Bob CollinsThe Minnesota Legislature may soon consider a 10-cent recycling fee for bottles, cans and other beverage containers. What say you? 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.
Chris Christie’s responses betray his assertion that he’s going to get to the bottom of what happened in a New Jersey bridge scandal. Read more →
What do you take with you after a lifetime of dedication to a company? The Pioneer Press, still with a beating heart if not much more, is saying goodbye to employees who have taken a buyout in its parent corporation’s latest round of cost cutting. It’s another test in the great American journalism experiment: How Read more →
It’s been a few weeks since all the hoopla died down in the attempt by a Minnesota egg farmer to win a Super Bowl commercial. Did he win? Read more →
Journalism’s Hall of Shame, why do you stand and clap for marginally good art, a school dance for an Osseo teen, why is Delta suddenly wanting to make flying comfortable, and Kevin Love reveals Team Dysfunction. Read more →
There aren’t many drivers who haven’t thought what it would be like to end up flying off a bridge they were crossing. It happened on I-694 on the I-35E ramp in Saint Paul this morning. “This is why we’re urging people to slow down, pay attention and watch out for icy bridges and ramps. The Read more →
A suicide fails but the future is still grim. Read more →
Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the Tucson assassination attempt on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. A gunman’s rampage in Connecticut pushed the Giffords shooting to the sideline in the ongoing debate over gun control legislation. Six people were killed. Giffords, as most people know, was seriously hurt, has had a slow and remarkable recovery, and Read more →
Keeping watch over one another, the cold reality of Minnesota, is there room for a driverless car in Minnesota, Friday Night Tykes, and church without the religion Read more →
Utah gay couples who got married might not be married, more school closings, the last DC-9, health care spending has slowed, what about Jay Gruden as the new Vikings head coach, and if it’s OK to put the Ten Commandments at the Oklahoma State Capitol, why not this Satanic monument? Read more →
The Mediaite media critic site is taking CNN to task for making a journalist bundle up and go outside, pretty much like everyone else in Minnesota who had to go to work today. It was all the way up to -15 by the time the CNN reporter began her “torture.” It’s mostly showbiz. Reporters have Read more →
It’s hard to know how to feel about the big story surrounding this photograph: It’s the type of picture that photographers take when they get the assignment to go out and shoot pictures of the cold weather. There’s always homeless people around, trying to stay warm. This homeless person, Nicholas A. Simmons, 20, of Greece, Read more →
Call it an “arctic hurricane” and the polar vortex sound scary. Read more →
For what did Americans die in Iraq, the oil trains of Minnesota, how a Minneapolis social worker gives people a lift, losing weight eating nothing but McDonald’s food, and the obligatory post about the cold. Read more →
A private jet crashed while attempting a second landing in Aspen this afternoon, at least one of the three people on the plane died. The aircraft was a private Canadair CL-600-2B16 Challenger 601-3R from Mexico. It was making a stop in Aspen and was to return to Mexico this evening. Comedian Kevin Nealon tweeted: “Horrible Read more →