Bob CollinsThere’ve already been several rainouts and postponements because baseball insists on having northern teams playing at home, while teams in domed stadiums play each other, teams in southern California play each other, and while teams in Texas go on the road. 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.
In the eyes of the law in Wisconsin, a dog has no emotional value.
An Onalaska couple has lost a bid for a larger award for the injuries to their dog, after arguing that the same law that inflates the market value of photographs and heirlooms should apply to family pets too. Read more →
An investigation into government spy planes shows Minneapolis is one of the handful of American cities getting overhead attention. Read more →
Ron Krassin put his quadcopter to good use yesterday, documenting the damage from the fire yesterday that destroyed the Tink Larson ballfield in Waseca. Read more →
Thanks to the migration patterns of previous centuries, people from Sweden aren’t the exotic species in Minnesota that they might be elsewhere.
But I couldn’t ignore the invitation of the Swedish Tourist Association to call a ‘random Swede,’ part of its campaign to get people to know the place. Read more →
An odd thing happened today when someone wore a T-shirt of a sports team featuring a racial caricature. It offended some people. Read more →
When they arrived last night in Kansas City, a few people greeted them, but the family’s sponsors didn’t announce the time of their arrival so even if Kansas City wanted to put on a big display of open arms, Kansas City couldn’t. Read more →
There’s certainly plenty to love in this video about a group of surfers on Lake Superior. The visuals are stunning. More impressive is the revelation that they’re not just chasing waves on a lake.
Read more →
In the category of ‘What’s Your Passion?’ we give you Mike Dennison, 37, of Stoneham, Mass., who invites us to consider the source of our various inspirations. Read more →
You’ve probably seen the occasional person standing on a freeway overpass waving an American flag or carrying a sign and waving at passing motorists. Is that free speech?
Read more →
The grandstand at Tink Larson Field in Waseca, a jewel of youth and town ball in Minnesota, burned to the ground last night. Read more →
One year ago, almost to the day, Clem Schultz of Fairdale, Il., got a great video of the approaching tornado. The one that killed his wife.
Once you see this video, you might be inclined to take tornado warnings more seriously.
Read more →
Each year, artists submit portraits of waterfowl in the wild and one is selected for the stamp, the money from which is used to protect waterfowl habitat.
Now, the Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing that the portraits include other birds that aren’t hunted migratory waterfowl as a way to gin up interests from birders in the stamps.
Read more →
A divided Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday settled the question of whether the state’s courts have any business settling claims of defamation made by church officials while excommunicating parishioners.
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Brittany Stinson, an 18-year-old senior at Concord High School in Wilmington, wants to be a doctor. She also wanted to get into some Ivy League schools.
So, of course, she wrote about her love of Costco, NBC reports. Read more →