Bob Collins
When President Jimmy Carter gets on an airline flight, he shakes everyone’s hand on the flight. 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’s politicians cannot legitimately be expected to solve serious problems facing the country until they can grasp a concept they should have by now: Nothing good comes from invoking Hitler in your messaging.
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Which would you rather happen: Win the lottery or be the only person on your Delta Airlines flight? Read more →
Infrastructure influences how we think about our own roles in public space, a Washington Post blogger writes. If we want people to behave differently, maybe we should change the infrastructure. Read more →
A lobbying group says curbing part of the legislation that raised the minimum wage would be the ‘Minnesota Nice’ approach. Read more →
We have a new way to evaluate the effectiveness of mass transportation in the nation. Read more →
A mining company employing 1,850 employees at three plants in Minnesota is warning politicians not to help out another company that plans to have 300 employees at a taconite plant. Read more →
A good person has to feel for Linda Bowar of Rochester, who did something about the fact that there are too many kids without appropriate winter gear for Minnesota’s dark months. Or, at least, she tried to do something.
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If you own a hybrid car, the comparatively low price of gasoline is doing a number on your “payback” years. Read more →
Minnesota lawmakers were willing to see the Equal Rights Amendment added to the U.S. Constitution, but they never added it to the state constitution. Read more →
When the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the practice of requiring people suspected of drunk driving to submit to blood testing without a warrant, it left an important question unanswered: What happens to people who were convicted prior to the ruling? Read more →
If you paid attention in science class, you’ve probably already spotted the flaw in the story.
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Can a Minnesota lawmaker be both a legislator and head of a lobbyist organization?
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Nathan Ziegler, the Twin Cities teacher who got plenty of international attention last week for his video of a frozen trampoline, has doubled down. Read more →
Jill and Brian Dejewski have given up life in a two-story home and moved to a trailer park because more than half the people in their community live below the poverty line. Read more →