Bob Collins
Up until today, social scientists have conceded that conservatives are generally a happier lot than liberals.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Politics
What’s wrong with this statue? Read more →
For a brief, shining moment last year, the nation was consumed with the scandal at the Veterans Administration, where veterans were denied medical treatment or had to wait months to get it.
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Had the Mall of America and Bloomington officials let people disperse as they were in the process of doing in January when Black Lives Matter held its “illegal” protest in the Rotunda, they might not have handed a huge victory to the group. But every movement needs its martyrs. It’s how an issue stays front Read more →
Fairly quietly, Rep. Tom Emmer, the Republican who replaced Michelle Bachmann as the congressperson from Minnesota’s 6th District, has distinguished himself as the practical kind of politician people insist they want in Washington.
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The Vikings stadium was pitched to taxpayers as a venue for a Major League Soccer franchise. Now, one of the wealthiest people in Minnesota wants his own. Read more →
America hates kids. How else to explain the insistence that kids — or anybody else — not slide down Capitol Hill on those rare occasions when it snows in the District of Columbia? Read more →
Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, came up with the idea that would have required the state-owned Bank of North Dakota to create a $5,000 account for each newborn of state residents, the Fargo Forum reports. The money could be used later in life to attend a state college, start a business, farm or buy a house, or pay for nursing home care.
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Finding critics of MNsure, the state health exchange, isn’t hard. But when Tom Forsythe says it’s time to bury the current version of the troubled operation, he commands some attention; he’s on the MNsure board of directors. Read more →
The most interesting statistic in this year’s concealed carry report: There was not a single case of a gun permitted under the carry law being used for self-defense. Read more →
A house on Colfax Avenue in Minneapolis that had seen its better days is gone now. The 122-year-old ‘Orth House’ has been demolished despite attempts by some preservationists to save it.
But the Facebook war surrounding it goes on, providing a bit of lesson on how legions can get carried away in social network battles. Read more →
Proposed: Whenever a politician has a news conference, stick a kid in front of the podium. Read more →
This is the sort of scandal that can keep the media and Washington talking for weeks. The opportunists smell blood in the water.
That’s weeks longer than the scandal about homeless veterans in America. Read more →
Though it didn’t come up much in last fall’s campaign, the minimum wage issue is back at the Capitol in Saint Paul where a Republican lawmaker is carrying a restaurant-industry-written bill to trim the minimum wage increase for servers. Read more →
It doesn’t appear as though Wisconsin state troopers are going to get a raise. Read more →