Bob CollinsAn opponent of expanding the runway length at Lake Elmo Airport probably has a point about why the Metropolitan Airports Commission wants to get the project approved now. 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.
Conservative commentator Ben Stein claims the cellphone is responsible for a ‘stall’ in the growth of worker productivity.
Read more →
It rather figures that a whimsical ‘robot’ that captured the delight of motorists around the world couldn’t last two weeks in the United States. Read more →
No, as a matter of fact, we’re not at all above making fun of those high-falutin’ Boston sports fans.
Read more →
A week or so ago, a city official in a Massachusetts community got in big trouble for painting crosswalks where the city had neglected to keep them up.
Here’s hoping Grand Forks has a better view of Jeff Borys contribution to the pedestrian world. Read more →
If there’s something that people won’t stand, it’s the idea that someone else is getting something that they’re not getting — or, occasionally, that other people are getting anything at all. Read more →
Sen. Amy Klobuchar is among several women getting some CBS News admiration today for straightening out the old-boy’s club — the Senate.
Read more →
The family of Coleen Sheran Singer didn’t hold back when it came to her obituary, which appears this week in the Bangor (Maine) Daily News.
She died on Christmas morning; it’s not clear why her obituary didn’t appear until this week. Read more →
We often spotlight the many cross-country trips that people make to draw attention to a greater good. This morning, the leader of one of them is dead because a woman couldn’t wait to see what was on her phone. Read more →
The Washington Post (via NPR) has lifted the curtain on a debate underway within NPR on whether obscenities should be allowed on public radio.
Honk if you thought Nina Totenberg would be one of the NPR reporters most likely to push back against an edict that they be bleeped. Read more →
Here’s a question for motorcycle fans: How much of your love of motorcycles depends on the combustion engine?
Read more →
Well, isn’t this just a fine way to find your business when you show up for work in the morning.
Read more →
Walter Palmer hired a PR professional to help repair his image. It lasted one day. Read more →
There are many regrets I have but none bigger than a flight in the plane I never got a chance to make a couple of weeks ago.
Read more →
A new book says the United States is really 11 different cultures, and until we know which we come from, we’re pretty much wasting our time trying to converse with each other. Read more →