Bob CollinsA day after yet another tiff at a city council meeting where an ongoing political dispute between the city’s first female mayor and at least one member of the council has included allegations of misogyny, police say someone has sprinkled screws around the mayor’s driveway to flatten her tires.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Politics
George H.W. Bush turned 94 Tuesday, which is notable because not a single U.S. president has ever lived to be 94. And soon, there might be two. Jimmy Carter turns 94 in October. Presidents Ford and Reagan were 93 when they died. Bush’s son, Neal, penned a tribute to his father in USA Today today. “Long Read more →
It takes a lot to make Canada mad, but former diplomat Scott Gilmore has pretty much had it. Read more →
Although, obviously, there are local elections, elections are national things and should it be tougher for an American to vote in one state rather than another? Why not just have one set of rules for 50 states and the territories? Read more →
In the category of attempts to apologize for your racism, a South Dakota legislator has provided a perfect example of trying to make the obvious go away. Read more →
If a congressman holds a listening session and only one constituent shows up, is it a failure of participatory democracy or a fine example of the beauty of the democratic process? Read more →
Amy Parrish, 98, apparently fell down the stairs at her home in Richfield. Her husband, John, 95, tried to get to her. He fell, too.
And outside their neat cottage, life went on. Read more →
If you want to start an online fight with a young person, tell them that as bad as things appear to be now — and they do appear to be quite bad — it’s nothing compared to 1968. Read more →
By a 3-to-2 vote, Hutchinson City Council members rejected calls to replace a prayer by Christian pastors with a moment of silence. Read more →
Let’s fully understand what yesterday’s decision by NFL owners to crack down on employee protest is. The owners, under pressure from the government in the form of the President of the United States, agreed to modify its speech to please that government.
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Mainstream news media outlets aren’t very good at covering communities of color and issues of race and class and there’s a pretty obvious reason why not: they’re mostly white. Read more →
The ACLU in Minnesota is pushing the city council in Excelsior, Minn., to reconsider its decision to deny a permit for a group that wanted to hold the Lake Minnetonka March for Our Lives, to show support for students who have marched for gun legislation in the wake of school shootings.
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There probably isn’t a more ethical and conservative (small “c”) news organization in America than the Associated Press, so today’s decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to deny the AP entry to a speech being given by EPA head Scott Pruitt is an escalation of the showdown between the administration and the free press. Read more →
From the sound of things, Forest Lake is taking Lake Elmo’s title of Washington County’s most combative city goverment. Read more →
Exit polls, the notoriously inaccurate in-person survey of voters at polling places, could be vanishing under a plan announced today by the Associated Press.
The AP says it will replace its exit polling system after 2016 exit polls appeared to favor Hillary Clinton.
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