Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Say Goodbye to Another Frey Guy
Sharmarke Issa has resigned from his position as board chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. Coincidentally, Sharmarke Issa, former board chair of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, helped purchase a building that federal prosecutors are seeking to seize as part of a fraud investigation. It would be journalistically irresponsible for us to state that these two facts are necessarily related. After all, people leave jobs every day for all sorts of reasons—it’s the Great Resignation, haven’t you heard? But here’s what we know: Issa co-owns the building with Abdi Salah, the former Jacob Frey policy aide who recently resigned after being named in the fed’s investigation into the food aid program Feeding Our Future. We also know Issa was appointed by Jacob Frey. For more on this, Sahan Journal has been on the Feeding Our Future story from the jump.
Masks Off
We kinda saw this coming, but it’s news anyway: Minneapolis and St. Paul both lifted their indoor mask requirements today. With omicron in apparent retreat and COVID numbers declining statewide, such a decision seemed, if you’ll pardon the expression, in the air. (Keep in mind that “declining” means that Minnesota “only” reported 47 COVID deaths today.) The mandate remains in effect in city government buildings, so if you want to head to the Government Center to complain about your snow emergency ticket, mask up. (Related: I beat a ticket by seconds this morning. Popped out of my house at 8:05 and the guy was driving up the street. “Good timing!” he shouted to me after I moved across the street.)
Your Grandchildren Will Wish It Was This Cold
Minnesota will be warmer by 2100—11 degrees in the winter and 7 degrees in the summer, according to a new University of Minnesota study published in the journal Earth and Space Science. We’ll also have less rain in the spring and less snow in the winter. Bad news for our dying planet, but maybe good news for Minnesotans’ aching backs? [Insert graphic of man with snow shovel bent over in pain here.] Of course not. “Mitigation and adaptation strategies need to be put in place to address these future changes,” said Stefan Liess, the study’s lead researcher. “These projections would impact multiple important state sectors including agriculture, pest management, water and energy management, forestry, health care (adaptation to heat related health issues) and tourism.”
Is There Any Office Richard Painter Won’t Run For?
Perennial office-seeker Richard Painter, chair of the Minnesota TrumpIsBad Party, announced that he will seek the DFL nomination to run for the First Congressional District seat that was vacated when Rep. Jim Hagedorn kicked earlier this month, according to Axios. Painter has already announced possible runs for state attorney general and governor, whether as an independent or with a party nomination, he hasn’t decided yet. (This is a guy who really likes to leave his options open.) He’s also considered throwing in his lot with Andrew Yang’s Forward Party, which makes sense, since Painter, like Yang, is a showboat who attracts stans who think they're "better" than politics. (After a while, you start to suspect guys like this indulging in electoral cosplay.) Painter has expressed progressive stances on mining and marijuana legalization, while promising to be both “tough on crime” and standing up to police unions, and he received 14% of the vote when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2020. Maybe he should set his sights a little lower. Why not start with state legislature, bud? Or municipal government? Neighborhood board?
