Bob CollinsTimes should be good again soon for restaurants in St. Louis. Missouri is cutting the minium wage back to $7.70 again after St. Louis had hiked it to $10 two months ago and it was to go up another $1 in January. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for July 2017
Oskaloosa, Iowa, like many government institutions, begins its City Council meetings with an invocation.
It’s usually given by a member of the clergy but when the Eastern Iowa Atheists group asked to give last night’s opening message, the city said “sure”, the Oskaloosa Herald says. Read more →
A Minnesota school district is putting weight behind the philosophy that substance abuse deserves treatment more than punishment.
Up until recently, the long-time policy for athletes in the Austin, Minn., schools was if a player is caught using chemicals, they’re benched for nine games or nine weeks, whichever is longer. A second offense carries a one-year suspension from the sport. A third infraction carries an additional year’s suspension. Read more →
The labor lines are being drawn in Michigan where goats are being employed to eat poison ivy on the campus of Western Michigan University and AFSCME is not happy.
Read more →
If data collected by Minnesota’s state and local government is public, why do we have to pay so much to get it?
Read more →
Jack Bohmert, 82, of Oak Park Heights, entered hospice two weeks ago and created a bucket list of things he wanted to accomplish before he goes.
At the top of the list was a ride across the new St. Croix River bridge, which doesn’t open until next month. Read more →
Shoshana and Ari Simones of Phoenix were on vacation when someone spray-painted a swastika and the word “Jew” outside their home. Their neighbors covered it with paper but when they got home, the couple took it down and let everyone see what we’re becoming.
Read more →
Last evening, Eric Saathoff, a teacher who lives in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood, demonstrated what he calls ‘the pedestrian experience’ on St. Paul’s Maryland Avenue. It could’ve been anywhere in the city, however. It was hard crossing the four-lane section of the road. It wouldn’t take much to get killed. Read more →
West St. Paul and South St. Paul have passed ordinances limiting the housing options for people who are low-income and disabled. One politician insists it’s not discrimination. Read more →
Presuming that most people aren’t big supporters of drunk drivers, one might think being less lenient on DUI offenders (1 in 7 Minnesota drivers has a DUI conviction) would be a slam dunk for state politicians.
So why is it relatively easy for people to still be driving after 9 arrests? Read more →
Someone called the cops in Asheville, N.C., over the weekend because some people in a neighborhood built a home-brewed slip and slide in the street, which should immediately lead most of America to exclaim ‘why didn’t I ever think of that?’
Read more →
Shawn and Shamus Evans rolled into Minneapolis today enroute to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
They left Moorhead last week with the aim of running along the Mississippi River to support Ainsley’s Angels of America, providing running chairs to children along the way.
Read more →
The parade in Wisconsin took two minutes and covered 88 yards. Read more →
Apparently, our species took a giant step forward on Friday and nobody realized it, at least until today when the Washington Post reported on the work of John Pratt, the chief of quantum measurement at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees weights and measures in the United States. He and his colleagues Read more →
Were those bomb-throwing leftists at NPR trying to undermine the nation and start a revolution? What could possibly explain this kind of talk on the 4th of July? Read more →