Bob Collins
Ford answers Cadillac in an ad that destroys the notion of what makes Americans different. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Economy
Despite the attention given to the missing Malaysian jetliner, when you get on an airline in the United States, you’re getting on one of the safest forms of transportation known to the civilized world. The U.S. has some of the most stringent safety requirements of any country and it shows in the results. If any Read more →
A philosophical debate that has been waged in fits and starts since people started buying, then tearing down, older homes in Edina and Minneapolis, and has flared again with last week’s announcement that Minneapolis would put a moratorium on teardowns in several neighborhoods. Read more →
Former MSNNBC commentator Joseph Williams had the good life going right up until the moment when he discussed race in the Obama-Romney campaign and was booted out of his job two weeks later. Then the Internet found a five-month plea deal for domestic assault. He was toast in the news business.
So he took a job at a sporting goods store. Read more →
The Auto Show, now at the Minneapolis Convention Center, provided a good opportunity to see what’s out there. Also, who’s out there.
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If there’s anybody people have been collectively pulling for, it’s Duffy, who was profiled in a Star Tribune article a month ago about the plight of older workers who get laid off. Read more →
We still tinker with software, but hardware, the very infrastructure of our wired and unwired lives? Not so much. We’re generally content if something just works. Read more →
Wisconsin has reached back 34 years to promote its tourism industry. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Hays — two stars of the movie, “Airplane” — reunited for a parody to promote Wisconsin: David Zucker, the director of the film, graduated from UW Madison. This isn’t his first crack at promoting Wisconsin. Two years ago, he produced Read more →
A plea to step back from the brink in Rogers, the business of raising the minimum wage, the art of getting old, from Norway with love, and a boy and his dog. Read more →
The people who make money in the housing industry are inflating expectations. Again. Read more →
Three statistical stories today that will make you spit out your beer. Read more →
But Lake Elmo didn’t want to be like everyone else and today it finally won a battle against the Metropolitan Council’s order that it needs to get bigger. Or did it win? Read more →
The reappearance of Dunkin’ Donuts in Minnesota is no longer theoretical. Read more →
Just because you’re not making minimum wage doesn’t mean you don’t skin in the fight over whether it should be raised.
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Reaction was swift — and somewhat predictable — to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposal to give 50,000 special visas over the next five years to lure highly skilled immigrants to live and work in Detroit. Snyder was joined by the mayor of Detroit and representatives of several companies headquartered in the bankrupt city. Unemployment in the city Read more →