We’re in the middle of a run of neighbors-feuding-with-neighbors stories here in the land of Minnesota Nice. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Rudy Hummel’s year of sleeping outside is almost over.
The Hermantown teenager started his quest last June, and never gave up, even during the brutal winter. Read more →
People with perfectly normal voices who, for unexplained reasons, talk with a creaky voice — vocal fry, it’s called — are creaking themselves right out of a job, a study says today.
Read more →

Timberwolves boss Flip Saunders is stretching belief and trying to put a good face on a pretty obvious play by his superstar player to force a trade soon. Read more →

Last evening, Dayton crowned his legislative year by waiting until all the Capitol’s political reporters were in Rochester covering the GOP state convention, to put out a release after hours indicating he’d vetoed the Legislature’s bill putting the kibosh on the state lottery’s plan to allow online scratch-off gambling and lottery sales at gas pumps in the state. Read more →

There’s no question that corporations have to be very protective of the brand, but does McDonald’s really want to avoid being linked to democracy? Apparently so.
Protesters against the coup and crackdown on democracy and dissent in Thailand have been using the golden arches of McDonald’s in social media campaigns to keep the issue front and center. The McDonald’s stores in Bangkok have become a gathering point for street protests. Read more →

Jeffrey LaDow, paralyzed since diving into the water when he was only 18, fought depression and his own situation with a paintbrush in his mouth.
Read more →

Next week, France will recognize the 70th anniversary of D-Day — a day when foreign troops helped saved France — and the country’s broadcasters aren’t allowing free coverage of it.
Read more →

Congratulations to Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York, and Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas, who share the championship of the Scripps spelling bee.
They were confident and rarely flustered, which is why a few hours from now, we’ll forget who they were. Read more →
This week the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling that prevented a 27-year-old man from marrying a woman, because he has a mental illness. His parents don’t believe he fully understands what marriage is. Read more →
Odin Stutrud, 94, survived the rigors of the United States Army from 1942 to 1946, including fighting the Japanese in the Aleutian Islands campaign in World War II. It’s some jerks (or jerk) in Wahpeton who have him steamed. Read more →

Ties, jackets, and only one button allowed to be unbuttoned on blouses. That’s the way we used to do it, kids. Read more →
We scoff at Chicago but is downtown Minneapolis safe? Read more →

A post on Reddit says they were found in a Goodwill store, and now the social media site is doing what it does best: Solving mysteries.
Read more →
That was quite a piece of audio on NPR’s Morning Edition this morning when NPR reporter David Schaper was interviewing a woman in a South Side Chicago neighborhood about a city effort to more closely track gun sales. Just after the woman insisted the block was safe, gunfire broke out. Read more →