Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
How UnitedHealthcare Grew to Be a Big Problem
As The Lever's Lois Parshley points out in this thoroughly researched piece, UHC isn’t just a Minnetonka-based healthcare company, it’s a synergistic conglomerate that manufactures medical products, gives loans to patients and practices, owns pharmacies, and “employs about 10 percent of all physicians in the United States, giving it vast leverage with hospital networks.” It impacts drug prices, puts practices out of business, and is more likely to deny claims than it is to cover them.
In other words, it's way too fucking big.
But what really stands out about UHC’s exponential growth over the past few decades is that the people in power who could have limited growth at critical junctures failed to do so, and thus profited. “Over a hundred judges had failed to remove themselves from cases in which they might benefit, many ruling in ways that supported their financial interests,” writes Parshley, citing a 2021 WSJ investigation. “Sixty-one also traded stocks during these cases.” Such cases include, but are not limited to, successfully thwarting antitrust regulations, securing access to patient records at other health companies, and, of course, mergers galore.
Study Shows Racial Bias in MN Utility Shutoffs
Last February, the University of Minnesota released a report investigating instances of involuntarily utility disconnections for Xcel Energy customers between 2017 and 2021. The findings were not good: People of color are three times more likely to experience power shut-offs, regardless of income or property ownership, according to the report.
Activists pushed for a moratorium on shut-offs. Instead, Xcel has outlined a Public Utilities Commission-approved plan featuring steps to make it easier to pay them should you fall behind on bills. According to this handy piece from Frank Jossi over at MinnPost, that includes holding off on disconnection notices until at least $180 is past due, giving people 10 days instead of five to get on a payment plan before shutting off power, and requiring 10% instead of 50% of what’s owed to get electricity back on. Xcel also plans to hire an outside firm to conduct their own study on racial disparities in their services.
According to data from the MPUC, Xcel shut-offs were way up in 2024, doubling some months from 2023 numbers. “Despite Minnesota’s cold weather protection rules that limit disconnections during the winter through April 30, shutoffs even grew during the winter months,” writes Jossi.
St. Thomas’s New Arena Gets OK. Again.
When the University of St. Thomas announced plans to build a 5,500-seat arena in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul, folks in the neighborhood started putting up "JUST Say No" signs of protest on their lawns. (The italicized "UST" is for "University of St. Thomas," get it?) Then came Advocates for Responsible Development (ARD), which successfully petitioned the Minnesota Court of Appeals to investigate, for a second time, the environmental impact the Lee and Penny Anderson Arena and its Division 1 hockey and basketball games would cause. Of course, it really came down to parking: "St. Thomas is notorious for their lack of parking," ARD spokesperson Donn Waage told Axios at the time.
But now, once again, the arena has officially been green-lit by the city, reports Frederick Melo at the Pioneer Press. The new environmental statement details traffic control measures, including timed lights, off-site shuttles, and cops directing cars at major intersections. It also points out that these types of events are only likely to occur once or twice a year. “We’re looking at opening in the fall of 2025, which has pretty much been our plan all along,” St. Thomas spokesperson Bryce Butzer tells Melo.
These Christmas Trees Illustrate the Highs and Lows of Downtown Minneapolis
Disparate aesthetics, bad lighting, liminal spaces—that's the Minneapolis skyway system for you. Throw in some artificial Christmas trees and fake snow, and you’ve got potential for a “murder trees in the White House” situation. Star Tribune columnist James Lileks put out a ranking of skyway trees today, and they range from sad, no-effort attempts to extravagant displays of wealth—just like downtown itself! Although Lileks's winner, Capella Tower, shows bias (the Strib is located in the building), the abandoned U.S. Bank display and the giant walkthrough tree in City Center are my faves.
