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.
Daniel Ashley Pierce, 19, made $93,000 in the last few weeks by getting thrown out of his home by his mother. He’s gay. The Georgia teenager posted a YouTube video late last month of his mother telling him to “get out” earlier this week on GoFundMe, in order to raise money for living expenses. (Obscenities Read more →
Though we are often powerless to prevent that which we can’t see coming, we have full control over how we respond to it. Read more →
It’s probably just as well that the book reviewer for The Economist didn’t sign the review in this week’s edition of Cornell professor Edward Baptist’s book, “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.” The magazine has never believed in bylines. The unsigning writer makes a case, apparently, that slavery Read more →
I saw a couple of tweets over the weekend from some male funny people who couldn’t understand why Joan Rivers, who died today, was getting Twitter love as she lay in a coma. Sure, she was a funny person and all, but her act was “mean.” Maybe. Maybe not. Comedy is subjective. Humanity shouldn’t be. Read more →
Decades later, Douglas Ward was awarded the French Legion of Honor, the highest medal of honor from the French government, for his service during World War II. Read more →
In today’s show, the part of the Federal Aviation Administration is being played by a ram, which got its name for a good reason. The part of the intrusive and inconsiderate quadcopter operator is being played by an intrusive and inconsiderate quadcopter operator. Related: College student arrested for flying drone over football game (The Hill).
It’s 2014 — well past the time when the homo sapiens should be able to master the not-really-that-hard concept of recycling.
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On a scale of 9 to 10, how would you rate the Minnesota Twins, who are about to turn in their fourth consecutive 90-loss season? The little franchise that couldn’t is getting poked today for a survey it sent to ticket-buyers. ESPN’s Keith Olbermann last night awarded the Twins marketing department its gold medal in Read more →
Fire has claimed two of the four restaurants in Dorset, Minn., a hamlet in north central Minnesota hamlet that bills itself as the restaurant capital of the world. Read more →
OK, Millennials. We’ll bite. What have you got against leaving voicemails? Read more →
The Rochester Post-Bulletin says it will not be joining a movement by some newspapers to stop using the word “Redskins” when writing stories about Washington’s NFL team. Read more →
This should settle the debate, but it probably won’t. The St. Paul city attorney says the seats in the First National Bank building are public, not private property, the Pioneer Press reports today. That much should be obvious, given that nearly nine months after an African American man got in trouble for sitting in them, Read more →
A police scandal makes people in even the smallest town head for their corners and then come out swinging.
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You probably don’t have to wonder whether your local Home Depot store was one of the ones where credit card information was stolen by, presumably, Russian hackers. It was, Brian Krebs, the online security expert says. Read more →
If there is one likely loser in this campaign season, it’s the political debate, the traditional chance for interested voters to size up two (or more) candidates at the same time. Sen. Al Franken, the DFL incumbent, refused to participate in the traditional State Fair debate sponsored by MPR. And today, Minnesota Daily reports he’s Read more →
Bob Collins