Bob CollinsLike Justice Sonia Sotomayor did yesterday, Justice Antonin Scalia read his dissent to today’s DOMA ruling from the bench. It’s a symbolic but otherwise pointless exercise, given that in 2013, live cameras and microphones are still not allowed in the High Court. 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.
A neurological wake-up call, drone journalism, the Texas filibuster, end of the playoff lawn, and the beginning of the ‘Should Kevin Love be traded?’ season. Read more →
It’s an old-school filibuster that’s underway in Texas today as a legislator tries to kill an abortion bill by running out the clock in the legislative session. Unlike Congress, the filibuster that Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth is engaged in actually demands both physical and mental challenges. The rules require her to remain standing, Read more →
Today’s signal that the apocalypse is not upon us comes from Melanie Mozingo, who describes what happened to her in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis after the trees came crashing down. She says the young man’s name is Blake and he’s about 8 or 9 years old.
Minnesota DFLer Ryan Winkler followed a pretty predictable script today when he referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as… well, here: Winkler deleted his tweet, then provided a fine example of digging oneself deeper. First with the non-apology apology: And then with the “I didn’t know it was racist” tweet. Which stresses believability. Even Read more →
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the Voting Rights Act today, it noted that the doomed section of the Act is no longer constitutional partly because the method of determining which states should be subject to it is outdated. Here is the explanation in the opinion of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts: Read more →
Lessons of the power failure, PTSD and moral injury, whatever happened to the bullied bus lady, why are tailgaters such pigs, and The XXXXXX Monologues? Read more →
I’m back in the cities after a great weekend in Cleveland. I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. I like a good storm and the challenges one presents, so to be honest, I’m a little sorry I missed the wind and rain of last week. The power outages? I’m not sorry to have missed out Read more →
The American Medical Association has passed a resolution calling obesity a disease. But some people think that will only make the problem worse, if it’s a problem at all. Read more →
I’ve been a sports fan all of my life, but I still don’t get sports fans. The other night, for example, I was watching the Indians-Nationals game in which the Indians were leading 2-1 in the top of the 9th. Cleveland’s shaky closer was on for the save. And fans were leaving. Fast forward to Read more →
Vince Flynn died early this morning. He was a best-selling author and a local kid and a bit of a radio star thanks to KFAN’s Dan Barreiro, on whose show he appeared regularly. There are already plenty of news stories around about his death from prostate cancer, but for a tremendous assessment of his life, Read more →
Quick note: If you’re on Twitter, you’ll want to be following @ChiefHarteau, the account for Minneapolis police chief Janee Harteau, as she rides along with cops in the 2nd precinct, and using the hashtag #NEwithrealcops Turned out to be an Unhappy man getting his car towed. All worked out everyone happy now #NEwithrealcops — Chief Read more →
America moves on after the spying scandal, the great gopher feet caper and other tales from the mean streets of Minnesota, return of the website, the grace of Steve Gleason, and the girl who makes your 12 year old look like a lazy punk. Read more →
We don’t cover the airline-formerly-known-as-Northwest much anymore, not since it got gobbled up by Delta and became the airline from Atlanta. Which is a shame because the airline from Atlanta is pretty much run by the former execs of the airline-formerly-known-as-Northwest. And, of course, it still provides plenty of jobs in flyover country. But this Read more →