Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Well That's That! Nothing to See Here, Emmer Says of Epstein Files.
The ghost of Jeffery Epstein, sex-trafficking buddy to the elites, continues to haunt Trump World.
Just today the Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department warned Trump in May that his name is included in the Epstein files. (The White House called this "fake news.") Those files, of course, have had the administration running scared for a week, with Speaker Mike Johnson announcing Tuesday that U.S. House business would end prematurely to avoid a vote on releasing 'em. The drip, drip, drip of previously unknown Trump-Epstein entanglements keeps accelerating—videos, photos, sketches.
But ignore all that stuff!
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minnesota), debased toady to the prez, tells Axios today that the Epstein files are a "non-issue."
"You guys are making it an issue… the media," Emmer told the audience at the Axios News Shapers event. "It's kind of funny if it was so important, then why weren't Democrats clamoring for this for the four years under Biden?"
Emmer's attempt to frame it as a partisan issue might not fly with the MAGA base. Almost two-thirds of American disapprove of the way Trump is handling the Epstein files, including 36% of Republicans, according to new polling from Quinnipiac. "That is perhaps the most intraparty discontent Mr. Trump has experienced as president," the New York Times reports. Sounding very calm and innocent, Trump lambasted his "PAST" supporters last week as “weaklings” for buying "into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker."
For much more on this very emerging scandal, be sure you're subscribed to RacketCast—we've got Sen. Tina Smith talkin' Epstein files on tomorrow's episode. (Past RacketCast guest Rep. Ilhan Omar blasted the GOP as the "pedophile protection party" just yesterday.)
What’s the Mpls Park Board Got Against New Moms?
Minneapolis parkkeeper Indica Medeiros went on maternity leave last September after giving birth prematurely. When she told the Minneapolis Park Board in December that she had decided to resign, her bosses demanded that she repay more than $13,000 in maternity leave, Susan Du reports for the Strib.
The Park Board updated its parental leave policy in 2023, and now it requires employees to return to work for four weeks following leave or forfeit the leave pay they received. “I was very shocked, because had I known that, I probably would have made different decisions, and it was very stressful on our family the first few months,” Medeiros tells Du.
Why didn’t Medeiros know that? Well, says the Laborers’ Union Local 363, which represents Minneapolis park workers, the board never informed employees of the change. The union has filed a complaint to the Minnesota Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that the Park Board made an impermissible unilateral change to the employee contract.
Du also notes, “This year, a number of candidates running for the board have cited labor relations as their impetus for challenging incumbents.” Something to keep in mind this November.
Are We Gonna Lose All the Cubs in the Cities?
Cub Foods announced that it was closing its Midway store in St. Paul this week, and the fingers, they are a-pointin’. As with the Uptown Cub in Minneapolis, which closed suddenly (while at least one Racket staffer had a prescription being filled!), stories of rampant crime and other mayhem abound. But as Frederick Melo reports for the Pioneer Press, some elected officials in St. Paul are saying Cub did a lousy job of policing itself.
Cub’s lax anti-shoplifting policies “posed major red flags,” St. Paul City Council Member Anika Bowie writes on social media. “Their security officers are instructed not to intervene during active shoplifting for liability reasons.” Anika Bowie says she’d returned stray carts personally from the neighborhood and had worked with St. Paul Police on their response to Cub. As for complaints that the Cub was underpoliced, officers made 500 visits last year.
As for Cub, it don’t give a fuck. In a statement, the company said it hopes to “optimize our footprint, which includes investing in stores—like our newly remodeled Cub in Burnsville, MN—as well as closing stores where necessary so we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.”
What these stories fail to address is the impact on me, Racket's Keith Harris. Where am I supposed to shop if all the Cubs keep shutting down? Sure I can get produce at the co-ops, but otherwise… Aldi stresses me out, Lunds is a ripoff, and our company is still a few thousand members away from my being able to shop at Kowalski’s.
In conclusion: What about me???
Where Da Best 🍟 At?
Look, Racket's staff has been slashed in half this week due to simultaneous vacations. So please forgive this supremely low effort final Flyover blurb...
Where can you get the best French fries in Minneapolis? [Ed. note: Haha, really?]
That's a prompt we're lifting from a buzzing local Reddit thread, in which the fries from Francis have jumped out to an insurmountable lead. We can't speak to that, though we will co-sign the nods given to Banh Appetit's double-fried fries and Town Hall's extra crispy ones.
