Bob Collins
If you value your medical privacy, try not to get Ebola.
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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 Wisconsin couple is providing a little more clarity on this week’s news that the Catholic Church is moving to be more welcoming to homosexuals. Read more →
Back in the ’90s, the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down the law that allows the state to incarcerate people after they’ve served their prison sentences because they might offend again. The court said it was unconstitutional to place the burden on the men to prove they wouldn’t commit more crimes, shifting the burden to the state.
Ostensibly the men are in the Moose Lake facility for sex offenders for “treatment,” not punishment. But only two have been released over the last 20 years, a fact that more than suggests the court decision of the ’90s really didn’t change anything, and neither has the Legislature, which punted on the recommendations of a task force. Read more →
A Fond du Lac Objibwe school educator tries a different way to motivate kids. Read more →
As Minnesota candidates for governor and senator ducked debates earlier in this campaign season, their partisans echoed the party line: Nothing new ever comes from debates.
Which is news in Florida where viewers in the gubernatorial debate got a great chance to size up the character and quality of their would-be leaders last night. Read more →
Bottom line? It’s all a crapshoot. Read more →
With the exception of a very small handful of teams, Major League Baseball has been notoriously sluggish when it comes to speaking out about bullying, particularly of gay youth. Read more →
The coolest kids in my high school many decades ago were the cross country and track kids. Apparently, nothing has changed. Read more →
After a tragedy last year, students at St. Olaf in Northfield sent flowers to students at Carleton. Now, a tragic death at St. Olaf gave Carleton kids a chance to return the favor. Read more →
Anecdotal evidence suggests there’s been a big increase in panhandling by the side of Twin Cities roadways, usually at off-ramps, and just outside businesses.
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Tom Wrigglesworth, a British comedian, has a slight resemblance to Aaron Rodgers. So he went to Green Bay to learn just how gullible the people of Green Bay are. Read more →
NPR executives ordered staff to stop using the name except when referring to the controversy over it with the Washington Redskins. It’s safe to say that it’s unlike the word would’ve come up in any other context on a network like NPR, but the concession is yet another indication that its continued use is occurring on borrowed time.
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A few weeks into the Ebola crisis, it often appears the Clampetts are in charge of the public health system. Read more →
The popularity of the ice caves last winter Apostle Islands has come at a price — a price. Read more →
Let he (or she) who has never danced with a turnip cast the first stone! Read more →