Today’s sign that the apocalypse is upon us comes from La Crosse, Wis., where the La Crosse Tribune reports a man left meth in a tip jar at a Famous Dave’s. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice

A prominent ad on the back page of the Star Tribune this morning following bomb scares at two Jewish centers in the Twin Cities and anti-Semitic attacks around the nation. Read more →

The police in Northampton, Mass., found out the hard way that even the best of intentions can be a problem. Read more →
Sometime during Martin Luther King Day weekend, someone spray-painted the ‘N word’ on the home of Heather Lindsay and her husband, Lexene Charles, in Connecticut. They’re refusing to remove it.
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If you’re at all a fan of the First Amendment, there was plenty to like about today’s decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down a Florida law that prohibited doctors from asking whether there are guns in the home. Read more →

A refugee from Somali had been walking for 21 hours when he crossed from Minnesota to Canada. He was nearly frozen. A CBC reporter met him and put him in his car to warm him up and called the police. Does that challenge an ethic that says journalists shouldn’t get involved in the stories they cover? Read more →
In upholding a lower court ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court said the woman, who was suspected of possessing meth, had no expectation of privacy when visiting another home.
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If there’s a person who allegedly sexually assaults little kids on a school bus, is there a way to tell people without violating privacy? Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals today reaffirmed one of the most ignored vehicle laws in the state: When it’s raining, you have to turn on your headlights and tail lamps. Read more →

It’s getting so you can’t even leave your manure spreader unlocked anymore.
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It was a nice story, but in these times, nice stories often don’t last. In Hibbing,you may recall, the community came together to support the Koslucher family, which lost Christmas presents in a fire just before Christmas when someone reportedly stole them after the blaze. Read more →
You’d think by now people would know it’s a bad idea to utter the ‘B word’ at an airport but an Indian man did it in Grand Forks anyway with predictable results. Read more →

NPR’s StoryCorps provides a warm update to the journey of Mary Johnson, the Minneapolis woman whose son was murdered by Oshea Israel in 1992, and who came to forgive him — and become friends with him — after visiting him in Stillwater prison. Read more →

Southern Minnesota drug court Judge Larry Collins is retiring with the luxury of knowing he did some good. He knows that because the people who went through his court told him so. Read more →

Angie Arnold’s picture tells the story of Wednesday’s bomb scare at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park far more poignantly than any news story about the assault could.
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