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A Fascinating Montage of Hasidic Families Trying to Cross the Street During the New York City Marathon

Abe Kugielsky shot footage of Hasidic people trying to cross the street in Williamsburg during the 2024 New York City Marathon.




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Terrifying POV Footage of a Raging House Fire Captured By a Firefighter’s GoPro

A Chilean firefighter captured amazing yet terrifying POV footage of a highly destructive house fire on his GoPro.




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Artist JR Gives a Tour of His Elaborately Designed L’Observatoire Suite on the Orient Express

French artist JR gave a wonderfully detailed tour of the L’Observatoire Suite he designed for the Venice Simplon Orient Express.




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Fearless Cat Rides on Her Human’s Back While They’re Skateboarding Together

A fearless cat named Callie who was found as a kitten by her human Sam Wallace loves to sit on their back while skateboarding.




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Comedian Realizes That the TV Show She Was Watching Was Actually Filmed in Her Apartment

Comedian Stef Dag shared her amazement when she found out that the TV show she was watching was actually filmed inside her apartment.




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Fire crews on both U.S. coasts battle wildfires

Fire crews are battling small wildfires across the Northeast U.S. A blaze in New York and New Jersey killed a parks employee over the weekend and postponed Veterans Day plans. A quarter-inch of rain fell overnight from Sunday into Monday, giving a slight respite to firefighters. 




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Minnesota Twins initiate front office transition with Falvey to president, Zoll to GM, St. Peter to adviser

The Minnesota Twins will promote Derek Falvey to president of baseball and business operations and Jeremy Zoll to general manager as part of a front office succession plan initiated by current club president Dave St. Peter’s move into a strategic adviser role. 




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Investigators believe Wisconsin kayaker faked his own death before fleeing to eastern Europe

Investigators say they believe a Wisconsin kayaker missing since mid-August faked his death before fleeing to Europe. 




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Denzel Washington details a retirement path that includes a role in 'Black Panther 3'

Denzel Washington is retiring after his next few projects, he said in a recent interview.




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Tell us: What are your questions on how a 2nd Trump presidency may affect Minnesota?

Donald Trump has been declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election. Tell us what questions you have about how a second Trump presidency might affect Minnesota.




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Fireworks incident raises tensions in the Mankato Muslim community

After a tension filled day following an incident Sunday near the Mankato Islamic Center initially feared as an arson attack, the police have a more benign explanation, but anger remains.




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Minnesota DNR reports successful firearms deer hunting opening weekend

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said deer harvest numbers are up from last year, despite some poor weather on the second day.




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Olympic champion wrestler Gable Steveson ends retirement, returns to University of Minnesota

Wrestler Gable Steveson, who won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, is coming out of retirement. Steveson will compete for the University of Minnesota for a fifth and final season. 




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‘It’s the best week’: After being wrongly incarcerated, a Minnesota man is now free

Edgar Barrientos-Quintana was wrongly convicted in 2009 and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2008 murder of Jesse Mickelson in Minneapolis. 




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Minneapolis punk show mass shooting victims react as teen takes plea deal

Cyrell Boyd is headed to treatment at the Red Wing juvenile facility for his role in the Nudieland shooting in August 2023. At a hearing Tuesday, victims spoke to him about the shooting’s impact.




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Theft of the blog: Yes, there is a real Bob Collins. This is what he’s like

Collins vowed to not write a goodbye post. We're not sure if's staying true to that, so here comes old friend Tom Weber "to sing a little on behalf of a friend who’s made immeasurable contributions to MPR and Minnesota."




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Favorite NewsCuts? Here are mine.

Collins came in every day and made stuff that people wanted – really wanted – to read. That’s the best compliment anyone could ever get as a writer and reporter. He delivered the goods to the audience online and on the air.




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Storytime with Bob: A treat outside of the blog

Being a member of the MPR News staff for a little over a year, and located outside of the St. Paul office, I’ve only had the privilege to observe the NewsCut magic as many readers have, with interactions through emails and reading Bob Collins’ words. But the one time I got to meet Bob in…



  • Theft of the Blog
  • You should meet ... Bob Collins

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Something Wild: Finding Peace in Nature

The past couple of weeks have been weird. Daily life changed gradually, then all at once. We now find ourselves at home practicing our best “social distancing” protocols. Incredible technology allows us to stay connected, and that’s fantastic. But it’s ok to put the phone down. It’s ok to turn down the news from time to time, and take a long walk outside in nature. This week, I took my own advice. Amidst the simple beauty of nature, I draw one deep breath… and then another. In the forest, I glimpse a furtive movement - beyond the shoulder of the rural, dirt road. One handsome squirrel sits perched on a fallen log, slowly twirling a hemlock cone in its forepaws. In the warm morning sunlight, he yawns…unimpressed with my presence. In his narrow economy, it’s spring and the kitchen larder of conifer cone seeds is running low. Above me, a March wind coaxes a flock of bluebirds to an open, sodden pasture. Springtime arrives this year, just as the bluebirds do– hopeful, tentative, uncertain.




