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.
You may recall the story in this space a week or so ago about the widow who dropped her wedding and engagement rings in a Salvation Army red kettle in Massachusetts, and the woman who bought them for $21,000 with the goal of returning them to the original owner.
The only thing that needed to happen is locating the woman.
That has now been done and the rings have been returned. Read more →
You want a Christmas miracle? Here’s a Christmas miracle. Read more →
In today’s performance, the role of the Federal Aviation Administration will be played by a kangaroo. Read more →
If there’s once concept that needs to be copied in the news business, it’s StoryCorps, the project which provides a microphone for people to tell their personal stories. It’s based on a truism that gets scant attention in newsrooms: Everybody has a great story to tell. Everyone’s journey is fascinating. Read more →
We submit to you that nobody understands the Christmas spirit the way Keith Richards does.
Read more →
Last weekend’s protest at the Mall of America could make an entire syllabus for a public relations class at any area university. It’s a battle of the messages and it involves people who know what they’re doing.
Read more →
Flip Saunders, the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, shifted attention from his worst-in-the-west (and not by a little) franchise by delivering yet another shot at Love, whom the Wolves will play tomorrow night in Cleveland.
Read more →
Joe Cocker died today. He was 70 years old. As if Boomers needed another reason to feel old as dirt. Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals today awarded a victory to a Bloomington woman, whose home was foreclosed on by CitiMortgage after her now ex-husband took out a mortgage without her knowledge. Read more →
Back in the day, Cuba was pretty well exploited by American corporations, so a comment from an American CEO on CNBC this morning probably isn’t going to go over big on the island. Read more →
Your daily dose of sweetness today comes from the NewsCut ancestral homeland. Read more →
If there was must-viewing in Minnesota over the weekend, Cathy Wurzer’s interview with Bruce Kramer on TPT’s Almanac was it. Read more →
Over the weekend, my wife helped NAMI MN deliver Christmas presents to a few mental health units at area hospitals and dropped this bombshell on me afterwards: At one hospital alone, there were 52 children inpatients. But there is a waiting list of 13 kids who are in mental health crisis. There aren’t enough beds to allow them to receive the help they need. Read more →
The Serial podcast’s first season is over, but its status of cultural icon is complete now that it’s become a skit on Saturday Night Live. Read more →
It’s been quite awhile since we heard from Royce White, the former Mr. Basketball in Minnesota who was the first person drafted into the NBA after publicly acknowledging he suffers from mental illness before wearing out his welcome in Houston.
Read more →
Bob Collins