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.
Our first look at Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the defense rests in the Zimmerman trial, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sidesteps a question on religious freedom, smoke from a distant fire in Minnesota, a lower gambling age, and why I wouldn’t be a young person today for anything in the world. Here’s today’s news conversation with Mary Lucia Read more →
Last night’s Frontline episode profiling two middle-class families who plunged into poverty through no particular fault of their own will do little to fix the problems faced by people who once were middle-class working Americans. But maybe it can help them feel less like failures. The Stanley family, one of the families profiled, is at Read more →
The tension is certainly rising in northern Wisconsin where the presence this week of paramilitary guards has ratcheted up the controversy over a proposed open-pit iron mine. Gogebic Taconite isn’t backing down from its decision to bring in the security force from an Arizona firm, citing a June confrontation between opponents of the mine and Read more →
ESPN has unveiled its first brand promo for ESPNw, its website dedicated to women athletics. The site has been around for a few years, so think about that fact: This is the first brand promo, the AdFreak blog says. http://youtu.be/Tr175IEjUpQ
Is the American Dream dead? Forgetting how to fly. The creeping corruption. Before I did. The urinal sink. Read more →
A final tribute to the “hotshots,” is too much information being released about the San Francisco plane crash, Illinois becomes the last state to legalize carrying weapons, a new gig for the man the architect of the same-sex marriage amendment defeat, the Quebec train explosion, and the worst to-do list ever compiled for Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Read more →
The reporter who wrote a perfectly horrible review of the Minneapolis scene is acknowledging that he really didn’t spend enough time in the area to know much about the Minneapolis scene. That was much was certainly obvious in Mark Meadows’ “48 Hours in Minneapolis,” being distributed by Reuters. 10 a.m. – Eat breakfast at the Read more →
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety says the same contributing factors that killed motorcyclists last year are killing them this year. Three bikers died on July Fourth alone. In a news release today announcing rider deaths are occurring more frequently than last year, the DPS says motorcyclist’s error and failure to yield the right-of-way are Read more →
A Minnesota man’s world fishing record still stands. Read more →
Living with breaking news immediacy, warts and all. Read more →
The Wrenshall girls basketball team mirrors the experience of so many small towns in Minnesota, where diminishing populations challenge the future of high school sports. Read more →
The art of being bumped, the big telephone disconnect, every killing has a story, the science of Cookie Monster, and what if the planets were as close as the moon? Read more →
An arrest in a bicyclist’s hit-and-run death, an appeal against a Wisconsin law requiring women to undergo ultrasounds before getting an abortion, why the flight attendants in the San Francisco crash are real heroes, and “Hug Me Jesus” replaces “Touchdown Jesus” in Ohio. Here’s today’s news conversation with Mary Lucia on The Current.
Tomorrow marks the start of Ramadan, during which Muslims refrain from eating or drinking any liquids from sunrise to sunset, and focus on their faith. Don’t let that scare you, the Transportation Security Administration is advising in a press release today. Ramadan, a holy month for persons of the Muslim faith, begins this year approximately Read more →
We have a new addition to our growing list of favorite obituaries. Entsminger Scott E. Entsminger, 55, of Mansfield, died Thursday, July 4, 2013 at his residence. Born January 8, 1958 in Columbus, Ohio, he was the son of William and Martha (Kirkendall) Entsminger. He retired from General Motors after 32 years of service. He Read more →
Bob Collins