Bob Collins
Duck Dynasty “patriarch” Phil Robertson’s racial and social views don’t square with A&E. 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.
Getting The Yard right, Nienstedt’s defense crumbles, giving birth like a virgin, what it’s like to try to use the MNsure site, and the Yule Log video’s director’s cut. Read more →
The new boss at MNsure acknowledges things have been ‘rocky,’ has there been a credit card security breach at Target, holiday sales haven’t been much to write home about, the Fed reduces support for the economy, and U.S. students are smoking more marijuana, but backing away from binge drinking.
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Your mid-day break from bad news should include the story of Scott Widak. Read more →
The toxic mix of politics and health care, is the Nienstedt controversy for Catholics only, baseball parks in winter, the rights of white supremacists vs. the rights of people to try to shut them up, and why aren’t kids interested in driving? Read more →
The archbishop steps aside, the legislative face of human services retires, the dawn of the intelligent snowplow, the pricetag for stockbrokers killed on 9/11, Gov. Walker hints he’ll sign the school mascots bill in Wisconsin, and the end of Harold Camping’s world. Read more →
Harold Camping has died. He gave us this billboard in NE Minneapolis a few years ago. Camping said he had a mathematical formula for determining the end of days but he never shared it, only the result, which, as you probably have figured out, was wrong. When the world didn’t end in May 2011, he Read more →
As the housing crisis eases, have we learned anything? Read more →
The older we get, the greater our chances of being the grateful rather than the hero.
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More on the scene of a homicide in north Minneapolis in which the blood and remains weren’t cleaned up Read more →
The Wright Brothers flew for the first time 110 years ago today. Read more →
‘A story about what’s right when we spend too much time writing about what’s wrong’ (5×8 – 12/17/13)
The joy of a mentor, the end of programs to feed hungry seniors, in search of the right Christmas kettle, thoughts on football while waiting for baseball, and the bounty hunter at work. Read more →
An unreasonable search of your phone, the Methodist minister who believes in gay rights and won’t go quietly, The Diocese of Winona lists 14 priests accused of sexually abusing minors, the stupidest political tweet ever, and what Dick Nixon has to do with Minnesota weather. Read more →
At least for now, the mass collection of phone records is an unreasonable search under the Constitution, federal judge Richard Leon ruled today. He granted a preliminary injunction sought by two men — Larry Klayman and Charles Strange — saying they were likely to prevail in their constitutional challenge. But he stayed the injunction pending Read more →
Atlanta Braves executives are touring ballparks around the country, searching for ideas to incorporate into their new ballpark.
Today they hit the Twin Cities and got a Minnesota “howdy” from the Twins. Read more →