Bob Collins
The Minnesota Wild haven’t been eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, but Deadspin isn’t letting that fact stop it from shoveling dirt on the squad. 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.
Darlene Sugg, 47, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2010. Though she went into remission, the disease eventually spread and she was dying. But she had a dream to see her daughter, Megan, graduate from high school. Read more →
In 1978, John Mercer at Ohio State University warned that rapid release of greenhouse gases posed the threat of disaster. He was right. Read more →
If a 30-person jury pool in the trial of a black man contains only one black person, is he tried by a jury of peers in a community?
He is unless there’s evidence that the underrepresentation is because of a systemic effort that causes it, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today. Read more →
Is your tuition for higher education being wasted by a system that employs part-timers to teach? Read more →
Michael Sam, who plays football and is also gay, was selected by the St. Louis Rams very late — some say far too late — in the NFL draft over the weekend. The Rams made a statement with the pick and now might face another difficult challenge: how to cut Michael Sam. Read more →
A Cirrus plane got itself in trouble in the skies over Australia on Saturday.
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The ice cream truck made its first appearance in my Woodbury neighborhood last week. It didn’t take long to recoil from its ‘fingernails on a chalkboard’ signature song: ‘Turkey in the Straw.’ Read more →
Construction is continuing on the new St. Croix Crossing across the Saint Croix River, just south of the old lift bridge in town.
As of last week, 19 of 23 Minnesota approach pier footings are complete and four piers have been built to their full height, according to MnDOT. Of the three bridge abutments, construction of the eastbound ramp abutment is complete.
I got a chance to fly around the area this morning to get a better idea of the progress.
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Some of the questions in this week’s quiz are ripped from the headlines, some from NewsCut. Most flew a little bit under the radar and require deep contemplation before answering. There may be trick answers. Or maybe not. Read more →
Not too many people apparently saw the new CEO of NPR coming. Jarl Mohn takes a job that has been the center of turmoil for years. He comes from a radio disc jockey background and used to be known as Lee Masters before he became an exec at MTV and VH1 back when they were Read more →
The world has now mostly moved on from last month’s story from Nepal, where more than a dozen sherpas were killed as they climbed Mt. Everest. Their job is to go first and do the heavy lifting for climbers. Today, the New York Times provided this video of many of the sherpas, just before their Read more →
South Carolina officer Gaetano Acerra delivers on the police promise to protect — and serve. Read more →
Voters rarely get the opportunity to take a stand on public funding of sports stadiums, so when Cleveland went to the polls this week for continued taxpayer subsidies, it provided a good barometer of public sentiment on the issue. What did we learn? That the vocal opposition to stadiums might be overblown, taxes to support Read more →
A big debate over bullying is underway in Fosston, Minnesota after a mother posted a video on Facebook of her crying daughter who had, she alleges, just been bullied by a bus driver and other students.
The resulting debate is about more than bullying. Should the mother have been filming her daughter at a time when comforting seemed the order of the day? Should a news station have been reposting the video without checking to see if the story was true? Why does a mother have to go to this extent to get satisfaction when her kids are being bullied? Read more →