Judge Roy Pearson is out of a job. He’s the guy who sued a dry cleaner in Washington because they lost his pants and had a sign in their window that said “satisfaction guaranteed.” Pearson wasn’t satisfied, so he sued — for $67 million, or roughly the value of 83,750 new pants. After months of Read more →
Catholic bishops issued a statement today that made it pretty clear how Catholics should vote in the 2008 elections: Catholic. This isn’t exactly new; it repeats similar instructions made every election year since 1976. When you think Catholic and politics, one often thinks “abortion.” But it’s not that simple. Operating under the directive that a Read more →
I’ve wanted to do a piece for some time about the effects of the legalization of ticket scalping in Minnesota, but KSTP beat me to it a few weeks ago, when the Hannah Montana fans got worked up because all of the tickets to a concert were gone within minutes, but the scalpers had ’em. Read more →
Steve Olson pens an item forcing us to look at ourselves. And the time we waste… or not. For the last month I have been trying to schedule two hours of unstructured play for my son and his best friend from school and we still haven’t found a time that works. The realization that we Read more →
All of it, apparently. On Thursday, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission will release a report on stadium financing that, it says, “details both the public costs and the revenues derived from supporting professional sports in Minnesota.” “This report shows that – contrary to what some people think – professional sports has been a financial winner Read more →
In our political culture, we’ve become accustomed to a myth, partly because of the way news is covered. There is a good guy and there is a bad guy. There is white and there is black. There is liberal and there is conservative. There are only two flavors to anything and one flavor per side. Read more →
In the wake of the suspension of a group of Hamline University football players for dressing up in blackface for Halloween, someone had to ask the question. What exactly is the problem with blackface? Oddly, it was asked in Boston, where Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr picked up a DVD of The Jazz Singer Read more →
Among the environmental puzzlers we’ve had to deal with this year, the low water levels in Lake Superior is among the most curious. A few months ago, we heard the drop in the level of some Great Lakes was due to gravel mining in the ’60s. There’s rainfall patterns, of course. Chemicals, pollution, and global Read more →
So now we know. Sonia Morphew Pitt, the emerency manager for MnDOT, who didn’t have the good sense to come back to Minnesota (if for nothing else, the appearance of doing her job), was running a con on the state, according to documents released with her firing today. Pitt took off for various places without Read more →
On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board issued its “most wanted” improvements in the transportation system. Usually, runway incursions at airports, are high on the list and this year is no exception. Perhaps the most famous incursion was in Tenerife, when two 747s collided on the runway, killing 583 people. In the latest report, the Read more →
This week’s school levy votes around Minnesota have reignited a debate that’s been going nowhere for years: why aren’t our schools better and why is it costing us so much not to be? The post-levy rhetoric has offered few solutions, and plenty of accusations. Perhaps the answer lies in Boston, where today a report on Read more →
I consider myself a relatively earth-friendly sort. I drive 55 mph. I don’t pour my used motor oil down the storm drain… anymore. I shut the TVs off in the newsroom when I leave. I try to do my part, without deluding myself into attributing more impact to my actions than reality suggests. So it’s Read more →
Is a Willmar school teacher abusing her special education kids or not? The state Department of Education is going to have to decide that after five different investigations of special education teacher Lisa Vander Heiden. According to a complaint filed with the department, and reported in the West Central Tribune, the teacher abused an elementary Read more →
When the Legislature and governor started throwing people off MinnesotaCare a few years ago, opponents claimed the action would turn Minnesota into another Mississippi. But it’s tough to beat Mississippi in the “race for worst” when you’re competing against… Mississippi. That state kept its ranking as least healthy state in the nation. And Minnesota? It Read more →
Bob Collins