Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
The Garage Door Closes
Burnsville’s all-ages, no-alcohol nightclub the Garage has been hosting shows since 1999. Now Twin Cities Catalyst Music, the nonprofit group that has managed the space for the last decade, has announced that it will cease booking gigs in 2025. “This decision comes with the financial reality of rising costs of booking shows, changing audience patterns, and shifting donor support,” today's press release states.
TCCM still has grants supporting its music education programs, and the recording studio and venue itself will remain available for rental.
This is TCCM's second closing of the last couple of years. In August 2023, it completely shuttered its other all-ages venue, the Treasury, after about two years, determining that the former Old Swedish Bank Building in St. Paul was an “unsustainable space for the venue in the long run."
Farewell Glen Stubbe, Ace Strib Photographer
When we clicked on this lovely bon voyage tribute to Glen Stubbe, the soon-to-retire Star Tribune photographer of 26 years, we knew there'd be powerful political photos, gorgeous natural photos, and deeply human photos. The veteran lensman was asked to pick favorites from among the 56,910 he'd shot for the newspaper, and as we scrolled we hoped—hell, maybe even prayed a bit—that he'd include one particular all-time Stubbe classic.
He didn't disappoint. Tucked between a black-and-white scene from the 2012 GOP Convention in St. Cloud and a shot of a 16-foot snow shark, there it was: Zygi and the guv, shovels in hand.
That timeless photo, of course, was taken at the 2013 groundbreaking ceremony for U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. On the left, you've got Wario-ass Vikings owner Zygi Wolf, looking the way one looks when they've orchestrated a taxpayer-bilking swindle for a $1 billion shrine to concussions and dead birds. On the right, you've got Gov. Mark Dayton, looking absent and adrift as he shovels hopelessly into a public-private vision of the future.
Anyway, happy retirement to Mr. Stubbe. There are 56,910 reasons he's being heralded as "the best in the biz."
Prevailing Norms
“The man tasked with winning senators’ support for embattled Pentagon nominee Pete Hegseth is a Never Trumper who is also lobbying for Saudi Arabia,” reports Mary Ann Akers of the Daily Beast. But Minnesotans know him better as Norm Coleman, the former mayor of St. Paul and, we’re ashamed to admit, one-term U.S. Senator.
Since losing one of the most interminable Senate races of all time in 2008—er, actually 2009—Coleman has been a partner at the firm of Hogan Lovells, where he’s lobbied on behalf of several foreign governments, particularly Saudi Arabia. Coleman, no Trump pal, in fact called the president-elect a fascist prior to the 2016 election, and good for him. But like many other Republicans and fellow travelers who have dollar signs where their spines should be, he’s apparently decided there are worse—or at least less lucrative—things than fascism.
As for Hegseth… well, you know who he is.
“There is no indication that Coleman… is shilling for Saudi Arabia or other countries and corporate clients during his many meetings with senators to win confirmation for Hegseth,” Akers admits. But we’re sure the man the story calls Hegseth's "sherpa" has many reasons for what he's doing. Norm has always excelled at multitasking.
The MN Historian Advocating for Black Baseball Star
Peter Gorton knows he's an obsessive: “That nutty guy in Minnesota,” the New Brighton-based fella called himself in an interview with The Athletic. But Gorton's crusade is a noble one. He's devoted his life—25 years of research, 60,000 pieces of paper stuffed into his basement—to getting Black pitcher John Donaldson into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
According to The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen, Donaldson was one of the best pitchers of all time, "a legend whose legacy was mired in obscurity for far too long." He struck out at least 5,295 batters, threw 14 no-hitters, and notched 428 wins. He's not yet in the HOF, but thanks to the work of Gorton and the other members of the so-called Donaldson Network, he received 50% of the vote from the Early Baseball Era Committee in 2021. He'd need 75% to make it. This Sunday, Donaldson will get another shot, as one of eight names on the Classic Baseball Era Committee’s ballot. The results will be unveiled Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.
“People today need to understand that this is a Goliath of baseball history,” Gorton tells The Athletic. “Just because he missed the Ken Burns documentary doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
