Bob Collins
Quick! Name a ski jumper!
Odds are, you can’t. Ski jumping isn’t a big deal for the masses anymore.
It wasn’t always thus. 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.
Here’s a list of topics and guests on MPR News’ programming today. Read more →
Anyone who has spent any time at all posting to Facebook probably knows the reality of living in a fantasy world. Let’s face it: The images we’re uploading, the status updates we’re making, are only a part of our lives. We don’t generally post the other part, and in so doing, we create the illusion of our perfect lives for the benefit of others. Read more →
Given the November weather and the general state of affairs, the nation has never more needed an online series of Bill Murray visits to minor league baseball stadiums. We’re in luck. Read more →
Actor James Woods has no time for the ideals of the United States as a great melting pot. How else to explain his tweet? Read more →
LeBron James, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, took the subway to his hotel when he and his Cleveland Cavaliers teammates arrived in New York to play the Knicks last night.
Guess who ended up being the star of the video James posted on Twitter? Hint: He doesn’t play basketball.
Read more →
There’s limited information in this Facebook post from the Hopkinton, Mass., Police Department. But we want to know so much more about the scofflaw that thought he — it’s got to be a he — could get away with a license plate made from a pizza box and a Sharpie marker.
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Neither Representatives Dan Schoen nor Tony Cornish have taken the obvious hint from colleagues to go, prompting the Star Tribune to call for the Legislature to begin expulsion proceedings. Read more →
We don’t often hear about television stations going off the air but KCCO, Channel 7 in Alexandria, will fade to black at the end of the year, ending 59 years of broadcasting to the region, the St. Cloud Times reports.
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A list of show topics and guests on MPR News today. Read more →
ere’s your daily dose of bittersweetness.
Sweet because there are police officers who put homeless people up at a motel at their own expensive. Read more →
If you’re the type that wants everyone else to like you, maybe you shouldn’t serve on a jury. Read more →
This looked like your basic NFL touchdown yesterday. A player makes a decent catch, runs it to the end zone and is mobbed by happy teammates. Nice. There was more to the story. A lot more. Read more →
If ISIS can find an army of recruits using the power of social media, United Patriots of Minnesota 3% shouldn’t have much trouble, either. There are plenty of people around itching for a civil war.
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Laura McCallum, MPR’s Managing Editor of Daily News, is one of the 10,000 people volunteering to greet visitors during Super Bowl week this winter. She’ll be documenting her experience periodically on NewsCut.
Here’s her first dispatch. Read more →