Bob Collins
Navy Yard shooting photos show patience, bravery in the face of danger. 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 stories out of Colorado over the weekend have been gut-wrenching; this CBS story this morning particularly so. A young man named Wesley Quinlan was swept to his death, but not before helping to save his friends. “Wesley just grabbed each of us and looked in our faces and just said, ‘We have to get Read more →
It was a heck of a try by Carissa Jean Elizabeth Stahosky two years ago when she was stopped for speeding in Ramsey County Read more →
To be imperfect in a world of perfect, a solution to what ails the Iron Range, how to find a kidney, what does America want for health care anyway, and the Replacements in Chicago. Read more →
Over the years on NewsCut, we have presented and talked about the hyperplanned marriage proposals, but this one is a first in our ongoing list: a same-sex proposal. It happened in a Home Depot in Salt Lake City: Utah doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages. There is a federal court case in the state to overturn the Read more →
Public praise for veterans happens at most sporting events in America now. It tugs at the heart. It brings a response. And, apparently, some veterans hate it. Read more →
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The revenue woes that have decimated commercial media visited NPR today when the public radio network announced its cutting its staff by 10 percent. Read more →
(There are comments attached to this post.) You won’t see a more dramatic picture than this one tweeted by KARE 11 this morning. An accident occurred at the intersection of Highway 55 and General Mills Boulevard between a van and a tanker. The station says one person died when a woman in a van turned Read more →
The people who caused the economic collapse are doing very well, the woman shamed for using an EBT card in Edina, the kids who grind and the ones who don’t, an honorable Lanesboro man returns a sword to Japan, and the fracking map revealed. Read more →
Now we know for sure. The solar system is big. Really big. Read more →
Syria’s president agrees to a deal with a complicating “if”, Colorado floods, the renegade Pennsylvania clerk giving out marriage licenses to same-sex couples stops, the Voyager I leaves the solar system while everyone shrugs, and repeat driving drunk won’t be a misdemeanor in Wisconsin anymore. Read more →
Is shooting a fenced-in animal sport?
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In January, Boston media critic Alan Siegel took down sports journalists in the city in an article (The Fellowship of the Miserable) that reverberated through the sports departments of local media organizations nationwide. Siegel charged that the local scribes were going soft on the teams, coaches, players, and managers they were assigned to cover. He Read more →
Finally, a reason to buy Google Glass? Read more →