MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

By Bob Collins

bcollins@mpr.org • @newscut

Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.

A cure for economic bad news

Bob Collins February 15, 2008, 8:10 AM Feb 15, 2008

Make it harder to find.

In their own words: The flood

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 4:14 PM Feb 14, 2008

1

One family’s struggle to recover in Rushford.

Radio’s passing fancy

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 4:11 PM Feb 14, 2008

5

When radio legends die, a large chunk of our culture goes with them.

Here comes US 193!

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 2:24 PM Feb 14, 2008

15

The U.S. wants to shoot down a falling satellite. What are the odds it’ll hit you?

What does it mean to be ‘business friendly’?

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 11:06 AM Feb 14, 2008

12

There’s no indication that Minnesota’s largest employers are suffering.

When women have authority over boys

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 8:17 AM Feb 14, 2008

1

It shouldn’t happen, at least in a basketball game, one school says.

New media ethics

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 7:56 AM Feb 14, 2008

1

Here’s your invitation to a discussion on the new journalism.

Housekeeping item: The archives

Bob Collins February 14, 2008, 1:00 AM Feb 14, 2008

Because News Cut is updating with new information so often, posts scroll off the bottom of the main page pretty quickly and some of you have commented that the search function where you have to remember what day it was (that calendar over there on the right) isn’t very good. I agree, but there is Read more →

Pregnant and fired

Bob Collins February 13, 2008, 3:00 PM Feb 13, 2008

24

A parochial school cans a teacher who is unmarried and pregnant.

The duck stays

Bob Collins February 13, 2008, 2:36 PM Feb 13, 2008

2

An Ulen woman gets to keep a duck in defiance of a city ordinance.

What do you want your obituary to say?

Bob Collins February 13, 2008, 2:35 PM Feb 13, 2008

Do you want it to be a truthful account of who you were? Or do you want it to gloss over your warts and tuck a little here and there? Perhaps you’ve sat at a funeral and heard the eulogy and thought, “wow, why can’t I be as good?” The eulogy is a memorial. The Read more →

Pick the liar

Bob Collins February 13, 2008, 10:52 AM Feb 13, 2008

1

At today’s baseball steroids hearing, everyone looks guilty of something.

A walk on the good side

Bob Collins February 13, 2008, 7:44 AM Feb 13, 2008

3

As bad as Tuesday was — news wise — it’s not as if nothing good happened around us.

Delta, Northwest deal moving closer

Bob Collins February 12, 2008, 9:26 PM Feb 12, 2008

The two airlines seem to have a blueprint for merger.

The lost children of Minneapolis

Bob Collins February 12, 2008, 4:40 PM Feb 12, 2008

7

Three children apparently helped a woman beat a 4-year-old boy to death.