Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily noontime(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
White Bear Lake Teachers on Notice
On Friday, neighborhood group Vadnais Heights for Change shared what they say is a form email intended to let self-dubbed "parent patriots" protect their children from the ideas brewing within White Bear Lake Area Schools: vaccines, climate change, and preferred pronouns, as well as "subversive" Joe Biden and Che Guevara shirts.
This letter is being sent to teachers in White Bear Lake by the "parent patriots." (WBL is Vadnais Heights' primary school district) 😡 pic.twitter.com/sEkBqURsOf
— Vadnais Heights For Change #VH4Change (@vh4change) August 27, 2021
Heather Gustafson, a high school history teacher and organizer for VH4Change, tells us her group discovered the form email on a White Bear Lake "parent patriot" Facebook group which has since gone private.
"It's a little tricky to find them but they're out there and very active and organized," Gustafson says.
The email originated from the national advocacy group No Left Turn in Education, she says, and it's unclear if any teachers have received it, though Gustafson says a similar one appeared in her inbox last year.
'Murderapolis' Researcher Provides Context
How hysterical, exactly, should we be about spiking crime levels here and around the U.S.? Consulting social media might be the worst way to determine that, so the Minnesota Reformer instead consulted with Metro State University professor Will Cooley for some important context.
Cooley, who's currently researching a project he'll title "The Making of Murderapolis," tells the Reformer there are "a lot of similarities" between that infamous 1995 period and today, though, in typical smart guy fashion, he adds plenty of variables, qualifiers, facts, and figures. It's an illuminating conversation you can/should read here.
Even Jesse's on the Vax Bandwagon
Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura literally hosted a show called Conspiracy Theory, but even The Body/The Mind sees the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19:
People say they don’t trust government so they won’t take the vaccine. Really? The vaccine was made in the private sector. The government is paying for you to get the shot for free so everyone is protected. I urge people to get the vaccine. #mondaythoughts https://t.co/cDEre0ZBm8 pic.twitter.com/b2d5Z98srt
— Jesse Ventura (@GovJVentura) August 30, 2021
That tweet promotes the latest episode of The World According to Jesse, our one-time governor's new show on RT America, an offshoot of state-run Russian news network RT. What an interesting life that man has led...
Anyway, maybe Jesse could get through to Kirk Cousins in ways respected epidemiologist Michael Osterholm simply could not.
Optimistic Kasey Musgraves to Kick Off Tour at Xcel
Speaking of the pandemic, it still seems quite bad. But that's not stopping the concert industry from chugging full-steam ahead, as we saw Monday when pop-country superstar Kacey Musgraves announced her 15-city "Star-Crossed: Unveiled" (un-stylized from all lowercase because we don't play those cutesy games). First stop? January 19 at St. Paul's Xcel Energy Center. Tickets go on pre-sale Wednesday; prices TBA.
Due out September 10, Musgraves's upcoming album Star-Crossed is rumored to be a full-on pop pivot. It'll be the six-time Grammy winner's first album post-divorce, so additional rumors persist that it'll be a breakup album (FWIW: paparazzi have spotted Musgraves canoodling with a new BF, Dr. Gerald Onuoha).
Correction (2:14 p.m.): Musgraves has been spotted canoodling with a newer dude, poet Cole Schafer, and confirmed that relationship via the New York Times. Racket regrets the error.
Check out the first single:
