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.
If there’s one statistic that reveals the extent to which parents and some coaches are out of control when it comes to pushing their kids to a big payday in professional baseball it’s this one: more than half of all “Tommy John” surgeries in the United States are performed on kids between 15 and 19.
Read more →
We are of the opinion that Whiskey would’ve gone back inside a Spring Lake Park home the minute Whiskey wanted to, but props to the Spring Lake – Blaine – Mounds View Fire Department anyway. Read more →
The people of Altoona, Wis., near Eau Claire, have about had it with the challenge of parking in the city. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear on MPR News. Read more →
It was a heck of a moment for the kids of Mounds View who defeated Totino-Grace in the Class 4A, Section 5 final last week when Mounds View pitcher Ty Koehn struck out Totino-Grace’s Jack Kocon to end the game, preserving a 17-to-10 win. Read more →
It takes a lot to make Canada mad, but former diplomat Scott Gilmore has pretty much had it. Read more →
Color me skeptical about the latest poll purporting to show that journalists aren’t doing a good enough job of explaining how journalism works. Read more →
The intersection of arts, culture, and mass murder is nearly impossible to comprehend, but we’re getting there, sadly. Read more →
Although, obviously, there are local elections, elections are national things and should it be tougher for an American to vote in one state rather than another? Why not just have one set of rules for 50 states and the territories? Read more →
We are choosing to take some comfort in the knowledge that no matter what fresh hell awaits us in the news this week, we are still a people who will gather in the pouring rain, to watch a dog chase sheep from one end of the field to another, dispelling the notion that we return to work today to work like a dog. Read more →
A lot of local airports get FAA funding — which also makes it harder for communities to close their airports — but Silver Bay didn’t have enough pilots and planes left to earn the money.
Read more →
Timing is everything in the world, so news that volunteers have proven humans are smarter than giant bogs comes with a measure of restrained celebration. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
During the downpour on Saturday, probably three hours into what turned out to be a four-hour rain delay, nobody was in the entire upper deck of the outfield seating at Target Field in Minneapolis except a father and his little boy (7 or 8 years old, I’d guess), who were under the scoreboard overhang. The boy was patiently waiting, his baseball glove still on his hand. Read more →
Some kids can survive the roadblocks that we put in their way; some kids can’t.
This is a difficult video to watch but the invitation is clearly there for us to consider this question: Why are we putting the roadblocks in their way?
Read more →
Bob Collins