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.
“This is crazy,” the man said as he and a colleague looked at the open pit in our front yard last week before turning to my wife. “I hope you like West Nile Virus,” he said. He was there to move the utility lines that stood in the way of one of 26 fascinating experiments Read more →
Our friend Daniel Alvarez, the man who kayaked from Minnesota to Key West last year, has given us a look at the nation’s biggest rivers that makes us want to turn away. Read more →
A question of race. Or not. What kids know that adults don’t. The electric Lindbergh. Tales of the Frankenstein rabbit. And the new bamboo menace in the Northland. Read more →
Life in prison for Aaron Schaffhausen, the Justice Department opens its probe into the Trayvon Martin killin, can retirement lead to Alzheimer’s, Washington’s minimum-wage showdown with Walmart, and the birth of the vomit fee.
Here’s today’s news conversation with Mary Lucia on The Current. Read more →
A situation in a community north of Boston on Saturday takes the pay-it-forward craze to a new level. Generally, it starts when someone at a drive-thru pays for the food of the person behind them in line. It’s a nice day-brightener. Consider this story from Amesbury, Mass., where 55 consecutive cars in line at the Read more →
Documenting the demise of the lost art of baseball score keeping. Read more →
Small-town newspaper fold because there aren’t enough people who care about people’s dreams and the places they’re going. Read more →
What can you do in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict that can make a difference, the once-a-day-phone-call economy, in praise of the innovators, to be a farmer in Minnesota, and for the love of baseball. Read more →
A San Francisco area TV station is getting an unwarranted free pass now that the National Transportation Safety Board has acknowledged that a summer intern “confirmed” the names of the pilots in charge of Asiana Flight 214, the one that crashed last week on a San Francisco runway. http://youtu.be/YU2m3xf99R4 The names, of course, were offensive Read more →
If listeners contribute directly to NPR, what happens to local public radio? Read more →
The NTSB just released this picture of the interior or the jet that crashed in San Francisco last week. The pilots had initially told people to stay in their seats after the plane landed. The picture confirms that it was pretty poor advice.
Shades of Brodkorb at the Capitol, a tuition freeze at the University of Wisconsin, even for Minnesota kids, a compromise takes shape on student loan interest rates, no food stamps in the farm bill, closing arguments in the Trayvon Martin case, and did DNA just prove who the Boston Strangler was? Here’s today’s news conversation Read more →
A deal is a deal when it comes to surrogate birth, even if the mother changes her mind, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled today. The court ruled in the case of Monica Schissel of Columbus, Wis., who changed her mind after agreeing to bear a child for David and Marcia Rosecky of Menomonee Falls, using Read more →
There might be more to a second than a second. In the course of a day, on which our standard of time is based, the planet wobbles a bit. So some days are longer or shorter than others. The atomic clock keeps a more accurate record of the time, but that may soon be obsolete, Read more →
Is it time for the Twins to fire their manager, when is it OK to mention a woman’s appearance in a news story, health care for your pet, how to wash your hair in space, and one small step to fight hunger. Read more →
Bob Collins