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Something Wild: The Judas Trees

It's late August, and the leaves are already starting to change. And that flush of red you’re seeing likely comes from the red maple , also known as “swamp” or “soft maple”. It's an adaptable tree renowned for signaling an impending autumn, and has even earned the dubious nickname: “Judas Tree” – for betraying these late summer days. Red maples are common in New Hampshire’s young forests, especially in areas prone to natural disturbances such as flooding in wetlands, along rivers -- and by human disturbances, too. A nd while forest ecologists believe these trees are increasing as a percentage of our forests, red maples are still considered a minority species, adding diversity to overall forest composition.




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Something Wild: Life After Death in NH Forests

Standing dead trees (often called snags) are common in our forests, and it’s hard to overstate just how vital a role they play in a healthy ecosystem. These gray ghosts provide food and shelter for a whole heap of forest critters; a total of 43 species of birds and mammals are specially adapted to nesting or denning inside tree cavities. But before a dead tree becomes a high-rise condo for a long list of species, it first undergoes a remarkable transformation. In fact, snags undergo a series of changes, from the time they begin to die until they finally collapse, and each stage of decay has particular value to a whole host of different animals with unique needs. First things first: decaying wood is perfect for fungi -- molds, mildews and mushrooms -- decomposers that soften wood enough for insects to start to gnaw their way in. Next, termites, beetles, and ants all begin to chew apart and break down the cellulose and lignin that gives wood its normally rigid structure. And once you




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Something Wild: New Hampshire's Bat Habitats

By the time the cold weather months hit us, three of New Hampshire’s eight species of bats have already migrated to warmer places in the South and Mid-Atlantic regions. The bat that DO overwinter in New Hampshire have relocated out of their preferred summer roosts in trees (and Dave's chimney), and into winter hibernacula like caves, mine shafts, and abandoned military bunkers where the microclimate is just right. These cozy shelters provide stable temperatures, higher humidity, and protection from predators. But they also provide the perfect climate for Psedogymnoascus destructans, the fungus that causes White-nose Syndrome in bats. According to Sandi Houghton, a wildlife biologist for New Hampshire Fish and Game / Non-game and Endangered Wildlife Division, as many as 99% of New Hampshire’s little brown bats were wiped out because of this fungus-- found in the very places bats take winter refuge. In fact most of what’s left of the little brown bat population in New Hampshire may be




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Something Wild: Where Have All the Birds Gone?

As we hunker down for the winter weather, we’re frequently too preoccupied with what is in our front yards that we tend not to notice what isn’t there. And short of finding a postcard in your mailbox from a warm exotic location, signed by your friendly neighborhood phoebe, you probably haven’t thought much about the birds that flitted through your yard just months ago. We love to admire the birds when they’re here with us, but we’ve accepted that school-age aphorism that birds fly south for the winter. As if there was some avian Sandals resort, at which birds congregate, sipping margaritas and playing beach volleyball until it’s time to come home. But these birds are not on vacation. New Hampshire is too cold and offers too little food, so most have moved to more hospitable places in order to survive. However, migration is not one-size-fits-all. Different species practice different forms of migration. Ospreys are large raptors that feed almost exclusively on fish. Since the ice that




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Something Wild: Christmas Tree Farms Are The Gift That Keeps On Giving

This time of year, you're likely to see cars and pickup trucks heading home on the highways with fresh-cut Christmas trees tied to roofs or in the truck beds. Fraser firs, Korean firs, Balsam firs, and Spruce (ouch!)... So today on Something Wild we take a look at Christmas tree farms, and the important habitats they provide for New Hampshire wildlife. You might be heartened to know that tree farms are a unique land use, and serve as early successional habitat, one that is neither residential neighborhood, cropland, nor deep forest. It's a landscape that was far more common a century ago, before small family farms began to vanish. Early successional habitats are an incubator: warm, sunny, scrubby zones with a variety of foods...like grasses, weeds and sometimes fruit-bearing shrubs or vines…raspberries, blackberries and grapes. Anything sun-loving, including fast-growing tree seedling and saplings. Tree farms provide ample food and shelter to a wide variety of disturbance-adapted




