Bob Collins
Kids who make a difference, when an NPR journalist destroys NPR journalism, what go wrong with Ticketmaster’s entrance into the scalping market, watching the lights go out with Alzheimer’s, and the Islamic center proposal in St. Cloud. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
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.
The war in Vietnam only ended this week for Ho Van Thanh. Read more →
Obama says “there’s nothing more to see here” when it comes to domestic surveillance, there’ll be no Olympics boycott, a break — sort of — for people with high-interest student loans, no charges against racist Minneapolis police officers, who needs a $38,000 handbag, and the kid in Sartell who could teach a few things to the people who do. Read more →
The campaigns to get people to stop watching their cellphones while they drive often seem like shoveling sand against the tide; nothing seems to be working to convince people there’s danger in it. So AT&T, Verizon, Spring, and T-Mobile commissioned Werner Herzog, the German filmmaker, to produce a documentary, featuring four tragedies: A paralyzed young Read more →
A close encounter with a police license plate scanner. Read more →
Raise your hand if you’ve ever read a software license, credit card, or bank “agreement.” I didn’t think so. Read more →
39 years ago today, a president quit Read more →
The questions surrounding the Wilfs, it’s time for journalists to change how they tell stories, the brew farm, rapping scientists, the people who don’t give up, and not all heartless crooks are heartless. Read more →
Two soldiers who were shot testify in the Fort Hood trial, the Wilfs say don’t worry about that civil racketeering thing, meet the Powerball winner, the flooding in the midsection, the last King Family survivor dies, and the fungus of northern Michigan.
Here’s today’s news conversation with Mary Lucia on The Current. Read more →
Municipal courses looked great in the 1990s. Now, not so much. Read more →
Anoka is trending this afternoon on Twitter after a Ham Lake man won a piece of the Powerball jackpot. Apparently, plenty of people on Twitter are happy for Paul White, because it gave them a chance to dump on an entire county. The winning MN Power Ball ticket was sold in Anoka County. A Frank Read more →
There’s a reality in debates over public financing of sports stadiums that rarely gets acknowledged: You never really stop paying for them. Read more →
Wisconsin government declares, “Disperse ye Singers!” Read more →
The disappearing first-person history, bull run in Dakota County, when the carnies don’t show, when airline passengers disobey the rules, and sportswriters with short memories. Read more →
It’s like old times between Russia and the U.S., why are politicians in Wisconsin so afraid of people who sing, what is H7N9 and why does it have Minnesota health officials concerned, a power outage update from last night’s storm, who’s the person in Mankato stopped for doing 148, and do you have Powerball fatigue? Read more →