Bob Collins
Gymnastics gives kids coordination , confidence, and strength.
It can do wonders for a town, too.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
You knew that Savage, Minnesota was a shipbuilding port during World War II, right? Me, neither. Read more →
Mary Steiner specialized in listening and transformed from a full-time author and editor, to full-time humanitarian, raising money to form a grassroots organization — Give Us Wings — which got its name because she was listening when someone said ‘it’s nice if you give us money once in awhile, but we need access to information and education. We need wings.’ Read more →
Indeed, at one time, La Crosse was the center of the clown universe. Read more →
Had Joe Plut, the Crosby-born retired English professor, left Minnesota for good, he wouldn’t have become — from all accounts — one of the most beloved people in the Lakes Region. Read more →
If you’ve ever attended a Twins game and sat upstairs behind home plate at the Metrodome, the chances are pretty good that you know Wally Englund, 85, of Richfield. For 14 years he was an usher at the Dome and other sports facilities in the Twin Cities.
But only his wife, a few family members and some season ticket holders who’ve become his close friends over the years know the secret that, until recently, he couldn’t talk about: He is still suffering from his time in the South Pacific during World War II. Read more →
Today’s Story Corps segment from NPR provides that unusual blend of sweetness and horror.
Horror over the way we treat people we profess to love. Sweetness from the strangers who take our place. Read more →
Julie Ovenhouse is part traffic cop, part therapist, and part handyman. Her actual title is Special General Adjuster for Farmers Insurance Group. Ovenhouse, who flew in from her home in Michigan this week, specializes in large-loss catastrophes. North Minneapolis more than qualifies. Her job is answering the question that is always the first one victims of disaster ask: ‘Where do I start?’ Read more →
Bernie Ockuly, of Cleveland, fairly well bristled last January when he read an MIT professor’s suggestion (by way of News Cut) that people who have been unemployed for 99 weeks probably aren’t trying hard enough to get a job. He knows better. Read more →
Many veterans of World War II aren’t veterans at all. They were volunteers. And they’d like to be remembered too. Read more →
CEO John Paton has sent a memo to employees that a sale ‘is not in the best interest of shareholders at this time.’ Read more →
Herb Morrison was the guy who covered the Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey. Nobody heard his real voice that day. Read more →
“The Women of Algiers” is a Picasso masterpiece. A Fox News station apparently felt differently. Read more →
Today’s sports news comes from the Department of Lipstick on a Pig.
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The New England Patriots are pushing back — and hard — against the independent investigation of whether and how footballs used by the team in last season’s AFC Championship Game were deflated. Read more →