Here’s What Minneapolis Looks Like to Space Aliens

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily noontime(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.

Former Prosecutor in Kim Potter Case Decries “Extremist Asshole-ism”

“It broke my heart,” Washington County Attorney Pete Orput told KSTP of his experience handling the case of Kim Potter, the former Brooklyn Center cop who killed Daunte Wright at a traffic stop. Does Orput mean Wright’s death? No, he means being called a racist by Nekima Levy-Armstrong and others who protested outside Orput’s Stillwater home, leading him to pass the case along to Hennepin County instead. “They call that extremist activism and I call it extremist asshole-ism,” Orput said of the protests, apparently not realizing that he could have instead just not said anything.  

Chauvin Back in Court

Former Minneapolis cop and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin returned to court today (virtually, not corporeally) for arraignment on charges of violating the civil rights of a 14-year-old boy in 2017. Chauvin is accused of using unreasonable force, holding his knee on the prone, handcuffed boy’s neck and back, and hitting him in the head with a flashlight. Chauvin pleaded not guilty.

Bop It, Twist It, Pull It… Docket?

Losing your vax card—it’s something that could happen to anyone (besides me). Even one of Racket’s staff (not me) lost his card. The good news is now you download your immunization records from the Minnesota Department of Health via a new app called Docket. Hate apps? Still have a flip phone? You can still get your records in the mail the old fashioned way. At last, a state action that makes our lives a little easier and that nobody could have a prob—wait, what? Oh. WCCO’s John Croman is reporting that MN Senate Republicans are speaking out against Docket, calling it a “vax passport.”

Gargantuan Five-Story Building to Tower over Summit Hill

St. Paul is growing, whether some folks in Summit Hill like it or not. The City Council voted 5-2 to reject an appeal from a group called Friends of a Better Way to stop the construction of a five-story, 80-unit mixed use building on the site of Dixie’s on Grand. The nearly 60-foot high, 100,000-square-foot building is part of a $32.5 million development project. 

Far Out, (Astro)man 

If you're anything like us, the tyranny of gravity keeps you firmly planted on earth. But for throwback astronauts like Shane Kimbrough (read: not cosplaying billionaire shitheads), life is all about zero-G vibes and neat, locally angled photographs from the International Space Station. See:

Of note: U.S. Bank Stadium, the Convention Center's dome trinity, our various lakes and rivers, plus Kimbrough's steadfast refusal to call the U of M football stadium by its proper, recently rebranded name. This also constitutes the Flyover newsletter's first literal flyover shot, so stop accusing us of the ol' bait 'n' switch.