Bob Collins
his is the sort of flooding we see in March in western Minnesota but this time it’s because of 6 inches of rain that fell overnight in Luverne. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Archives for June 2014
Tomorrow is Flag Day in the United States, honoring the day in 1777 when the flag was adopted. It’s had a good run, despite our best attempts to embarrass it, as documented every year at this time on NewsCut (example). Minnesota Public Radio’s Nikki Tundel has been stashing her most disturbing encounters with the flag Read more →
“Ice girls” face the same lousy pay, poor working conditions and exposure as other team cheerleaders. Read more →
Can we please get on the same page on the issue of bike helmets, America?
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A father-son bike ride, for no particular reason. Read more →
Today’s StoryCorps from NPR offers a vivid reminder that it took more — much more — than freedom riders and and bus protests to advance civil rights in this country.
Fifty years ago next week, for example, several African Americans jumped into a whites-only swimming pool at a Florida hotel. In response, the owner poured acid into the water. Read more →
The interview carries a significant message: Politicians in the coming elections — especially Democrats — are going to have to answer for their past positions on same-sex marriage, the same way politicians of days-gone-by had to answer for their views on race and segregation. Read more →
The Minnesota Lynx were feted at the White House — again — today. The WNBA champions, as is custom, gave President Obama one of their jerseys. The new jersey — no Lynx, all advertisements — never looked more inappropriate.
It’s amazing, really, how one word can dog a person. Newsweek applied the “W word” to former President George Bush in 1987. And people repeated it until it stuck for the same reason characterizations stick today in social media: People often believe what they’re told to believe, and much of politics is marketing. Not a Read more →
Can we call ourselves the United States when we so very clearly are not? This graphics, released today from Pew Research, is a stunning characterization of the polarization of the United States, as evidenced by the politicians we send to Washington. The researchers aggregated every roll call vote back to the 1700s on the two-dimensional Read more →
Rev. Adam J. Copeland, a member of the faculty at Concordia College in Moorhead, loves Fargo. He just doesn’t subscribe to the apparently journalism commandment: ‘Thou shalt speak no ill of Fargo.’
Copeland stirred things up in paradise this week when he wrote on his blog — A Wee Blether — criticizing coverage of Fargo by the media. He says stories about the city are heavy on glowing praise, absent of critical perspective.
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Spoiler alert! There’s no evidence of a monster on the Lake of Tears.
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It’s been Jason Millard’s dream to play in the U.S. Open, whichbegins today at Pinehurst in North Carolina. He qualified last week at a tournament in Tennessee, so he threw the clubs in the car and headed for North Carolina, his dream within easy reach. But he couldn’t escape what happened — or may have happened — when nobody was looking. Read more →
In a world where big money feeds big ego, the benefactors of the new Ordway Center hall in Saint Paul are refusing the usual ego stroke given to people who drop cash on an organization. Read more →
Our collective self esteem is going to take a hit this summer. We hate being rejected but Timberwolves star Kevin Love apparently is going to make sure his exit from Minnesota hurts good.
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