Bob CollinsFor experienced storm chasers, Monday offered the opportunity for prime viewing of a still relatively rare weather event in these parts, in this case, Litchfield and Watkins in west-central Minnesota. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for July 2016
It’s almost as if the original coders knew that someday we’d be looking at their work from tiny computers held in our hands, computers with the power that would have filled several rooms back in the day.
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MPR’s Tom Weber asked his considerable audience today, ‘What’s next? Where do we go from here?’ in the aftermath of last week’s police shootings, the attack on police officers in Dallas, and Saturday night’s riot on I-94.
Of the many suggestions, ‘equip police with body cameras’ seemed to be among the most common. That’s not surprising, Minnesota politicians have been wrestling with the question even before Jamar Clark was shot to death by Minneapolis police last November.
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What if blind people could see again?
A group of scientists announced in an article in a science journal they’ve been able to restore sight to blind mice. Read more →
In two weeks, a couple hundred volunteers and the grandson of P-47 Thunderbolt pilot killed during a raid on German troops in Italy in World War II will try to unearth what’s left of the plane and, possibly, the pilot’s remains near Bagnarola, Italy. Read more →
The New York Times reports today that people openly carrying their legal weapons at last week’s assault on Dallas police made it tougher for police to fight back. It introduces a new wrinkle in an old debate: If everyone has guns, how do you tell the good from the bad? Read more →
We’re pretty much killing ourselves by going to work in America. We work too much. We don’t take vacation days. We work from home. We work on the weekends. We don’t use sick leave, if we get it at all.
Why?
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Laboring in intended anonymity, Jeff Sandell created a legion of followers by listening to police scanners. Read more →
Aside from the fact they’re the only team capable of actually winning games in this town, what separates the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA from almost every man’s team, well, anywhere is they’re not afraid to take a stand and speak out when speaking out is necessary.
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In Los Angeles today, men of color held a march to protest recent police killings and ‘reintroduce’ the community to the police. Read more →
Ali Mohamed Dahir was among several dozen who became new citizens during a naturalization ceremony on St. Paul’s Harriet Island. Like his fellow new family members, his story is worth telling. Read more →
If you’ve followed the numerous posts here about Lee Sjolander, the incredible police chief of Kenyon, Minn., you’ve probably caught yourself wondering in the last 24 hours, “I wonder what Chief Sjolander thinks?”
This morning, via his Facebook account, of course, he answered. Read more →
It’s been a bad 24 hours for words. Read more →
People who have watched a near inexhaustible number of people of color die at the hands of police have used any number of rationales to ignore the obvious disparity in the justice system.
Philando Castile’s killing presents a challenge to them and Rep. Cornish because he appears to have behaved exactly the way he should have. Read more →
From the sound of things, writers Brad and Amy Herzog had a pretty good thing going for nearly two decades, traveling the country and writing a blog as spokespeople for the RV Industry Association. Then they wrote a book critical of Donald Trump. Read more →