Bob CollinsA Mankato City Council members has started a petition calling for a presidential pardon for the 38 Dakota men who were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. 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.
Why, yes, thank you, we did have a great time last week overdosing on spring training baseball, squeezing in about five games in four days. We went in search of “old fashion” spring training, which was a lot like town ball in its informality and ability of fans to get close to the game and Read more →
I’m not writing NewsCut today, or for the rest of this week, as I am on assignment investigating the starting pitching of the Cleveland Indians. Back on Monday.
The Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA today became the first team in Minnesota to wipe its name of its jerseys and sell the space to an advertiser, in this case the Mayo Clinic. Read more →
Researchers today announced they’ve discovered the gravitational waves that traveled through space/time shortly after the Big Bang. It’s the first direct evidence of the rapid expansion at the beginning of the universe. Read more →
A handful of cases from federal and state judges has sought recently to clarify a long-standing argument: When you drive a car, is it constitutional that you automatically submit to chemical testing for DUI when an officer asks you too? Read more →
Why are quad copters going to change the way news is covered? Because you can simply get better views from an unmanned tiny vehicle. Read more →
A touching moment in Austin where a young woman is hospitalized because of the drunk driver who crashed into concert goers, killing two of them last week at South by Southwest. Read more →
No matter what happens next, Jerold Young isn’t going to have a lot of money to live out his remaining years, but his Rochester, Minnesota friends are certainly looking out for the World War II vet who’s had some tough times.
Read more →
The high school kids understandably were sad and sulked a bit after losing outstanding games. And we cut them slack we didn’t extend to women athletes on a bigger stage. Read more →
There’s been a brain drain in the non-commercial space program since we decided to leave manned spaceflight to other countries, and an ongoing debate about whether it suits our planetary needs anymore, but there’s no question that there’s still inspiration in the best and brightest who figured out solutions where no man has gone before.
Read more →
Finding the missing Malaysia Airlines plane in the Indian ocean is mathematically equivalent to finding a human hair in Manhattan. Read more →
3.14. The one day of the year you wish you’d paid more attention in math class. It’s Pi Day, you’ve probably heard. 3.1415926535897932blahblahblahblahblah. But there’s even bigger news today. Vi Hart, who — for reasons not yet explained — stopped doing her quirky math-related videos and just started posting videos of her microwave timer counting Read more →
It was as if America had finally given up on privacy this week when Sen. Diane Feinstein called out the Obama administration and the CIA for allegedly spying by breaking into the computers of members of Congress, reportedly trying to find out who inside the CIA leaked information about torture to the politicians who are Read more →
An airline flight in Philadelphia came to a sudden stop on its takeoff roll in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon when its nose gear collapsed. The slides were activated and people evacuated. Read more →