Bob Collins
A report today says the Minnesota Timberwolves may soon end up in the hands of out-of-town owners.
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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 Minnesota Department of Revenue has released its annual list of preliminary maximum property tax levies from local governments, which in many cases could lead to higher individual tax bills.
Not surprisingly, considering last week’s local school referenda, the more sizable increases are from the schools. Statewide, it’s about a 7.5 percent increase, with about half of that with the permission of voters in those referenda. Read more →
Meet Florent Groberg. He goes by ‘Flo.’
Flo isn’t from here. He’s an immigrant from France. He didn’t become a U.S. citizen until he was about to graduate high school in 2001.
He has a story to tell. Read more →
In his first years of life, Joshua DeShaney kept getting returned to his abusive father by a Wisconsin county’s child protection system. Again and again, a social worker noted likely child abuse, and again and again the county returned the boy to his father, who had gained custody in a divorce settlement. Read more →
A professor and a student disagreed over whether a test should be canceled in the face of alleged threats to students. Rather than a discussion over the issue, an online campaign began and the professor was forced out. Read more →
Dunkin’ Donuts has parted the coffee and unveiled its Christmas-themed coffee cup, which some say is a rebuke to Starbucks, whose non-religious cup has prevented people from feeding the poor, housing the homeless, and loving their neighbor.
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The word ‘volunteer’ doesn’t begin to convey Virginia Claudon Allen’s service, which took her from helping the most seriously injured fliers at a Florida hospital to rallying morale in Burma as ‘G.I. Jill,’ the antidote to the anti-American messages of Tokyo Rose. Read more →
After watching so much of our architecture destroyed forever in the ’70s for the sake of urban renewal, it’s hard to imagine anyone would entertain the thought that we’d allow a building like this to be shuttered or, worse, to end up as rubble.
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A casket, an empty casket, was found near Friendship, Wis., west of Tomah, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports on its Facebook page. Read more →
Far be it from us to recommend you go listen to another radio station today, but go listen to another radio station today. Read more →
A state senator in Milwaukee is finding that Facebook can be dangerous for a reputation.
Lena Taylor was downtown last night when she snapped this picture of a protest during the debate of Republican presidential candidates. Read more →
On this 75th anniversary of the Armistice Day Blizzard, I’m reposting this 2010 NewsCut post.
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It’s been five months since Chris Ring jumped into Lake Itasca and started swimming. He’s been swimming most every day since. Read more →
It’s Veterans Day, of course, so everyone is saying all the things they should be saying on a day to honor people who served in the military, many of them forced to do so by the threat of prison time if they didn’t.
It’s also a day when we might remind ourselves that are words are empty in the face of reality contained in a recent investigation this week from Colorado Public Radio that didn’t get anywhere near the attention it deserved.
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People plan their grocery shopping excursion to the Cub in Edina to coincide with Ronnie Steffen’s performance after he finishes his. Read more →