Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Possible Details Emerge About Financial Plight of Palmer's Bar
Helluva scoop by Minnesota Monthly's Jason DeRusha: Palmer's Bar, the boozy Minneapolis institution that's closing soon after 119 years on the West Bank, may have suffered serious financial injury due to the actions of its ex-owner.
Late Wednesday, current owners Pat and Sarah Dwyer shed some light, writing via Facebook: “When we bought Palmers, it was with a trusted partner that we had worked with for over 18 years. In 2022, we discovered that trust and partnership was broken, leaving Palmers in dire financial and operational straits.” (The Dwyers purchased the place in 2018 with now-former owner Tony Zaccardi.)
And today, DeRusha & Co. published findings pulled from court docs filed by Zaccardi's now-ex wife. In the 2023 divorce filing, she writes that, without her knowledge of consent, Zaccardi "recently relinquished the parties’ marital interest” in Palmer's to the Dwyers after he allegedly withdrew "more than $379,364 from [Palmer’s] business accounts and has not accounted to the petitioner concerning his use of said funds.”
Minnesota Monthly notes that no criminal or civil lawsuits have been filed against Zaccardi, and that the publication isn't alleging any wrongdoing. The Dwyers declined to comment; Zaccardi couldn't be reached for comment. "I was losing people's trust… I have regrets," Zaccardi says in a 2023 video reflecting on his first year of sobriety from alcohol and cocaine addiction.
In that Facebook post from last night, the Dwyers write that during an exhaustive search to sell Palmer's to someone who'd keep it functioning as a historic bar, their commercial real estate broker kept hearing a refrain of “hard pass” from folks in the industry. (The tavern/venue is reportedly losing between $10,000 to $30,000 per month to remain open through September—a "[non]sustainable" situation.) The Dwyers write that they recent sold the building; the "one and only offer" came from the community center next door.
"We may have failed in your eyes, and we promise you this has been the hardest decision we have ever had to make," they conclude. "But the alternative was an orange sticker on the locked door with no notice to staff or patrons."
For a nice advance Palmer's obit, read our buddy Bill Lindeke's latest in MinnPost. "Unfortunately for Minneapolis, the bar is closing in two months, and with it will go a big slice of the city’s unique history and culture," writes Lindeke, who dives characteristically deep into the history of a truly important local landmark.
Dean Phillips Happy to Talk to Musk—But Fears Mamdani
It’s not that we want to keep writing about Dean Phillips, honestly, but when a guy throws up so many hanging curves, it’s a sin not to swing. So if Chad Hartman keeps inviting the former congressman/presidential candidate on to WCCO Radio, we’re gonna keep listening with a mixture of bafflement and frustration to Phillips’s strange ideas about American politics.
As we all know, there is nothing Phillips likes more than having conversations with his supposed ideological foes to prove his open-mindedness. (What’s that they say about folks who are too open-minded?) His latest reach across the aisle? He’d be willing to chat with Elon Musk about creating a third party, he told Hartman, and, in fact, “I anticipate we will be speaking." (After falling out with President Trump, Musk has been toying with the idea of creating a viable third party.)
Kind of a wild thing to say just after Musk’s personally curated AI chatbot floated the idea of Holocaust 2.0. (While Democratic leaders see antisemitism everywhere these days, they curiously have not condemned this, and still happily use the platform.) So, is there anyone Phillips won’t try to find common ground wi—
“Mamdani … is a grave threat to Democrats around the country,” Phillips said on CNN earlier today, referring of course to the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. He singled out the idea of “government-run grocery stores” (Mamdani has suggested small pilot program to take place in food deserts) as out-of-step with nationwide Democratic voters. Asked flat-out "Is there room for you and Mamdani in the Democratic Party?" Phillips replied, "The answer, ultimately, I think, is no." Yeah, Mamdani is no Elon Musk.
MN's Highest-Paid CEOs Making Even More
"Compensation of the 50 highest paid CEOs of Minnesota public companies increased 7.3% to $495.5 million, thanks to increasing payouts from long-term equity markets," reports Patrick Kennedy for the Star Tribune today.
They probably deserve it though, we're sure. And, hey: That's a 23.6% decrease from the 2020 list.
So who are the 50 highest paid CEOs on the Strib's latest list? Uhhh, well, if you're not a business reporter, you probably haven't heard of most of them. Coming in at No. 1, where he also landed last year, is Charles Kummeth (lol), the CEO of Bio-Techne Corp. The company, which sounds like it could accidentally produce a genetically anomalous supervillain, makes "life science reagents" and instruments. No. 2 is David Ossip, CEO of Dayforce (fighter of the Nightforce), who was the 25th highest paid last year.
Every CEO you were certain is on here is on here (Andrew Witty of UnitedHealth Group Inc., former U.S. Bancorp CEO Andrew Cecere, Xcel Energy's Robert Frenzel, etc.), but your eyes will eventually glaze over as you scan the list of milky male complexions.
Birdchick the Blogger Befriends Party Pants the Dog
Here’s a heartwarming tale to end the day: Folks may know Sharon Stiteler as “Birdchick,” a local bird blogger who has been educating us on nature via news shows, radio programs, and Racket stories for years. But that’s never been her day job; Stiteler has been a federal worker, handling communications for Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska and most recently at the U.S. Forest Service in Minnesota. When the Trump administration enacted mass layoffs of government employees, Stiteler was one of them. She was heartbroken. Then came Party Pants.
The nine-year-old female husky, who worked as a sled dog at Denali, was an old friend of Stiteler’s, who knew her from her time working at the park. Party Pants was ready to retire, and Birdchick opted to welcome her home. “I just love this dog who has given so much of her life to government service, and I just want to spoil her rotten in retirement,” Stiteler tells Cathy Wurzer at MPR. “I lost a government job, but gained a government dog. Good trade.” Aw!
