Bob Collins
This morning’s CBS News poll suggests the political power harnessed by the January 2017 women’s march may have dissipated, at least among younger women.
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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.
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
A radio station’s report and video uncovering truckloads of donated goods for the people still suffering the effects of Hurricane Maria is getting some attention from the authorities who apparently let them sit.
The video showed truckloads of supplies that could be used, but obviously aren’t. Read more →
The two were among the first newspaper people in Minnesota to get a radio gig, a practice that exploded in the ’90s as talk radio made a comeback. But AM talk radio attracts an older, male demographic that is declining. Read more →
In an earlier, simpler era, news organizations had easy decisions when it came to racist statements in public. They opted to report on them in the belief that it would reveal the extent to which racism existed, even though it was hidden. The audience would be repulsed and push back, and decency would win the day. Easy call.
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The little airport in Silver Bay is gone now and now Wayne Johnson, the force behind its creation, is too. Read more →
The DFL candidates for governor are debating on MPR News this morning and it’s not too hard to figure out that attorney general Lori Swanson, whose last-minute entry into the race roiled the primary waters, is going to be the target of her opponents. They likely smell blood in the water following a damning story from The Intercept that Swanson used state employees to perform campaign work.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
It’s Little League World Series season, the annual exercise in which kids provide regular lessons on sportsmanship to adults who don’t get it.
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More than any other medium, local television news has a way of creating a personal connection between the person on the air, and the anonymous person watching at home.
So the death of Steve Frazier, the Fox 9 meteorologist, has understandably hit viewers hard. Read more →
During yesterday’s game between the Yankees and White Sox in Chicago, a moth flew into an umpire’s ear and wouldn’t come out. Read more →
It’s Kubb, and it’s particularly popular in Wisconsin, perhaps because you can compete while drinking a can of beer. Read more →
Only a state with giant ball of twine could appreciate what might have been in Willmar, where a plan to move a lighthouse from Lake Superior in Duluth to the land-locked town appears to be sunk for good. Read more →
Car pooling hit its peak at the garages in 2012, when the Minneapolis garages were built to help reduce congestion from I-394, I-94, and the northern suburbs. But it’s dropped about 30 percent since then, while parking contracts for individual vehicles have soared downtown.
It’s a classic case of people saying one thing and doing another.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →