Bob CollinsFew people seem to show up when most cities and counties hold hearings on tax increases. 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.
‘The people of Congress are not as good people as the people who are first responders.’
With that brick, Jon Stewart showed again last night why his voice has created such a vacuum of moral authority in the national dialogue.
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A blistering essay from the ex-wife of Scott Weiland on Monday was aimed straight at the heart of the music culture, music critics and fans who celebrate their drugged and inebriated heroes.
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In the aftermath of Ferguson and Baltimore and New York, Steve Locke’s encounter with Boston police last week is the way encounters between the police and innocent people should go. Is it? Read more →
After losing a game Saturday night, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Sam Mitchell tried to embarrass a reporter for asking a question everyone who paid for a ticket was asking. Read more →
You’re a college kid caught with drugs. The authorities tell you you’re heading to prison unless you act as an informant. What do you do?
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It dawned on me the other day that I’ve now been in public radio longer than I was ever in commercial radio, which was shocking because I’ll always consider myself a loyal son of the AM band. It remains for me the most pure form of community media that ever existed, at least when it existed in some abundance. Read more →
West Concord, Minn., has a full-time bartender and a part-time librarian.
There’s a message there somewhere. Read more →
It was quite a moment in upstate New York this weekend when ‘The Spirit of St. Louis’ took to the sky. It was a recreation of Charles Lindbergh’s plane, which he flew across the Atlantic in 1927. Read more →
A Navy vet who claims to be the first American to swim the entire length of the Mississippi River is wrong, a Minnesota man insists.
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In his swim to honor the sacrifice of Gold Star families, Chris Ring swam 2,350 miles through 10 states. He’s the first American swimmer to accomplish the feat, and only the second human to do so. Read more →
An airport is once-again ground zero for the fear that’s dominating us. Read more →
The next time you read or hear a story on the state of the news media, think of this picture. It’s a far, far more accurate accounting of it than any research could reveal. Read more →
In the aftermath of the killings in San Bernardino, the nation has retreated to the corners we regularly inhabit. The political fighting that’s underway is exactly the same as what we’d expect. The stories in the media are exactly the stories we’ve come to expect.
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Here’s today’s moment of sweetness.
It comes from Kenyon, Minn., police chief Lee Sjolander’s Facebook page, which we told you about yesterday.
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