Bob CollinsWhen it comes to reputation, Canada rules.
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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.
How to stop the chaos of bar closing time in Minneapolis? Maybe it’s music, the Star Tribune says. Read more →
The barn once featured an advertisement for Sugardale wieners but that’s been wiped from the landscape in favor of the ad for Culver’s. Or is it a genuine article of gratitude? Or both? Read more →
What little credibility a claim of anti-American bias against a soldier at a SuperAmerica station still had, evaporated today when the company released the results of its investigation into the allegation, a day after the soldier’s father recanted his original Facebook post. Read more →
The researchers at the University of Texas Austin acknowledge that heavy smoking is still declining, but light smoking is increasing. Read more →
Hard as it is to believe now, it was quite scandalous back in the early ’70s when White House correspondent Dan Rather and President Richard Nixon butted heads over a question at a news conference. Read more →
Pan-O-Prog, the neat Lakeville annual celebration that marks the opening of an industrial park years ago, nearly went off without a hitch this year until 10-month-old Berkley Bailey crossed the finish line in a baby-crawling race and was disqualified.
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Being a cop was a good life for Brooklyn Center police commander Brian Peters. So this week he gave away the money he earned on his last day on the job. Read more →
Not since Jimmy Valvano gave his famous speech at the ESPY awards ceremony years ago has an athlete delivered such a touching address as Cincinnati Bengal Devon Still did last night. Read more →
Do you recall that Star Tribune story about South St. Paul’s Fleming Field being encroached upon by neighbors and the planned removal of two homes to create a safety zone at the end of a northwest-heading runway?
You may also recall a video I made, showing that the southeast-heading runway already had the safety zone.
And, as it turns out, it was a good thing over the weekend. Read more →
When a small airplane loses power, the laws of physic says there’s only one place to go — down. A pilot might only have a few seconds to decide on making the best of a bad situation.
Roads make a good choice, especially if it’s in a sparsely populated area. But the shore of New Jersey isn’t sparsely populated. Read more →
That new stadium going up in Minneapolis is going up for one of the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world, Forbes reports today. Read more →
In Wisconsin, like Minnesota, it’s legal to ride a bicycle while drunk. Should it be?
The Capital Times in Madison asks today whether that’s such a great idea and, somewhat surprisingly, finds plenty of people who think it is. Read more →
(Update to this post here. ) “Ready! Fire! Aim!” is the way things work on social media and this week it took its toll on SuperAmerica when Facebook and Twitter repeated a second-hand allegation without even considering asking the question, “is this true?” It started with a post (since deleted) on Twitter and Facebook from Read more →
In Fargo, the First Amendment is running up against the creepiness of a man taking photos of women and children at city parks. Read more →