Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Report: True-Crime TV Show Mucks Up Justice Around the U.S.
All friend of Racket Jessica Lussenhop does is produce bangers, so it's no surprise that her latest for ProPublica—"'A Wholly Inaccurate Picture': Reality Cop Show 'The First 48' and the Wrongly Convicted Man"—brings the goods.
In it, we meet Edgar Barrientos-Quintana, whose 2008 first-degree murder conviction in the Minneapolis killing of 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson was chronicled by A&E copaganda reality show The First 48. Barrientos-Quintana would spend 16 years in prison before his release late last year. The Conviction Review Unit and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty had discovered "dozens of issues" related Barrientos-Quintana's investigation and trial, Lussenhop reports, including the influence of The First 48.
“In the episode, events happened out of order, and Sgts. Dale and Gaiters staged scenes for the producers that were not a part of the investigation,” Judge John R. McBride wrote. “What is more, the episode failed to include other, actual portions of the investigation, painting a wholly inaccurate picture of how the MPD investigation unfolded.”
In its deep dive into the show, ProPublica found that The First 48, now in its 23rd season, has a long history of creating issues in the criminal justice system (lord knows that particular system doesn't need additional issues). Over the past 20 or so years, Memphis, New Orleans, Detroit, and Miami have severed ties with the program after it "snarled prosecutions or otherwise created problems."
"They are allowed to continue to do probably a great deal of damage without being discovered, without really having any consequences," says Moriarty, echoing how her prosecutor predecessor, Mike Freeman, felt about The First 48. MPD didn't respond to ProPublica's long list of questions about its involvement with the show, Lussenhop writes, other than to confirm its contract with producers Kirkstall Road Enterprises expired in 2016. Chief Brian O’Hara did publicly defend his department's investigation of the Mickelson killing, stating (presumably) with a straight face that he's, “concerned that a convicted killer will be set free based only upon a reinterpretation of old evidence rather than the existence of any new facts.”
Barrientos-Quintana declined to speak for the story, because he's (presumably) busy making up for the 16 years that were stolen from him.
Fulton Beer Boss: Trump's Tariffs Could Cost Brewers Hundreds of Thousands
"Tariff Gambit Bets Americans Will Swallow Higher Prices," reads a New York Times headline from earlier today, just two days ahead of Trump's grand reveal of his aggressive tariff plans. “I couldn’t care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars,” Trump told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. (We also learn that he's "not joking" about a potential third term... oof.)
Jim Diley, founder of Minneapolis-based Fulton Brewing, isn't joking when he talks about the potentially skyrocketing production costs associated with the new tariff rollout. Speaking with Newsweek, he says 60% of his company's beer is sold via cans, and the cost of aluminum—you guessed it—will soon be subjected to steep import taxes. Ditto for barley from Canada. In fact, Diley says Fulton currently has an order of barley stalled in customs due to confusion over the looming changes.
"The tariff issue is worrisome: A can going up a penny or two might seem small, but over a year that's hundreds of thousands of dollars," he says. "Beer shouldn't be a luxury item, it should be affordable and accessible for everybody, and the more the cost goes up, the more challenging that becomes."
Who's Running for Tina Smith's Senate Seat?!
The list grows longer and wackier by the day.
Last week, we learned that tarantula-tossing sex worker Marisa Simonetti is throwing her hat, spider-like, into the ring as her ongoing legal case "lingers." Elsewhere in the announced field of Republican contenders: Royce White, who simply won't go away after failing to unseat Ilhan Omar and Sen. Amy Klobuchar and is of course running to oppose the "globalist agenda," and Navy vet Adam Schwarze.
News dropped Monday that one big-name Democratic contender, Attorney General Keith Ellison, won't be seeking that office. He endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, calling her a “pragmatic progressive with a record of critical wins for families across Minnesota.” Among the other DFLers rumored to be seeking the gig: ex-state Sen. Melisa López Franzen and U.S. Reps. Angie Craig and Ilhan Omar.
Last month Smith announced that she'll be retiring, thus putting her U.S. Senate seat up for grabs in 2026. Purely for the sake of entertainment? We welcome every fringe, never-gonna-win weirdo who wants it.
Latest on the College ICE Raids
Horrifyingly, last week saw the ICE abductions of two Minnesota college students: one Thursday just outside the U of M Twin Cities campus, and one Friday near the Minnesota State University Mankato campus. Officials from both universities appear clueless about why these students were detained, though an official with the Department of Homeland Security tweeted (...oof) that the U of M student had their visa revoked over a DUI arrest.
Around 100 folks marched through downtown Minneapolis on Saturday to protest the U of M student's detention. “An attack on one of us, is an attack on all of us. As a union we remain committed to protecting our international graduate workers,” Abaki Beck, president of grad student worker union GLU-UE Local 1105, said at the rally.
Extremely related content from earlier today...
