Bob Collins
We haven’t heard much about the ebola outbreak since the polls closed on Election Day in the United States, but today the last ebola patient left a hospital in Liberia. 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.
America hates kids. How else to explain the insistence that kids — or anybody else — not slide down Capitol Hill on those rare occasions when it snows in the District of Columbia? Read more →
Had the jet not hit the berm at the end of the runway, it would’ve ended up in Long Island Sound. Read more →
I was greeted by another reminder that the new St. Paul Saints ballpark might be one of the few publicly financed sports projects that actually makes a difference in a city. Read more →
A second-year Girl Scout in Rochester, N.Y., has forced the national organization to respond to her complaints that workers in a Louisville plant where Girl Scout cookies are made are treated ‘terribly.’
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Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, came up with the idea that would have required the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to create a $5,000 account for each newborn of state residents, the Fargo Forum reports. The money could be used later in life to attend a state college, start a business, farm or buy a house, or pay for nursing home care.
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Those Minnesotan ice-dam specialists who rode to the rescue in Massachusetts are getting some Bostonian love today. Read more →
Finding critics of MNsure, the state health exchange, isn’t hard. But when Tom Forsythe says it’s time to bury the current version of the troubled operation, he commands some attention; he’s on the MNsure board of directors. Read more →
Even if we didn’t enjoy reading legal briefs and court decisions, we’d probably be able to curl up with Portland, Oregon resident Kathleen Hampton’s lawsuit against a restaurant.
Her brief — she’s representing herself — is seeking $100,000 because the restaurant was mean to her. Read more →
You had to know there was a great story behind these tweets yesterday from Star Tribune reporter Libor Jany of basketball-playing Prince. Read more →
The NTSB said the pilot likely lost control after its canopy opened in flight, but it says it cannot determine whether wake turbulence from a jet landing at St. Cloud airport had anything to do with the crash. Read more →
Paul Magers, the former anchor of KARE 11 who ruled Twin Cities local TV while he was here, has made his national debut. Sort of. Read more →
Cooler heads have prevailed near Los Angeles where a high school girl’s basketball team was disqualified from the playoffs because they wore uniforms to call attention to breast cancer. Read more →
Farmers in the path of the enormous CapX2020 electric transmission line project have won a victory at the Minnesota Supreme Court against utility companies involved in the project. Read more →
If there’s a fight over farming and freedom, it probably involves milk. Read more →