Bob CollinsA sweet moment after last weekend’s Minnesota Class A State Tournament semifinals was a sobbering reminder that the carnage caused by distracted drivers in Minnesota can be found just about anywhere these days. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
You may recall Kate McClure’s story is her car broke down on a Philadelphia highway when it ran out of gas. Bobbitt, a homeless man who was once in the Marines, gave her the only money he had. Her GoFundMe campaign on his behalf raised a fortune, which he said the couple kept mostly for themselves. Prosecutors will reportedly announce today that all three were in on the scam. Read more →
Nate Liedl, of Chippewa Falls, Wis., would’ve liked to have had more than the 8 hours a week a family court had given him to spend with his six-month-old son, Jaxon Hunter, the infant who was killed, apparently by a 10-year-old girl at the infant’s day care.
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There is a growing political caucus in America: people in office whose children have been killed in gun violence. Read more →
I turned my ballot over the other day and had the same immediate thought I’ve had in every election since I moved to a state that elects judges: ‘this is a charade.’ Read more →
Over in Hayward, Wis., a judge has had just about enough of a justice system that is based on extending constitutional rights depending on the income of people. And that’s what the crisis in the public defender system creates. Read more →
Officer Peter Casuccio, of the Columbus Ohio police, has become quite the media star in the last 24 hours because he didn’t kill an 11-year-old kid holding a toy gun when he was responding to a report of young men with guns on Saturday afternoon. Read more →
Racism can put you out of business in a hurry, just ask the owner of Scream Town, which issued a ‘zero tolerance policy for Somalis’ via Facebook after some sort of incident last weekend at the Halloween-themed venue. Read more →
Abby Marie Zoellmer, 37, of Mankato, had five mugs of beer and then got in her car and started driving last January.
She struck and killed William Maher, 88, who had gone into the roadway to avoid the ice of the sidewalk. Read more →
The internet and social media has given people the ability to have their voices amplified. Too often, that’s a bad idea.
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Brainerd, like many Minnesota communities, restructured its fire department to a paid on-call volunteer force, eliminated five full-time equipment operators, ending an arrangement that had kept someone in the fire hall 24 hours a day. Read more →
“It’ll probably be gone in six months on crack cocaine,” Rice County deputy Tom McBroom tweeted after hearing that the woman who was with Philando Castile, the man shot to death by a St. Anthony police officer, received an $800,000 settlement. Read more →
John Nolley Jr. walked out of a courtroom in Texas today with his good name restored. Read more →
President Trump has made his wealth a big story for his entire life. It’s the very underpinning of his popularity. Now the New York Times has published a blockbuster story about how he got rich, and it seems to be lost in the usual noise that surrounds this president.
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Duluth is learning what other cities have learned in recent years: it’s really hard to fire people who shouldn’t be cops. Even when cities fire the cops, an arbitrator usually reinstates them.
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