Bob Collins
Kelly Pflanzer, of Milwaukee, posted a video to YouTube today (language warning) , which is something when you consider she died two weeks ago. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Health
Another person was ready to jump from the Robert Street bridge in St. Paul today and, as we’ve said in this space too many times, it’s impossible to stay focused on the systemic failures that can lead to suicide when we never know the story and likely never will know. Read more →
Privacy laws are going to prevent a lot of people from talking, but the story of the death of Shannon Shaw, 49, of Waite Park, Minn., may well serve as a reality check on “supporting our troops.” Read more →
If there was one issue that seemed like a slam dunk in the Minnesota Legislature’s session, it’s that something would be done to address the elder abuse and neglect uncovered in a Star Tribune series that exposed flaws in the system to protect them.
Nope. Read more →
St. Louis is the greatest baseball city in America. Anyone who’s ever watched a game there knows that. Read more →
These kids — Arianna Talmage, 6, Aidan Talmage, 10, and Tyler Talmage, 14 — are all dead now. So is their mother.
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There’s not much anyone can really say about a short story in the Pioneer Press today other than, ‘what’s your story?’ Read more →
This is the power of human connection, of shared joy, and shared grief, a medical gift to us that removes the scar tissue of the steady drumbeat of the worst of us, for the healthy heart of empathy. Read more →
It didn’t help Ashlyn Bohrer when her pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon in Minnesota announced he’s leaving for another job, and the local hospital couldn’t attract a new surgeon quickly. So the family had to look for another pediatric heart center and settled on a hospital in Milwaukee.
It turned out to be a good choice. Today, the family got a call. There’s a heart for Ashlyn.
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This week, authorities in La Crosse and Trempealeau counties and businesses in the area have to spend their time tracking down everyone who visited several locations, because someone with measles had visited the area. Read more →
We are left to decide whether we want to be smarter and die with a heart attack sooner. Or live longer and have less brain function. Read more →
Every patient’s health insurance plan varies, and the costs — and so the copays — of a prescription can soar overnight, so there’s no way for doctors to know whether a prescription is right for a patient.
Oh, sure, medically it’s comparatively easy to know. But if a patient can’t afford the cure, what’s the point of the exercise?
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He was known as the ‘butterfly child’ because his skin was as fragile as a butterfly’s wings. Read more →
The book was born from the work of a dozen women who had met at a women’s liberation conference at Emmanuel College in 1969, the Boston Globe’s Stephanie Ebbert writes today. It began as a 35 cent pamphlet but became one of the most influential books of the century.
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The Minnesota Daily, operated by journalism students at the University of Minnesota, told a story that needed be told — excessive drinking at parties run by fraternities and sororities, specifically the February death of Mitchell Hoenig. Read more →