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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

The jobs we do

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 →

The jobs we do · This or That

It got better for a young reporter. Then someone killed her.

Bob CollinsBob Collins April 19, 2019, 3:51 PM Apr 19, 2019
2

This is Lyra McKee, who was shot and killed while trying to do her job on Thursday. She’s a reporter. Read more →

The jobs we do

A tip of the hat to the people who tow your car

Bob CollinsBob Collins March 26, 2019, 2:06 PM Mar 26, 2019
2

It’s been a tough year to be a tow truck driver. Few people think kindly of the people who haul their cars away during snow emergencies. They’re just doing their jobs, people.

So it’s good to see one getting a little love for a simple act of concern and kindness.
Read more →

Sports · The jobs we do

Full-time trash hauler builds NHL franchise in spare time

Bob CollinsBob Collins December 31, 2018, 9:05 AM Dec 31, 2018
1

Dan Shrader, of Prior Lake, was likely out picking up the trash this morning. It’s his full-time job. Between a few stops, he helps build one of the best franchises in the National Hockey League. Read more →

Arts & Culture · The jobs we do

When radio connected ‘lonely souls’

Bob CollinsBob Collins December 5, 2018, 10:55 AM Dec 5, 2018
6

If you’ve never lived in small-town America, you’ve missed heroes at work — the people who got up before dawn and went into a tiny shack somewhere, read the school-lunch menus, the lost and found items, spinning some platters, and making people feel as if they’re listening to a neighbor, because they are. Read more →

Arts & Culture · The jobs we do

There’s money in moose turds

Bob CollinsBob Collins October 4, 2018, 9:36 AM Oct 4, 2018
10

Mary Winchenbach gets excited when she sees ‘a moose take a turd.’ Who doesn’t, Mary? Read more →

The jobs we do · Weather

Shoveling sand against the tide, and Hurricane Florence

Bob CollinsBob Collins September 13, 2018, 2:39 PM Sep 13, 2018
9

We admit to being shameless hurricane voyeurs, repeatedly clicking webcam images from the Outer Banks of North Carolina .

At this point, there’s little human activity on any of them. Just the ocean trying to wipe out any evidence of an allegedly advanced civilization. Read more →

The jobs we do · Weather

The people who fly into hurricanes

Bob CollinsBob Collins September 13, 2018, 9:52 AM Sep 13, 2018
3

The reason we know what Hurricane Florence is doing, is because a small group of people got up this morning, as in previous mornings, and flew an airplane into it. Read more →

The jobs we do

Meet Minnesota’s professional mermaid

Bob CollinsBob Collins September 10, 2018, 7:50 AM Sep 10, 2018
6

‘My goal for doing this is just to make at least one person believe in magic again,’ Hope McAlister said. ‘You can physically see people light up as you start talking about it.’
Read more →

The jobs we do

The shame of working for a living

Bob CollinsBob Collins September 4, 2018, 9:16 AM Sep 4, 2018
36

The puzzling online shaming of an actor because he has a job bagging groceries betrays the reality that too many people think hard work is beneath them. Read more →

Crime and Justice · The jobs we do

Watching people die

Bob CollinsBob Collins August 14, 2018, 4:18 PM Aug 14, 2018
4

The theater surrounding executions is particularly gruesome in which reporters who are invited to watch, come out later and tell us things we’re not really sure we want to know. Read more →

The jobs we do

What happens while you’re taking that detour

Sara Porter August 6, 2018, 3:15 PM Aug 6, 2018
28

Tis’ the season! There’s been a series of increasingly frustrating road woes in the Twin Cities this summer. While it might not be your first thought while you’re driving your 20-minute detour route, there’s some impressive stuff happening on those closed stretches of highway. In a series of tweets, the Minnesota Department of Transportation shared Read more →

The jobs we do

The pinsetter mechanic

Bob CollinsBob Collins July 20, 2018, 11:16 AM Jul 20, 2018
8

Bowling is reportedly still the #1 participatory sport in America, Motherboard contends.

Someone has to go to work every day to fix the contraptions that reset the pins.

Someone like Joe Martinez. Read more →

Arts & Culture · Regional history · The jobs we do

Minnesota’s drive-in movie era fades, but some won’t let it die

Bob CollinsBob Collins July 9, 2018, 7:12 AM Jul 9, 2018
37

Litchfield’s drive-in theater is one of only six remaining drive-ins in Minnesota. Dave Quincer aims to keep it alive.
Read more →

The jobs we do

Store manager is fired for not giving time off to woman with son on life support

Bob CollinsBob Collins July 3, 2018, 8:19 AM Jul 3, 2018
64

A Michigan mother is providing plenty of reason why workers need some protections when dealing with family emergencies. Crystal Reynolds Fisher, of Albion, Mich., let her convenience store manager know she wouldn’t be able to work the other day. Her son was in the hospital for reasons that have not yet been made clear. The Read more →

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