Emmer: ‘It’s 1 Pound of Ground Beef, Michael. What Could It Cost? $2?’

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

Tom Emmer Knows a Guy Who Can Get You Ground Beef for $2 a Pound

Where does U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) shop for groceries—out of the back of a truck? While appearing Wednesday morning on Fox Business to discuss the challenges that Republicans face in this November’s elections, the GOP House Whip stated, “Eggs are at pre-pandemic prices. Beef is at less than $2 a pound for ground beef."

I believe hamburger was around $7 per pound on my last Aldi run, but maybe Emmer, who is in thrall to the crypto industry, gets some kind of e-currency discount. (The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis backs me up here; currently at $6.92 per pound, the national average has never been higher.) Anyway, if someone offers you ground beef for under $2 a pound, please do not eat it! 

Struggling School District Proposes Closures, Expects Little Savings

Here are two facts about Minneapolis Public Schools.

First, the district has consistently struggled to make up budget shortfalls and has weathered severe financial mismanagement, leading to drastic cuts three years running. Second, a school board presentation Tuesday night introduced three possible plans for the district's future, each of which would close at least 12 public schools. (One would shutter 16.) 

Using Occam’s razor, we might assume that the closures are meant to bring about savings. But Deputy Superintendent Ty Thompson assures us otherwise.

“What we know about school consolidations and closings across our nation is that it’s not something that’s a huge cost savings,” is how Thompson answered one school board member’s question, according to this excellent report on Tuesday night’s meeting from Becky Z. Dernbach at Sahan Journal.

“Our understanding of the resolution from the school board is that hasn’t been the intent,” Thompson continued. “The intent has actually been to use the resources that we have to give families the experience they have asked us for for a very long time, and that we agree that our students deserve.” 

OK then.

Critics, including the teachers’ union, parents, and three school board candidates, argue that in addition to not saving money, the consolidation will disrupt students’ lives and drive more families out of the public schools. They cite the fallout from 2020 Comprehensive District Design plan as evidence.

The School Board is expected to vote on the proposals in November, which leaves a little more than a month for “community engagement.”

Heavy Winds Level Drive-In

It ain’t easy running a drive-in movie theater in the 21st century. Just ask Steve Novak and his son Chris, who co-own the Sky-Vu Drive-In in Warren, Minnesota. A windstorm with 75 mph gusts came ripping through northwestern Minnesota’s Red River Valley in early September and bent the Sky-Vu’s screen all the way to the ground, Tadeo Ruiz Sandoval reports for MPR News.

The Novaks are confident they’ll re-open next year. Running a drive-in has taught them to be resilient and resourceful, like the time they showed an X-rated movie at 3 a.m. to raise funds. 

And the theater is a landmark. “I was actually flying out of Fargo, and somebody there was like, ‘Oh, you're from Warren?’ and they're like, ‘You know the drive-in?’” says Sydni Schroeder, a server at nearby Hank’s Sports Bar and Grill. “I just meet people out and about everywhere who have been there.”

“Anomalously Moist” Friday Alert!

I don’t like to Flyover about the weather much—you can get that info anywhere. But I have been unable to shake a specific phrase from a Bring Me the News headline about the possible storms we face Friday. 

“Anomalously moist system could be a supersoaker in Minnesota on Friday.”

Anomalously moist.

Whether that tongue twister is a specific meteorological term for unseasonable rains or just how the folks at BMTN think of storms is unclear. But I plan to work it into my small talk later this week. “Anomalously moist out there today, huh?” 

We could potentially get dumped on this Friday, with models predicting possibly more than three inches of rain. But embittered BNTN meteorologist Sven Sundgaard seems to no longer trust the weather. “We’ve seen this movie before, though, where it looks promising and then something dives south or north,” he says.