Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
ICE Account of North Side Shooting Differs from FBI Findings; Sky Is Blue
The FBI has unsealed documents detailing its investigation into the North Side January 14 shooting of a civilian by an ICE agent—and boy, is it a doozy. Not only do its findings contradict statements made by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but evidence also supports witness accounts of the incident.
While the DHS previously tweeted that the shooting victim, Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, was the man involved in the car chase, it was actually another man, Alfredo Aljorna. But Aljorna wasn’t even the man they were really trying to apprehend. That was the car’s previous owner, Joffre Berrera. Still, agents claimed Aljorna matched the description they were given.
“The ICE agents said his physical description matched Barrera’s driver’s license. Barrera is 5-foot-2, 128 pounds with short brown hair. Aljorna is 5-7 and 172 pounds with short brown hair,” write Jeff Day and Liz Sawyer for the Star Tribune.
An ICE agent also stated that he shot the suspect as he fled the scene. Witnesses state that Sosa-Celis was shot through the door of the duplex where he lived. MPR News offers this harrowing account from a witness petition …
[Aljorna’s partner] Valentina and the other occupants of the home begged the agents not to kill them and said they would surrender. Still, when the agents entered the room, they trained their guns on [Sosa-Celis’s wife] Indriany, who was holding her child, and the others.
Sosa-Celis and Aljorna are currently on release and awaiting trial, their partners are being held in a Texas immigration facility, and the children, ages one to three, are with their grandparents.
Amy Klobs Files Paperwork
Ever since Gov. Tim Walz announced that he wouldn’t be running for a third term, there have been rumors that U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) was mulling over campaigning for the job. Today, Klobs moved one step closer to maybe possibly announcing her candidacy, filing paperwork with the state.
“This is a preliminary step necessary for any candidate considering a run,” an anonymous source tells Michelle Griffith for Minnesota Reformer. “The senator will make an announcement of her plans in the coming days.” (Incredible insight!)
Since winning her seat in the U.S. Senate in 2006, Klobuchar has been a beast to beat at the polls, even managing to draw big numbers from conservative counties. If she does run, she’ll be up against a dozen Republicans, where the bar for candidates is in hell. That roster includes retired MMA fighter Brad Kohler, paranoid pillow shill Mike Lindell, anti-vax doctor Scott Jensen, and Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
Blue State AGs Are Part of the Resistance
According to this Verge piece from Sarah Jeong, a horde of riled up attorneys general are “just as angry about the country as, say, the average Bluesky poster.” That’s a lotta anger!
Among them is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. At a recent town hall meeting in Portland, Oregon, he and his colleagues discussed how they’ve teamed up and prepared to fight the good fight in courts, filing 70-something lawsuits so far with cases ranging from fighting for withheld federal funds to stopping National Guard deployment.
Ellison, who at one point held up a frog hat for the crowd, defended state rights to investigate and prosecute Jonathan Ross in the killing of Renee Good, invoking both the FBI/Ruby Ridge standoff of 1992 (where the state of Idaho prosecuted an FBI agent in the killing of a civilian) and the Boston Massacre of 1770.
“We will not save our country in a courtroom,” Ellison later warned. “We have to fight them in a courtroom. We absolutely have to. But ultimately, this country will be saved by the people of the United States. And so that—you protesting, you gathering evidence, you sharing it with us, you communicating with us—is action. It’s actually how we’re going to win.”
Can You Spot All the Things Wrong With This Picture?
Sentient meatball JD Vance was in Minnesota Thursday, saying stuff and doing stuff. What he said or did is of no consequence; it’s not worth our time to report on it. We would, however, like to note how profoundly stupid his podium setup is, from the ICE-emblazoned vehicles to the use of our old (racist) state flag. Journalist Ana Marie Cox reports that tunes played before his presser included the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” and the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.” What a clown show.
Vance podium flanked by steroidal SUV’s declaring “Protect the Homeland” and the *old* Minnesota flag.
— Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox.bsky.social) 2026-01-22T18:07:29.719Z
