Bob Collins
Stick a fork in the Labor Day telethon for Muscular Dystrophy. 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.
A Madison, Wisc., family can no longer stay in their home because of death threats, and it’s a local TV station’s fault.
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There’s really no good reason to require bicyclists to stop at stop signs. It’s possible to see and hear intersecting traffic earlier on a bike than it is in a car, which is the primary reason cars are required to stop — to give the driver a proper amount of time to assess the traffic situation.
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If you pay any attention at all to the ongoing debate over whether women should be getting mammograms (and, if so, when) , there’s a pretty fair chance you’re confused. This week, NPR reported that several politicians are again pushing to override guidance from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that six years ago said Read more →
Since December, nine people between 12 and 24 have taken their own lives. Many more have tried, but failed.
There are only six mental health counselors on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, which is the size of Rhode Island and Delaware. Read more →
Sports talk radio host Jeff Dubay has been alternately an inspiration and a reminder of the insidiousness of drug use in his recovery from a cocaine addiction that cost him his career and his freedom years ago. Read more →
We can live without Jon Stewart’s comedy when he gives up his gig on The Daily Show later this year. But his astounding grilling of New York Times reporter Judith Miller last night was a reminder that we’ll be hard-pressed to replace his journalistic chops when it comes to interviewing, or — more accurately — his refusal to be a megaphone for newsmakers peddling garbage. Read more →
Remember when your kids were young and you’d let them win at games?
Eventually they grow up and at some point you realize, they’re doing the same thing for you — letting you win. Read more →
Cyndi Lauper was at the Capitol in Washington today, testifying to a subcommittee about youth homelessness. I know what you’re thinking: Another Hollywood or pop star trying to trade stardom for some political traction, and, it’s true, she’s doing that. But her story is an amazing one, especially if we can set aside politics long Read more →
This is the scene in Baltimore at this hour, just prior to the start of today’s baseball game.
The fans are there — some of them, anyway, but they can’t get in. Read more →
Learning gaps widened between male and female students in the latest Nation’s Report Card on history, civics, and geography. Read more →
More high school dance team coaches have been disciplined for their part in a demonstration against the Faribault girls who won the state high school tournament in February with a routine the coaches said was cribbed from a Colorado school. Read more →
Hands down, the hardest part of parenting — aside from teenagers — is how quickly people will judge your parenting, as if parents don’t already judge themselves enough.
Take the woman who tried to slap some sense into her son at the riots in Baltimore, and has gotten plenty of national attention for it.
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The signs of danger aren’t hard to miss. But people ignore them and an incident yesterday afternoon is yet another reminder of what can happen.
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There are only a few weeks left in the Minnesota legislative session, and this would be a good time to ask a question: Is eliminating health care for working Minnesotans worth shutting down state government? Read more →