Bob CollinsIf you move to Moorhead and raise a family, imagine the amount of money you’ll inject into the local economy, creating jobs and stabilizing neighborhoods. Maybe you could be rewarded with a tax break. Moorhead isn’t unlike every other community in Minnesota when it comes to wanting businesses to move in but, like yesterday’s news Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
You didn’t miss much if you missed the Emmys last night, with one exception: Billy Crystal’s tribute to Robin Williams, who took his own life a few weeks ago. “I used to think if I could just put a saddle on him and stay on for eight seconds I would be OK,” he said.
Kevin Love is shedding his past in a big way, first dumping Minnesota and now the number — 42 — he’s worn in high school, college at UCLA, and in the NBA with the Timberwolves. The new number? Behold: We won’t know for certain what this is all about until Love is introduced to the Read more →
It’s become a fairly common game in business to extract public dollars in exchange for creating additional jobs, but in Wisconsin, Ashley Furniture is getting $6 million from the state in exchange for laying people off. According to the Milwaukee State Journal, the $6 million tax credit was awarded in January to the company in Read more →
Justin and Tia met in elementary school in Kentucky, but fate kept them apart. Her family moved to Green Bay. He joined the Air Force and moved to Italy. After nine years of speaking online, they finally have been reunited, thanks to The Buried Life, the show of four guys whose “bucket list” includes asking Read more →
Writer Maya Lang posted this tweet this morning, allegedly to show how blacks are portrayed differently than whites when it comes to profiles, at least in the New York Times. @rgay Here's a side-by-side on Mike Brown vs. Boston Bomber, both from NYT pic.twitter.com/wpcQmFE9Xj — Maya Lang (@WriterMayaLang) August 25, 2014 Here’s the Times’ paragraph that Read more →
Cleveland is already treating Kevin Love with the adoration Minnesota never did. He’s not even the top player on his team and he gets the mural-on-the-side-of-a-building treatment. So this is going up in downtown Cleveland as we speak. #Love pic.twitter.com/v2xZfrvNFm — Dustin Fox (@DustinFox37) August 25, 2014 Coincidentally, the mural replaces another one on the Read more →
The Ice Bucket Challenge, you’ve probably heard, has caught on in a big way to raise money for ALS research. If someone you know hasn’t posted a video of dumping him/herself with ice water, you probably need more friends. Here’s an offshoot that probably won’t catch on. Ayman al Aloul, a Palestinian journalist, dumped a Read more →
Marketplace’s David Brancaccio raises a fascinating question today: If a municipality starts a business that could compete with private business — say, a municipal liquor store like the one in more than 200 Minnesota communities — is it socialism? Brancaccio reports on a town in Kentucky that was frustrated by high gasoline prices charged by Read more →
Today’s sign that the educational apocalypse is upon us comes from the Washington Post, which reports that kids in kindergarten now face final exams, have homework and are subject to standardized testing. And in Elwood, N.Y., the Post says, the principal sent a letter to parents canceling the annual play so the kids can buckle Read more →
It’s a happy ending for a Duluth man who lost his wedding ring while golfing in Neillsville, Wis., six years ago. He had taken it off to put on sunscreen (Guys, don’t take off your wedding ring to put on sunscreen. Don’t take your wedding ring off for any reason) and he forgot to put Read more →
We were driving home from our visit back East on Saturday when we came across an SUV full of a mostly enthusiastic — we guess — Illinois family at the Tomah, Wis., rest stop, heading for one of the great passages of life: the moment when you’re dropped off to be on your own in Read more →
That was quite a PSA that ran during this evening’s MTV video music awards tonight. The network said it wanted to start a discussion on race among those who still watch it, which makes it hard to believe there wasn’t one already. But the PSA is part of a larger campaign called “Look Different.” “Eighty Read more →
David Cazares
A Demonstrator protesting the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown holds up a sign on August 13, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. (Scott Olson / Getty Images) There is a tendency among many in the United States to view young black men as dangerous. As Morehouse College professor Marc Lamont Hill has said, many whites view Read more →
Brigette Mengerson, one of our favorite readers from North Minneapolis, is an unabashed fan of NoMi as we’ve noted in the past. She hardly overlooks its flaws, not the way many people do with the good stories that exist there. Like this one, which she forwarded today. It’s certainly good enough for me to pause Read more →