Inside the High-Wire MN Fight Over Medically Diagnosing Child Abuse Head Trauma

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

MN Doctor Loses Job After Challenging Child Abuse Protocols

Dr. Nancy Harper is the director of the child abuse team at University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital, and her "formidability" and "influence" in the child abuse pediatrics universe are profound, writes ProPublica's Jessica Lussenhop. Dr. Bazak Sharon, a "well-respected" pediatrician who once worked at the U of M, knew challenging her findings in the alleged abuse case of a 3-month-old baby would ruffle feathers, though he didn't anticipate it would set off a chain of events that might've cost him his job. Less than two years later, a similar case ended with complaints against Sharon and, ultimately, his resignation.

At the center of the fight is a fierce debate over how to interpret the diagnosis formerly known as shaken baby syndrome. (Doctors in Harper's camp now defend the umbrella term "abuse head trauma" when pressed about "shaken baby syndrome.") The stakes are high, considering child protection services can remove children from families if abuse is suspected.

Sharon is in favor of increased shaken baby scrutiny, having once written that, “It is wrong to fail to advise parents and courts when these are simply hypotheses, not proven medical or scientific facts.” Harper, meanwhile, believes "the mainstream medical community" considers shaken baby syndrome a scientifically valid diagnosis, though doctors, lawyers, and a judge have questioned how she handles some allegations of child abuse. “She’s very black and white, right and wrong, no gray area,” Sharon says of Harper, “which is not the way to do medicine or pediatrics.”

Over thousands of words, Lussenhop unspools the "surreal" and highly sensitive medical drama. "Sharon did not know it at the time, but he was far from the only person struggling in recent years to keep a family from losing their children after Harper’s involvement," she writes. Harper did not respond to ProPublica's request for comment and detailed list of questions.

Strib Appreciation Post

Last week we published a bruising review of How I Found Myself In the Midwest, the résumé-padding new memoir from Minnesota Star Tribune publisher Steve Grove. And while we snipe at Strib bosses, as well as the reliably embarrassing Ed Board, we champion the 200ish dedicated journalists who work there. (Though it must be noted the tiny Minnesota Reformer newsroom thumped 'em royally at last week's Page One Awards.)

Exhibit one of Strib excellence: This engrossing investigation by Walker Orenstein, headlined, "Two dead bodies, one remote island and a whisper network: What happened on Isle Royale?" In it, the recent deaths of two campers on the rugged Lake Superior island are explored in incredible depth, punctuated with stunning shots from photographer Anthony Soufflé. “Nobody really knows anything,” a resident of nearby Windigo, Michigan, tells Orenstein, echoing investigators tasked with solving the suspected murder-suicide. It's a grim mystery seemingly ripped from the pages of a White Lotus script, Orenstein writes.

Exhibit two: Susan Du's thoughtful report on the long-simmering issues of violence, crime, addiction, and homelessness around the 46th Street light-rail station in south Minneapolis. It's old-school community journalism, featuring interviews with neighbors, business owners, Metro Transit, the Met Council, the City Council, and, crucially, a formerly unhoused man who was "part of the problem" at 46th & Hiawatha before getting sober. (Amy Macht, whose sarcastic, exploitative, and just mean-spirited @Karenthecamera account documents issues plaguing the area, is also quoted.) “If you push people around without resources that help lift them out of the situation they’re in, they’re going to go to another place, absolutely,” concludes Council Member Aurin Chowdhury.

Wanna Buy Burrito Loco?

For generations of Gophers, the Dinkytown bar/restaurant Burrito Loco has served as a blurry yet memorable spot to get drunk and, at least during my time, house chicken wings served from inside beer pitchers. If you've got Van Wildery aspirations and surplus capital, now's your chance to buy B-Loco; the "plug-and-play" 6,648-square-foot Minneapolis business at 418 13th Ave. SE hit the market this month for an undisclosed price.

"The property is fully equipped with a complete commercial kitchen, dining area and bar on both the main floor and 2nd floor, including all furniture, fixtures, and equipment," reads the commercial real estate listing from AMK Properties. We reached out to the listing agents for pertinent details, like a ballpark asking price, but didn't immediately hear back.

In other bar sale news: Gorgeously restored in 2015, the 12,645-square-foot Art Deco marvel from 1920 known as St. Paul's Commodore Bar & Restaurant, where F. Scott Fitzgerald, Al Capone, and Sinclair Lewis famously got schnockered, has been discounted to $2 million.

In thankfully-not-for-sale gay bar news: The 19 Bar, a beloved Minneapolis LGBTQ+ watering hole, is fully back from fire damage, as chronicled in this nice feature from MinnPost's Winter Keefer.

Reportedly Deemed "In Poor Taste" and "Unfair" by the Strib, Obit Goes Viral Online

Over the weekend Racket reader AC Sullivan emailed our advertising department, hoping that we'd run a stinging obituary for her "deadbeat" father, Charles Dudley Krenz. Turns out Sullivan didn't need a bump from us—the obit went viral on Bluesky, boosted by reposts from Dan Savage and Joyce Carol Oates. You can read it in full below.

An Update on That Bombastic Grandma's Marathon Poster

Earlier this month we highlighted the conversation-starting 2025 Grandma's Marathon poster from Duluth-raised artist Hartley Bauer. We finally heard back from Bauer, who's currently studying illustration in upstate New York, and wanted to share the talented young artist's perspective. Here's Hartley...

I'd like to start by saying it was not my intention to spark any controversy; reading the many comments about the looks of it as a bomb/fire/nuclear attack honestly led to insecurity for me. On one hand, I felt like I had failed my role in designing this poster given the current events in the U.S. On the other, I'm proud to have created something that sparks conversation. That's what art is meant to do! And the fact that it sold out and is the first Grandma's poster to ever do a re-order made me realize in the end that it was not a failure, but quite the opposite. 

I'm glad that people are interpreting it in many ways, but my intentions with it were purely to honor the Grandma's Marathon start line. I attend college in upstate New York, and whenever I describe Grandma's Marathon to new friends, I show them a picture of the start line, because it does a great job of conveying the popularity, location, and charm of the event. I wanted to make the train and fighter jets flyover a big focus for this reason; they're memorable traditions for the race. The nuclear-esque color of what was meant to be a dramatic sunrise is a result of my overall artistic style. I tend to make vibrant, richly saturated artworks that reflect how I see the world as an optimistic person who sees excitement and beauty in everything. It's also my way of elevating the ordinary, and changing the way people see things they are familiar with. 

All in all, I'm grateful that this poster has sparked so much meaningful conversation; getting people talking and thinking in new ways is a core aspect of art and the impact I want to make. This might seem random but I recently watched the Bob Dylan movie, A Complete Unknown, in which there's a scene where he plays new music at a music festival and the crowd hates it, because they wanted all his typical popular stuff. But the music he played that night was part of one of the most influential albums in history. I couldn't stop thinking about that when I saw the controversy around the poster, and the fact that it was selling out regardless. If I had created a similar poster to all the past ones, there'd be none of this impact; it's evidence that moving in an unconventional direction inspires genuine conversation and engagement, and it's the first time that I'm experiencing that on a large scale, rather than just observing it in other art/media. It's a crazy experience honestly.