Bob CollinsSandy Hook elementary, where these people were murdered six years ago today, was evacuated and school dismissed today. Someone phoned in a bomb threat.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Crime and Justice
Too many journalists never learn an important lesson and from the sound of press releases flying around about a TV show investigating the disappearance of Iowa anchorwoman Jodi Huisentruit, who hasn’t been seen since disappearing 23 years ago, a common mistake is about to be repeated. Read more →
No charges will be filed against a New Hope police officer who shot and killed Ronald Klitzka, but the narrative of events released by prosecutors Wednesday makes the word “tragedy” insufficient to describe what happened. Read more →
It’s only a matter of time before the easy pickings on the doorstep lead to someone getting killed, and there’s a chance it’ll be someone who wasn’t on the doorstep to steal the package. Read more →
All the charges have been dropped against Jazmine Headley, the woman who waited for nearly four hours to renew daycare vouchers in a New York City agency office that didn’t have enough chairs.
That’s an unsatisfying end to an outrageous event in which Ferguson was, basically, assaulted by police officers. Her crime? She was sitting on the floor. Read more →
The Minnesota Court of Appeals this week struck a blow for drivers with cracked windshields. Read more →
Friday marks the sixth anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut.
Each year at this time, Sandy Hook Promise, the group formed by family members of some of those killed in the massacre, releases a devastating PSA to help people recognize the signs of someone who might use violence in school. Read more →
Mark Brown, of Apple Valley, should just drive without a license. Then ask for a jury trial when/if he’s nabbed by the gendarmes. If there’s justice in the world, a small group of honest men and women will let him skate. Read more →
What was so important on Netflix that Taylor Thiets, 20, of Maplewood, had to watch it while driving 70 mph on I-94 before crashing between Rothsay and Fergus Falls?
We can’t know, apparently.
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We know more about the death of a young mother, whose obituary acknowledged her addiction to opiods. A subsequent lawsuit reveals she sought help, but was instead arrested. Her family says she was denied medical care by police. Read more →
A United Nations report says although men are most likely to be the victims of homicide, women are far more likely to be killed by someone they know, and are most likely to be killed at home. One in five homicides is carried out by someone the victim knows, and the vast majority are women and girls.
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We strongly favor being hopeful for the future even though there are times when it’s difficult to find it in the day’s news.
One in seven Minnesota drivers has a drunk driving conviction on their record. That seems low, judging by this press release from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which details the folks the police were meeting on the roads over the holiday weekend. Read more →
Ramsey County prosecutors have struck out with the Minnesota Court of Appeals in their attempt to get a rapist sentenced to something other than the 10 years of probation handed down by a judge.
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‘Sometimes I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day,’ Sandra Parks wrote a couple of years ago in an award-winning sixth-grade essay. ‘I put my headphones on and let the music take me away, move to the beat, and try to think about life and what everything means.’
She was shot and killed Monday night. Read more →