Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Measles Are Up and Scott Jensen Seems Confident
After losing his GOP-endorsed campaign for Minnesota governor in 2022, Scott Jensen is back in the race again and running on his same old platform: medical mistrust and misinformation. This time he might be getting a boost by aligning himself with Robert F. Kennedy’s MAHA cult and expanding his skepticism to on-brand topics like water fluoridation and the dangers of Tylenol.
“If you look at the conversations that Bobby Kennedy is trying to put on the table today, you may or may not agree with everything he says, but don’t we have an obligation to ask the questions?” Jensen asked at a recent “health freedom fest” in outstate Minnesota about questions that have long been answered. (You can read Racket's recap of that event here, and learn how little it actually had to do with "asking questions.")
Jensen, a family physician himself, has previously downplayed Covid as a “a mild four-day respiratory illness,” compared anti-vaxxers to Jews in Nazi Germany, and repeatedly talked up the (obviously bonkers) hoax that children who identify as furries are peeing in litter boxes at schools.
“The skepticism expressed by Kennedy and Jensen is shared by a growing number of Americans,” writes Ryan Faircloth in this Star Tribune piece on Jensen’s recent campaign developments. “Recent surveys have found fewer Americans trust public health agencies and the importance of childhood vaccinations. A Washington Post survey this month found four in 10 parents identify as supporters of the MAHA movement, including independents and some with college degrees who identify as Democrats.” Yikes!
In other, totally unrelated news, the Minnesota Department of Health reports that so far we’ve had 20 cases of measles in Minnesota so far this year. That number is likely to increase in the coming days, as Olmsted County has confirmed a new case involving a child who had recently traveled internationally. All instances of infection this year have been unvaxxed individuals.
KMOJ Seeks Funds to Move
“It’s unfair to just call KMOJ a radio station,” writes Myron Medcalf for the Star Tribune. “It’s an institution.” That’s true, and the Twin Cities Black nonprofit radio station is also an institution that has had to adapt to changing circumstances over the years. Now it will be forced to move (once again) from its current location on West Broadway in north Minneapolis to make way for the Blue Line light rail extension.
The station has had a peripatetic history. My very first cover story for City Pages, over 25 years ago, was about how gentrification in Near North threatened the station's home at 501 Bryant Avenue North. KMOJ was eventually required to relocate. It found a temporary spot in Uptown in 2007 and settled into its current digs on West Broadway three years later.
If you've ever moved, you know it ain't cheap. So KMOJ is in the midst of a $17 million capital campaign to build a new studio. “We’ve identified the land in north Minneapolis, which is important,” general manager Freddie Bell tells Medcalf. “We’re looking for the bigger donors as well as the smaller donors together because where I come from, every dollar counts.”
In Labor in Owatonna? Plan for a 45-Minute Drive.
The Mayo Clinic will no longer be providing OB-GYN services like on-call labor and delivery at Owatonna Hospital. “We were absolutely dumbstruck,” Owatonna Mayor Matt Jessop tells Molly Castle Work at MPR. “It just came out of nowhere.”
The facility serves an area with a population of 25,000; the obstetrics center delivers about 400 babies annually. But starting November 17, folks who show up in labor will likely be diverted to Austin or Rochester, both of which are more than 40 minutes away, or the Twin Cities, a drive that can take over a hour.
The Mayo Clinic says it’s dealing with a nationwide shortage of OB-GYN doctors. “Mayo Clinic Health System (MCHS) remains deeply committed to supporting patients and serving the Owatonna community,” a Mayo Clinic spokesperson tells MPR. But still, you gotta drive there.
Attempted Firebomb Misses Fletcher's Ice Cream
Well, this is scary. Photographer Erik Hess captured an attempted firebombing of Fletcher’s Ice Cream in northeast Minneapolis this afternoon. The would-be vandals didn’t seem like pros—the flaming bottle landed on the sidewalk outside of the shop and was quickly extinguished, not to mention the fact that this is the sort of mayhem usually conducted under cover of night. During the day, someone might get a picture of your license plate, dumbass.
Just witnessed someone trying to fireb*mb Fletcher’s Ice Cream in NE. Saw a dude acting weird next to a parked car in front of the place. I walked by, heard a smash through my earbuds, smelled gasoline/kerosine. Turned around, snapped some photos instinctively. Thankfully they suck at molot*vs.
— fivesixzero (@fivesixzero.bsky.social) 2025-10-20T19:00:39.888Z
The matter is currently under investigation by the MPD, and nothing more is known yet about the attackers or motive. However, as Hess and others have noted on social media, Fletcher's proudly flies a large Progress Pride flag. Fletcher’s is closed on Mondays.
UPDATE: Suspect arrested. That was fast.
