Bob CollinsHere’s a question for the muttonhead who stole El Burrito Mercado’s corn roaster over the weekend: What are you going to do with a corn roaster? 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.
If only Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano had developed the way the Twins had hoped, maybe Terry Ryan would still have a job. Read more →
It’s an admirable effort to provide some solid data to what is usually anecdotal complaining that the network is favoring one candidate or another, and it should provide an opportunity for NPR to self-examine whether it’s falling deeper into the trap of horse race coverage.
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We are now about a year away from a total solar eclipse in North America, the first one on American soil since 1991. You’ll have to drive south to experience it, however.
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You’ve probably seen the hot-air balloons flying over the St. Croix River in the early evening and not thought much about it. But you’re not Hannah Manche, 17.
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John Glenn is 95 years old today. He was, you may have heard, the first American to orbit the earth, willingly climbing atop a bomb to go try something no American had tried before. Read more →
We never tire of the police/public safety dispatches from the mean streets of Minnesota’s smaller communities.
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Up until Sunday morning, there was only one B-29 Superfortress still flying in the United States Read more →
Virginia Hasek’s obituary says she died rather than vote for either of the mainstream candidates. Read more →
People who think the justice system doesn’t take the death of pedestrians at the hands of distracted drivers seriously enough have another piece of evidence to support their claim.
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Youth is wasted on the young, and there’s nothing better than being a kid in the summer while the old crumbs go off to work.
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A dispute over an unmowed patch of land has an attorney arguing an ordinance requiring it be clipped is unconstitutional. Read more →
Rosemary Dibbley’s order was the same every day at a doughnut chain. So there was no reason to break the habit just because she died. Read more →
Six years ago, a settlement ended a lawsuit against a brutal and out-of-control Metro Gang Strike Force, that regularly broke down doors, constitutional rights be damned. Some of the victims received payouts with the $3 million settlement. But required police training to change relationships with communities of color never happened. Read more →
It’s hard to see how the perpetrators of yesterday’s attack in France aren’t gleeful that people like Newt Gingrich are giving them exactly what they had hoped for Read more →