Bob Collins
With the warmer temperatures, we eagerly await the attack of the ice monsters on the larger lakes in Minnesota. 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 Auto Show, now at the Minneapolis Convention Center, provided a good opportunity to see what’s out there. Also, who’s out there.
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Pat Garofolo and some online friends were dissing the National Basketball Association, where the majority of players are African American, when he took it a step further by linking its players with crime. Read more →
Life doesn’t get much more poignant than the situation facing Shaina Briscoe and her family. Read more →
Paxton Harvieux, Michael Goodgame and James Adams were killed last Friday after their SUV slid into the path of a truck. They were on their way to a Frisbee tournament.
Their deaths have struck the soul of parents everywhere, who dread the thought of the late-night call from a police department far away. Read more →
A new study from a Boston cancer center is shedding new light on one of life’s most difficult decisions: Whether and/or when it makes sense for us to fight it. Read more →
Maybe — maybe — the moose in Minnesota are the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to our natural environment. Read more →
Arlington National Cemetery loses track of what soldiers are buried where, Dover AFB’s mortuary is caught throwing body parts in a landfill, veterans needing medical assistance stuck in a scandalous backlog of neglect. It’s not as if the nation’s soldiers — dead and alive — needed another reminder of the disconnect between the public posturing Read more →
At the state high school wrestling tournament, St. Michael Albertville High School’s Mitchell McKee really wanted to win the state title for his father, who has terminal cancer. Read more →
The people who want to dramatize the traffic congestion in the Twin Cities are doing it again — making big numbers out of trivial little numbers. Read more →
If there’s anybody people have been collectively pulling for, it’s Duffy, who was profiled in a Star Tribune article a month ago about the plight of older workers who get laid off. Read more →
This is the sort of story that could turn a person into a soccer fan for good. Ayo Dosumu, 7, ran onto the field — pitch, whatever — in South Africa. Security stopped him before he could do any damage, but then a Brazilian player grabbed him and gave us today’s daily dose of cute. Read more →
The Des Plaines Oasis that spans Interstate 90 is as close to iconic as anything is on the long drive to civilization. Soon it will be gone. Read more →
Carnegie Hall has announced that 120 musicians from 33 states will make up the National Youth Orchestra on its eight stop tour beginning in July. For the second year Arjun Ganguly, who plays viola, is returning to the orchestra — one of 26 players to return. What were you doing at 15? Arjun Ganguly tells Read more →
Raymond Callihan, 72, will be taken off life support in the next few days; he suffered an apparent heart attack while eating breakfast last week, according to WCCO.
Would it have made a difference if Minneapolis’ 911 operators had answered Arcola Tullis’ call for help? Read more →