Bob CollinsAfter our civilization disappears and the planet eventually recovers and its new inhabitants dig to learn more about the species that once roamed the globe, maybe they’ll find this. 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.
Minnesota native and future football Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald has fulfilled his mother’s dying wish. Read more →
Because of poems like this, Julia Dinsmore inspires people like St. John’s Prep Student Cullin Egge. Read more →
Minnesota is one of two states that requires you to wait once you sign an application for a marriage license. We’re not exactly sure what’s supposed to happen in the five days between the time you ask for permission to be married and the time the state says “OK.” But neither does anyone else, apparently. Read more →
The Metropolitan Airports Commission has now submitted plans for expansion of Lake Elmo Airport, a plan which has drawn the ire of airport neighbors.
MAC wants to relocate and lengthen the airport’s smallest runway, which would require a “safety area” that crosses what is now 30th Street. That would require moving 30th Street. Read more →
The American Bar Association says that only 60 percent of the people who graduated law school in 2015 have jobs in the legal business. That statistic is contained in a New York Times story on the University of Minnesota’s effort to cut the number of admissions to its law school.
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Marlow Cowan has died at 97. He gave us one of the sweetest moments in the history of the Internet.
This one. It happened in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in 2008. Read more →
‘We have no idea why someone would do such a horrible thing, but we couldn’t let these wonderful people who served our country go without their flags,’ said Kenyon police chief Lee Sjolander. Read more →
Here’s a pro tip from Washington Post syndicated political columnist Dana Milbank. Don’t ever declare you’ll eat your words if you’re wrong about something. Read more →
What’s done is done. What’s likely to happen is likely to happen. But we’re still left wondering why the area — and, in particular, its local leaders — didn’t appreciate the value of a local newspaper when they had a chance to make a difference.
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It’s such a shame that Congress couldn’t have passed the legislation allowing women who served as pilots during World War II to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, while Betty Strohfus of Faribault was alive to see it.
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The trial of a Baudette, Minn., woman should give pause to people who donate to grassroots fundraising websites. Read more →
It’s time to hold parents more accountable for the kids who skip school, the St. Cloud Times says in an editorial today.
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Accomplishments have been hard to find so far with the Minnesota Legislature but a law benefiting the estate of Prince is chugging along despite increasing warnings that it’s going too fast and with not enough inspection. Read more →
Companies of more than 50 people would be required to have policies establishing the hours during which employees would not send or answer emails.
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