Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Minneapolis Voices Lets Go of 2 Editors
We'll forgo our typical ironclad shield of objectivity and state outright: bummer. Southwest Voices and Downtown Voices, sister publications launched by Charlie Rybak under the banner of Minneapolis Voices, have jettisoned their founding editors, Melody Hoffmann (SWV) and Brianna Kelly (DTV).
"They are incredibly talented journalists that helped us build a wonderful community and cover some of the most important issues our city faces every day," Rybak writes in an update posted earlier today. SWV launched in 2021, with DTV following in 2023.
Naturally, when outlets lose their sole full-time workers, thoughts turn to dissolution. But Rybak is vowing to fight on, pointing to the (quite accurate) fact that our town has "fewer resources being spent on covering Minneapolis than there have been in decades, including City Hall, the Park Board, our schools, the county board, and beyond." (Full disclosure: Racket partners with Minneapolis Voices in an ad-selling collective known as the Twin Cities Media Group.) He explains that the Minneapolis Voices newsletters will keep publishing, the website and social channels won't go dark, and that there have been "conversations with potential partners over the past several weeks about a potential merger or acquisition."
"The city is desperate for more people to cover what’s going on here with a curious eye and an empathetic heart," Rybak concludes. "News about Minneapolis that’s made for the people of Minneapolis matters now more than ever."
Relevant to the Importance of Reporting on Schools...
Read this dispiriting Sahan Journal report on the real-world impact of cuts to Minneapolis Public Schools. In it, reporters Becky Z. Dernbach and Cynthia Tu explain that 3,200 MPS students experience homelessness per year—the highest percentage in a decade—and the department responsible for helping those kids will soon be hacked away at financially.
The Stable Homes Stable Schools initiative is set to be split apart, staffer hours will be reduced, and Charlotte Kinzley, the district’s director of homeless and highly mobile student support services, will lose her position. The adjustments are expected to save $72,000 as the school board faces a $75 million budget deficit.
Parents are reportedly discouraged to see Kinzley forced out. “She cannot be replaced,” says Joletta Edwards, an MPS parent who has experienced homelessness. “Not even at a higher salary.” Adds fellow parent Dominique Buffett, who has also struggled with housing: “I’m going to keep fighting, because of the drive that [Kinzley has] put in.”
Help Out Longtime Journalist Burl "Wiggy" Gilyard
Burl Gilyard's byline has been a constant in the Twin Cities since the '90s—at the T.C. Reader, City Pages, Finance & Commerce, Twin Cities Business, and, now, the Star Tribune. Last week, fellow journalism lifer Brian Lambert launched a GoFundMe campaign on behalf of his ailing friend. Gilyard has long suffered from a debilitating neuro-muscular disease, Lambert writes, but his health has recently taken "a more precarious" turn.
As such, the crowdfunding campaign seeks two things: $10,000 to help offset some of the "enormous costs" related to Gilyard's care; and also to rally folks to a legitimately badass benefit concert set for June 1 at the Hook & Ladder Theater/Lounge in south Minneapolis. Seasoned local rockers ELnO, the Belfast Cowboys, Trailer Trash, and a TBA "mystery band" are among the scheduled performers. "Good natured, erudite and humorous, Burl has been a passionate fan of Twin Cities music in spite of his mobility problems," Lambert writes.
You can pitch in here; learn more about "The Gig for Wig" here.
Rare Dowser News!
You guys know about dowsers, right? Those old-timey oddballs who hoist dowsing rods (aka divining rods) as they pass over fields in pursuit of buried resources like ground water? The practice known as dowsing (aka doodlebugging aka water witching)? Sure ya do, we've all witnessed depictions in cartoons and studied the "Notable Dowsers" section of Wikipedia.
Turns out at least one Minnesotan, 86-year-old Jim Kuebelbeck of St. Joseph, is still out there locating potential wells with his forked device, reports Dan Gunderson of MPR News. And despite the total lack of scientific evidence behind dowsing, central Minnesota well-drilling companies still recommend clients pay the enterprising octogenarian $300 (plus travel costs) to locate sources of water.
"It's not emanations from the earth. It's not radiation. It's not reflected moonlight, or whatever people think," says Kuebelbeck, who claims to have discovered more than 3,000 sucessful wells over 50+ years. "There's no scientific test for proving it, so the only test I have is the results. And I'm OK with that.”
His wife, Carol, was initially a skeptic. Not anymore. "It's a talent. It's a gift from God, I would say," she tells MPR while watching Kuebelbeck do his mystic thing.
