Duluth Mayor’s GF Secretly in Charge?

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Report: Mayor Reinert's Romantic and Professional Life Weirdly Intertwined

Heck of a lede here from the Duluth Monitor's John Ramos: "Ever since Duluth Mayor Roger Reinert took office, in January of 2024, the Monitor has received reports that the mayor’s girlfriend, Amber Gurske, has been doing her best to help run the city."

That sounds like just the kind of story an intrepid journalist like Ramos and his colleagues at the Monitor would follow up on, and they did, reviewing emails from the last several months that "show that Ms. Gurske has delegated tasks to city staff on several occasions, and solicited information without going through official communication channels." The story includes dozens of emails from Gurske on everything from city social media engagement ideas to scheduling the mayor to speak with kindergarteners at the library to pointing out typos in press releases.

Gurske also served as Reinert’s campaign manager, and she's employed by automotive lubricant company AMSOIL in Superior, Wisconsin. Codependency or conflict of interest? You decide!

Last week, the Monitor emailed a list of questions to City Public Information Officer Kelli Latuska, wondering, among other things: "Is Ms. Gurske authorized to issue directives to city staff?" and "Do any other private citizens contact city staff with directives?"

Here's the mayor's response...

Amber has no formal role in the Administration. She is a successful female professional in international business and marketing, and not a City employee. As such, she has no ability to direct City staff and instead redirects them to appropriate City contacts. But also, like every other resident, she can freely contact anyone who works at City Hall with ideas, suggestions, or concerns. This happens hundreds of times daily from residents and others interested in Duluth issues.

Amber is my partner in both life and this work. I am personally grateful for someone who not just cares about my ability to survive the work of Mayoring, but is also deeply passionate about Duluth and the success of our community, and is willing to volunteer in support of those ends.

This apparent conflict of interest isn't the only haunting thing about the Twin Ports. Consider the latest from the Duluth News Tribune's Jay Gabler, who asked Travels of Terror authors Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl what makes Duluth "one of America's spookiest spots." The answer? Big lake (monster-friendly) and old architecture (ghost-friendly).

And, what the hell: As this blurb gets further from its initial subject matter, here's a Duluth-adjacent TikTok I recently enjoyed:

Mawadda's Modest Scrubs

Last year, the Minneapolis-based modest activewear startup Kalsoni scored a deal that got its sport shawls and hijabs into local REI stores. Now, MinnPost's Deanna Pistono reports, another local brand is making modest clothing more widely available in a category where it historically hasn't been: scrubs.

Yasmin Samatar and her colleague and business partner Firaoli Adam are both respiratory therapists and members of Minnesota's Muslim community, and both of them dress modestly. But modest scrubs can be hard to find, and that can be a problem in the healthcare field, where rogue bodily fluids are somewhat common. That's why the two launched their business, Mawadda LLC, in late 2022. And they tell Pistono that the response has been incredible, with requests coming in from India, France, the Maldives, and Indonesia.

“It’s been amazing and overwhelming at the same time,” Adam tells Pistono. “We always knew we wanted to go international ’cause the need is there. We actually are able to meet with the sister in Indonesia soon. We actually set up a meeting with her to just listen and see how we could work together and how we can cater to her since she’s the one that reached out to us.”

$21M Commercial Kitchen Coming to North Minneapolis

The Minnesota Star Tribune's Dee DePass has the scoop on a new commercial kitchen project from the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON), which will break ground next month next to the Capri Theater on West Broadway in north Minneapolis.

The $21 million, 24,000-square-foot NEON Collective Kitchens is intended to support food trucks and other food businesses in the area; it's also meant to confront the North Side's relative dearth of non-fast-food restaurants, with a retail area full of fresh vegetables and meals prepared by catering businesses at NEON CK. Features will include: eight "massive" kitchens, storage, a food court, and classrooms and offices. And crucially, DePass reports, it'll create 261 construction jobs, followed by 264 permanent jobs once the commercial kitchen opens.

Bookmark This Voter Guide

Our temporary reprieve from the relentless political ads and maddening hot takes is just around the corner: Election Day is November 5. And that means you have just... 42 days remaining to figure out who and what is on your ballot this year.

Progressive Twin Citians already know about Naomi Kritzer's indispensable election guide, but for everyone else, there's this one from MPR News. MPR reached out to every last candidate from Aitkin to Yellow Medicine with a three-question survey about themselves and their priorities, and the result is a wildly comprehensive statewide voter guide to the county, state, judicial, federal, and municipal races that are up in the air this year. (Whenever a candidate didn't answer, they've included a link to contact them directly.)

Start studying! Like I said, 42 days!