Bob Collins
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear on Thursday on MPR News Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
By Bob Collins
Bob Collins retired from Minnesota Public Radio in 2019 after 12 years of writing NewsCut and pointing out to complainants that posts weren’t news stories. A son of Massachusetts, he was a news editor 1992-1998, created the MPR News regional website in 1999, invented the popular Select A Candidate, started several blogs, and every day lamented that his Minnesota Fantasy Legislature project never caught on.
A typical Major League Baseball team is a melting pot of camaraderie — whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos all united in pursuit of a common purpose. We could all take a lesson.
Except that sometimes, a different truth is revealed — a racial and ethnic divide that isn’t much different than the rest of society. Read more →
From what I can tell, Cynthia Marie Thiel was like me. A passionate sports fan who just wanted her team to win a championship before she died. Read more →
News media from as far away from Tokyo showed up to document the Warroad Pioneer’s demise because, apparently, even the people of Tokyo care more about Warroad than the people of Warroad. Read more →
The Republican majority in the Minnesota Senate, with the help of a few DFLers — is trying to strip money from the Society in retaliation for its decision to add a single word to a sign for the Fort Snelling Historical Site Read more →
Sure, it was a lousy winter that was perfect for potholes. But this year’s potholes are also last year’s potholes which were fixed with Band Aids. Some cities have worse potholes than others because some cities have no choice but to let roads go to pot. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear on MPR News on Wednesday. Read more →
Autherine Lucy Foster was able to walk onto the campus of the University of Alabama in 1956, four years after she applied for admission, igniting a legal battle. Three days later, she was expelled. Read more →
It was on this date in 1975 that President Gerald Ford announced that the Vietnam War era was over, a declaration that doesn’t even register a blip on the historical calendar because the war actually ended more than a week earlier when Ford told a graduating class at Tulane University that for America, the war was over. Read more →
James Callahan, 43, a teacher in Lowell, Mass., apparently didn’t understand a lot of what his students were saying when he started a list, which, in the last week or so, has been a Twitter hit. He started a dictionary of Generation Z language. Read more →
If people are dying because passengers can’t part with their ‘stuff,’ maybe it’s time to prevent them from carrying it onboard. Read more →
If the Park Board can’t change the name, if the Hennepin County Board can’t change the name, if the DNR can’t change the name, and if the Minnesota Legislature can’t change the name, who can change the name? Read more →
The BBC reports that the study found that 99.75% of a person’s life satisfaction has nothing to do with their use of social media. Read more →
Here are the stories, topics, and guests you’ll hear on Tuesday on MPR News. Read more →
An announcement today really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to public radio watchers but the descendant of the show that put St. Paul on the national map is heading for the bright lights permanently. Read more →