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.
If you had any kind of childhood at all , and you’re over the age of 50, you will — within the next three paragraphs — be thinking about the time your parents left you to your own devices to find your way back home.
You just didn’t know at the time that you were a ‘free range kid.’ Read more →
Bernard Verlhac was buried in France today. He was one of the cartoonists killed in last week’s attack in Paris.
His casket was simple but adorned, perhaps, the only way a casket for a cartoonist should be adorned Read more →
The Affordable Care Act appears to be doing what it was supposed to do, a new report says.
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Are Canadians upset that they won’t be able to shop at Target anymore? Hardly. Read more →
Target is going to write off billions of dollars with the retreat, but it’s not going to be bleeding red ink anymore, either. So what will it do with its money? Read more →
George Ewing, 84, has died, but a lot of people in poor countries are eating because he lived. Read more →
It’s not possible to find a sadder story today than the Star Tribune report on Kendrea Johnson, the 6-year-old girl who was found dead in her foster home in Brooklyn Park. Read more →
Minnesota has one of the least regressive tax structures in the country, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which has released a study of individual state’s tax policies to determine whether middle- and lower-income residents are shouldering more of the burden.
For the record, Minnesota’s tax system isn’t fair. But neither is any other state’s, according to the research. Read more →
People don’t typically root for umpires, but an exception should be made for one because of today’s beautifully written story about baseball umpire John Hirschbeck.
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If you didn’t know history well, you might be tempted to think that as our country ages, the U.S. Constitution gets weaker, not stronger.
The country has gotten comfortable with the notion that freedom can only be won with a gun.
It’s not quite true and the death of Al Bendich reminds us of that. More often that not, it comes from a lawyer who’ll stand up to power. Read more →
The corporate parent of the Mankato Free Press has ordered all reporters and photographers to wear ice cleats in winter weather, Jim Romenesko reports. Read more →
According to a study from the University of North Dakota, 31.7 percent of the men surveyed said they would force a woman to have sexual intercourse. Read more →
The New York Times’ top editor had a groundbreaking acknowledgement last week when his newspaper was criticized for not publishing cartoons from Charlie Hebdo after last week’s attacks in Paris.
Dean Baquet said, basically, there are other places to see the images; you don’t need the New York Times.
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The St. Paul skyway system is blooming with signs warning people to either keep moving or stay out altogether, depending on whatever factors they deem trespassing
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We get what University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler was trying to say today when he appeared to disrespect the students who attend community college. Read more →
Bob Collins