Bob Collins
The people on the Iron Range, whose politics now matches the color of its topography, have a lot riding on the president’s promise to bring the steel industry back. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Politics
The nation’s air traffic control system is one of those government programs that actually works.
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Stocks go up and stocks go down but the long-term trend has always been in an upward direction. So some public officials think there’s long-term money to be made. Read more →
The convergence of sports and politics is usually an ugly scene and now that President Donald Trump is prepared to exercise the office’s traditional — and incredibly tired — welcoming of a sports team, it’s going to get uglier. Read more →
If an Associated Press story today is any indication, some voters in rural Wisconsin are getting tired of hearing about immigration and walls on the border of Mexico.
Kellyanne Conway’s citation of a massacre in Bowling Green — a massacre that didn’t ever happen — has certainly spawned a fair amount of head-scratching and jokes on the Interwebs. Read more →
Particularly since they’re usually released in advance now, it’s getting harder for Super Bowl commercials to stand out from the crowd anymore.
A sure-fire way to get noticed, however, is not to get your ad on the TV at all. Read more →
Reuters reports today that the new administration will revamp the ‘Countering Violent Extremism’ program to ‘Countering Islamic Extremism’ or ‘Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,’ and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States. It cites unnamed sources. Read more →
A new survey says language, not birthplace, is the core of national identity.
The survey, from Pew Research, finds only 13% of Australians, 21% of Canadians, 32% of Americans and a median of 33% of Europeans believe that it is very important for a person to be born in their country in order to be considered a true national — a true American, for example.
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At a refugeee camp in Kenya, hundreds of Somali refugees are doing what they’ve become accustomed to: waiting. They’ve been ‘rigorously screened by US and UN officials,’ The Guardian reports. And they’ve already waited between seven and 10 years for their resettlement in the United States. Read more →
Dan Backhaus, a Wisconsin native, would like you to get to know his neighborhood even if you’re the type who doesn’t want to. Read more →
The actors, actresses, directors, and producers of entertainment needn’t have bothered with their various statements of opposition to the Trump administration last evening.
The administration’s support comes largely from the portrayal of the creative class as elites who look down upon the common person. Read more →
When we heard NPR’s segment the other morning about why the network didn’t refer to Donald Trump’s repeated assertion that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Clinton, denying him a popular vote victory, a ‘lie’ we figured that NPR’s ombudsman would surely hear about it. She did. And she’s issued her ruling. Read more →
Mikhail Gorbachev opines today that the world seems to be preparing for war.
Good morning!
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If you want to troll people in the city, go after their bikes. Read more →