Bob CollinsIt was a pretty good week to be a member of the Grand Rapids, Minn., police department. When they pulled people over, they got hugs for a change.
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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.
The biggest question in Minneapolis politics these days is ‘What didn’t the Minneapolis School Board know and when didn’t it know it?’
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We are required by law, apparently, to throw some Star Wars content at you.
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Ryan Clancy got a lovely note from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in the mail today. Clancy’s business, Bounce Milwaukee, received a ‘best places to work’ award from a business publication. Read more →
It’s not this picture that has gotten Larycia Alaine Hawkins in trouble with her employer, Wheaton College in Illinois. The private liberal arts school insists it has no opinion on the hijab she’s wearing to show her solidarity with people of other faiths.
Rather, it’s these words she wrote on Facebook that the evangelical Christian school has a problem with. Read more →
The latest is the widely-reported assertion that Tashfeen Malik talked openly on social media about violent jihad. That’s led to criticism that the U.S. intelligence services failed to pick up even the most public warnings that she and her husband were a threat. Read more →
Ouch. How badly do you want to see Adele when she kicks off her tour this summer in St. Paul? On StubHub this morning, asking prices were starting at about $550 and running to $9,000. Each. Read more →
True, in the eyes of the law, Martin Shkreli is still an innocent man.
But still, $750 was the price of our sympathy.
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We pause today to salute ex-Tonka Toys executive Lloyd Laumann, who died recently at 78. He is survived by millions of old men with happy memories of growing up with yellow cranes, trucks and bulldozers. Read more →
If you listen closely, perhaps you can hear the beginning of significant pushback by sports fans against the local sports teams which are making it costlier to buy their product. Read more →
The tension in the early part of the interview today comes from a theme that runs through his tremendous book. That setting your ideals and values aside — or even turning your back on them — is just the way politics is. And, besides, once you’re in office, you can walk things back and apply your ideals and values.
To do otherwise seems simple enough, but that’s also naive.
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Photographer Arthur Nazaryan documents life in this photo essay. Read more →
At St. Cloud State University, the athletic department needs a shot in the arm, so the hockey program will turn to a tried and true method to boost Minnesotans’ interest: beer. Read more →
On its 2,000 mile length, the Mississippi River has only one live theater, at least it did until Grand Rapids fell out of love with the Grand Rapids Showboat. The city is swapping land with the Blandin Paper Company so the showboat lost its lease at Syndicate Park.
But you know how theater people are.
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We might well find out one of these days whether Facebook can force the U.S. to do something it doesn’t want to do: Let a refugee into the country it doesn’t think should be allowed in. Read more →