Bob Collins
As predicted, a restaurant server in Iowa is the latest recipient of a huge tip, offered by a man who’s traveling the country leaving big tips in honor of his dead brother. 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.
Slate’s Matthew Yglesias love Minneapolis but takes a whack at people who don’t want Dinkytown to change. Read more →
What’s the future of a one-company town, what does it mean to be a progressive, wrapping North Minneapolis, feed the world by eating bugs, and why are they ruining Monopoly? Read more →
Sen. Al Franken can’t risk being funny. Read more →
Nearly a quarter million people are expected to show up in Duluth this weekend with the arrival of the tall ships, which have made their way from Cleveland in the last week. The tall ships festival is expected to generate almost $15 million dollars for the local economy, according to organizers. The ships have been Read more →
In gun debate, the line between campaign contribution and bribe is thin. Read more →
Even despite all the revelations about the occasional despicable act — forging mortgage documents, for example — it’s a rare day that banks are held accountable for their misdeeds.
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Breaking the government intentionally, is it hot in here, close encounters of the Marshall County kind, the search for the family of a Marine killed on Saipan in WWII, and why old buildings matter. Read more →
I’m not going to post the usual news conversation with Mary Lucia of The Current today. It’s irrelevant compared to the news she delivered during her No Apologies track today, and anyone who’s ever had a love on four legs can understand. Read more →
We are raised to believe that success in the world depends on our ability to work hard enough. But as the haves begin to put more distance between themselves and the have-nots, let’s take a moment to observe another truth: it comes down to dumb luck. Read more →
Andrew Burton, a photographer for Getty Images, has spent the last two days photographing the men who’ve headed for the good times of western North Dakota, home of the oil boom.
These are the faces behind NPR’s political voices. Don Gonyea, Scott Horsley and Brian Naylor are taking part in the Des Moines Register’s annual bike ride across Iowa — RAGBRAI. They said they wanted to see the Iowa they missed while covering the presidential caucuses in the 2012 campaign. You can follow their exploits on Read more →
The long reach of poverty, the last days of ‘Big Blue,’ the food-truck controversy, the wheelage tax speeds through Minnesota counties, and the car seat’s great leap forward. Read more →
A break in student-loan interest rates could be at hand, the freak show in London, Anthony Weiner’s problem, the toddler death in Wisconsin, how you fall out of a roller coaster, and the special education teacher. Read more →
Wendy DeGeest once planned a life as an elementary school teacher. Then she found the kids who really needed her and everything became clear. It was the 1980s and Pine City, Minn., needed a special education teacher. Growing up in a family that struggled with mental illness, DeGeest knew something about the wayward ways of Read more →