Bob Collins
Norman Rockwell’s The Rookie sold this morning for $20 million, NPR reports. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Ruth Ziolkowski, who died yesterday, is a vanishing breed in America; like her husband, she was willing to spend her life energy on a project that could not possibly be finished in her lifetime.
Read more →
Ben Pierce, 9, is going blind and there are a few things he wants to see before he can’t see. Read more →
What would it take for the overconnected generation to give up their cellphones?
In Kimball, Minnesota, a teacher is finding out by keeping their cellphones 24/7 in exchange for allowing the students to skip the finals in her class. Read more →
Is there room for peace in a holiday that memorializes soldiers who died in war?
Read more →
Theodore Johnson III heard from plenty of people when he wrote his NPR Code Switch blog post about the racist origins of the song that has made generations scamper for the neighborhood ice cream truck. Read more →
Despite the best efforts of his students to keep him around, the Rochester teacher who swore in class is resigning. Read more →
In a case that seemed to pit laws to protect domestic abuse victims against those designed to protect other drivers from drunks on the road, the Minnesota Supreme Court has sided with the latter.
Read more →
Happiness is vulgar in Iran. Six Iranian young people have been arrested for making a video featuring Pharrell Williams’ “Happy,” a song that people the world over have used to do something similar in breaking down the walls that humanity erects. Tehran Police Chief Hossein Sajedinia ordered the arrests, calling the video “obscene” and “vulgar.” Read more →
Without a hint of irony, the Star Tribune today pegged the economic impact of the Minneapolis Super Bowl in 2018 between $80 million and $500 million. There’s no indication whether the calculation includes the impact of being portrayed as a winter hell hole between now and then.
Let’s step back a little bit, America. The NFL’s warm-weather choices haven’t been without problems. Read more →
You’ve probably seen this video — 21 million have — of Tara the cat chasing a dog away from attacking a little boy. Last night, the cat threw out the first pitch at the Bakersfield Blaze game in California. Well, I gave it my best shot, but my humans really got in the way. Everyone Read more →
While some people in the U.S. have been focusing on the disparate treatment of women in the workplace — specifically, the newsroom — over the last week, another inequality has broken out in the open in Europe: Women in classical music, NPR reports. Read more →
This might well be the spark that leads to the end of racist Native American mascots. This is NOT ok and something needs to be done #und #siouxperdrunk pic.twitter.com/v4vaIdlAmQ — PaoPao (@QuechuaPride) May 13, 2014 In the wake of the University of North Dakota “Siouxper Drunk” party outrage, Native American leaders have finally found a Read more →
Minnesota doesn’t get to be the last “team” standing very often when it comes to the NFL, so there might be a certain joy in watching the also-rans bite their lips with disappointment for a change. Sorry, Indianapolis. That's it. Indy is eliminated. New Orleans, Minneapolis fight it out. Disappoint ensues pic.twitter.com/qFKXXwFlfr — Stephen Holder Read more →
As MPR cancels Tell Me More, can public radio, long linked with upscale white Americans, make significant progress in appealing to communities of color? Read more →