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.
Anyone who’s ever covered the DFL knows that it can’t get along. More than a few DFL chairpeople have decided that there are better ways to get the pain of a sharp stick in the eye than trying to herd the diverse interests in the party into a cohesive group with an actual strategy.
Still, it was a touch surprising — and a little entertaining, we’re ashamed to say — to read the blowtorch that long-time Minnesota pol John Gunyou took to the party today in his Star Tribune op-ed. Read more →
It appears suckers are now being born at a greater rate than every minute. Read more →
Why has NFL football become less popular?
Search us. But maybe the fact football fans are insufferable has something to do with it.
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‘Live your life without regret,’ the self-help charlatans advise in their absurd and simplistic way.
Better? Give yourself a break for being a kid.
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In addition to an inability to merge and unwillingness to take the last piece of anything, picking up after their dogs is a stain on the image of Minnesotans.
The kids at Emerson Elementary in Minneapolis have had it with you, Minnesotans. Read more →
He had a war record, looks, was a national hero, had experience, and was still married to his high school sweetheart.
By all accounts, he was the perfect candidate, and just what voters say they want. But voters fib. What they say they want isn’t what they’ll vote for.
The percentage of people making more than their parents dropped to 58 percent by 1992 from 92 percent in 1970. By 2014, it stood at 50.2 percent. Read more →
If you want to understand the true horror of gun violence, talk to a pediatric surgeon like John Densmore, a pediatric surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
Between November 2012 and August 2016 he’s treated 12 gunshot victims. Children. The hospital as a whole has treated 200. Children. Read more →
Cindy Stowell, a science content developer from Austin, Texas, died this week, months after she taped her appearance in August, promising to donate any winnings to cancer research.
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There’s good reason for data privacy laws in Minnesota, though city and school officials around the state have often appeared to use them to hide behind while settling scores, unaccountable to the people. Read more →
We can only imagine what goes through the mind of politicians like Newt Gingrich, who this afternoon, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor, chose to issue an incredibly tone-deaf tweet, even by today’s standards. Read more →
Contrary to what you may have heard, this is not the time of year when people are more likely to take their own lives.
The notion that it is — allegedly due to the holidays and the darkness of winter — is a myth, the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania reports today. But that fact hasn’t stopped it from being repeated. Read more →
We’ve got another escalation in the ‘arm’s race’ of marriage proposals, each needing to be bigger and more spectacular than the last one that went viral. A quiet dinner and a private moment? So yesterday. Read more →
The court ruled in the case of James Yates, of St. Paul, who had coverage from Founders Insurance Company as an Illinois resident when he moved here in 2013. He didn’t know the company wasn’t licensed to sell insurance in Minnesota. He found out two months later when he collided with a car that had spun out of control on a highway ramp in Maplewood. Read more →
There’s a plan in Duluth for stemming the red ink resulting from Minnesota falling out of love with the game of golf: Less golf. Read more →
Bob Collins