How Much Is Your Local Lawmaker Worth?

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

What Kinda Bacon is Your Rep. Makin'?

Annual congressional financial disclosure reports are out! For Minnesotans who want to monitor their U.S. representatives' finances, Ana Radelat of MinnPost reports on the most recent disclosure details from our state's congressional delegation.

So, are politicians really just like us? Well, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) disclosed student loan payments, while Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) disclosed the sale of her condo in Playa del Carmen, so it’s a mixed bag.

Earlier this year, Omar’s finances came under attack from Trump, leading her to clarify and amend her disclosure report from last year. Apparently, the original report showed the total value of two companies in which Omar’s husband is a partial owner, rather than the portion of net value that Omar and her husband actually received. (Those important details didn’t make it into Trump’s threatening Truth Social post at the time.) Anyway, Omar's most recent disclosure report lists the valuation from those companies as “none.”  

Also of interest: Rep. Kelly Morrison (D-MN), who hasn’t filed her disclosure forms yet because she was granted an extension. But after her promise in April to divest herself of all individual stocks and holdings in private companies, it’ll be illuminating to see how her $22.9 to $77 million in mutual funds, individual stocks, and other assets appear on her report.

As for Republicans, Rep. Brad Finstad owns a big family farm and a $5 million building. Rep. Tom Emmer, on the hand, only has a modest IRA, an inexpensive mortgage, and oh-so-many bad ideas.

Twin Cities Labor Movement: Blueprint for Fighting Fascism?

We're still processing the fallout from Operation Metro Surge.

Some, like the members of the Trump administration who started the statewide ethnic-cleansing campaign, are still determined to wring it for deadender political points, as we saw with Wednesday's dog 'n' pony show indictment of 15 "antifa"-aligned protesters. Others, like the indispensable labor reporter Hamilton Nolan, are mining OMS for blueprints to fight future fascistic tantrums. Predictably (he's a labor reporter, after all), Nolan identified the Twin Cities labor movement as a coordinated force that must be mimicked around the country.

After attending the Labor Notes conference this week in Chicago, Nolan came away awed by what Twin Cities unions were able to accomplish as the feds stormed our state. "It was fascinating and inspiring and it helped to show us all not just what unions are, but what they can be," he writes.

There was the January 23 work stoppage/march. There was the mutual aid coordination. There was, amid a landscape of corporate cowardice, the full-throated rebuke of the deadly invading army terrorizing our neighbors.

Concludes Nolan…

Anti-fascism, a philosophy that should be considered a minimum standard of human decency, will be a long and hard fight. It will require not just actions, but institutions. The unions of the Twin Cities—and the churches, and the community groups—are examples of what those institutions can be...

I was in Minneapolis the day that Alex Pretti was killed. Standing out on a tear gas-choked frozen street that resembled a war zone, I had the distinct thought, “This is coming for everyone.” Minneapolis is not unique. It is a preview. The labor movement of Minneapolis is not something to be admired from afar; it is a road map for the rest of us. Get yourself a movement, before the fascists come knocking on your door.

Everyone Hates the State Flag, But What Else Do They Hate?

If you only read the Star Tribune, you might think the biggest takeaway of their statewide poll was that 50% of the 800 Minnesotans surveyed “disapprove” of the new State flag (a staggering 90% of those who identify a Republican sure do). 

But there’s more to this project, the result of a team effort with KARE 11 and the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication. While a lot of it is negative, at least we’re hating on some good stuff. That includes artificial intelligence, with 35% of those polled saying they’re “very concerned” about it and another 42% falling into the “somewhat concerned” range. Only 7% of those questioned on the phone said they’re “not at all concerned” while 2% are "unsure." “The poll found 63% of those surveyed oppose the construction of a data center in their community,” writes Jeremiah Jacobsen for KARE 11. 

We’re also worried about fraud, with 54% in the “very concerned” category. However, we’re torn on who we trust to take care of it; 38% would prefer Dems while 45% still think the GOP is gonna drain that swamp. At least 53% of those polled would like a ban on military-style rifles—that number jumps to 70% when you single out DFL voters.

Eyebrow-Raising Naz Reid Plate Spotted

Naz Reid: a Timberwolf beloved enough that his very name has come to mean something like "let's goooo," whose face adorns yard signs throughout the Twin Cities, whose name is etched into the skin of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Minnesotans. There's not possibly a wrong way to honor a man so universally adored, is there? 

We thought so too, until this license plate picture started making the rounds on Reddit: 

Now, yes, Naz Reid does wear No. 11. But... we all see it, right? And we're all a little unclear about how that got past the good people at Driver and Vehicle Services? And we're all sort of... skeptical that such a thing could be an accident on the part of the plateholder? 

How about we just get a quick lil "Naz Reid" tattoo next time, guys?