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Something Wild: Winter Finch Forecast

Each year, bird enthusiasts across North America eagerly await the Winter Finch Forecast. Published every fall since 1999, the Winter Finch Forecast predicts when and where, and even IF fan-favorite finches like Evening Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls will grace our backyard bird-feeders, or make an appearance on a brisk mid-winter hike. It’s a big deal for birders. So much so that enthusiastic birders have been known to base winter birding plans on this forecast, even driving hundreds of miles to spots deemed favorable for seeing White-winged Crossbills or Pine Grosbeaks. But who makes these predictions, and what are these finch forecasts based on? Enter Tyler Hoar, a freelance biologist and ecologist from Oshawa, Ontario. He’s recently taken the reins in predicting finch winter migration patterns from the legendary Ron Pittaway -- who started this citizen science project some 20 years ago. According to Tyler; "Ron set up this network, getting various birders, naturalists , foresters,




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Something Wild: How Trees Survive Winter

Here at Something Wild , we don’t have a problem with winter. Aside from the snow and the cold and the freezing rain…okay, maybe we have a couple issues. But we have sweaters and hot cocoa and Netflix. Trees, however, do not. As the snow piles up, you may see trees bent over with their crowns nearly touching the ground, leafless and haggard. They can’t escape or hide from the cold, so how do trees survive? Just like any living thing, trees have adapted over time to deal with the range of environmental conditions thrown their way. In this case, freezing rain, ice-loading, or heavy wet snow. Trees that aren’t adapted to survive periodic ice loading don’t live here. Some trees (like pine or spruce) simply bend or fold branches to shrug off snow. Other trees (like oaks) try to stand rigid and inflexible. Stout oaks and sugar maples are famous for big heavy branches that don’t break. On the other hand, branches of beech and red maple tend to break apart under heavy snow loads. Most of our




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Something Wild: Olfaction Action What's Your Reaction?

We know…we’ve been remiss, and it’s time to talk about the elephant in the room. Something Wild, as you know, is a chance to take a closer look at the wildlife, ecosystems and marvelous phenomena you can find in and around New Hampshire. But over the years there is one species in New Hampshire that we haven’t spent much time examining. A species, I think that has been conspicuous in its absence. Humans.




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DFL candidate holds 14 vote lead for Shakopee-area House race

DFL Rep. Brad Tabke leads GOP challenger Aaron Paul by just 14 votes out of about 22,000 cast. That's one more vote than his lead was earlier in the week.




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13 states will have women governors next year, a new record

Republican Kelly Ayotte's victory in New Hampshire will bring the total number of women holding governor’s offices to 13 — surpassing the previous high of 12 set in 2023.




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Young Black and Latino men say they chose Trump because of the economy and jobs. Here's how and why

Black and Latino voters moved toward Republican Donald Trump in this year's presidential election, and some of the biggest shifts were among men under age 45, and that helped expand his margin over Democrat Kamala Harris. 




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More young people are surviving cancer. Then they face a life altered by it

More people are getting cancer in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, and surviving, thanks to rapid advancement in care. Many will have decades of life ahead of them, which means they face greater and more complex challenges in survivorship. Lourdes Monje is navigating these waters at age 29.




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Wisconsin high court to hear arguments on whether an 1849 abortion ban remains valid

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Monday on whether a law that legislators adopted more than a decade before the Civil War bans abortion and can still be enforced.




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What to know about Tom Homan, the former ICE head returning as Trump's 'border czar'

Homan was the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from January 2017 to June 2018, where he was a key architect of the Trump administration's controversial family separation policy.




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Sherburne County will pay for recount of election results in close races

County officials say a damaged or uncleared memory card did not fully collect and transmit results from some mail-in ballots to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office on election night. That led to the state website displaying inaccurate unofficial results for Sherburne County.




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Trump plans to revoke many Biden policies. Where does that leave marijuana?

The president-elect recently affirmed that he supports legalizing marijuana for recreational use. His stance means cannabis could be a rare issue on which Trump carries a Biden policy forward.




