Bob Collins
It’s America’s least-favorite holiday, created by those who favor myth as history. Columbus Day.
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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.
Mark Mooney has made his last post to his blog ‘Closing in on -30-‘ Read more →
Disqus, the service MPR uses for comments on its blogs, reports that a data breach resulted in the user names and passwords in a 2012 database were stolen.
About 17 million users are affected. Read more →
Earl Melchert was working at his home last month when a 15-year-old girl who many figured might be dead, escaped from the men who abducted her and asked him for help.
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St. Cloud police are investigating another incident in which someone sprayed a swastika at North Junior High School. Read more →
Sometimes, we’re a little too myopic when patting ourselves on the back for the system of justice we have in America.
There is theory and, then again, there is reality and the reality is for many people, the system is corrupt. Read more →
Measured by national publicity per capita, Cleveland, Minn., stands alone in America. Read more →
A Hopkins mayoral candidate says his opposition to Southwest Light Rail is because people from ‘Welfareapolis’ will end up with the sons and daughters of Hopkins. Read more →
A commission member urged the full board to oppose any Super Bowl-bound planes landing in Brainerd until the NFL enforces its rule requiring players to stand during the National Anthem. Read more →
Next to spam and robocalls, there’s not much that can rile up consumers more than the questionable operators of websites who buy up event tickets and scalp them.
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Karl Dorfner, of West Allis, Wis., was trying to be a good father when he showed up at his son’s child support hearing. That’s something more than his son, also named Karl, has going for him, apparently. Read more →
Jason Moszer, a Fargo police officer, was just 33 years old when he was shot to death answering a domestic disturbance call in February 2016. He left behind a wife and two children. Read more →
I am told that a member of the MPR News audience called the newsroom today to scold the organization for not indicating that the Minnesota Lynx are the most successful professional franchise in Minnesota sports history.
At least until this time next year, there’s a good reason for that: they’re not.
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she was ready for NPR Morning Edition host David Greene’s obvious question this morning after she outlined her plan for government oversight of part of the Internet. Read more →
It might be easy to dismiss the comments of an NFL quarterback toward a female sportswriter this week. He’s a football player and you know how they are. Locker room talk. Read more →