter the restaurant. It refers to a city ordinance that doesn’t exist. Read more →

Luverne’s famed bottle of bourbon is no more. Neither is the famed Glen’s Coffee Clique Last Man Club. The last two living members — World War II veterans — opened the bottle and toasted their dead friends, the Globe of Worthington says. Read more →

It doesn’t take much to be characterized as an “extremist” anymore; you pretty much just have to have a different position on a civic or political issue. Read more →

Here’s a list of topics and guests on MPR News’ programming today. Read more →

Johnny Ortiz is trying to believe what people routinely say. If you want something badly enough, you can achieve it. Now it’s up to everybody to give him the break he’s already earned. Read more →

The description of the process used in the gene therapy is enough to make you proud to walk the same planet as the scientists who have figured out how to do it.
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The Minnesota Supreme Court struck down the conviction of a man who was supposed to register as a predatory offender when he entered Renville County in 2014. Juanel Anthony Mikulak’s defense? He thought he had a week and didn’t know otherwise. Read more →
Perhaps in years past a couple of guys who didn’t think women belonged in the pulpit of a church would be a minor nuisance, but one can hardly blame the parishioners of a Dickinson, N.D., church for quickly throwing them out. Read more →
Judging by the tweets from Papa John’s Pizza, a lot of people boycotted the company after its CEO took exception to the NFL players protest for racial equity. Read more →

Miltona, Minn., (pop. 408) is the latest small town to lose its small grocery store and some people in town are none too happy about it. But the people in town are primarily responsible for the closing. Enough of them decided to shop at the big-box retailers instead. Read more →
School trips to Washington are a rite of passage for America’s school kids. But fear has won out in North Ridgeville, Ohio, where school officials have decided the threat of terrorism is too real to risk the eighth-graders’ lives by showing them the capital of the land of the free.
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