Bob CollinsWoe to any person who challenges one particular Farmall Model M tractor in this Saturday’s McLeod County Fair Truck and Tractor Pull in Hutchinson. In a perfect world, only one entrant should win: retired Hutchinson dairy farmer Robert Dobratz.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Health
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 →
Paul TostoA smart, easily understandable video by the Minnesota Health Department could save you a lot of heartache next time you’re wondering what to do when you encounter a bat. Read more →
Cody NelsonFever and vomiting were the first signs. Then he became delirious and the fever got higher. Read more →
The possibilities of science usually outweigh the results from science so anytime there’s a hint of a breakthrough, you have to keep from getting too excited. Still, the news that an experimental drug has appeared to slow the cognitive decline from Alzheimer’s provides something in short supply in the field: hope.
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Maclean’s, the magazine in Canada, series — Before You Go — collects letters from people to friends and family members, ‘because we shouldn’t have to wait until it’s too late to tell our loved ones how we really feel,’ the magazine says.
A few friends of Daphnee Levesque, a British Columbia college student, have tried to take their own lives, so in the most recent installment, she writes them letters. Read more →
Researchers from Stanford looked at data back to the ’60s, and factored in confounding things like air conditioning, income level, and gun ownership, and it has found that a monthly rise in temperature of 1 degree Celsius leads to about a 1 to 2 percent increase in the suicide rate. Read more →
We can only hope some of David Martinez’s closest friends put an arm around his shoulder this week and off to provide a pathway to a helping hand.
Martinez, a candidate for St. Paul’s Ward 4 Council, is in a spiral. Read more →
The Star Tribune obituary for Rachel Chazin will break even the hardest heart. Read more →
In a normal world, a simple resolution promoting breastfeeding by women would be a no-brainer for the health of their babies. This, however, is not a normal world. Read more →
Brittany Olson, a 27-year-old from Worthington, can breathe easier now. That’s no small feat for a woman who has struggled with cystic fibrosis her whole life. Read more →
The foundation of health insurance in recent decades is getting people not to use what they pay for. So what happened in Boston the other day shouldn’t be too surprising even though it’s unusual to see the system laid bare in such a dramatic way. Read more →
Around the time that Sputnik, the first Soviet satellite, sent the U.S. into a panic in 1960, the country began testing the aptitude of 440,000 students for the first time, with the results being sent to high school guidance counselors. The survey is still reaping dividends. Read more →
Brandon Truhlicka, of Fargo, apparently took his own life last Thursday and his family wasn’t afraid to talk about it, penning an obituary that appeared in area papers today. Read more →
The internal drive to know more, to question, to discover, to wonder why, to ask questions about why we believe what we believe, to adapt and change what we think, is the foundation of the species, let alone the most important attribute for a columnist. Read more →