Bob Collins
Another city fell today in Iraq. After losing Mosul yesterday, Tikrit went to the Islamists today and Baghdad may not be far behind. The U.S. vision of Iraq is lost. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for June 2014
How far should the news media go to protect the Wisconsin 12-year-olds who were charged with stabbing a friend near Milwaukee last week to satisfy a fictional character in an online meme? Read more →
We suspect we’re talking to nobody at the moment because one of the major ways people read NewsCut is being held hostage. Feedly, the news reader that seemed to be the reader of choice when Google pulled the plug on Google Reader last year, was taken down today by hackers who are demanding money to Read more →
Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for children is unconstitutional.
Today, a man who was sentenced to two life terms with the possibility of release in one of the most shocking murders in recent Saint Paul history, lost his bid at the Minnesota Supreme Court after contending his two-life-term sentence as a 15 year old is cruel and unusual punishment, too.
Read more →
The conversation surrounding the weekend revelation of perks demanded by the NFL in exchange for Minneapolis hosting Super Bowl LII entered the ‘don’t worry about it’ phase today.
The advice comes from famed foodie Andrew Zimmern, who takes on local scribes today for paying attention to the controversy. Read more →
People, the end of Limburger cheese is at hand! Read more →
What if hockey appealed to black fans? Would fighting go away? Read more →
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary battle against a Tea Party leader in Virginia yesterday. Proceed with caution. Read more →
A judge’s decision in Los Angeles today will spark a renewed debate over teacher tenure. Judge Rolf M. Treu struck down California’s teacher tenure law, agreeing with plaintiffs who said it makes it impossible to get rid of low-performing and incompetent teachers. The decision acknowledged that the worst teachers get assigned to the worst schools, Read more →
In Moorhead, WDAY reports, neighbors are aghast at a proposal for a 41-unit apartment complex, sponsored by a group of area churches and intended to help those who are homeless. “We can’t be too self righteous,” resident Bill Beatler told the Moorhead City Council yesterday, just before it declined to take a vote on a Read more →
It’s a powerful ad that the National Congress of American Indians produced earlier this year to oppose the name of the Washington Redskins. Tonight, it will air in seven major markets (not Minneapolis) during the NBA Finals game between San Antonio and Miami. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, a small group located north of San Read more →
The Federal Mattawa can’t come into Duluth Harbor because there’s no grain for it to pick up. Another rolling effect of the oil patch boom — grain trains are slow to Duluth? Read more →
Is this a growing trend in Minneapolis? People posting public parking areas in front of their homes as private parking only?
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For someone who lives in the White House, the danger of assuming you’re like most Americans can be particularly dangerous. Hillary Clinton proved that with the release of her new book. Read more →
In Texas, the limits of protection are being explored by a school system near San Antonio that banned a child from using sunscreen on a recent field trip because it’s “typically toxic”. The child’s mother, Christy Riggs, is upset because skin cancer runs in her family; her father recently died because of it, KEYE TV Read more →