Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Cyber Attacks Are the New Snow Day
Minneapolis Public Schools continues to deal with last month's cyber attack, wherein some assholes tried to trade stolen data for $1 million, eventually releasing all kinds of personal info on the dark web. Today, Rochester Public Schools called off classes due to “unusual activity” noticed on the district's IT networks last Thursday. “Our technology staff have since been working non-stop with third party experts to investigate and address this situation,” Superintendent Kent Pekel explains via a YouTube vid. “We shared this information with our families, staff, and community yesterday and our investigation into the nature and extent of this incident is ongoing.” Schools are expected to resume classes tomorrow, whether hacked or not, with modified tech security.
Smoke on the Water
Bad news for the award-winning, groundbreaking Owamni: After an electrical fire last week, Sean Sherman and Dana Thompson's restaurant is closed for the foreseeable future. The Owamni team says that their landlord, Minneapolis Parks, is "doing an amazing job bringing in experts that can help us get up and running ASAP," though a source with the restaurant tells us it might be a month or two before the damage is fixed up. (Ah, and the name Owamni comes from the Dakota name for St. Anthony Falls Owámniyomni, which translates more or less to "place of the falling, swirling water," in case you were like, "weird heading on this blurb!")
Dog Days Are Over
And more bad restaurant news: After 31 years, a downtown Minneapolis hot dog institution is going to that great food court in the sky. On Facebook, Dave Magnusson, the owner of Walkin’ Dog in the Northstar Center, called the closure a “family decision.” He continued, "Northstar management had offered us a space in the new food court when it reopens in about a year, but after much thought, we declined their gracious offer to return." Magnusson then closed out his post with some thoughtful quotes from Jimmy Buffett, Indiana Jones, and Unknown. The joint is open till April 21, so you’ve got a couple weeks to gobble down some franks and say thanks. According to Bring Me the News, Northstar Center’s redo will concert Crowne Plaza into a Hotel Indigo and 300,000 square feet of office space into 216 rental units.
We Love You, Sinkhole Guy
At their best, local TV news spots showcase the wacky characters woven into the fabric of the cities we love, folks who wink at the format and mug for the camera. Minneapolis sinkhole onlooker Andy Schmitz is one such character. On Sunday, Fox 9 dispatched a crew to report on the cavernous/viral sinkhole that emerged at Girard Avenue South & 27th Street. Wedge LIVE! distilled the two-minute segment down to Schmitz's essential 24 seconds of commentary:
"Whoa, look at that sinkhole," indeed. We love ya buddy. Less loveable: The fact the sinkhole might take two weeks to repair, Council Member Aisha Chughtai reports.
In other sinkhole news, look at this badboy:
