Bob Collins
Republican presidential hopeful Paul Ryan won the public-image campaign at Sunday’s Packers game. 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.
A twentysomething with no kids, no partner, and few adult obligations lost her mom. Then she had to figure out how to grieve like a grown-up, Washingtonian magazine says. Read more →
Last week’s attacks in Paris have clearly sparked a discussion in newsrooms about the line between the freedom of journalists to say whatever they feel the need to say and the responsibility not to offend or harm, at least not unnecessarily.
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Let he (or she) who can easily sing one of the world’s most unsingable songs, without accompaniment, with a 17 degree wind chill, while millions of people watch you on TV cast, the first stone. Read more →
In his column in the Pioneer Press today, Capitol reporter Bill Salisbury, who’s retiring as a full-time political reporter, echoes a familiar theme over the years since ethics rules were tightened in the ’90s.
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The city has lost two private businesses it intended to help create a destination sports complex.
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There are horrible things going on in the world today, and you can read all about it on the rest of the MPR News site and millions of others. We can’t ignore it.
Real life is ugly.
But sometimes we just have to take a deep breath and remind ourselves that this is real life, too.
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There’s an old saying in sports: if a play is working, just keep running it.
The National Football League ran its stadium play again this month in St. Louis and, just as it has in every other city, it’s working perfectly so far Read more →
Is it a crime to stop moving in St. Paul’s skyways? Read more →
You kids and your newfangled indoor hockey rinks have got it swell, but if it ain’t outdoors, it ain’t hockey. Read more →
In the absence of a decent explanation for the firing of University of Minnesota Duluth hockey coach Shannon Miller, the whiff of gender inequity begins to fill the air. Read more →
We have two choices as Minnesotans when it comes to winter: We can either surrender and hide under the covers, or embrace it.
The Bartz boys of New Brighton — Austin, Connor, and Trevor — have been making massive snow sculptures in their front yard (2777 16th Street NW) for the last few years and yesterday they completed the latest one, while showing the rest of us that we’re mostly doing winter wrong.
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The GED, the test that substitutes for a high school diploma, isn’t what it used to be, NPR reported this morning. And for many people, that’s the problem. Read more →
A Spring Grove woman has heard the criticism of fruitcake and says if you don’t want it, she’ll take it. She hasn’t gotten a single one. Read more →
Twin Cities have gotten pretty accustomed to seeing their fair metro at the top of national surveys on health, education, bike riding, and quality of life issues.
But the annual Milken Institute survey of best cities is a bucket of cold water.
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