Bob CollinsUnlike Cecil the lion, shot by a Bloomington dentist in Zimbabwe last summer, causing an international uproar, Al the alpaca went pretty quietly. His death, however, deserves at least equal attention in Dassel, Minn. 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 gift of a man’s best friend endures. Read more →
In Houston, student Coby Burren was taken aback by a caption in a chapter on immigration in his geography textbook recently. In a map of the United States it said the Atlantic slave trade brought “millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.” Read more →
The mayor of Edina says taxes are going up in his community because people aren’t buying as much booze at the city’s liquor store. Read more →
It doesn’t cost that much to buy a pot of mums, so why are people stealing them from a grave in Hastings? Read more →
There’s little more tiring than the cliched ‘bet’ between politicians in cities involved in postseason play in sports.
But librarians? That’s an entirely different story. They understand the art of a rivalry.
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Chair Trey Gowdy opened with a blistering attack on Clinton and Democrats, which suggests if nothing else, the hearing will provide plenty of rhetorical entertainment.
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Unless you understand the happiness derived from low expectations, you’re probably not going to like it, Minnesota. But the rest of us? We long to return to the brand of our youth, sip flavored water, eat a cardboard doughnut and proclaim to you that it’s heaven. Read more →
With heavy rain due here on Friday, drone videos might be the only way we’ll see Minnesota’s fall colors shortly.
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An East Grand Forks teacher sent an e-mail criticizing some students in an English as a Second Language (ESL) class for not showing up regularly for class. So the school district suspended him for two weeks? Why? The school district won’t say. Read more →
That’s a wrap. There are no more myths. So Mythbusters will soon be no more, it was announced today. Read more →
Petra Laszlo, the woman who tripped refugees while filming them escaping from custody in Hungary last month, certainly has a knack for public relations. Read more →
Many men have a difficult time recognizing this reality. Why? What threat does recognizing it present?
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Greta Perske of Sartell, Minn., was 15 years old in 2006 when she was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia. She got to dance at her wedding recently with the man whose marrow made a wedding day possible. Read more →
There isn’t a lot of deep thinking in Back to the Future, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to think about, including the deepest: our inability to understand the relativity of time.
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