Bob CollinsGreg Bell, of Sioux Falls now, was a meth dealer when he was busted and sent to federal prison for 11 years.
He survived prison, but he’s finding is biggest challenge has been getting back into the life of his now 12-year-old daughter. 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.
We like to think Batman — Adam West — gave Gotham one last boost last night when he reminded us that there’s more to America than its warring factions.
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Every year around this time, Austin, Minn., gets some national attention because of a dirty pile of snow that refuses to die.
This year, while no different, seems more impressive because it didn’t seem like that snowy of a winter. Read more →
The University of Michigan has announced its offering free tuition to current or future in-state students from families making $65,000 a year or less. That’s about a $60,000 gift over four years. A somewhat similar idea in Minnesota never got out of the gate this year.
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Dennis Schreiber didn’t grow up wanting to be a teacher. He wasn’t drawn to it. He just thought he’d give it a try. There’s a lesson there somewhere. Read more →
The blimp belonged to the Air Sign Company, an aerial advertising company. Read more →
Yesterday, the auctioneer showed up in Arkansaw, Wisc., — near Durand in Pepin County — and by lunch, 62 cows at Patnode Lane Holsteins were gone. Weston and Jenni Patnode were out of business after four generations on the land. Read more →
There are times when we wish the news given to us was fake, but, sadly, today’s blockbuster from the Washington Post is not. Read more →
It’s not hard to figure out why the Minnesota Department of Transportation desecrated a cemetery when working on Minnesota Highway 23? MnDOT says in five years of planning for the replacement of the Mission Creek Bridge in Duluth, there was no part of the process that called for consulting with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Read more →
Marvin Wright, of Southwest Edgecombe High in Pinetops, N.C., showed why he’s the president of his graduating class when he told school administrators through his actions what they could do with the speech they told him to deliver instead of the one he wrote. Read more →
The Owatonna area is one of the first out-state communities to participate in a push to get people to complete advance directives. But only about 10 percent of people have advance directives, guidelines for dying, in their medical files, according to David Albrecht, president of Owatonna Hospital.
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Is there a language that’s too strong to use when condemning white supremacy?
The Southern Baptists thought so this week until yesterday when they formally condemned ‘”every form of racism, including alt-right white supremacy and every form of racial and ethnic hatred as of the devil.’ Read more →
The economy is garbage, except on paper, for many people but Fed Chair Janet Yellen pushed for the rate increase saying the fundamentals of the U.S. economy warrant it. She sees it as a way to keep inflation at bay.
Neel Kashkari sees a different economy, which is interesting because the economy of Minnesota and surrounding states has been better than the rest of the country. Read more →
If it wasn’t for Noah Nathan, we wouldn’t have this video of this morning’s shooting at the Republican softball practice.
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Chris Singleton, the centerfielder for Charleston Southern University batted .276 with four homers this season. Those aren’t exactly eye-popping numbers for an outfielder. But Singleton has other things to focus on, too. He has to care for his younger siblings, Camryn and Caleb, because two years ago tomorrow, Dylan Roof executed their mother, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and eight others in a church in an effort to start a race war. Read more →