The power of self esteem is regularly and increasingly mocked in U.S. culture, perhaps one of the reasons the arts has an increasingly difficult time gaining a bigger foothold in the education system. Maybe Kenya knows something we should. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for January 2017
Given the current state of affairs, we’ll take a heartwarming story anywhere we can find it, and Steve Hartman’s latest effort certainly fits the bill.
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This video suggests to us that we’ve entered another era when people are running across a major American airport in search of safety.
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The Salvation Army has reversed a decades-old policy and will no longer bar people who’ve been drinking from its shelter in La Crosse, the La Crosse Tribune reports. Read more →
Former baseball star Curt Schilling is probably going to be ushered into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown when the results of voting by baseball writers is revealed on Jan. 18.
But Schilling, a conservative’s conservative, is outraged that some writers are leaving him off their ballot and he thinks it’s because of his support for Donald Trump. Read more →
Here’s a pro tip from upstate New York: If you’re arrested for DUI and you want to keep it on the down low, don’t buy up all the newspapers in the area carrying your mugshot. Read more →
A University of Minnesota football player has provided new insight into what the team was thinking when it called a boycott of football activities to protest the suspension of 10 players who were accused of sexually assaulting a woman after a September party.
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Student loan relief, Social Security taxes, religion in school, transgender bathroom laws, and CEO pay are among the topics in the first wave of bills filed in the Minnesota House. Read more →
I’m very late getting to this dissection of a StoryCorps segment last month but since I relayed it on NewsCut I should get complaints into the record, although it did not generate controversy on this blog.
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Little League baseball is adopting new rules to speed up the pace of play, which leads us to ask this question: What’s the hurry? Read more →
It’s good news and bad news for law enforcement when it snows. Good: It makes it easier to track a perpetrator. Bad: It makes it hard to chase said perp. A Beltrami County deputy demonstrates.
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Dodgeball is the sort of sport that can leave the typical scars that high school has a way of leaving.
In Wisconsin, it can also lead to a criminal record.
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What have you got against spelling, Twin Cities?
In an op-ed commentary in the Star Tribune today, spelling bee coordinator Kelly Maynard notes that no sponsor has emerged to sponsor school kids in the regional portion of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Read more →
Today, Sen. Bernie Sanders printed out a tweet — you can get them on your computer now — and went to the floor of the U.S. Senate where he put it on an easel, so it would show up on television.
This, no doubt, all seemed perfectly normal to the U.S. Senate. Read more →