Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Pack a Bowl for Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Good news for folks with OCD and IBS: Starting this summer, you’ll be able to get on the state’s medical marijuana program. Since accidentally legalizing THC edibles last summer, shops and manufacturers have been making bank while the state misses out because they didn’t slap a tax on it. But Minnesota is still making green off the green stuff through its ever-expanding medical marijuana program. Today, the Minnesota Department of Health announced that it’s adding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Irritable Bowel Syndrome to the list of 21 medical conditions accepted by the program. So if you suffer from either of these health issues, you may be able to join starting in August. It’s not cheap, however: It can cost up to $200 a year to get a medical cannabis patient number, in addition to whatever products you buy at a dispensary, of course. (Check out our guide to what to expect when you’re expecting medical cannabis here.) Meanwhile, the Strib’s Sunday edition published a piece by Minnesota House majority leader Ryan Winkler on why legalization needs to happen in 2023, and, when it does, it will be “the nation's best.”
Can Uptown Be Affordable?
Over at Southwest Voices, Melody Hoffman breaks the news that the city of Minneapolis is lending $1 million toward funding of an affordable housing complex in Uptown. CommonBond Communities has plans for a mixed-use building at 1301 W. Lake St., in the shadow of Seven Points. Of the 120 units planned, 24 will be set aside for tenants currently experiencing homelessness, and all the others will be below market rate. That seems… relatively not bad?
This site, you may recall, is adjacent to the parking garage where members of a U.S. Marshals’ task force shot and killed Winston Smith in June 2021. And that portion of Lake St. is where Deona Marie Knajdek was later killed by an SUV driver during a demonstration. The vacant lot was reclaimed as a garden by protesters until they were driven out by the property owners. The site then became an eyesore, with razor wire atop chain-link fencing and armed guards blasting floodlights on the area. “We are hopeful that CommonBond will make space available for memorials of Winston Smith and Deonna Marie, who were valued members of the community,” Lowery Hills East Neighborhood Association President Jason Garcia said in a statement.
Strib Writer Visits "Sex Hotel"
We’re big, big fans of Star Tribune reporter John Reinan. You’d be hard-pressed—at least locally—to find a more off-the-cuff, singular Twitter persona, and the veteran journalist still churns out oddball stories from around the state like clockwork. The latest: Reinan’s visit to a “sex hotel” in Wisconsin’s Driftless region, a kinky travelogue that was trusted to a man whose prose is anything but bloodless. Located in Dodgeville, the 50-year-old Don Q Inn features 20 “Fantasy Suites” (Cupid's Corner, Geisha Garden, Jungle Safari, etc.), whirlpool tubs with past lives as cheese vats, and, mercifully, no blacklights. “Passing Arabian Nights, Paradise Cove, and the Shotgun Suite, we could only wonder what might be happening on the other side of the doors,” Reinan wrote of his journey to his igloo-themed room with a 10-sided mirror (presumably for sex-watching). “It was kind of kooky and definitely spooky: ‘It feels like a scary movie could be made here,’ my wife said.” The piece remains strictly PG, but it’s definitely worth your time. Fun aside: Back at City Pages, we kept referring to Moxy, the Minneapolis hotel that previously pushed lascivious branding, as the "Uptown sex hotel," so often, in fact, that the managers asked us to please stop.
Giant Baby Kitties Flee Ukraine for Minnesota
In news so freakin’ cute we gotta share: Four lion cubs have taken up residence in Sandstone’s Wildcat Sanctuary. The sweet angel carnivores, all ages 5 to 6 months, survived drone attacks and bombings in Ukraine before making their way to Poland, where they were taken in with the hopes of finding permanent residence elsewhere. Eventually caretakers, with the help of the International Fund For Animal Welfare, were able to place the cubs in Minnesota, and, after arriving yesterday, Taras, Stefania, Lesya, and Prada are now getting settled into their new home. The Wildcat Sanctuary isn’t open to the public, but you can watch some adorable footage of these buddies online and you can donate to their cause here.
