Bob CollinsThe Bismarck Tribune says a calf was born on Gerald Skalsky’s farm with the defect. Now the question is whether it was genetic or caused by something else.
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.
Male privilege is the luxury of sitting at a hockey game, having to go to the bathroom, scooting up the stairs and into the men’s room to do what you’ve got to do, and getting back to your seat before the TV timeout is over.
Ask your female friend if that’s how it is for women at the games. Read more →
Rolf Christoffersen had no reason to think he’d ever get a message from his wife, Virginia, again. The former sailor in the Norwegian Navy is 96 now. His wife died six years ago this weekend. Read more →
Alyson Gounden Rock, a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, is a 40-something mom back in the workplace and ready to provide some motherly advice to working moms about to have their first Mother’s Day. Read more →
The New London-Spicer School District provides an alternative lesson plan when parents object to a book being discussed in class. The objecting students leave the room and study somewhere else. This week, two opponents of a Sherman Alexie book say that’s not good enough.
Read more →
Police officer Stephen Mader was talking a man out trying to get police to shoot him. He thought it was working. Then, another officer shot the man, and Mader was fired from his job. Read more →
We can only imagine what the faculty of Bethune-Cookman University was thinking when they stood up as the booing began during Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ speech at commencement today.
But perhaps they were asking themselves if they failed over the last four years or succeeded?
Read more →
Harvard researchers have confirmed what just about any parent of a child with mental health issues can tell you: Getting help is nearly impossible. Minneapolis was one of five cities in the researchers’ study. Read more →
As has been documented in this space numerous times, nobody gets more love at retirement than the nation’s high school music teachers.
The latest example comes from Foxborough, Mass., where Stephen Massey is retiring after 37 years at the school, and 46 years in music education overall.
We say again: The cool kids are in the band Read more →
The people of Delano are going to have to suck it up and accept some welcoming diversity, apparently.
Read more →
The Associated Press today released an incredible investigation into itself, responding to a historian’s claim last year that the news organization ‘ceded influence over the production of its news pictures to Nazi propagandists.’
Read more →
Is the end near for West Duluth’s venerable Memorial Day Parade? Read more →
The move comes primarily on the recommendation of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, who objected to the fact James Comey closed the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails, according to his letter released today.
Obviously, this is a developing story, but it seems like an appropriate time for an open thread for your opinions and analysis. Read more →
The owners of the original cheese curd booth at the Minnesota State Fair are threatening to sue if the fair doesn’t allow the business to remain at the fairgrounds. Read more →
Royce White, Hopkins native and a former Mr. Basketball in Minnesota who was drafted in the first round of the NBA despite revealing mental health issues, flamed out in his chance at basketball stardom in the pro game. He and Kevin McHale, then the boss of the Houston Rockets, never saw eye to eye and White’s anxiety issues kept him out of games. Read more →