Tomorrow is the last day for NPR’s Talk of the Nation. NPR is dropping the show and getting out of the midday talk business. So Highlights, the kids’ magazine, dedicated a special edition of its classic game to spot the differences in two drawings. Host Neal Conan had told a Highlights staffer last year that Read more →
Remember that case I told you about in December when the Iowa Supreme Court said it was OK to fire a woman who worked in a dentist’s office because the dentist’s wife was jealous that he found the worker irresistible? Never mind. The court had ruled 7-0 for the Fort Dodge doctor, employing an odd Read more →
My colleague, Paul Tosto, has a loving passion in pointing out Minnesota’s dominance over the state to our east when it comes to the economy. Today, he’s got a little more ammunition from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve. In a report today, the Fed says Minnesota is rapidly catching up to Wisconsin in the total number Read more →
The next time you watch a baseball player throw a pitch, you can thank a hunter from two million years ago, apparently. If it weren’t for our ability to throw, we’d all be having lunch eating our front lawns today. The BBC reports on a study in Nature that traces the origins of humans’ ability Read more →
The little spat in Washington over NPR’s new headquarters has gotten plenty of attention after an article last week in the Washington Post. Conservatives have had a field day with the $201 million headquarters, using it to renew and old debate over whether public broadcasting should get any government assistance (this ignores the fact that Read more →
Like Justice Sonia Sotomayor did yesterday, Justice Antonin Scalia read his dissent to today’s DOMA ruling from the bench. It’s a symbolic but otherwise pointless exercise, given that in 2013, live cameras and microphones are still not allowed in the High Court. Read more →
A neurological wake-up call, drone journalism, the Texas filibuster, end of the playoff lawn, and the beginning of the ‘Should Kevin Love be traded?’ season. Read more →
It’s an old-school filibuster that’s underway in Texas today as a legislator tries to kill an abortion bill by running out the clock in the legislative session. Unlike Congress, the filibuster that Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth is engaged in actually demands both physical and mental challenges. The rules require her to remain standing, Read more →
Today’s signal that the apocalypse is not upon us comes from Melanie Mozingo, who describes what happened to her in the Corcoran neighborhood of Minneapolis after the trees came crashing down. She says the young man’s name is Blake and he’s about 8 or 9 years old.
Minnesota DFLer Ryan Winkler followed a pretty predictable script today when he referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as… well, here: Winkler deleted his tweet, then provided a fine example of digging oneself deeper. First with the non-apology apology: And then with the “I didn’t know it was racist” tweet. Which stresses believability. Even Read more →
When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down portions of the Voting Rights Act today, it noted that the doomed section of the Act is no longer constitutional partly because the method of determining which states should be subject to it is outdated. Here is the explanation in the opinion of Supreme Court Justice John Roberts: Read more →
Lessons of the power failure, PTSD and moral injury, whatever happened to the bullied bus lady, why are tailgaters such pigs, and The XXXXXX Monologues? Read more →
I’m back in the cities after a great weekend in Cleveland. I’ll be back in the office tomorrow. I like a good storm and the challenges one presents, so to be honest, I’m a little sorry I missed the wind and rain of last week. The power outages? I’m not sorry to have missed out Read more →
This Sunday, the moon will be at its closest all year AND it will be full. That’s a recipe for a supermoon, NASA says. Here’s what that looked like last year: Wired has tips on photographing the moon. Let’s just hope for a clear night.
Connor Sheets of the International Business Times reports: A group of employees at Cincinnati’s beleaguered Internal Revenue Service field office used IRS computers and email accounts to exchange dozens of emails during the months leading up to the 2008 presidential election among a group of friends and colleagues dubbed the “Neanderthals,” discussing national politics in Read more →
Bob Collins
Nate Minor