Bob CollinsIn its editorial today, the newspaper gives thanks for the Mall of America’s decision to stay closed on Thanksgiving. That’s a far cry from 2011 when it told retail workers to stop whining. 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.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are familiar with this helicopter, a Hiller FH-100. It had been involved in a June 2006 incident when the pilot reported he heard a ‘bang’ and then a shudder. The tail rotor had separated from the helicopter, the NTSB said. Read more →
Today’s daily dose of bittersweetness comes from Peter DeMarco, a Boston writer whose 34-year-old wife died after an asthma attack. Read more →
Today’s Duluth News Tribune story on the death of Don Pasek, 88, is an additional reminder of what we’ve lost in the chain-store world. Locality and community identities. Pasek was the last remaining independent pharmacist in Duluth when he retired seven years ago. Independent pharmacies have been swept away by the Walgreens, Targets, and CVS’s Read more →
We get it, housing inspectors have a job to do. And, yes, the structures are not built to the code of St. Paul, but shutting down neighborhood haunted houses still has an ‘are you kidding me?’ ring. Read more →
Today’s daily dose of sweetness comes from Derry in Ireland where Alexandra Johnston, 14, is fighting cancer for the second time. While undergoing chemotherapy treatment, she finished off all seasons of Sons of Anarchy in one-month and has developed a bit of a thing for motorcycles. Read more →
Moschino? More like NOschino, at least at Nordstrom. Read more →
In St. Charles, Minn., gateway to Whitewater, there lives a young woman who was raised properly. Read more →
The coach of Red Wing High School’s football team has resigned, just a few days after a GOP politician said his son was punished for his politics.
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It was a shocking moment the other night when someone threw a can of beer at an outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles, just as he was about to make a catch on a deep fly in the wild card play-in game. Read more →
The weather of the last week has reminded me that there’s no good reason to stay in the official NewsCut cubicle, given that in a few months we’ll be paralyzed by flurries. There’s something about fall in Minnesota that gives me journalistic wanderlust. Read more →
Apollo 8 wasn’t a moon-landing mission; it was a test of whether the spacecraft could get there. So Frank Borman never got a chance to do what only 12 humans have ever done: walk on the moon.
Here’s the thing. He didn’t want to. Read more →
A crowd of mostly white, mostly Christian residents of Detroit Lakes wanted nothing to do with an anti-Muslim speaker who disrupted a ‘Meet Your Muslim Neighbors’ night in the city this week. Read more →
For the second time in a week, a college campus is getting a lesson on constitutionally protected speech that many find distasteful.
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Anyone who’s ever raised a teenager can tell you a truism: Teenagers can be really stupid. It comes with the territory.
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