Bob Collins
An artist’s proposal to build a labyrinth in Delano as part of a public arts project is on hold for now after city leaders raised concern that it has religious overtones. 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.
Ladue is a troubled young man who was charged with plotting a massacre at his high school. How do you go back to a small town after a case like this? You don’t, his father’s GoFundMe effort says. Read more →
Sean Kehren, 22, didn’t do anything to earn the ridicule of the Internet other than be engaged in civic life by, in this case, becoming a delegate from the 8th congressional district to the Democratic National Convention.
He was shown during television coverage last night crying as Bernie Sanders implored his followers to support Hillary Clinton. Read more →
Flying into Oshkosh is pressure-packed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is tens of thousands of people line the runways to watch you land. You don’t want to mess it up.
Not like this pilot did yesterday when landing a 1940s-era A-26 Invader.
Read more →
Where’s the spirit of Kinney, Minnesota when we really need it? Read more →
Just one question for the nation’s history teachers: What exactly are you teaching as history these days?
Read more →
The story of Habibo Haji in today’s Winona Daily News carries with it an ongoing question: Why do some people survive the worst of childhoods and end up thriving, and others with more do not? Read more →
If you’ve got a few hours to kill today, why don’t you drive to Fargo and buy a freeze pop and a glass of lemonade? Read more →
Political conventions are pretty fertile ground for Bad Lip Reading, the satire site that takes the real and makes it unreal. It was a little more challenging, perhaps to take Ted Cruz’s unreal moment in Cleveland and try to make it more unreal. Read more →
In the relatively short time I had to spend with Sgt. Leroy Petry on Monday, he didn’t try to recruit me into the military, he didn’t glorify war, and he didn’t tell me what politician I should vote for to be considered properly ‘patriotic.’ Read more →
The Democratic National Convention hadn’t even started in Philadelphia yet before we got our first entry in the “disrespect for the flag” category. Read more →
Someone smarter than a blogger is going to have to explain how a Jerry Garcia ‘Run for the Roses’ cassette tape ends up in the Minnehaha Creek watershed.
Read more →
We don’t learn a lot about Dorothy Jetta Mueller in the paragraph, but we learn enough.
Read more →
Jareka Bolen decided that she will move in to hospice while she can still make her own decisions, unhook her ventilator and die. But first she wanted to have a big party — a prom, she called it.
Read more →
When the severe storm with 100 mph winds hit Duluth this week, the Algoma Guardian was just starting her trip through the canal when Dennis O’Hara was filming. Read more →