Bob CollinsMinnesota has the fifth-largest highway system in the country, and its citizens have historically hated the idea of tolls, even though every few years someone wants to study the idea 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.
Howard Husock doesn’t have a lot of friends on the CPB board, especially after his March anti-public media op-ed in the Washington Post, which prompted another CPB member to call him ‘an embarrassment.’ Read more →
The dairy industry in these parts is in rough shape. Milk prices are low and there’s too much of it.
What the industry needs is a little more snootiness. Read more →
The Minnesota State High School League’s John Millea calls our attention to this video from Crookston, where the high school tennis team left for the state tournament. Things like this matters in cities around Minnesota. Read more →
NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep had to defend his network’s choice to interview Iowa Rep. Steve King today. King, who has regularly made racist comments that play well in his blood-red district — where his challenger dropped out of the race last week, citing death threats — is possibly the most extreme of the Read more →
The motorcycle company needed a town to use for a promotion showing how easy it is to learn to ride a motorcycle. The town’s water tower needed a coat of paint. Read more →
‘We wanted to bring something cool to amateur soccer that would bring some attention to what we’re doing,’ a player said. It worked. Read more →
Mike Oblinski, a Phoenix-based photographer and storm chaser, says he doesn’t usually put out any video of his storm-chasing until the season is over. But he made an exception when he was in North Dakota last Friday evening. Read more →
Over the last several years, General Mills’ Cheerios brand has carved out a nice reputation for itself with marketing that stresses, shall we say, more modern-day values.
Advertisements weren’t afraid of multi-cultural families, for example.
Now a new ad, debuting this week, is getting attention for take the theme deeper with rapid-fire multi-culturalism. Read more →
When Harrison Rund was stopped by a Minnesota state trooper in 2014 who searched his trunk and found marijuana, he made a big mistake.
He went home, started drinking, and then went on Twitter. Read more →
It would appear that in at least one Georgia community, the Constitution isn’t highly regarded, so some of the students at a high school are going to provide a lesson plan.
Read more →
Ryan Strnad isn’t limiting his campaign to the Milwaukee stadium; he thinks sports fans everywhere should pay a little more attention to the working stiffs in the stands. Read more →
Cloquet Police Chief Steve Stracek must have done something wrong or he’d probably still have a job. What did he do? Nobody will ever know because state law shields the City Council from revealing the rift between the police chief and his officers.
Read more →
If you happen to be having a lot of indifferent feelings right now about people’s disconnection from each other, follow Officer Tommy Norman. Read more →
Packers cornerback Davon House landed at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport and his connecting flight to Green Bay was canceled. He put a call out to local Packer fans. Read more →