Guess What Most of Gov. Walz’s U of M Board of Regents Picks Have in Common…

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

Walz Stocks U of M Board of Regents With Big-Money Donors

Back in July, Cal Mergendahl issued a warning via MinnPost. Gov. Tim Walz must select the most qualified folks for interim University of Minnesota Board of Regents appointments, they argued, and "certainly not the ones who have written him the biggest checks." Mergendahl, a U of M grad student and member of the Regent Candidate Advisory Council, singled out Samuel Heins and Ellen Lugar as potential appointees who'd previously inked big checks for Walz campaigns—$11,000 from Democratic mega-donor Heins, $3,450 from Luger. 

Fast-forward to Tuesday: Walz revealed his four board picks, with Heins and Luger making the cut. MinnPost notes that two of those picks—Heins and Joel Bergstrom, the latter of whom chipped in $250 for Walz in 2022—were surprise departures from the Legislature's recommendations. (Typically lawmakers fill the Regents board, but time ran out during this year’s special session, hence Walz’s new duty.) Kowsar Mohamed, meanwhile, earned the dual distinction of being recommended by the Joint Higher Education Committee and never having contributed to a Walz campaign. You can learn non-monetary info about the four new members to the 12-person board via MPR News. 

When the Legislature reconvenes early next year, lawmakers can grant these interim board members full six-year teams or replace ‘em with new candidates. “Or they can do nothing again,” MinnPost’s Matthew Blake writes, noting that Republicans are accusing Dems of deliberately taking the do-nothing route to give Walz more power. 

Blake asked Walz about his reasoning behind his four selections, but never heard back. We asked Mergendahl to sum up the appointments late Wednesday... 

It's bad enough that Walz opted to ignore the Legislature's recommendations, but to pass over eminently qualified and passionate advocates for a better UMN in favor of big donors who put six figures into Democrat campaign war chests borders on the unconscionable. The U needs accountability and strong leadership more than ever, and when the Regents aren't interested or invested in that work, students, faculty, staff, and taxpayers are the ones who end up losing.

State of the Twins: Bum Owners Retain Ownership; Plummeting Attendance; Sky-High “Misery Index” Figure

Earlier this month, Racket urged the bungling bozo billionaire owners of the Twins to sell the team ASAP, which they had allegedly been trying—and failing—to do for 10 months. They didn’t listen.

Earlier today, news dropped that the Twins are off the market, with the Pohlad bozos noting that two mystery minority owners had been brought aboard. "We see and hear the passion from our partners, the community, and Twins fans,” they write straight-faced. “That passion inspires us." We’re trying to passionately inspire you to sell the team to someone who wants to win, you freaking bozos!

Anyway, to an exasperated fanbase, this development registered as yet another middle finger following the trade-deadline talent fire sale and years of payroll slashing. We’ll let Aaron Gleeman sum up fan sentiment with a meme, this one featuring Minnesota actor Vincent Kartheiser:

Gleeman's headline for The Athletic, "In pulling Twins off the market, Pohlads crush hopes of a fan base that deserves better," goes even harder.

Elsewhere in Twins Territory: Nobody wants to watch the product the Pohlads reluctantly pay to produce. Total attendance is down 43% since Target Field opened in 2010, and the Strib reports that 2025 projects as “one of the worst” years in ballpark history. Per Pro Baseball Reference, this season’s average of 22,298 tickets sold per game could flirt with 2022 (22,236) for the lowest ever if you remove the Covid-y ‘21 campaign (16,175). Can’t imagine the glorified AAA team of ‘26 is gonna be a huge draw. 

And, finally, summing up this whole rotten ordeal: ESPN rolled out its updated Sports Misery Index, a tool that attempts to quantify—you guessed it—franchise-specific misery among fans. “We do this using a number of key data points, including regular and postseason success, as well as a team’s expected success going into a season,” a smiling robot tells readers, adding that “no fancy AI” is used in the computations. Your Minnesota Twins scored an 88, bad enough for the ninth-worst spot in the big leagues over the past 15 years. 

Billionaire Puts Half Her Park Point Hoard Up for Sale

When Kathy Cargill began buying up properties along Park Point, the world's largest freshwater sandbar, folks in Duluth, including the mayor, were alarmed. What were her plans? Why was she demolishing 100-year-old homes, tearing down trees, and adding security fences with “NO TRESPASSING” signs? 

Turns out Cargill thought those homes were "crap” (see one example of “crap” here, RIP). A Wall Street Journal article revealed that she had planned to build homes for her family, erect small-scale nature spaces (whatever that means), and open a pickleball court. 

Now that Duluthian dream may officially be dead, with MPR News reporting that about half of Cargill’s properties went up for sale via Sotheby’s this week. “Cargill paid $1.7 million for the three properties,” MPR's Dan Kraker writes. “Now she’s listed the combined properties as a single parcel for $850,000, the sale of which is pending.” Three other plots of land—one even still has a house!—are also listed, though some locations already have sales pending.

Strib Survey: McDonald’s Parking Lot IS Uptown

Everyone in town plays fast and loose with the definition of Uptown. The vibe of Uptown, the peak of Uptown—hell, the literal boundaries of Uptown—vary from person to person, day to day, era to era. 

Back in July, the Star Tribune set up a survey asking readers to define the area, both in a physical sense and in a vibes sense. Two thousand people responded, with staffers Jake Steinberg, Jeff Hargarten, and Zoë Jackson gleaning some interesting information from their answers. 

A few fun facts: 98% agreed that the epicenter of Uptown is at the intersection of Hennepin Avenue and Lake Street, with the strongest consensus being that the McDonald’s parking lot is definitely Uptown. The western boundary is the most contested, with some folks putting it all the way into St. Louis Park. Also Uptown Pizza, located at Lake Street and Grand Avenue, is not Uptown.

Perceived boundaries also vary with age. Younger people are more likely to take the eastern Uptown boundary all the way out to Lyndale Avenue—you crazy kids! “I know Lyn-Lake isn’t technically Uptown, but I just think there’s no reason it shouldn’t be??” one survey taker mused. 

You can see more results and explore the interactive map here.

Related: Can you believe that we published this almost exactly four years ago?