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.
It’s a pretty slow time of the year for news so the chances are good you’re going to hear or read a story about rising gas prices over the July 4th holiday. Why, look! Here’s one now! “Travelers to pay highest holiday gasoline prices in 6 years,” says Bring Me The News, citing a report Read more →
I’m sitting down as I write this. As with every other morning on NewsCut, I’ve been sitting in the same spot — my couch — for nearly six hours. According to studies, I’ve lost two hours off my life, just today. And I don’t care; I’ve enjoyed the sitting and as I enter the last Read more →
It’s a big win for retailers who were afraid that if the Supreme Court had upheld the Court of Appeals approval of a consumer fraud suit they would be required to reveal their profit margins. Read more →
The initial flood damage tally for last month’s water world in Minnesota has been pegged at $32 million. How does that compare to past disasters? Read more →
In Rochester, sitting with a sign that says you need money? That’s protected speech. But blocking someone’s path or touching someone to ask for money isn’t.
Read more →
The Minneapolis man, pulled to safety by the superhuman strength of a Woodbury man, got a chance to meet each other again.
Read more →
North Dakota coffee shop operates on the honor system. Read more →
If the day’s news is enough to make you question the decency and sanity of humans, then the Carnegie Foundation couldn’t have picked a better day to release its list of Carnegie Heroes. Read more →
People lost their homes. Taxpayers lost millions covering the loans. U.S. Bank lost some petty cash and didn’t admit it did anything wrong. That’s the problem.
Read more →
It was fairly frightening watching Serena Williams trying to play tennis today. The five-time Wimbledon champ pulled out of a doubles match today, which came after a lengthy courtside visit with a doctor. Were it not for the seriousness of the situation, the cheekiness of the Brit broadcasters would be positively entertaining. Wimbledon doctors are Read more →
The largest airplane ever built will be in the Twin Cities for another day. What’s it look like inside? Read more →
On this the 83rd birthday of the Stillwater lift bridge (which will reopen to traffic tomorrow, by the way), we pause to note that its replacement is starting to look like a bridge. Read more →
Who knows what we would have done in the situation Michael Johannes, 51, of Minneapolis was in Sunday evening when his Chevy Trailblazer caught on fire?
Read more →
Minneapolis is a fairly dense city, Alex Cecchini writes on streets.mn, but Minneapolitans don’t seem to use mass transit to the extent one would expect. He found 55 percent of the people in the zip codes he analyzed work within five miles of where they live, which should allow for a commute of 30 minutes Read more →
A St. Louis County commissioner, a supporter of a controversial copper mine, is at the center of a controversy for a history lesson he gave during a public hearing in Ely, the Duluth News Tribune reports today. Read more →
Bob Collins