Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Finally! MN Is Working On a Super Pig Contingency Plan
In April, we reported that giant pigs could soon be coming to Minnesota by way of Canada. At the time, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources had no plans for how they were going to deal with them. Now it sounds like they’re figuring it out, as the Minnesota Legislature is asking the DNR to come up with a strategy. “Canadian researchers have called wild pigs ‘ecological train wrecks,’ that can cause soil erosion, degrade water quality, destroy crops, and prey on small mammals and birds,” writes John Myers for the Duluth News Tribune. These “super pigs” can weigh up to 400 pounds, run 30 mph, and have no issues with subzero weather or snow. Dealing with them could be tricky, removal can be costly and dangerous, and the pigs are hard to herd away. There’s an online open meeting scheduled for tonight at 6:30 p.m.; you can find more info and the link to listen in here.
Got a Vacant Space? Soon You May Feel the Justified Wrath of City Council
Landlords who own chronically vacant residential or retail properties could end up facing heftier fines if Minneapolis City Council votes to change the fine print of its Vacant Building Registration program. Right now, property owners with empty lots are charged $7,087 a year for their dead lots, but a proposed tweak to the policy would turn that into a monthly fee. There would also be regular inspections, with monthly citations starting at $250 and doubling to as much as $2,000 if the properties remain vacant. “There’s an apartment building and it’s sitting empty, let’s make sure people are living in it... Empty buildings do not help the city prosper; it doesn’t help anybody,” council member Michael Rainville tells Finance & Commerce. Council’s set to vote on the issue at a meeting this Friday. So far members Jeremiah Ellison, Lisa Goodman, Aisha Chughtai, and Rainville have voiced support for the change.
UFO and/or Fireball Meteor Likely Caused Last Night’s Sky Explosion
Last night, around 6:40 p.m., residents in Beltrami County began calling emergency hotlines to report witnessing a sudden flash of blue light followed by a building-shaking “boom.” “I live a couple miles east of Bemidji and it rattled my windows and scared the soul out of my dog who was outside and demanded to be let in the house,” writes Beltrami County Sheriff’s press officer Christopher S. Muller in a Facebook post. Officials searched the area, investigating power boxes and electrical poles, but came up short of an answer. Ultimately, emergency management deemed it to be a space-related incident. “POSSIBLE METEOR? **THIS IS SPECULATION**” another post from the area's safety department warns. According to space weather reports, the Northern Taurid meteor shower has been ongoing since last month, and these meteors, categorized as “fireballs” by NASA, are known to produce bright flashes of light. You can watch a video of the incident here.
Students Are Still Wildin’ in Dinkytown
University of Minnesota students: When they’re not in a basement downing a BORG they're out on the streets, fucking up Dinkytown. But who gets to clean up the detritus of last night’s parties? For this Minnesota Daily piece, Kelly Rogers checks in with the bouncers, bakers, and late-night diner servers in the area who deal with all the school's drunken fools. “A lot of people who come in don’t know where they are and they look at our cookies like they’ve never seen cookies before,” says Samantha Walker at Insomnia Cookies. Other stories include a kid who escaped the Blarney Pub with eight bottles of ketchup, a men’s bathroom at D.P. Dough that has remained mirror-less since a patron broke it, and drunk people eating the display treats at Insomnia. “Go out and do a bar crawl and come home at three in the morning completely trashed, but just act a little more responsibly,” a day manager at D.P. Dough sagely advises.
