Bob CollinsCan we really learn anything from a cookie? Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Maybe it’s time to add history and civics to the list of standardized testing if that’s what it takes to jam home some pretty basic knowledge about the country. Read more →
Who among us hasn’t thought that if we drove a school bus, we’d be the coolest school bus driver ever?
Sorry, but Philip Bologna, of Rochester, Minn., has that distinction. Read more →
We understand that time marches on and today’s entertainment venues need rides and musical stages to get people through the door, but we’re wistful about the official demise of Machinery Hill at the Minnesota State Fair nonetheless. Read more →
You couldn’t have asked for more miserable weather than the Arctic blast that’s gripped us over the last few days. Which is why the people of Duluth have exclusive bragging rights for being ‘real’ Minnesotans when it counted most. Read more →
On two fronts, and from two different political directions, the lack of education by the American voter is cited as a factor in the country’s direction today.
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The demand for larger, less fuel efficient vehicles in on the rise.
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Lawsuits against Jason McLean, who owns Dinkytown’s Varsity Theater and Loring Pasta Bar, are prompting a social media-fueled boycott of the locations. Read more →
Remember when people made fun of foreign tourists for constantly viewing the world through their video cameras?
This tweet from a Christian pop duo aboard a Southwest Airlines flight today proves — again — that those tourists were ahead of their time. Read more →
Minnesota has its share of weird decisions by politicians to look good for the TV cameras, but we’ve got nothing on Cranston, Rhode Island. Read more →
The U.S. economy, not exactly humming along at 2 percent growth and stagnant wages, is the jewel of the global economy now. Europe is a mess. China is getting its bubble comeuppance and the daily business watch is now a debate over whether a recession is ahead.
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For many people in the East Metro, commuting to work means taking a deep breath and doing this: trying to cross the St. Croix by the ‘ice road.’ Read more →
It’s probably never a good idea to use the New York Daily News as a barometer of the state of journalism.
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The venerable Boston Symphony Orchestra has acknowledged that young people can’t sit through a concert without being connected to their iPads. Read more →
Sun Prairie, Wisc., near Madison, needs a groundhog if there’s going to be a groundhog day in the city that’s tried mightily since 1948 to be the Midwest’s Punxatawney.
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