Bob CollinsOf the many memories of Flip Saunders being shared in the aftermath of his death yesterday, here’s a video classic from the ’70s: The Gopher men’s basketball team’s entertaining pre-game drill. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Regional history
Nothing makes you feel older than when the baseball players of your childhood die. Read more →
Ex-Metropolitan Council Chair Peter Bell is defending his decision to quit an advisory board on changes to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun because the group focused too much on diversity and a name change. Read more →
Along with Lawrence O’Brien, Kenneth O’Donnell and Ralph Dungan, Donahue played a key role in Kennedy’s Senate and presidential campaigns.
His specialty was working the anti-Catholic states for Kennedy. Read more →
Thou shalt not be perceived to speak ill of rural Minnesota. The small towns of Minnesota are fascinating spots. But if you want to stay out of trouble, stay on the interstate.
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A silly Washington Post ranking of counties gets the oh-so-serious Minnesota response. Read more →
You can count us among the big fans of signs going up around St. Paul honoring members of the city’s fire department who died in the line of duty.
The signs mark the location where a firefighter died. Read more →
‘Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum’ — also known as ‘the cribs’ in Lake Superior in Duluth — changed last winter when a concrete column ‘disappeared.’
Slowly — too slowly, perhaps — the landmark is disappearing. Read more →
There are 6,000 or so cemeteries in Minnesota and over half of them may be abandoned, according to the Minnesota state archeologist, Scott Anfinson.
Also: Minnesota has a state archeologist. Read more →
The man who drove a fire truck festooned with the Confederate flag at a parade in Albert Lea has defended his display in a common manner.
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I was wondering whether a long simmering Minnesota controversy would reignite in the wake of the focus on the Confederate flag. It happened today. Read more →
It’s been almost a decade since someone stole the ruby red slippers Judy Garland wore in Wizard of Oz from the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids and a search of an iron pit in Itasca County has come up empty. Read more →
For a state that worships its people who made good — especially those who got out of here as soon as they could to make their fortune elsewhere — it could do more to recognize Elizabeth Strohfus of Faribault. Read more →
The Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame, in which he was installed as a charter member, described Kraehling as “one of Minnesota’s best known and best loved television personalities.” Read more →
Concordia College professor W. Scott Olsen pens a terrific essay — a requiem, he says — to a just-about-gone icon of American life and, occasionally, the privacy it provided.
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