Bob Collins
If people really knew where the water goes when they flush the toilet, they might be a little more careful about what they throw in it.
Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
For all the symbolism our national bird embodies, it can be a pretty delicate bird. The Duluth News Tribune reports the bald eagle that was rescued after crashing onto a tarmac at the Duluth airport has been found dead. In the May incident, it and another eagle got their talons tangled. Mike Schrage, wildlife biologist Read more →
On the cover of the Rolling Stone, the rise of the baseball scorecard, why can’t a lemonade stand just be a lemonade stand, a step toward racial equality in Saint Paul, and the return of the bookmobile. Read more →
The Lark of Duluth crashed on Lake Superior today. The pilot escaped but it’s a setback for people who spent five years working on the project. Somehow, that story got us talking about Howard Hughes, the industrialist and famed aviator, and had us wondering if there are any industrialists left in the United States doing Read more →
A ban on the United States delivering government-originated programming directly to its citizens has been quietly lifted and the Twin Cities Somali audience is one reason why. Read more →
“This is crazy,” the man said as he and a colleague looked at the open pit in our front yard last week before turning to my wife. “I hope you like West Nile Virus,” he said. He was there to move the utility lines that stood in the way of one of 26 fascinating experiments Read more →
Our friend Daniel Alvarez, the man who kayaked from Minnesota to Key West last year, has given us a look at the nation’s biggest rivers that makes us want to turn away. Read more →
A question of race. Or not. What kids know that adults don’t. The electric Lindbergh. Tales of the Frankenstein rabbit. And the new bamboo menace in the Northland. Read more →
Life in prison for Aaron Schaffhausen, the Justice Department opens its probe into the Trayvon Martin killin, can retirement lead to Alzheimer’s, Washington’s minimum-wage showdown with Walmart, and the birth of the vomit fee.
Here’s today’s news conversation with Mary Lucia on The Current. Read more →
A situation in a community north of Boston on Saturday takes the pay-it-forward craze to a new level. Generally, it starts when someone at a drive-thru pays for the food of the person behind them in line. It’s a nice day-brightener. Consider this story from Amesbury, Mass., where 55 consecutive cars in line at the Read more →
Documenting the demise of the lost art of baseball score keeping. Read more →
Small-town newspaper fold because there aren’t enough people who care about people’s dreams and the places they’re going. Read more →
What can you do in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict that can make a difference, the once-a-day-phone-call economy, in praise of the innovators, to be a farmer in Minnesota, and for the love of baseball. Read more →
A San Francisco area TV station is getting an unwarranted free pass now that the National Transportation Safety Board has acknowledged that a summer intern “confirmed” the names of the pilots in charge of Asiana Flight 214, the one that crashed last week on a San Francisco runway. http://youtu.be/YU2m3xf99R4 The names, of course, were offensive Read more →
If listeners contribute directly to NPR, what happens to local public radio? Read more →