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.
It’s an old story that the New York Times has done a masterful job telling this week. Boy gets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy loses job and balloons to nearly 600 pounds. Boy hears the Proclaimers’ hit “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” on the radio. Boy decides to bike across America to win girl’s heart back again. Boy gets girl. Maybe. Read more →
The Mills family has confirmed that it’s selling Fleet Farm, the Brainerd-based, rural-focused chain.
It’s economics in 2015. Business is good but in order for it to be better, the family has to sell to deeper pockets. Read more →
Take a ride in a powered parachute around some of the most beautiful country in Minnesota — bluff country. Read more →
You go to a baseball game to see your beloved team in the postseason, and the next thing you know you’re the most hated man in a city and you go into hiding for the next 12 years.
That’s Steve Bartman’s life in one sentence because of what happened in 2003. Read more →
Thomas D. Donnelly, of Geneva, Minn., died on Tuesday. But he was known by a different name — ‘Digger’. He dug graves. He was also Tom Tom the Leprechaun, the mascot of the Minnesota RollerGirls. Read more →
Without question, the highlight of the many years I watched my kids play baseball occurred very early in their youth athletic careers, when a ball hit to shortstop went for an easy single because the shortstop was busy making a sand castle.
Life should always be that sweet. Read more →
The Minnesota Supreme Court today upheld the state’s payday lending law that curbed high-interest, short-term loans to mostly low-income people who can’t stretch a paycheck. Read more →
A 76-year-old man has pretty much given up on life after his house was damaged in a storm and his son was killed on a snowmobile. He now lives in a small camper with no electricity, heat, or running water.
So Angela Nguyen, who delivers pizzas, stepped in. Read more →
This video from Duluth that’s been circulating for a few days ought to play right into the debate over the privacy concerns of police body camera video, but for some reason it’s not.
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Rev. Steve Berntson, a pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in north Fargo, has quit his job to protest a Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage.
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In the big scheme of things, a debate over whether Renoir was any good isn’t any different than a sportsradio talk show brawl over whether Pete Rose should be in the baseball Hall of Fame, but in the world of fine art, god help you if you question the wisdom of art historians and critics. Read more →
The City Council in Red Wing has passed a resolution calling for a change in federal law that would include hurting a police officer as a hate crime, WCCO reports.
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Fall in Minnesota is like a good dog. It’s unfair that it doesn’t live longer. Read more →
Max Geller has a sense of humor, but he also thinks Renoir is a lousy painter.
So he combined his two passions yesterday in an ironic protest outside Boston’s famed Museum of Fine Arts, protesting that a Renoir or two graces its galleries. Read more →
Bob Collins
Bob Dylan, TV pitchman