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.
Jesse Sparks, of Cambridge, Mass., could have done what a lot of college football players might do when the football program at their school was dropped: go somewhere else.
But Sparks stayed at Northeastern University, which agreed to honor his scholarship even without a football program. He wanted an education. Read more →
If you’ve worked in the cubicle farms of America long enough, you’re probably familiar with the typical memos that come out at firing and layoff time, dripping with passive aggressive, but nothing you can pin the writer down on.
That’s the way the news release went from the Minnesota Timberwolves late Friday announcing they’ve traded Ricky Rubio. Read more →
he American workplace war on your private time has developed a new weapon, the
Boston Globe reports today — the workation. Read more →
The National Rifle Association’s latest ad — burning up the internet today — is a bit of a jaw dropper.
Read more →
The U.S. Department of Justice today has given up the latest attempt to try to force the team to drop the name.
Read more →
Let’s go over proper etiquette at the concert.
You don’t clap between movements.
You do clap when a dog walks on stage and takes up residence with the concertmaster. Read more →
From time to time in this space we take special note of the people who stop to help others. But sometimes, it’s better just to keep on walking or driving. Read more →
There’s been a really great hashtag campaign on Twitter this week (#WeMakeNPR) as the people who work at NPR tweet about what they do and how it is they came to do it. For many people, radio is a voice, but the reality is the heart and soul of a radio network and radio station Read more →
In Viroqua, Wis., a woman who rescues abused horses is the latest victim of the unstoppable need of social media to shame someone, facts be damned. Read more →
John Tumpane, a Major League Baseball umpire, could’ve kept walking yesterday when he saw a woman climb over a railing on the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon.
Read more →
Mike Schmidt, a 36-year veteran of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, represented the Minnesota culture well last evening when he considered then answered MPR host Mike Mulcahy’s question about being stuck atop the Stillwater Lift Bridge on Tuesday when its electrical system shorted out. Read more →
For the most part, earthlings have been listening for signs of life from another system rather than sending out signals to let someone else ‘out there’ know we’re here. That, apparently is about to change because SETI Institute scientist Douglas Vakoch, is planning an ongoing series of messages to begin in 2018. Not everyone is convinced that’s a good idea. Read more →
You punch out of work early because the weather isn’t good, and you break your hip when you fall on an icy sidewalk at a garage your employer owns four blocks from where you were working. Are you entitled to workers compensation benefits? Read more →
Not that we needed more evidence of the polarized politics of America, but Pew Research reveals today that Democrats and Republicans can’t even agree on whether it should be easy to vote. Read more →
If there has to be a stuck-up bridge, isn’t Stillwater the perfect place for it? Read more →
Bob Collins