Elizabeth Cummings Browning died over the weekend. She was just 53, and suffered from dementia and ALS and died just two days after the musician was unable to play one of her favorite songs, according to her obituary in the Star Tribune, which presumably was written by her husband, Star Tribune reporter Dan Browning. Read more →
This incident in Eau Claire had all the makings of the typical springtime tragedy in these parts. A car stops, apparently for no particular reason, in the middle of the multi-lane road. Another car or two go blasting past them and into a duck and her ducklings who were trying to cross the road. Read more →
Mental health advocates will tell you that trying to get the country to pay attention to — and maybe even provide a little empathy for — the problem of mental illness in America has been a long slog. Imagine if the fervor for eliminating smoking could be harnessed to make significant inroads to help those Read more →
Arby’s is promoting a smokehouse brisket sandwich by running the longest TV commercial in history — 13 hours.
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From the “Can Your Winter Do This?” file: A couple of fishermen were out on Lake Michigan near Traverse City this week when this came along. “They crept up on our boat and then we could see that it was a cloud that was really close to the water. We thought about pulling in our Read more →
Farmers can breathe easier. The fertilizer shortage is over. The Associated Press reports that BNSF has now cleared all the backlog of delayed fertilizer shipments as commodities vie for railroad access. The Surface Transportation Board last month ordered BNSF and Canadian Pacific Railway to submit the plans to ensure fertilizer was available for spring planting. Read more →
Is this a whimsical and cute chalk drawing on a Stillwater sidewalk or a dastardly and illegal expansion of commercial signage?
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For all the appropriate chatter about intrusions into privacy, for all the legitimate scandals being derailed by school districts citing privacy and personnel law, a story today stands out: Why is it anyone’s business whether you voted? Read more →
Politicians have been mostly taking their victory lap in the days since the Minnesota Legislature ended its 2014 session, but there remains an issue that they can’t seem to outrun — Sunday liquor sales. Read more →
The president of the United States took a walk yesterday. Count the number of Secret Service agents in this video, released by the White House. They walked to the Interior Department, then walked back to the White House. Enroute, we learned that the safest place, apparently, for the president to walk is in the middle Read more →
Thomas Friendman said the state, at least the one that he knew growing up, had civic leaders who felt a responsibility to do more than just make a buck, and had liberal Republicans in heavily Republican congressional districts.
Does that Minnesota still exist?
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Norman Rockwell’s The Rookie sold this morning for $20 million, NPR reports. Read more →
Ruth Ziolkowski, who died yesterday, is a vanishing breed in America; like her husband, she was willing to spend her life energy on a project that could not possibly be finished in her lifetime.
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Ben Pierce, 9, is going blind and there are a few things he wants to see before he can’t see. Read more →
What would it take for the overconnected generation to give up their cellphones?
In Kimball, Minnesota, a teacher is finding out by keeping their cellphones 24/7 in exchange for allowing the students to skip the finals in her class. Read more →
Bob Collins