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.
It’s easy to hate on Martin Shkreli, the smug kid who got rich quick by pricing pharmaceuticals at a ridiculously high price because he bought the rights to them.
Politicians in Washington got a crack at him today. Nobody is going to think ill of politicians trying to beat up a drug thug like Shkreli.
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There’s really not a lot of new information in the Washington Post’s documentation today of the economic tsunami that’s wiping out the Iron Range. But the domestic economic collapse hasn’t gotten anywhere near the attention it deserves, at least from a human scale. Read more →
You’re going to want to sit down for this, Internet. The Prescott, Wis., police department is removing ‘In God We Trust’ from its police cars and they’re not happy about it.
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Today’s must read is the Star Tribune’s almost unbelievable profile of Justin Lang, the Robbinsdale 30-year-old man who went house to house in North Minneapolis yesterday shoveling people out. Read more →
Homs is Syria’s third-largest city. Or, at least it was before it was bombed literally back to the stone age. Read more →
There aren’t a lot of comedians who end up being important teachers in the radio news business, but Bob Elliot, one half of the genius of Bob and Ray is certainly one.
His character, Wally Ballou, winner of over seven international diction awards, was as instructive to young reporters on how not to do live reports as any journalism professor. Read more →
There are plenty of stories out there of people who’ve been priced out of the new Minnesota Vikings stadium, even though they’ve owned season tickets for years.
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NPR is getting some criticism for getting a story right.
Welcome to the world of campaign coverage. Read more →
Like an old, punch-drunk fighter, Minnesota showed it still has got it when it comes to handling blizzards. We weren’t all that sure we still knew how to handle a good blow, what with never getting big snowstorms anymore, but this morning we’re resuming normal routines with a minimum of fuss. Read more →
Totino-Grace Engineering Institute student Jens Rataczak has spent a year preparing to do what he did on Sunday. He sent a weather balloon aloft from the Fridley school with a data logging and tracking system and a GoPro camera, which proved — again — that earth is round, and that sometimes the farther you get away from it, the prettier it looks. Read more →
You’ve probably noticed you’re getting next to nothing for giving your money to your local bank, which in turn, could lend it out and get a higher interest rate than what you’re getting. There’s money in the middle-man business. Read more →
This being Super Bowl week, we welcome back one of the better new traditions of the game — the release of the Bad Lip Reading video of the 2015-16 NFL season. Read more →
At Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Heather Clark met Jordan Drake and her family. Jordan, now 4, has had six surgeries because of a congenital heart defect.
Heather held a stethoscope to Jordan’s chest the other day, and heard her son’s beating heart. Read more →
Fargo North High School’s nightmare is over. Joshua Renville, the kid who wanted to pose with the flag and a gun for his yearbook photo has agreed to drop the gun. Read more →
Give Iowans credit; they don’t much like bullies. Oh, sure, they liked Donald Trump enough to give him a second-place finish but the story out of the caucuses last night isn’t who won so much as who didn’t.
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Bob Collins