Bob CollinsFor Catholics in particular, does the resignation make a difference in how your view the church? 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.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in the case of Patience Paye of Waterloo, who was arrested two years ago by police responding to a domestic violence case. She didn’t want her children to be upset, so she stepped onto her front porch to talk to the authorities. She had been arguing with a man who didn’t want her to drive drunk and wouldn’t give her the keys. She also didn’t have a license. Read more →
For most people, Rachel Dolezal’s race doesn’t matter. But she heads Spokane’s NAACP. She’s also a part-time professor in Eastern Washington University’s Africana Studies Program. Read more →
In Indiana, the First Church of Cannabis will hold its first service the same day Indiana’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act goes into effect. Read more →
Braden Gandee, of Temperance, Mich., was born at 32 weeks with cerebral palsy. He can’t walk.
So his brother, Hunter, carries him on his back. Everywhere. Read more →
There may be no more sacred cow in the United States than the American Red Cross, but it’s got a disaster of its own in the wake of an NPR/ProPublica investigation that showed the Red Cross is challenged to explain where half-a-billion dollars in donations to Haiti earthquake relief went. The charity’s own documents, however, Read more →
We’ve seen tackier uses of American flag references — just see Nikki Tundel’s fine photo series on the subject today (an annual tradition in this space)– than the plan by Major League Baseball to dress up its players in stars and stripes on Flag Day Sunday.
Read more →
Does the right of citizens to carry guns fuel crime or help stop it?
That’s the ongoing debate surrounding so-called concealed carry legislation around the country and it’s not likely to be settled anytime soon because in many states, the law makes it difficult to analyze data. Read more →
Even if the new St. Paul Saints stadium didn’t turn out to be the jewel that it has, it would’ve been addition by subtraction just with the removal of the old Gillette plant, an industrial eyesore. Read more →
Zoey, 7, and Andria Green, 8.
Remember those names. We’ll be hearing from them again what with their early start on crime careers and all. Read more →
At the start of the ‘Oh, your job is easy; you don’t have to work in the summer’ season, it’s a good time to remember that some pretty awesome people have those teaching jobs.
Joan Hochman, a third-grade teacher at Woodbury’s Middleton Elementary School is obviously one of them. Read more →
At the Paris Air Show, pilots make large jets do things they’re capable of doing, but never will once the paying customers get aboard.
But what if they did? Read more →
Did you hear? A person made a mistake on the radio the other day and you won’t believe what happened next!
Actually, nothing happened except the usual amount of bead-clutching by partisans and media writers.
Read more →
It follows testing at Mayo facilities in Arizona and Florida in which it was found that women without nylons don’t affect patient care. Read more →
Whenever I’ve gone off to cover the Minnesota delegation at a Democratic National Convention, there’s always one Democratic member of the state’s congressional delegation I never see, and whose name is never uttered — Rep. Collin Peterson.
A Washington Post analysis today of votes in Congress shows why: No other Democrat in the House votes against his party more than Peterson. Read more →