Bob CollinsMinneapolis-St. Paul International Airport isn’t the only place where the neighbors are upset about the noise. The Federal Aviation Administration today sent a notice to area pilots to stop flying low over the Lake Elmo area. Over the past few weeks, the Minneapolis Flight Standards District Office has received numerous complaints against low flying aircraft in the 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.
When you have a copyright, child abuse is like Kryptonite.
Read more →
The great Steve Hartman’s piece this week on a teacher in a dirt-poor Texas town, who overcame her own poverty in the Philippines and was almost deported here, forces us to examine why some people “make it” and others don’t. A young student says he’s learned to never give up. “You can do anything you Read more →
The story of a 90-year-old man and his 3-year-old neighbor. Unfortunately, it’s ending Read more →
More often, we hear “it takes too long” among potential Green Line. There’s a good reason for that. It takes too long.
Read more →
After finishing fourth last year, Ville Parviainen and Janette Oksman have reached the top. They won the world championship in wife-carrying in Finland over the weekend. Thirty-six couples from a dozen countries took part. The prize? Oksman’s weight in beer. Meanwhile, in Monona, Wisconsin, Jon Fenrick carried his wife, Angie, 850 feet through an obstacle Read more →
It’s bad enough that a mudslide inundates your home, sending you running for your life. But when you find out your home is gone and insurance won’t give you a dime, it’s an extra punch to the gut. Homeowners insurance generally doesn’t cover flooding nor “acts of God.” It happened to Randy Carlson, who has Read more →
There’s no bigger problem in all of aviation than runway incursions, in which a plane strays onto an active runway. In Barcelona this weekend, an Aerolineas Argentinas plane crossed a runway directly into the path of a landing Russian airliner. It could have been catastrophic. The captain of the jet on the ground likely missed Read more →
Joe Stiglingh, of West Palm Beach, sent his quadcopter and GoPro on a suicide mission in May. But he wanted to see what fireworks look like inside the fireworks that were being fired off in Miami. The equipment survived, he found out, and now his video is tearing up the Internet. It’s being portrayed as Read more →
Like most great performers, Stephen Dragert Gallivan is a shy guy. Put him in a seersucker suit, stick him on a tricycle, and give him ice cream to sell, however, and he’s Wally Wonka. Read more →
A New York student refused to participate in his commencement ceremony unless his twin brother, who has Down syndrome, was allowed to walk on stage with him. Read more →
What’s wrong with this document? An academic in New Jersey says a period after the phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” appears in the official transcript of the Declaration of Independence, but not on the badly faded original that’s on display. Danielle Allen, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, says the Read more →
There’s good money in vitamins and strip joints. Just ask Leland Swanson of Fargo. The Fargo Forum reports that Swanson has recently dropped almost $8 million to buy an apartment at One57 in New York, the 90-story tower for billionaires on New York’s Central Park. Swanson is president of Swanson Health Products, which sells vitamins, Read more →
Louis Zamperini won’t get to be at the premier of the movie about his incredible life. He won’t get to fulfill his appointment as next year’s Rose Bowl parade grand marshall. He died this morning at age 97, more proof that life isn’t fair. He was so impressive as a track and field star at Read more →
No doubt there are plenty of people who couldn’t care any less that a really large airplane — the world’s largest ever built — took off into a beautiful sunset at Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on Wednesday evening. But for thousands of others, the reaction to the four-day stay of the Antonov 225 was Read more →