Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Soap for the Mouths of the Soapboxers!
Democrats say the DAMNDEST things these days, reports Madison McVan for the Minnesota Reformer.
You see, for centuries politicians mostly swore in private. In the case of genocidal U.S. President Andrew Jackson, so much so that the cursing purportedly rubbed off on his pet parrot, Poll. These days, however, you got Rep. Ilhan Omar out there telling a bad-faith Daily Caller reporter to "fuck off." You got Gov. Walz calling (allegedly) gnarly-cocked billionaire Elon Musk a "dipshit," and Sen. Tina Smith calling him a "dick." (No lies detected.)
Is this trend, which we've established by providing three examples, an example of populist outrage in the face of ascendent fascism? Or is it scripted, patronizing fuel for attempted virality? Both, according to Melissa Mohr, author of Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing.
“A lot of what politicians do in their speeches is quite scripted, and swearing is a way to use language to make it feel like you’re saying things from your heart,” Mohr tells the Reformer. “Usually when we swear, that’s because we’ve got some deep emotion about something, whether it’s pain or frustration or joy."
McVan gets geeky with a data map that shows Minnesotans are less profane than the rest of the country, quotes a Republican lobbyist/stand-up comic who's surely hilarious, and, of course, notes that Trump's rise coincides with the rise of indecent political soundbites. We'll offer this plea to the Star Tribune: If our state's pols are indeed getting smuttier, please amend your curse-quoting policy to include the actual words instead of "[expletive]"—nobody would accuse your readership of skewing young.
Bizarre Local Connection to Tragic D.C. Shooting
Two staffers of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., were shot and killed late Wednesday outside of the Capital Jewish Museum, an attack FBI officials are describing as a "targeted" act of "terror." The suspect, Chicago man Elias Rodriguez, reportedly chanted "free, free Palestine" after being arrested.
Turns out Rodriguez has a strange, violent connection to Minnesota man Will Stancil, the political pundit and onetime Racket interviewee. "I’m sorry what," Stancil tweeted Thursday before linking to confirmation that, yes, he had indeed gotten a Twitter account linked to Rodriguez suspended over death threats. New York Times reporter Aric Toler confirmed the authenticity of the alleged shooter's manifesto as well as the 2023 Stancil connection.
You can get the latest on the shooting, which claimed the lives of 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky and 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim, over at the Times.
Time to Scan the 2025 Music & Movies in the Park Schedule
Music: Hard to top, in terms of stuff you hear. Movies: You love watching 'em, even if that train still scares the bejesus out of you. Metro parks that just ranked in the top five nationally despite some slippage? Lord knows you love sitting, eating, and playing in those things. Thus, the formula for Music & Movies, the annual live music and movie-watching series organized by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
This year's lineup recently rolled out, and the concert component can be enjoyed as early as tonight with Motown-summoning act Big Mike and the Time Machine (6 p.m., North Commons Park). The first movie (1984's ho-hum Footloose) doesn't screen until June 4 at our worst park (downtown's The Commons), but there's a whole summer of superior options on the schedule.
Hero Chicken Survives Northern MN Wildfires
Two wildfires of consumed nearly 30,000 acres of northern Minnesota for weeks, and, thankfully, crews are making progress at containing both the Camp House Fire near Brinson and the Jenkins Creek Fire Hoyt Lakes.
There've been no reported human deaths, but Brimson's Mikala Schliep did lose all of her chickens—except for one. The chicken, Reba, was discovered by firefighters who, days earlier, had battled the blaze back from Schliep's home. “Part of her face is burnt along with her feet and other parts of her body, but she’s doing OK otherwise,” Reba's owner reports, adding that, if not for those firefighters, "We wouldn’t have anything."
Making this chicken/human-interest story even sweeter, per this sweet report from WCCO's David Schuman: Schliep works parttime at Hugo's, a bar that has become the central hub for firefighting activities, and this past Sunday a regular presented her with an adorable surprise.
"He walked me up to his truck and there was a chicken coop in the back, and I was super overwhelmed," she says. "I was crying like a baby. Then he opened the back door of his truck and there were 15 little babies in there."
After almost a week of evacuation, Schliep and her partner are now back home with their 15 new chicks.
