Bob CollinsThis wasn’t an easy week to win the Internet, but the Minnesota United FC came pretty close with its reaction to Wednesday’s gaffe in which United keeper Sammy Ndjock threw the ball into his own goal. 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 best obituary for Allen Seletsky, of Boston, is the closed storefront that sits on a prime piece of land in the city that would bring a fortune to a corporation that would lease it if it could. Read more →
It turns out we didn’t see the end of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s political career after his conviction and prison term on felony charges. Read more →
Is life in America as horrible as Donald Trump painted during last night’s speech? It all depends on whether you like Donald Trump. It always does with presidential campaign messages. Read more →
With the second day of a heat wave about to percolate Minnesota, we feel a need to dip in early to the ‘Because it’s Friday, that’s why’ file for a little backdrop for some ‘where can I get away from all of you’ daydreaming. Read more →
People who wanted WNBA players to just shut up and play basketball have gotten their wish. Sort of.
At least two teams are vowing to stop talking. About basketball.
Read more →
The former Bloomington city attorney, who had refused to back down from prosecuting members of Black Lives Matter for their occupation of the Mall of America in December 2014, is now pushing back against some critics of the group’s positions. Read more →
We come here today to bury the VCR and to announce the breaking news that VCRs are still being manufactured.
But only for another 10 days. Read more →
As he plays his last series against his old team, David Ortiz pens a letter to Minnesota. Read more →
Long before we become old Minnesotans complaining about the cold in January and the heat in July, we’re kids who find the weather wondrous. Read more →
Let he who has not thrown the soccer ball into his own goal cast the first stone! Read more →
Charles Kinsey was in the street to retrieve an autistic man who’d wandered away from the center where he lives. Read more →
There seems to be plenty of irony to go around in the WNBA’s decision to fine players $500 and the three teams on which they play $5,000 for wearing unapproved team attire.
The league fined the New York, Indiana, and Phoenix teams for wearing shirts that, technically, didn’t say anything, but were a statement in the wake of police shootings and shootings of police. Read more →
The number of 7-12 year olds experiencing moderate to “serious psychological distress” -— symptoms of depression and anxiety — over the last month has jumped from 24 percent to 34 from 2013 to 2015. Read more →
NPR ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen says the radio audience hasn’t been ‘well served’ yet by the partnership between NPR and PBS during coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Read more →