Bob Collins
Two Hudson Ambassadors have been removed from their role representing the Wisconsin city and nobody seems to know why except the organization that sponsors the royalty program. And it’s not talking. 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.
A quick glance at the calendar confirms that it’s 2019, so it’s important to ask what on earth goes through a person’s mind when referring to lynching during a hockey game broadcast? Read more →
Last year, a Minnesota judge ruled the 1971 marriage valid, and a few weeks ago, the Social Security Administration sent them the letter agreeing. Read more →
Throw a black robe on a person and we’ve been conditioned to elevate our opinion of him/her. But recently we’ve seen proof that the unfit and potentially corrupt get jobs as judges, too.
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Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
The University of Kansas has been handing out small stickers marked with an email address, phone number, and unique identification code, and asking people to attach them to the discal cell on the butterflies’ wings. Then record the date and location. That’s what Julianne Moore, of Northfield, did in her backyard last September. Read more →
Another snowstorm? Why that seems almost criminal. Read more →
The flaw in the survey is that people define what is stressful and while soldiers and firefighters would pass muster by any standard — potentially dying on the job seems like a reasonable benchmark — and maybe airline pilots can claim stress from the perception of danger, there’s no explaining why broadcasters and news reporters (No. 7 on the list) make the list other than being notorious complainers. Read more →
There’s not much a community can do with abandoned, concrete silos, the kind that dot Minneapolis’ Hiawatha Avenue and the Prospect Park area. Or is there?
Mankato has the right idea. An artist is going to treat them like the canvas they are and make art. Read more →
There’s nothing wrong with nabbing drug traffickers through probable cause, of course, but the cases highlight how easy it is to obtain it when an officer is looking for a reason to pull someone over who doesn’t look quite right. Sometimes the police are right; sometimes they’re not. Read more →
Professor Alessandro Strum, a guest professor, is no longer welcome at the European particle physics research center CERN. Not after he offered his own scientific theory at a symposium on gender equity – that women are not as able at physics as men. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear today on MPR News. Read more →
Dmitri Moua, 16, just wanted to dance but it took him making a federal case out of it to get him to try out for a girls competitive high school dance team in Roseville. There are no boys teams and the Minnesota State High School League dictates the rules and said “no” to Moua and Zachary Greenwald, a dancer in Hopkins. Read more →
Cindy Gallea, of Wykoff, Minn., is currently in last place in the Iditarod sleg dog race in Alaska, pulling into the Rohn checkpoint on Tuesday, and if you’re prone to chuckle about her standing, answer this: ‘What are you accomplishing today?’
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There is, perhaps, a debate to be had on the matter of artistic expression and racist symbols in history, but it’s inarguable that if a school district puts on a play featuring students in KKK robes, it should see the backlash coming from miles away. A Sioux Falls school didn’t. Read more →