Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
How Fed Changes Would Hobble U Medical Research
As recently as two months ago, “cancer research” seemed as safely a bipartisan issue as you could imagine. After all, what kind of ghoul would want to make it harder to develop and implement new treatments for cancer?
Well, the new administration is rife with such ghouls, and if new policies overcome challenges in court, decreased funding from the National Institutes of Health will kneecap medical research at the University of Minnesota, MPR reports. The U estimates that it would lose $100 to $130 million annually in medical research funds, while its Masonic Cancer Center is looking at an annual loss of $6 million in "indirect costs." What are those?
Indirect costs allow for the environment to carry out the projects and pay for regulatory compliance, patient safety oversight, and the infrastructure that’s needed to do research. This includes lab space, equipment, utilities, facilities and support staff often critical to such initiatives. These costs also cover the salaries of administrators and graduate students involved in research.
“I think it is responsible government,” says State Sen. Paul Utke (R-Park Rapids), a ranking minority member on the state’s Health and Human Services Committee. Why does he think that? Because he just does. These people don’t have reasons for the things they believe.
The communications director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says the new policy will ensure that "more cents on every dollar go directly to science and not to administrative overhead." The department is now overseen by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who shrugged off the death of a child from measles yesterday and will just as callously shrug off your death from cancer tomorrow.
This is personal for me, because I got treated for rectal cancer at the Masonic Cancer Center. Everyone I dealt with there was wonderful, and at no point did I think, “I bet they could do this for a lot less money.” I wouldn’t wish rectal cancer on Sen. Utke, or even on my worst enemy. (OK, maybe on RFK Jr.) But if the senator should ever need treatment someday, I hope the Cancer Center can still afford to provide top-notch care.
Red Wing Schools Axe Ellison Appearance
Attorney General Keith Ellison was scheduled to speak at Red Wing High School today for Black History Month, but the event was canceled, according to the Red Wing Republican, because the school district feared a “significant disruption.” That quote is from a letter sent to parents by Superintendent Bob Jaszczak, who did not say anything more specific about the disruption but did go on to pledge that the district’s “commitment to uplifting the voices and experiences of our most marginalized students remains steadfast.”
But there’s context here. Two days ago a White House memo singled Ellison out as one of the “sick politicians” who “want killers, rapists roaming our streets.” Translation: Ellison has said that it would violate state and federal law to detain immigrants while waiting for ICE to pick them. Our “law and order” president sure does get huffy when elected officials uphold the law and preserve order.
And yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Ellison threatening to sue if Minnesota continues permitting trans girls and women to play, well, girls and women’s sports. Ellison has also joined in several suits challenging many of the half-assed executive orders the administration has issued over the past month and a half.
If this “disruption” turns out to be a threat of violence, we expect a strongly worded statement from the Trump administration condemning such threats against elected officials, no matter how much we disagree with them politically. Not really, of course, but it’s worth remembering what a normal president (even a lousy one!) would ordinarily say in this kind of situation.
Powerless Loser Shares Complaints, Bad Ideas
“What’s Dean Phillips up to these days?” I wondered idly this afternoon. Alas, not idly enough—I googled the former “presidential candidate”/former Minnesota congressman/current unemployed rich guy, and found an interview from two weeks ago with CNN’s Laura Coates, who may be the only person on Earth who wants to know what Phillips thinks of the Democratic response to Elon Musk and "DOGE."
Phillips’s bold proposal? The Democrats should work with Musk to short circuit the effectiveness of the federal government. While acknowledging that Musk’s powers have no legal or constitutional basis (and incorrectly calling Twitter/X “the largest platform in human history”), Phillips stated, “Sometimes it’s better to join them and actually play a role in how the strategy works, rather than—so pathetically, frankly—try to combat something that clearly is a steamroller.” That’s the trouble with having no beliefs aside from “bipartisanship is good”—you’re eventually willing to seek middle ground with actual fascists.
The 19 Bar Reopened Today
Finally, some good news. It’s been a little less than a year since a garbage truck knocked a light pole into Minneapolis's 19 Bar, causing a fire that gutted the cherished, historic Loring Park gay bar. Well, guess what? The 19 is back—there was even a ribbon-cutting ceremony today. “I get texts, emails constantly, ‘When are you opening? When are you opening? When you opening?'” owner Gary Hallberg told KSTP yesterday. “We thought last November. But, anyway, it’s opening.” The station also offered a first look at the rehabbed 19, which Hallberg says was redone “from basement to roof.” Welcome back!
Apparently, however, all did not go smoothly at the opening. I can’t quite decipher everything that’s happening in this video, but 19 Bar patrons did not appear to be entirely welcoming to Mayor Jacob Frey.
