Bob Collins
Dodgeball is the sort of sport that can leave the typical scars that high school has a way of leaving.
In Wisconsin, it can also lead to a criminal record.
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.
What have you got against spelling, Twin Cities?
In an op-ed commentary in the Star Tribune today, spelling bee coordinator Kelly Maynard notes that no sponsor has emerged to sponsor school kids in the regional portion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Read more →
Today, Sen. Bernie Sanders printed out a tweet — you can get them on your computer now — and went to the floor of the U.S. Senate where he put it on an easel, so it would show up on television.
This, no doubt, all seemed perfectly normal to the U.S. Senate. Read more →
Like everyone else in the Twin Cities, we have been entertained by the video of outtakes during a commercial filming for White Bear Mitsubishi.
There’s nothing better than seeing slapstick from mascots. Read more →
For a few minutes this afternoon, I had posted a story about a family experiencing a health crisis and fundraising efforts to help solve a financial burden. I have removed it, however, to pursue additional information that will lead to a more detailed story. In the meantime, here’s the latest on the political side of Read more →
What is masculinity?
Those are fighting words in Madison, where a lawmaker alleges a six-week campus program asking the question amounts to a ‘war on men.’ Read more →
When Frederick C. Sylvia, Jr, of Achusnet, Mass., died five years ago next month, an honor guard played taps and presented an American flag to his family, a fitting tribute to a man who fought with Gen. Patton in World War II.
But his son couldn’t stop thinking about the medals — especially the Victory Medal — that he’d promised his dad he’d be buried with. He didn’t have the heart to tell him in his dad’s last days that they’d been stolen. Read more →
If you want to feel like a slacker then proceed through the link to Boyd Huppert’s story on Danny Pham, who not only believes in making new year resolutions, but keeping them.
Read more →
The firing of University of Minnesota football coach Tracy Claeys reinforces a good piece of advice: Be careful what you tweet. And don’t thumb your noses at the people who sign your paycheck.
Claeys was a success on the field and really bad at social media off it. Read more →
It hasn’t been much of a winter, which makes this year’s Bartz Brothers spectacular in New Brighton all the more… spectacular. Read more →
Lost in all the back-patting and credit-grabbing in today’s announcement that Ford will not ship some car production to Mexico is this nugget: Gasoline-powered cars are not far from being eclipsed by electric ones. Read more →
Hell, Mich., is for sale and apparently nobody wants it. Read more →
In his sobering message for the new year, the great nature photographer Jim Brandenburg says he hasn’t heard a wolf howl or been able to take a photograph of a wolf since hunting was allowed in 2013 (a federal court stopped the practice in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota). Read more →
Donald Trump was at it again with a sunrise tweet aimed at General Motors.
Read more →
I didn’t move to Minnesota early enough to hear Johnny Canton play platters that matter, but every city had someone like him on the radio back in the day. Read more →