ICE in the Ice: Department of Homeland Security Drops $85K on Parkas

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

ICE Spends $85K on Parkas

Look, there's not a lot of good news about the ongoing federal immigration crackdown here in Minnesota. But if there's some solace, it's that enforcement agents are, to use a technical term, "freezing their fucking balls off."

For Bloomberg, Alicia A. Caldwell reports that the Department of Homeland Security is spending roughly $85,000 on parkas from a Tennessee company called Workwear Outfitters, a purchase that coincides with ICE's ongoing thuggish behavior in MN. "Minnesota, which hugs the Canadian border, is known for long, harsh winters," Bloomberg helpfully explains, "and forecasters say the 2025–2026 season is expected to be colder than normal."

And speaking of making things difficult for ICE...

ICE Observers Need Dash Cams

If you're looking for ways to help area ICE observers with their work, here's an easy one. On Bluesky, Nick Benson says they're in need of dash cams "to prevent further intimidation and frivolous claims" from federal agents.

The cameras are $110 and the memory cards are $35, and you don't even have to leave your house to get one; ordering via this Amazon wishlist will ship 'em directly to those who need 'em. (Yes, yes, Amazon bad, as one replier pointed out—time is of the essence here, folks, let's not nitpick whether people are standing up to ICE in a woke enough fashion.) If you want, you can also send observers a gift card, or, if you really hate the online giant, you can get in touch with Benson and send funds some other way.

Walz Sidesteps Talk of Stepping Down

This line from Matthew Blake's MinnPost recap of Gov. Tim Walz's Tuesday press conference got a genuine lol outta me: "Walz said that he had a civic duty to fight against Trump, refraining, 'I’m not going anywhere,' even though he is going somewhere when he steps down a year from now."

Blake writes that although Walz declined to elaborate much on his dropped reelection bid, which he announced Monday, it's not like we can't figure out what happened: "[W]hat one can infer from Walz’s remarks today is that the Donald Trump administration and its attendant federal investigations, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, and tasteless and baseless claims (the latest that Walz somehow had a hand in the murder of former DFL House Leader Melissa Hortman) broke the governor’s jones for political combat."

Reporters kept asking about why he stepped down, and Walz kept tersely answering that it was a personal and family decision before inveighing against Trump.

Arguably the most surreal moment was Walz getting asked what he planned to do when he stepped down.

After two sentences regarding his interest in running more 10K races, the governor free-associated, “The Epstein files need to come out. The economy is sinking. We’re fighting a war in Venezuela.”

All true, but uh... huh! Guess we'll see ya out there on the race course, Guv.

Wanna Buy This 39-Square-Foot Piece of Land?

A Racket reader tipped us off to a fun lil sale via the Minnesota Department of Administration's surplus property website: this 39-square-foot parcel of residential real estate at 701 27th Ave. SE in Minneapolis. The opening bid? Just $600.

I don't know what you would do with a bit of land that size. World's smallest tiny home? World's biggest Little Free Library? But that's up to you! Lotta fun stuff on that auction website, by the way, in addition to small and unusual parcels of land—pallets of Red Bull, scissor lifts, snowmobiles, stuff like that.