Bob CollinsThe Minnesota Court of Appeals has again declared that the law making it a crime to refuse to submit to DUI testing is constitutional. The Court ruled today (pdf) in the case of Tarah Louise Fichtner of Hermantown, who was stopped and arrested in 2013 after she failed two of three field sobriety tests but 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.
Economists haven’t been able to convince cities that there’s no monetary gain in dishing out millions of dollars to wealthy sports teams owners for sports stadiums.
Maybe it’s time for a comedian to take a crack at it. Read more →
Not to worry, Confederate flags fans. There are still plenty of ways to honor racism and segregation and all that ‘history’ and ‘heritage.’
Read more →
There’s no milk carton race anymore in the Minneapolis Aquatennial because — oh, who knows what the Downtown Council was thinking when trimming the sails of the traditional race.
No matter. Chetek, Wis., steps in as the cardboard boat capital of the area. The town, just south of Barron, hosts LibertyFest each July Read more →
The official bee and butterfly garden of NewsCut is doing well this year, with the exception of the fact there are no bees or butterflies this year.
Our enthusiasm at the increase in Monarchs last year was short lived; we haven’t seen one this year. Yet.
Read more →
Donald Gould, who acknowledges being a drunk and an addict, had hoped some Internet attention would allow him to reunite with his son after 15 years. It didn’t end well.
It has.
TV news stations have tried to make the story a warm and fuzzy, but it’s not. Not yet. Read more →
Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum is getting some national press today for being on the ball and catching the late-night Republican shenanigans that sought to undo a ban on the Confederate flag at federal cemeteries. Read more →
The Federal Aviation Administration has announced that it is changing navigation “fix” names that honor Donald Trump. When designing instrument approach “fix” points some years ago, an FAA controller made them Donald-Trump related. Fixes are just coordinates in the sky — points at which a plane has to be in order to be on course Read more →
A Confederate flag was lowered in South Carolina today and a few outcasts will insist history is being forgotten. You know who was actually forgotten? Charles Schroeter, a Medal of Honor recipient for actions in the Union army in October 1869, while serving with Company G, 8th U.S. Cavalry in Arizona Territory. Read more →
We love you so very much, Internet.
In Toronto, authorities were slow to pick up a dead racoon. So people started creating a memorial to it, and created a hashtag on Twitter to honor it.
The rest was online gold. Read more →
Theater-goers, what on earth is wrong with you? You buy tickets to a show, and then you spend part of it on your phone texting.
Who raised you? Read more →
“Our kids were dream kids,” Kathie Kvalvog told the Forum in a heart-wrenching story. “They were better people than we are. They definitely would have benefited the world.” Read more →
Tom Mork has a story to tell, one, he says, replete with ignorance, despair, bewilderment, humor, and hope. He’ll tell it while riding his bike. Read more →
Fox News isn’t really news, a judge in Wisconsin has ruled. Sort of.
The judge in Milwaukee County ruled against Aaron Marjala, a firefighter who was found permanently disabled in 2008. While collecting the disability payments Marjala maintained “an active lifestyle.” Marjala even ran in marathons. Read more →