Bob CollinsIt’s mayfly season along the Mississippi River. Hastings officials have turned out the lights at night to try to bring the disgust-o-meter reading down.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
The theory is that a second train would provide more reliability on a route that has absolutely none right now. Don’t get your hopes up. Read more →
Because sometimes the only thing going on the world that can hold our attention for longer than 30 seconds is a water-skiing squirrel, that’s why. Read more →
The unemployment rate released every month by the Labor Department is mostly a crock. So why do we still care what it shows?
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Sonia Manzano never got the same credit for helping raise your children that other characters on Sesame Street did.
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That golf is on the decline isn’t much of a story anymore; it’s been happening for years. But as more communities close down their public golf courses, a philosophical question begins to surface: Does everything have to make money? Or even break even? Read more →
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 →
Nicolas Winton has died, and if you don’t recognize the name, you might recognize this unbelievable moment from a video that raced around the Internet a few years ago. Read more →
In a decision that forced a conservative and liberal justice to dissent, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled authorities cannot blame the victim when determining the restitution criminals are required to pay in some cases. Read more →
I was out for an evening bike ride a few weeks ago when I stopped to watch a game at a Woodbury park and noticed something odd — there weren’t very many parents there. The parents who were there didn’t appear to be particularly emotionally invested. It seemed like fun.
And that, author and father Daniel Pink insisted last evening on PBS NewsHour, is how youth sports should be played — without parents in attendance. Read more →
Douglas Legler’s obituary in today’s Fargo Forum is shorter than his name, the paper notes.
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Another church family is waking up today to the smoking ruins of their house of worship.
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Last week, as I’m sure you know by now, President Barack Obama broke into song at the funeral of Clementa Pinckney, killed in the attack on a Charleston, S.C., church. It was Amazing Grace, a song with a significant history of its own. MPR colleague Tesfa Wondemagegnehu today forwarded this essay from a friend he Read more →
In Waltham, Mass., a Boston suburb, the summer reading list has substituted a podcast for a book. For the record, you can’t read a podcast. Read more →