Bob Collins
Some days you just need a little video of a dock-jumping dog.
Today, for example. 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.
‘Peter is a maniac, who has turned away from all of us and gone down some insane internet rabbit-hole, and turned into a crazy Nazi,’ Peter Tefft’s nephew tells WDAY. Read more →
There is an undeniable attraction between Donald Trump and the racists who flooded the streets and killed a woman in Charlottesville over the weekend. Read more →
Marvin Strombo is 93 now. It’s been 73 years since he took a Japanese flag from a dead soldier on Saipan. On Friday, Marvin landed in Tokyo, the first step to bring the flag home. There are, apparently, a lot of old men still out there having second thoughts about their souvenirs of war.
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A St. Paul woman’s two-month-old Facebook post is inspiring the Washington Post to examine the attitudes of millennials toward racism. Read more →
The Minnesota Twins threw in the towel on their playoff hopes nearly two weeks ago, trading a starting pitcher it had acquired for a playoff push days earlier, and sending away its All-Star closer. That earned the scorn of local scribes who ridiculed the team for believing it had a chance at the playoffs in the first place. Read more →
An all-staff meeting at Google in the wake of a fired-employee’s memo on women and diversity had to be canceled because of online harassment of employees. Read more →
Bernetta Kouba is hanging it up as a newspaper carrier. She can’t see well anymore and her health isn’t much to write home about.
That’s the way things go when you’re 91.
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Anybody can support the rights of people we like. But it takes a true American patriot to recognize that the rights granted by the Constitution should be argued and defended on behalf of those we despise, too. Read more →
Ever since it became the first state to adopt a voter ID law, Indiana has been the poster child in the debate over whether it’s actually an attempt at voter suppression. Read more →
In Harrisburg, S.D., southeast of Sioux Falls, two years ago, high school student Mason Buhl, then 16, walked into the principal’s office and shot Kevin Lein.
In the 23 months that Buhl has been sitting in jail awaiting trial, Lein has been one of the boy’s biggest advocates.
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It was a good decision nearly two weeks ago when Bob Brott, 55, of Eden Prairie, and his cousin, Gary Soucie, 58, of Fairfield, Neb., realized their boat was taking on water on Lake of the Woods and the bilge pump was blocked.
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There’s a fair amount of theater in matters involving football but University of Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck, a showman of the first order, provided a genuine moment yesterday when he gave a big nod to a kid who’s been showing up for the team and never played a game. Read more →
Major League Baseball will reach peak silliness later this month when it holds ‘Players Weekend’, outfitting its players in silly jerseys with the nicknames of players on the back.
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Erik Paulsen, the Third District congressman who represents the area including the Islamic Center, bombed on Saturday, tweeted his solidarity with members of the community. Read more →