Bob Collins
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is about out of fuel and pretty soon, the space agency will lose its ability to maneuver it. It’ll crash into Saturn. But before that happens, it took a last look at a barely visible dot between Saturn’s rings. 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.
It’s not enough to want to volunteer to represent Minnesota as a volunteer during Super Bowl Week. You’ll have to surrender some dignity first. Read more →
Tereasa Payne was supposed to play her piccolo in the orchestra for “The Lion King” on Broadway last night. Instead she flew to Sioux Falls, S.D., because her old band director is retiring. Read more →
Rarely has the lack of whimsy and personality in the Capital City been more obvious than last evening’s display of Prince’s purple Read more →
Shannon Miller, who is openly gay, said her dismissal was discrimination at the the university was wrong to characterize it as a financial decision. But in court documents, the university says portraying the termination as financially motivated was Miller’s idea. Read more →
There’s another indication that the world of sports is getting over its fear of a hijab. Read more →
The Washington Post reports today that, on average, we can get an 8 minute warning of a coming tornado; that’s seven minutes less than 2011. The National Weather Service’s performance goal is at least 13 minutes.
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Raymond Haerry returned home last weekend. He was one of the last survivors of the sinking of the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. Read more →
If you believe that time is so relative that it is whatever we think it is, you can perhaps identify with John Doe, the unnamed person who wants to change his birthdate to April 10, 1976.
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This photo from the New York Times raced around social media yesterday. Why? Because it told a story people wanted to believe and we’re long past the day when news consumers questioned what they want to believe. Read more →
Here’s your daily dose of sweetness:
Kolt Kyler, 9, of Pierceton, Indiana, is apparently a pretty big Chicago Cubs fan and also a pretty good worker on the family farm. Read more →
In 2013, David Riggs was on his scooter near his Oakdale home when he was struck and killed by a driver on Helmo Avenue who was his sending his third text in a little over three blocks. Like many families, Peggy and Craig Riggs have gone public with their grief, hoping to reach people who Read more →
No doubt, giving up the city life and moving to the country roads of Minnesota can seem an idyllic life for a lot of people. And for a lot of people, it is.
For pregnant women, however, living in rural Minnesota comes with significant risks, an article this week on STAT reveals. Read more →
Robert Bryce, a free marketer with the Manhattan Institute, a conservative “think tank” funded by oil interests, has dished out some red meat for the anti-solar crowd today by acknowledging that he’s installed solar panels on his home in Austin, Texas. Read more →
Stillwater Area Schools’ Oak-Land Junior High School posted suicide awareness phone numbers and a few pieces of advice on how to talk about the problem. That’s almost always a sign that a student has died by suicide. Read more →