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.
Looking at it in hindsight, ABC’s decision to move an episode — Crime and Punishment — of its sitcom, ‘Blackish’, because it was scheduled to run too soon after Adrian Peterson was charged with beating his son in the name of discipline seems misplaced. Read more →
Amtrak couldn’t have hoped for a more sanitized depiction of riding the beleaguered Empire Builder than they got this morning from CBS News as a result of its invitation to give a free ride to two dozen writers in exchange for their prose. Read more →
An Iowa family honors a man killed in a hay field. They went to a baseball game. Read more →
A St. Louis County child protection worker asked a good question when Gov. Dayton’s task force on the child protection system, formed after an investigation by the Star Tribune revealed how kids are falling through the county and state safety net , held a hearing this week.
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As the headline from NBC suggests, the United States — or at least its media — can’t help but pat its northern neighbor on the head, treating it as a civic child. Read more →
It was a tender moment on the ice Wednesday night before the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh hockey game. Read more →
Lost in the tragic shooting in Ottawa today is a blockbuster story that’s gotten little attention: The white police officer who shot and killed an African American man in Ferguson, Missouri, triggering weeks of racial strife, may well have had a good reason. It started with a report early this morning in the St. Louis Read more →
St. Paul Academy has forfeited a playoff football game against Highland because only 14 players are still playing and officials are concerned it will be too big of a mismatch. Read more →
Members of Parliament in Ottawa barricade the door against a person with a gun. Read more →
In a decision a justice calls ‘rare’, the Minnesota Supreme Court today overruled a lower court in Crookston that had let a man convicted of rape avoid prison. Read more →
The Twin Cities provides the backdrop for a music video unveiled this week by the website, Soul Pancake, in which a Tampa singer, Matt Hires, sings to support the local Ronald McDonald House. Read more →
Perhaps there’s another side to the story — the one that’s being told doesn’t make a lot of sense — but an East Grand Forks landlord is declining to say why he’s kicking an Iraq war vet out of an apartment. Read more →
Over in Mosinee, Wisconsin, the 8-year-old brother of a Rhinelander High School player was made honorary team captain for Saturday’s game against Mosinee High School. Read more →
You don’t see a lot of 60-second ads on TV anymore unless it’s really good. This ad, which debuted last night during game one of the World Series and was directed by Spike Lee, is really good.
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Birds are having a tough time this with week with the two area newspapers. Read more →
Bob Collins