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.
Rev. Adam J. Copeland, a member of the faculty at Concordia College in Moorhead, loves Fargo. He just doesn’t subscribe to the apparently journalism commandment: ‘Thou shalt speak no ill of Fargo.’
Copeland stirred things up in paradise this week when he wrote on his blog — A Wee Blether — criticizing coverage of Fargo by the media. He says stories about the city are heavy on glowing praise, absent of critical perspective.
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Spoiler alert! There’s no evidence of a monster on the Lake of Tears.
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It’s been Jason Millard’s dream to play in the U.S. Open, whichbegins today at Pinehurst in North Carolina. He qualified last week at a tournament in Tennessee, so he threw the clubs in the car and headed for North Carolina, his dream within easy reach. But he couldn’t escape what happened — or may have happened — when nobody was looking. Read more →
In a world where big money feeds big ego, the benefactors of the new Ordway Center hall in Saint Paul are refusing the usual ego stroke given to people who drop cash on an organization. Read more →
Our collective self esteem is going to take a hit this summer. We hate being rejected but Timberwolves star Kevin Love apparently is going to make sure his exit from Minnesota hurts good.
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Another city fell today in Iraq. After losing Mosul yesterday, Tikrit went to the Islamists today and Baghdad may not be far behind. The U.S. vision of Iraq is lost. Read more →
How far should the news media go to protect the Wisconsin 12-year-olds who were charged with stabbing a friend near Milwaukee last week to satisfy a fictional character in an online meme? Read more →
We suspect we’re talking to nobody at the moment because one of the major ways people read NewsCut is being held hostage. Feedly, the news reader that seemed to be the reader of choice when Google pulled the plug on Google Reader last year, was taken down today by hackers who are demanding money to Read more →
Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for children is unconstitutional.
Today, a man who was sentenced to two life terms with the possibility of release in one of the most shocking murders in recent Saint Paul history, lost his bid at the Minnesota Supreme Court after contending his two-life-term sentence as a 15 year old is cruel and unusual punishment, too.
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The conversation surrounding the weekend revelation of perks demanded by the NFL in exchange for Minneapolis hosting Super Bowl LII entered the ‘don’t worry about it’ phase today.
The advice comes from famed foodie Andrew Zimmern, who takes on local scribes today for paying attention to the controversy. Read more →
People, the end of Limburger cheese is at hand! Read more →
What if hockey appealed to black fans? Would fighting go away? Read more →
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary battle against a Tea Party leader in Virginia yesterday. Proceed with caution. Read more →
A judge’s decision in Los Angeles today will spark a renewed debate over teacher tenure. Judge Rolf M. Treu struck down California’s teacher tenure law, agreeing with plaintiffs who said it makes it impossible to get rid of low-performing and incompetent teachers. The decision acknowledged that the worst teachers get assigned to the worst schools, Read more →
In Moorhead, WDAY reports, neighbors are aghast at a proposal for a 41-unit apartment complex, sponsored by a group of area churches and intended to help those who are homeless. “We can’t be too self righteous,” resident Bill Beatler told the Moorhead City Council yesterday, just before it declined to take a vote on a Read more →
Bob Collins