Bob Collins
The White House Correspondents Dinner is the traditional venue for a president to try out his comedic chops, sometimes to limited results.
Today, however, President Obama is getting decent reviews for his performance. Which is a switch. 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.
You know what word every parent wants to hear one time before they die? ‘Thanks.’
Brian Peterson of Nebraska, a Massachusetts native, got his wish on Monday from his three daughters, whom he raised after his wife — their mom, of course — died from cervical cancer. Read more →
The Washington Post reports today that a recent study from a credit card company revealed that the average prom costs $919 a couple, with $324 going toward the ‘promposal.’ Read more →
How much should the person at the front of your airplane be making? Read more →
One of these days I’m going to spend summer nights in Minnesota communities where town ball is still a thing, I often say to myself at roughly this time every year. Maybe I better hurry up. Read more →
Norm Coleman recommended that a task force study why people become terrorists, hardly an innovative idea.
Here’s one: Stop writing offensive headlines when framing the issue. Read more →
It’s very nearly drive-in movie season again, another opportunity to reflect on what we’ve lost.
Read more →
Charles Gladden is 63. He makes $11 an hour keeping the marble of the Capitol clean, and he takes home about $360 a week. And by ‘home’ he means the subway station. Read more →
Maybe high school is getting to be a less mean place. Read more →
Mary Doyle Keefe of Simsbury, Conn., has died. She was 92. Read more →
In Shakopee last weekend, Mackenzie Moretter turned 10, and it looked as though nobody invited to her party would show up. Nobody that was invited RSVP’d, so her mother, Jenny Moretter, posted a message on Facebook sites for the Shakopee community. Read more →
If every major sport were on a sinking ship and I could save just one, I think I’d opt for hockey. Read more →
That which threatens to kill us can sure be beautiful.
This is video sweeping the Intertubes today, said to be yesterday’s eruption of the Calbuco volcano in Chile. Read more →
Sen. Amy Klobuchar had an answer ready for local journalists who asked her this week about the fiasco in a human trafficking bill that held up the confirmation of attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch because of an abortion provision.
Read more →
Raise your hand if you thought it would be soccer that would unite Republicans and DFLers in the state? The proposal for an 18,000 seat soccer stadium in downtown Minneapolis, with most of the bill footed by Minnesota United, has been mostly panned because the ownership group wants some tax breaks in the deal. Soccer, Read more →