Bob CollinsHubbard County is zeroing in on the unusual arrangement in which hunting cabin leases on tax-forfeited land have been handed down from generation to generation in exchange for a $300 a year lease fee and a property tax payment. It’s a sweet deal for a few people and the county board is beginning to wonder if it’s fair. 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.
Some time ago, someone asked Nancy Dyson and Jason Jaques, of Sauk Rapids, where they could go to get a shower in the area. They had nothing to offer. So they solved the problem themselves. Read more →
I wanted to tell her she could do better than this, that she clearly deserves better than this. That she’s bright and funny and there are people out there who are bright and funny and somehow life has a way of bringing them together.
‘Highway 7 is just a half mile up the road,’ I said to her as I pointed north.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
For the most part, commencement speakers are a pretty forgettable lot. They might be good for a few laughs but within a few months, they become a trivia question.
Suffice it to say, though, the Morehouse College seniors are not going to forget their commencement speaker. Read more →
Can a state legislator be both a lawmaker and a journalist? The short answer is ‘no.’ That’s also the long answer, but a North Dakota public radio organization and a newspaper in Grand Forks are going to give it a try. Read more →
Allison Birkemeier proves again that teachers are awesome. She came up with the letter writing idea while visiting the retirement home. She said some of her students didn’t know how to write letters. And they’ve never gotten anything in the mail, she told the Omaha World Herald. Read more →
‘Ping Pong’ is the answer to the question humankind can’t stop asking: Who’s a good dog? Read more →
At school tomorrow, they will likely talk about the day they made an airplane fly. I, as you might have guessed, will talk about the parents who entrust their children to the experiences of the world and let them change us forever. Read more →
This is a preview of what’s coming as state’s rush to ban abortion in an attempt to give the Supreme Court the tools to overturn a woman’s current constitutional right. Read more →
Grumpy Cat is dead at 7. A confirmation that being happy leads to a longer life. Or maybe not. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear on MPR News today. Read more →
If you say the word ‘bias’ as applied to journalism, most people will automatically frame it in politics. But a journalist’s piece on Medium this week reveals a bipartisan reality: gender bias.
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The future of southeast Minnesota’s largest media operation has seemed obvious for the last few years: the Rochester Post Bulletin was likely to be a casualty of the newspaper depression. Read more →
You may never see a more frightening video than the one the Minnesota State Patrol has released on its social media platforms, showing the near tragedy in the Zumbrota-Mazeppa school district when a fourth grader was trying to get on to a bus. Read more →