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President-elect Trump is expected to nominate Marco Rubio for Secretary of State

If confirmed, the Florida senator would become the first Latino to ever serve as the nation's top diplomat.




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Trump election could reopen path for mining near Boundary Waters

President-elect Donald Trump has promised to reverse the Biden administration’s actions blocking copper-nickel mining near the Boundary Waters. But there is a lot that would need to happen before any mine could open.




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Federal judge blocks Louisiana law that requires classrooms to display Ten Commandments

The new Louisiana requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 was temporarily blocked Tuesday. The judge said the law is "unconstitutional on its face."




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How are you feeling a week after the election?

Did the election leave you feeling numb? Or maybe you’re hopeful, relieved, angry or feeling something else entirely. Coming at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two therapists about our complicated postelection emotions.




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Minnesota attorney general on Trump: ‘If he violates the rights of people, we’re going to sue’

The second-term DFLer says he’ll challenge Trump if Republicans push politics that contradict Minnesota laws.




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Election expert: Audits and recounts bring more confidence to the system

Recounts are expected in two Minnesota House races. The election results could determine control of that legislative body. The upcoming recounts are expected soon and come after initial ballot totals changed when election officials discovered technical glitches.




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Trump nominates Fox News host and Minnesotan Pete Hegseth for defense secretary

Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and unsuccessfully ran for the Senate in Minnesota in 2012.




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What to know about Kristi Noem, Trump's pick for Homeland Security secretary

Donald Trump has selected South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to head the Department of Homeland Security. It's one of the biggest government agencies that will be integral to his vow to secure the border and carry out a massive deportation operation.




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Your Questions About Children & COVID-19 Answered, From Masks To Vaccines To Summer Activities

We talk about what you need to know about the importance and safety of the COVID-10 vaccine in children, and the status and process of vaccination approval for children under twelve. Also, how to navigate summer activities, travel, and masks with unvaccinated children, and the impacts of the virus on kids.




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Sky Crew: Missions to Venus, Space Junk & UFOs

Our Sky Crew returns for a send-off for Laura Knoy’s last show as Exchange host. The Sky Crew will be at their telescopes in the wee hours prior to the show checking out the partial solar eclipse visible in our area. We discuss the goals of NASA’s newly-announced missions to our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, the growing problem of space junk, and what to think about UFOs.




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Laura Knoy Reflects On 25 Years Of The Exchange

In her final appearance, Laura Knoy is on the other side of The Exchange mic, as Peter Biello interviews her about her 25 years as host. We discuss the show's origins, moments that have stood out over the years, and hear her observations on how New Hampshire has changed.




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'On Juneteenth' With Historian Annette Gordon-Reed

Although Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Civil War prevented it being enacted in much of the South. Emancipation Day, now known as Juneteenth, commemorates June 19, 1865, when around 250,000 enslaved people were declared free in Texas. NHPR's Peter Biello talks with historian Annette Gordon-Reed, whose book, On Juneteenth, gives a view of the country’s road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and episodes from her life growing up in Texas. In 1965, she was the first child to integrate her town’s all-white schools. Juneteenth became a N.H. state holiday in 2019.




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Replay: 2021 Summer Book Show

Have you found the time to read more this past year or have you had less time or an inability to focus on the written word lately? Our annual Summer Book Show is back, and our indie booksellers have lots of titles to add to your "To Be Read" pile. Several authors are revisiting mythology, as well as revisiting American history. There's plenty of fiction for the beach or the pool, too, of course, as well as fantasy and compelling autobiographies. What are you looking forward to reading this summer?




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Replay: What to Expect on the Trails This Summer

Last summer, many trails were overcrowded as outdoor enthusiasts and newcomers took advantage of the Granite State’s natural resources. In a conversation recorded before Memorial Day this year, we discussed what lessons we take from that experience and what to expect this summer. We discussed how we can balance sharing the trails with all those who want to use them, and also promote stewardship of our natural resources.




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Replay: 'On Juneteenth' With Historian Annette Gordon-Reed

Although Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, the Civil War prevented it being enacted in much of the South. Emancipation Day, now known as Juneteenth, commemorates June 19, 1865, when around 250,000 enslaved people were declared free in Texas. NHPR's Peter Biello talks with historian Annette Gordon-Reed, whose book, On Juneteenth, gives a view of the country’s road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and episodes from her life growing up in Texas. In 1965, she was the first child to integrate her town’s all-white schools. Juneteenth became a N.H. state holiday in 2019.