Bob CollinsA major security flaw has been found in websites that is exposing usernames, passwords and maybe credit card numbers. The Heartbleed bug went undetected for more than two years and there’s no indication that hackers actually stole your personal information, but they know now. 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.
The passage of a higher minimum wage bill has border businesses singing the blues. Read more →
A few years ago, a local knucklehead in high school invited porn stars to be his date at the senior prom. When one accepted, that forced school officials to crack down on whom students can invite to the prom.
And that’s why Jack Jablonski, the Benilde-St. Margaret hockey player who was paralyzed during a game, had to depend on common sense prevailing when he asked ESPN’s Michelle Beadle to be his date. Read more →
There never was any substantial evidence against Larson in the shooting of Cold Spring police officer Thomas Decker, but that didn’t stop police from naming him in a quick news conference after the shooting, nor stop news organizations from tossing aside the policy of not naming suspects until they’re actually charged with a crime.
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Miles Scott, 5, the kid who was thrown an all-day celebration last year as part of a Make A Wish dream, threw out the first pitch today for the San Francisco Giants, arriving in the Batmobile and then getting an escort to the mound while the crowd chanted, ‘Let’s Go, Batkid!’
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Ironically the logo, meant to show employers how much talent is available in the city, hired a Minneapolis firm to design the logo. Read more →
A giant snowman in Gilman, Minn., is showing its age and is dying a hot death. Read more →
The family of Robert Lucier of Windsor, Ontario memorialized their dad the only way they knew how last Friday afternoon: by taking in a Detroit Tigers baseball game. Read more →
Journalists are often challenged to find just the right word for their news stories. Pity the poor reporter for Reuters; he could only come up with ‘dysfunctional’ to describe a justice system in which a 9-month-old baby can be charged with murder.
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The rescue of a couple at sea with their two young children has led to another storm : criticism that they had no business putting their children at risk. Read more →
The Twins aren’t a good team. Who to blame for this? Where to start? Read more →
What were you doing in the 8th grade?
Cole Willis, 14, has already selected his college. He wants to go to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and become an engineer. Now he’s moved on to figure out how to pay for it; it’ll cost about $59,000 a year in 2014 dollars. Read more →
Dick and Rick Hoyt will run their final Boston Marathon together in two weeks, ending one of the annual inspirational stories we still have in sports.
They never made it to the finish line last year; the bombs went off before they got there.
They’ll run this year to honor the victims of last year’s terrorist attack.
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With his wife, Amy, about to be sprung from prison months early for her criminal vehicular homicide conviction, former Viking Joe Senser is still refusing to accept what a jury determined only a little more than two years ago: His wife killed a man and then drove away without stopping. Read more →
There are a couple of competing ways to look at this graphic, from a survey asking people in the United States to indicate where Ukraine is. One is, ‘Wow, are people ever ignorant.’ The other is: ‘Wow, Americans got it right a lot of the time.’ Read more →