Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Stay in touch
Sign up for The Flyover newsletter
There's Just No Good Way to Spin Operation Metro Surge
"Things weren't perfect. We addressed it. We fixed it," border czar Tom Homan told CBS News earlier this week when asked about this past winter’s disastrous Operation Metro Surge, simultaneously making an overstatement and an understatement.
To that point, Jeff Day and Sarah Nelson at the Star Tribune report that, following a judge’s order, the feds have handed off a digital drive containing cellphone data, statements, and video/photo evidence taken by or of ICE agent Jonathan Ross in the moments before he shot Renee Good. The request was filed in connection to a lawsuit regarding a man who was convicted of assaulting Ross during a traffic stop.
Renee Good’s wife, Rebecca, is hopeful that the evidence she requested, including the family’s SUV (which is currently being held in a federal storage facility), will be turned over soon as well. Although “multiple requests for information and evidence since January have gone without a reply,” lawyer Antonio Romanucci says.
Stillwater Too Awesome, Needs to Cut Back
According to residents and some City Council members, Stillwater has too much of a good thing going. The city’s events calendar is so stacked that the people who live there are over it. Visitors are causing traffic jams, filling up restaurants, and killing the overall vibe. “I think we’re pretty well maxed out at this point,” Mayor Ted Kozlowksi said at a recent City Council meeting.
“Altogether, Stillwater’s calendar featured more than 100 days of festivities in 2025,” writes Eleanor Hildebrandt for the Star Tribune. (Is that a lot?) Apparently events like Lumberjack Days, the World Snow Sculpture Championship, and those historic walking tours are doing a real number on folks, so city officials formed a task force to come up with ideas on how to balance money-making fests with downtime. That includes the possibility of a one-day-a-month “no permit” day.
Hey man, send some of those permit applicants to downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul! We could use 'em.
Can Art Save Greater Minnesota?
The arts are undergoing a resurgence in southwest Minnesota, according to Alex V. Cipolle at MPR News.
Cipolle takes a tour of the region and visits Clarkfield, where a historic bank has become the “Clarkfield State Bank of Art”; the Madison Mercantile, operating out of a former hardware store as “part-coffeehouse, part-creative space, part-small business incubator”; and the Granite Area Arts Council, which has sponsored a new art space called The YES! House. "The arts bring in millions and millions of dollars to communities,” says Ash Hanson, a rural arts advocate. “It competes with sports; it’s a big number.”
How big a number? MPR cites a report which found that the arts generated about $29 million in that region in 2024. Take that, sports! Might be time for a road trip this summer.
Charter (Out of) Commission
By an 8-7 vote Wednesday, the Minneapolis Charter Commission decided not to place a question on the ballot this November asking voters whether they want to change the way six city department heads are appointed under the City Charter. (The departments in question: the Health Department, Community Planning & Economic Development, Regulatory Services, Assessing, Civil Rights, and Public Works.)
Under the rejected proposal, certain mayoral appointees would have no longer required City Council approval or public hearings. Opponents of the ballot question, who turned out in force for yesterday’s meeting, saw the proposed change as a way to further consolidate power in the mayor’s office. Proponents of the ballot question said that—well, whatever they said, we know they wanted to further consolidate power in the mayor’s office.
Was the wording of the ballot question also wonky as hell? You bet your parliamentary procedure it was.
