Bob Collins
People on a pedestal and the people who put them there, the men who catcall, keeping it wheel, kindness and cancer, and a goodbye to the Beargrease sled dog race. 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.
Let’s face it. Football fans don’t much care that the constant hitting and brain-smashing action is killing the athletes of the National Football League — a fact that is overwhelmingly proven in Tuesday’s PBS Frontline series, “League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis.” So you could probably scroll right past most of the two hours Read more →
NewsCut’s Bob Collins explains his recent writing absence. Read more →
It’s hard to find anything funny about what’s happening in Washington Read more →
Leave it to the “Greatest Generation” to put a visual stamp on leadership. Time is running out for World War II vets to visit their memorial in Washington; they don’t have time for the politicians to grow up, act like adults, and govern the nation in a responsible way. The shut down closed the World Read more →
None of the hand-wringing about the effects of a government shutdown at midnight or the potential default on the government’s obligations later this month have swayed any politicians in Washington. But you have to give the National Zoo credit for a little bit of pluck for trying to make this the face of the shutdown. Read more →
The Minnesota Twins are reportedly taking a step toward assuring there’ll be no more of the same old losing at Target Field today by continuing more of the same in the manager’s office. Ken Rosenthal, one of Fox’s baseball reporters says Gardenhire will be rewarded with a two-year contract. Sources tell me and @jonmorosi that Read more →
The state’s assisted suicide law will apparently live intact for at least another week. The Minnesota Court of Appeals issued no decisions today at its regularly scheduled time. The Associated Press had earlier reported that a test of the state’s law was expected today. Update 11:23 a.m. The Court of Appeals issued an unpublished opinion. Read more →
The latest on the shutdown.
If you were losing your sight, what would you want to see before it’s gone forever? The mind of the steel-trap people. The charm of the farm. What inner-city kids can teach you about Facebook. Read more →
Thanks to Martin Luther College, there’ll be no production of the play “Inherit the Wind” by the New Ulm Actors Community Theatre.
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Paying for progress with a loss of beauty. Read more →
I’d love to put my arm around the people of International Falls and tell them everything is going to be alright after the big layoff at the paper mill there. History tells a different story, though. Jennifer Vogel’s story about the impact of the plant’s sale and layoffs is like a walk back in time. Read more →
The plot against pensions, the bad message being sent by good news, what’s walking out of NPR, a really short love story, and taking Mariano Rivera out of the ballgame. Read more →
Republican legislators in Wisconsin have introduced a bill protecting race-based nicknames in the state’s school districts.
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A lot of runners in these parts and elsewhere spend a lot of time trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. They may not like the story of Meredith Fitzmaurice who accidentally qualified while running a half marathon in Amherstburg, Ontario. She’s never run more than 20 miles before and was training for the Detroit Read more →