Bob CollinsIt’s too early to declare terrestrial radio dead. Nonetheless, these feel like days when we’re watching an old pal in cultural hospice.
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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.
We’ve reached peak absurdity when the authorities show up to shut down outdoor grilling. Read more →
The Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports the files confirm a rumor that McGovern fathered a child as a young man, before he was married in 1943. It’s the sort of thing that long-time FBI director J. Edgar Hoover could hold over a person’s head if he ever intended to run for office. Read more →
Nothing can pep up a little home state pride like a group of bicyclists from the East Coast riding through Minnesota.
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This picture of an African-American officer in South Carolina helping a white supremacist at a rally for the Confederate flag a couple of weeks ago had all kinds of symbolism to it. Read more →
This was the last time we saw “That’s All, Brother”, the Douglas C-47 that led the D-Day invasion in World War II. The company that owned it was about to turn it into a more modern turboprop plane when someone researched its past and found it was the first plane of paratroopers into France. Read more →
The original article points out a troubling trend: People who find data on the Internet, slap up some Google streetview pictures, and never visit the area they’re professing to analyze.
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Sure, baseball’s link to fathers and sons borders on the cliche, thanks primarily to the movie, Field of Dreams.
But a game of catch is still a great way to take a snapshot of the love of a father as this story of a young baseball’s pitcher’s personal catcher proves. Again. Read more →
It would be fascinating to take a look at the new stadium playbook the Minnesota United is using to get a new stadium for its Major League Soccer franchise.
The Pioneer Press’ Andy Greder, for one, has noticed that the United is approaching asking for public help in a different way than any of the big-three sports franchises in town used to extract taxpayer money for a venue.
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‘She liked four letter words as much as she loved her rock garden and trust us she LOVED to weed that garden with us as her helpers, when child labour was legal or so we were told. ‘ Read more →
James Lovell, commander of Apollo 13, left, and Fred Haise, an astronaut on the mission, acknowledge applause at a reunion of the mission in Oshkosh, Wis. At right is flight director Milt Windler. (Photo: Bob Collins/MPR News) America has a love affair with one of its most spectacular failures — the aborted moon mission of Read more →
An accident mars the third day of events at Wisconsin’s AirVenture aviation gathering. Read more →
For one week each year, the airport at Oshkosh, Wis., becomes the busiest airport in the world when the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual AirVenture is underway. Read more →
Stoners are stealing the 420 street signs because it’s a reference to cannabis culture, and April 20 has become an unnamed cannabis holiday.
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To its surprise, a PBS NewsHour crew asked for — and received — permission to attend the funeral of Vonzell Banks, because someone’s got to tell the story, and someone else has to care what’s happening. Read more →