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NewsCut

MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

By Bob Collins

Bob Collins
bcollins@mpr.org • @newscut

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 or That

Ad: When a man taught his son how to shave

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 28, 2019, 7:15 AM May 28, 2019
3

Be nice to a snowflake today. Gillette is out with another ad that attempts to redefine masculinity Read more →

What’s on MPR News – 5/28/19

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 28, 2019, 5:57 AM May 28, 2019
2

Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →

NewsCut Flashback: I found an old friend today, only to learn he’s dying

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 26, 2019, 6:47 AM May 26, 2019
2

Perhaps this is a condition of the aged, but I suspect people of a certain age tend to struggle trying to mute an inner voice when reading column’s like Patrick Reusse’s tribute to a sportswriter in Sunday’s Star Tribune. The voice that asks, “when I’m gone, will anyone remember that I was here?” Read more →

Sports

At the baseball stadiums, patriotism is always on sale

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 3:50 PM May 24, 2019
6

It’s Memorial Day weekend, the annual tradition in which sports teams and businesses can cash in on the sacrifice of soldiers.
Read more →

People doing good · Sports

Woman delays surgery so she can watch the Stanley Cup playoffs

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 1:41 PM May 24, 2019
2

Shannon McCarthy’s family and friends aren’t too proud to beg.
Read more →

Sports · This or That

Milwaukee playoff game turns into battle of beer-drinking bros

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 12:40 PM May 24, 2019
17

Last night’s playoff game in Milwaukee — the Bucks lost to Toronto — provided the quintessential Wisconsin moment: the city’s alpha male sports stars chugging beer. Read more →

The jobs we do

A postman retired and a neighborhood wouldn’t let him go without some hugs

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 10:24 AM May 24, 2019
9

Back in the day, the people who delivered the mail were part of the glue of a neighborhood. In Georgia, one ‘postman’ found out just how much the people on his route appreciated him. Read more →

War

1,000 Words: The faces of D-Day

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 8:36 AM May 24, 2019
6

The Associated Press invited us to pause and reflect on the past by taking another long look at the present: images of the men who are still able to return to Europe for the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Duluth competition flagged for plagiarism

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 7:16 AM May 24, 2019
18

Duluth’s competition for a new city flag is turning nasty.
Read more →

What’s on MPR News – 5/24/19

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 24, 2019, 6:00 AM May 24, 2019
0

Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →

Arts & Culture

The great unsolved mystery: Who is Postcard Underground?

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 23, 2019, 3:45 PM May 23, 2019
4

Many of been on the trail of the people who mysteriously send postcards. None has solved it. Read more →

Arts & Culture

High over Fargo, a photographer recreates an iconic image

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 23, 2019, 1:34 PM May 23, 2019
4

The ironworkers on the Block 9 construction project in Fargo inspired a construction company supervisor to recreate history. Read more →

This or That

Five years after plane crash, a family retraces their son’s steps in Minnesota

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 23, 2019, 11:19 AM May 23, 2019
1

It was five years ago when Alexander Voigt’s adventure to Minnesota as a German exchange student ended when the plane in which he was a passenger crashed into a house in Sauk Rapids. Last week, his family made another pilgrimage to the state, to try to retrace the last month of Alexander’s life. Read more →

Arts & Culture

On museum tour, students find racism

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 23, 2019, 10:35 AM May 23, 2019

Who’s going to believe a bunch of children of color that they ran into racism while visiting one of the nation’s great museums? Read more →

Health

A civilized approach to mental illness pays off in Duluth

Bob CollinsBob Collins May 23, 2019, 8:47 AM May 23, 2019
4

Duluth police have had 31 percent fewer mental health-related calls, a confirmation that a more civilized approach to dealing with mental illness is working and deserves expansion throughout the state. Read more →

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