Bob CollinsIt’d be OK with us if we never needed to see another military parent reunited with their children after time away. But as long as that’s never likely to be possible, we can’t get enough of mom’s and dad’s coming home.
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.
We don’t like to see news blogs disappear but it’s an inescapable fact that the days are numbered for them in core media. Mainstream news organizations have had a very difficult time squaring the more personal nature of blogs, their willingness to amplify the work of newsroom competitors, and the reader community they create with the traditional practices of newsrooms. Read more →
‘He used to have secret handshakes with people,’ Leila Ramgren, 10, tells StoryCorps. ‘And if you didn’t have enough on your tray, he would pull out graham crackers or something. And he did it with his own money.’ Read more →
JD Salinger used to bring his typewriter into the Twin State Typewriter store in Vermont three or four times a year with a key crisis. So did people you’ve never heard of.
And soon, it will be no more; a metaphor for the passage of time.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Most every reason that people have given for not voting is a dodge, and lacking any real data, it’s hard to say whether efforts to increase the percentage of registered voters who bother to go to the polls will ever pay off. Read more →
Terrance Sargent didn’t pay his income taxes in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 and in 2016 the state put a lien on him. Read more →
The Minnesota Twins return to Target Field tonight after a disastrous road trip. Abandon all hope, ye who enter. It’s over. Division leader Cleveland has played mediocre baseball all season, and they now have a 12-game lead over the Twins. Read more →
Stephanie Ofsthun says she barely remembers losing her wallet as a teenager. But now she has her combination for her school locker, pictures of her friends, her Social Security card, and a Dayton’s charge card back again. Read more →
It’s asking a lot to judge sentences handed in a courtroom at which those doing the judging aren’t present, but a sentence handed down in a texting and driving case in Chisago County is likely to stir the debate over how serious the system is on cracking down the practice. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
For reasons that vary, NPR’s annual tradition of reading aloud the Declaration of Independence seemed to carry more impact today than the rote recitation of recent years. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Everybody on a Stanley Cup-winning team gets to spend a day with the Cup. They can do pretty much whatever they want.
Today, it was the equipment manager’s turn. So Craig Leydig took it to The Capital Gazette, where five people were killed in a mass shooting last week. Read more →
NPR’s latest news video notes that the expression of patriotism — the Pledge of Allegiance — comes from a Socialist, Baptist, advertising copywriter who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in order to sell more magazines.
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