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NewsCut

MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

By Bob Collins

Bob Collins
bcollins@mpr.org • @newscut

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.

People doing good

The niceness of Nokomis

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 7, 2016, 6:37 AM Jan 7, 2016
11

Start your day with your daily dose of sweetness. It comes by way of Adam Belz of Minneapolis who writes on his Facebook page about the real kind of Minnesota Nice — the kind you can find at a local business. Read more →

Sports

Delta picks Seahawks in NFL showdown with Vikings

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 2:51 PM Jan 6, 2016
6

If there was one football game the social media folks at Delta Airlines might’ve taken a pass on, it’s the one between the Seattle Seahawks and the Minnesota Vikings in the NFL playoffs this Sunday. Read more →

Crime and Justice

Judge gives, drops 60-day sentence for using “N word”

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 1:09 PM Jan 6, 2016
6

A judge in Louisville has reversed himself after Adam Satterly apologized for calling him a ‘punk a– ni—er’ on Monday. Read more →

Sports

The wide world of sportsmanship

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 12:02 PM Jan 6, 2016
2

There’s a wide gulf of character in the world of sports.
Read more →

Crime and Justice

Two-minute pat-down over juice box in carry-on

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 10:09 AM Jan 6, 2016
35

Truer words were never spoken than the ones from a Transportation Security Administration officer when a man’s daughter underwent a two-minute pat-down because she had a juice box in her carry on.
Read more →

Crime and Justice · Education

University pulls safe haven for Sandy Hook denier

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 9:54 AM Jan 6, 2016
17

Demanding that Sandy Hook parents prove their children were once alive was just too much even for Florida Atlantic University. The school fired instructor James Tracy last night. Read more →

Weather

Snow shoveling to the beat of a drum

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 9:06 AM Jan 6, 2016
3

We’re not sure this is the most efficient way to shovel snow, but this video from Montreal (which is pretty good at getting rid of the stuff) nonetheless confirms that many of us in flyover country aren’t approaching the task with the kind of enthusiasm we could. Read more →

Crime and Justice

What to do with children who kill?

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 7:45 AM Jan 6, 2016
5

The U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down mandatory life sentences for juveniles has reached one of Minnesota’s most heinous crimes — the 2010 killings of three innocent people at Seward Market.
Read more →

Arts & Culture · Weather

A setback for the Ice Man of Superior

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 6, 2016, 6:43 AM Jan 6, 2016
0

Roger Hanson, the Big Lake, Minn., man who builds giant ice towers, is having a bit of a time in his second season in Superior, Wisc.
Read more →

Crime and Justice

Prosecutor says he was ‘set up’ by ‘Making a Murderer’ filmmakers

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 4:51 PM Jan 5, 2016
6

Few TV documentaries have gripped the nation harder and quicker than Netflix’s “Making a Murderer,” which has raised questions about whether Steven Avery, a Wisconsin man convicted of a 2005 murder of a woman in Manitowoc County, Wisc., was railroaded by prosecutors. Read more →

Education

New protest urged in gun-toting yearbook photo fuss

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 12:48 PM Jan 5, 2016
18

The new year is looking pretty much like the old year in the Fargo school district where this proposed picture in the school yearbook remains an issue for some people. Read more →

Weather

1,000 Words: The ice festival

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 12:16 PM Jan 5, 2016
1

Every year around this time, the Harbin Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival gets is underway in China, which causes the rest of us to wonder whether we’re doing winter right. Read more →

Sports

Video: Stuck in ski gondola, rescued by helicopter

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 9:33 AM Jan 5, 2016
2

This is what it looks like to be rescued from a gondola by a helicopter.

Not shown: the guy who couldn’t put his cell camera down during the rescue.
Read more →

Crime and Justice · Politics

A visit to a gun show

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 8:00 AM Jan 5, 2016
135

It’s likely only coincidence that on the same day, the BBC has aired a visit to an American gun show on the same day President Obama tightens restrictions on gun sales. Read more →

Education

Effort to allow experts to teach fails in ND

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 5, 2016, 7:01 AM Jan 5, 2016
20

Everyone’s got an opinion of teachers but in North Dakota, only one person who wasn’t already a certified teacher wanted to try being one. One. One who wasn’t qualified.
Read more →

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