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.
Donald Trump’s penchant for communicating via Twitter while ignoring mainstream media is rewriting all the rules.
Take this question, for example. If a president has chosen Twitter to communicate with the people he represents, is it ethical to ‘block’ people from following him and, thus, hearing what he has to say? Read more →
Running a liquor store in rural Minnesota seems like a great way to lose money, especially if it’s the town running the store.
The Minnesota State Auditor has found net profits for municipal liquor stores dropped nearly 9 percent in 2015 compared to the year before, the Rochester Post Bulletin reports.
Read more →
A note from a listener passed my way this week asking MPR to provide more coverage of the Standing Rock protest over the Dakota Access Pipeline and even send a reporter there, arguing we didn’t have one.
We did. Two. And now, three. Read more →
The jury in South Carolina reported today it’s deadlocked in the trial of the police officer who killed Walter Scott.
They deliberated 14 hours over three days and decided they can’t decide whether this constitutes murder. Read more →
There’s some contention from the experts that we may be harmed by the great lie of the season. Read more →
The racist taunts between a school bus driver in Moorhead and his passengers has brought out school-bus drivers in the area willing to tell the story of what the job is like. Read more →
It happened in the city’s Lakeside neighborhood where Martin Running has several pine trees in his yard.
Someone thought, ‘I’ll just saw off the top of one of his trees and save some money’ apparently, because that’s what happened. They cut about 12 feet off, presumably leading police to suspect the thief is someone with a high ceiling. Read more →
Hampshire College is putting the American flag back on the flag pole. The school in western Massachusetts pulled it down three weeks ago after it was set on fire in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. “I’ve received many e-mails, a lot of them extremely unpleasant,” Hampshire College president Jonathan Lash said. You Read more →
It’s a step forward that the Mall of America has hired its first black Santa Claus, but the news today also comes with a question: Is there nobody of color in Minnesota who can be Santa Claus? Read more →
He provided free cake, ice cream, and coffee for the vets and, we suspect, regularly contributed to the booster clubs, and yearbooks and school functions. He gave scholarships to graduating seniors. He sponsored local youth sports teams, and provided all the reasons local residents should shop at a local grocery, even if the prices might be a little cheaper at the big chain at the edge of town. Read more →
There are angels who walk among us, but they are no match for the evil of war. Anas al-Basha could have left Aleppo any time but he stayed behind, trying to maintain a civil society. Al-Basha could make kids laugh. He’s a clown. Now, he’s dead.
The story of Marisa Bocanegra, a mother of five who was killed in a car crash south of Wanamingo on Tuesday, is the very portrayal of life’s unfairness.
She had finally met her birthmother just a few weeks ago, ending decades of searching for the woman who was tricked into giving her up in Colombia. Read more →
The Morris/Benson boy’s hockey team lost last Saturday’s season-opening game to Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato 12-to-0. Sounds bad, until you hear about the Morris/Benson goalie’s Herculean effort. Read more →
A group of 17-year-old students in Australia has illustrated the obscenity of the U.S. pharmaceutical market. The boys created the active ingredient in Daraprim, the anti-parasitic drug used by malaria and Aids patients, which a U.S. company is currently selling here for about $750 a pill. Read more →
The possibility that Major League Baseball owners would lockout players, raising the possibility that baseball would not return in the spring, ended overnight with word that the owners and players have reached a new collective bargaining agreement. Read more →
Bob Collins