Bob Collins
Given the hate they’re still getting online, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson could be forgiven if they’d sued everyone involved in their ouster from a Philadelphia Starbucks. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
The Minnesota Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Central Minnesota domestic violence support organization, which allowed a woman at a fundraiser to give a speech about her alleged domestic abuse, can be sued for defamation. The organization — Someplace Safe — also printed details in a newsletter. Read more →
Germans are wearing skullcaps to stand against violence against Jews. Read more →
In a perfect world, Michelle McNamara, the University of Minnesota journalism grad, would be alive today to see the perp walk man may do in California. She lived determined to see it, she committed the last years of her life to making it happen. Read more →
It’s unlikely there’ll be many people on the sidelines in the case of a lawsuit that alleges children have been taken from parents in Minnesota because they were spanked. You’re either for spanking or you’re against it. Read more →
Constable Ken Lam didn’t want to shoot Alek Minassian, the man who appears to have been the driver of a van that killed 10 people in Toronto on Monday.
A video shot by bystanders shows Lam ordering Minassian to the ground, Minassian insisting that the constable shoot him. Read more →
South Florida Judge Merrilee Ehrlich retires at 5 p.m. today, after failing to muster up an ounce of human dignity while berating a defendant who was charged with getting into an argument with her daughter. Read more →
Perhaps you’ve noticed police departments increasing the use of social media to get help identifying suspects — they call them “persons of interest” — in crimes. It’s a troubling trend that is growing more troubling because businesses have started doing the same thing. Read more →
There’s more than the Wetterlings’ reputation and the reputation of journalists at stake with what comes next; there’s also the willingness of victims and others to assist investigators in the future. Read more →
A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper stopped his car on a snow-swept highway to do 39 push-ups. One for each law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty so far this year. Read more →
I don’t know if I’ve ever read a story that has so haunted me like today’s Star Tribune story of Jon Markle and his wife Mandy Markle, whose daughter drowned in Lake Minnetonka when Jon, who’d had a few drinks, decided it would be fun to drive on the ice. The girl was just 9 months old. Read more →
Tasha Lynn Schleicher, 41, of New Hope, Minn., is in familiar territory: in jail and charged with drunk driving. It’s Illinois’ turn to have a crack at Schleicher, who has had 11 of her 12 children taken away from her — all for reasons related to her drunk and impaired driving. Read more →
What separates the police of Asheville, N.C., from some of the gendarmes in the rest of the country is they don’t shut off their body cameras when it hits the fan. Read more →
Jan Duffner pulled her front yard out because she’s allergic to grass. She planted wildflowers and a garden instead. A neighbor complained. Read more →
School shootings can move school administrators to act sometimes. But nothing gets their dander up like kids with a mind of their own.
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