Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Mod Wife
Would we ever choose to marry rocker-turned-rapper-turned-pop-punker Mod Sun? Not in a million years, but we're not Avril Lavigne. The Canadian pop superstar announced Thursday that she'll soon wed the real-life Derek Smith, the Bloomington-born celeb who got his start drumming in emocore bands before becoming a tabloid fixture while dating Bella Thorne. "The day we met I knew you were the one... Together forever til our days are done," Mod, a published poet of questionable repute, wrote via his engagement-reveal Insta post. Speaking of questionable, Avril's romantic history includes two Top 40 frontmen—Chad Kroeger of Nickelback and Deryck Whibley of Sum 41. Mod, 35, recently called out phony TikTok punks as part of his album-cycle pivot to the revitalized subgenre. You can see his bride-to-be live on July 28 at Xcel Energy Center, where she'll be opening on Machine Gun Kelly's Mainstream Sellout Tour. Provided, of course, we're talking about the real Avril Lavigne; some compelling conspiracy theorists believe the true Avril is long dead. In any case, we wish these two people the best. This will be the biggest locally angled wedding since Kim Kardashian married a Minneapolis man for 72 days.
Senate Says “Nah” To Rondo Project
Last year, the Minnesota caucus agreed to set aside $6.2 million to support research for the ReConnect Rondo Project, which would reconnect St. Paul's predominantly Black Rondo neighborhood via a land bridge over Interstate 94. This year, an omnibus transportation bill actually instructs the Transportation Department not to spend any money on it. Sen. Scott Newman, the bill’s sponsor, doesn’t want to honor the agreement because he believes ReConnect Rondo doesn’t have anything to do with transportation. (Someone should probably sit him down and make him watch at least one of these history specials on how the construction of I-94 interstate cut through and deeply impacted the area.) Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, who MPR notes is the only Black legislator on the committee, spoke up against the move. “I see that as a betrayal of our commitment. When you step on the very people who have always been stepped on and find justifications in order to justify it, to me, that is a character flaw.” We’ll have to wait and see if the bill passes as is.
Cash Theft at the Museum of Russian Art
Russian hate, random act of thievery, or a little bit of both? There was an overnight break-in at the Museum of Russian Art in Minneapolis; officers arrived around 3 a.m. to find two smashed glass doors and a missing cash box with donations for the museum, according to KSTP. TMORA has been a vocal critic of the war in Ukraine, adding a Ukrainian flag to its exterior and tweeting in February, "The Museum of Russian Art stands with the people of Ukraine and urges Russia to cease hostilities immediately and withdraw." Visitors to the museum's website are greeted with that same statement, and they're hosting an ongoing art auction to benefit the people of Ukraine. KSTP reports that police have surveillance video and collected evidence at the scene.
Coco Chanel is Missing
No, we’re not talking about the long-dead, Nazi-sympathizing fashion designer from France. We’re talking about a one-and-a-half-year-old capuchin monkey with the same name. The tiny creature was stolen from an unlocked car in a Maplewood Cub Foods, where she'd been left in a carrier while her babysitter picked up formula for her. Coco’s owner Zaurice Steward, a Texan who's in the process of moving to Wisconsin, is devastated. "Coco is all I've got," Steward told the Star Tribune. "I feel like I failed as a parent." Now Maplewood police are on the lookout for the monkey. You can contact them if you have any info on Coco’s disappearance; Steward is also offering a $3,000 reward for the monkey's return. But don’t get any ideas from this story, Minnesotans: While keeping monkey buddies isn’t expressly illegal in Texas and Wisconsin, it definitely is in Minnesota.
