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.
At the invitation of Starbucks new program to encourage its customers to have a conversation and debate about race, Quartz writers Melvin Backman and Zach Wener-Fligner have a question to start: ‘ What’s the deal with you and predominantly white neighborhoods, Starbucks?’
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Another March day in Minnesota. Another person who had to be rescued from a floating ice flow. Read more →
You’ve got to admire the persistence of Deb Anderson, who was rewarded today with news that a woman killed by a state trooper in 1980 has been identified. Read more →
You can forgive your local Pioneer Press employee for being a little nervous today. The sale of his/her newspaper appears at hand. It’s a buyout firm, which means they’re not that interested in great journalism. Read more →
The Dropkick Murphys played a concert for a bunch of roadies Monday night. Read more →
Starbucks is serving up a conversation about racism while making your coffee. Read more →
The New York Times today chronicles how the financial industry is ignoring laws protecting military members from losing cars and other possessions to lenders. Read more →
In the wake of its story yesterday about resistance to affordable housing in the suburbs, the Star Tribune rightly editorializes today for affordable housing that’s not concentrated in existing areas of poverty.
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The Minnesota Vikings today acknowledged that they’ve been eliminated from consideration to own a new Major League Soccer franchise in Minneapolis, putting the ownership of the Minnesota United team solidly in the driver’s seat for a franchise here.
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Now that Bud Selig is no longer the commissioner of Major League Baseball, Pete Rose might be allowed back. Read more →
On Saturday in Dubai, an eagle set a record for the highest-ever recorded bird flight from a man-made structure — the Burj Khalifa. Read more →
Who’s going to live in the McMansions the parents of millennials are building in the Twin Cities suburbs? Apparently, it won’t be the millennials.
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Before we bid adieu to winter, we tip our hat to the season that allows us to start a week with a paragraph like this in today’s Mankato Free Press about the inaugural Duct Tape Derby at Mt. Kato on Saturday.
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Back in the day when our Vietnam experience made the United States skittish about going to war, this date in 1968 is a big reason why. Read more →
There is no mandatory standard testing for science in Minnesota, and it shows around this time of the year when people insist on ice fishing despite warm temperatures, ignoring not only science, but warnings not to go ice fishing at this time of the year. Read more →
Bob Collins