Bob CollinsIt’s a shameful feeling you might get when you read the story of Brian Johnson and his friends, who are surrounded by old bikes in the woods along the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis. 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.
Souen ‘Posy’ Chheng was put on a flight to Cambodia yesterday, the West Central Tribune reports. He’s never been to Cambodia. He has no family there. He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand after his family fled the killing fields of Cambodia.
He leaves behind the son who was born five days ago, his wife, his mother, two sisters, and a brother living in the Twin Cities.
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After the uproar this week when a player for the Baltimore Orioles reported he was the target of racist epithets at Boston’s Fenway Park, some fans gave Adam Jones a standing ovation the next night.
Heartwarming stuff. Everything cool now?
Nope. You can’t clap racism away. Read more →
This is what it looks like when a cyclist tries to get from one place to another in Minneapolis. Read more →
Nora McInerny, who now hosts the American Public Media podcast, “Terrible, Thanks For Asking” brings us back to an earlier time in the health care debate — when it was more disconnected from the political calculus than it is now. When people didn’t toast the misfortune of the sick. Her Twitter thread today is a good dose of the reality that exists outside the Beltway. Read more →
The latest tale of suffering aboard an airline in the United States today comes from Brian and Brittany Schear of Huntington Beach, California, who were tossed off a Delta flight because they wanted one of their toddlers to sit in a seat they originally purchased for their teenage son, who instead took an earlier flight. Read more →
In Springfield, Mass., Bob Charland, 44, is dying. He’s a mechanic with a neurodegenerative brain disease. Read more →
Guru Mahendra Trivedi claims his remote energy transmissions have the power to heal the sick, grow more crops, cure cancer, and make money for those who receive them, and for $900-$2,000 a month you can receive them, according to his website. He says he’s created 70,000 miracles so far. Read more →
Apparently, the House will have to vote on its revamped health care bill before we can find out what’s in it. Read more →
In 1967, Leo Thorsness’ wingman was shot down over North Vietnam was shot down over North Vietnam. Thorness, flying an F-105, stuck around, according to the citation when his Medal of Honor was presented. He spent six years in a POW camp, then tried to launch a political career in South Dakota.
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The sad part about today’s Facebook posting from Fox 9 morning news host Alix Kendall is that it’s not even the most horrific example of the kind of venom spewed toward TV anchors in this town. Read more →
A week or so after USA Boxing decided it would allow Oakdale boxer Amaiya Zafar to box in a sanctioned bout wearing a hijab, basketball’s governing authority has seen the light, too.
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It doesn’t look like it but there’s some fine airmanship and a little bit of ‘Sully’ Sullenberger in a plane crash in Washington state yesterday. Read more →
Mark Sertich, 95, of Duluth, still plays hockey several times a week against a bunch of kids — firefighters in their 50’s and 60’s. Read more →
It doesn’t erase the stain of its racist reputation, but Boston Red Sox fans did what they could last night to apologize to a black player who was subject to racist taunts the night before. Read more →