Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Almost Time to Vote!
Let's get down to brass tacks: Tomorrow is Election Day, and while "most consequential of our lifetime, etc., et al., whatever" descriptions are deployed without much thought, there's no disputing tomorrow is a big fucking deal. With that in mind, we'll spare you our usual pithy, engaging recaps of the day's headlines and instead... assign homework. Fun! Racket reserves the right to revoke memberships of readers who don't study the following voter guides:
- MinnPost: 2024 Voter Guide
- MPR News: Multimillion-dollar ballot questions before Minnesota voters on Election Day
- Star Tribune: Minnesota’s November election: What you need to know to cast your ballot
- Sahan Journal: Time for a civics test: Who should be on the next Minneapolis school board?
- MinnPost: Catch up on MinnPost’s election coverage
- Star Tribune: Minnesota 2024 voter guide: Who’s running, where they stand on the issues
- MPR News: Should Minnesota continue to put lottery dollars toward the environment?
- Axios: What to know about St. Paul's plan to fund child care at the ballot box
- Minneapolis Schools Voices: Interviews with school board candidates
- WCCO: What's on the Minnesota ballot for the 2024 election? See what you're voting on.
- Fox 9: Minnesota voting guide: What you need to know for the 2024 election
- KARE 11: 2024 Voter Guide: What to know about Minnesota's elections
- Axios: Presidential Election 2024: Voting in Minnesota
- Star Tribune: Live: Minnesota general election results 2024
And, for those wacky down-ballot local races, be sure to consult Naomi Kritzer's indispensable blog (see below).
What Else Could Alpha News Possibly Be Omitting?
If you search MAGA grievance mill Alpha News for "Feeding Our Future," the massive pandemic-era fraud scandal that rocked Minnesota, you'll find 1,134 stories. Yet if you search today's lead story on Alpha News, a press conference recap of several Minnesota Somali leaders who now back ex-President Donald Trump, you won't find any mention of FoF.
But as pointed out on Twitter by the Strib's Deena Winter, one of the featured speakers, Abshir Omar, worked for the nonprofit that bilked taxpayers out of $250 million. ("Watch this powerful testimony from a former Minnesota Democrat Somali leader," exclaimed one prominent right-wing Twitter dolt.) Winter also notes that Omar served as campaign manager for Nasri Warsame, the Minneapolis City Council candidate who was banned by the DFL last year for his role in a Ward 10 convention that descended into chaos; Omar accused Council Member Jeremiah Ellison of assaulting him at that endorsing convention, though Ellison was cleared of any wrongdoing.
It is true that the Democratic Party is losing some support from Muslim and Arab voters. You won't, however, find the most-discussed reason—disgust over the U.S. bankrolling of the slaughter in Gaza—mentioned by those cherry-picking truth tellers at Alpha News.
Oregon Trail, MN Invention, to Become Hollywood Motion Picture
Let's get the provincialism we crave, like so many food rations, out of the way: Oregon Trail, the beloved '70s/'80s/'90s educational computer game series, was invented right here in Minnesota. Feeling a deep sense of state pride and, perhaps by extension, self-worth?
Great, let's move on to this recent Hollywood Reporter scoop: Apple has green-lit a forthcoming Oregon Trail movie. Filmmaking duo Will Speck and Josh Gordon (Blades of Glory) are signed on to direct, while the Lucas Bros. (Judas and the Black Messiah) and Max Reisman will handle the screenplay about the pioneering wagon-adventure game. EGOT winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul have signed on to create some more of the forgettable music they're known for, with sources telling THR that "the movie will feature a couple of original musical numbers in the vein of Barbie." (In their dreams!)
Which Minnesota-connected actors would you like to see yolking up oxen and fording rivers in Oregon Trail, which is reportedly still in early development? I'd like to see the great Steve Zahn, who still owns a cabin here, leading the 1800s wagon party with Winona Ryder and, sure, recent Racket profile subject Barkhad Abdi by their sides.
100 Spooky Longfellow Homes, Mapped and Photographed
Folks, our buddy Trevor Born is doing one helluva job over at Longfellow Whatever, his newish hyper-local news website. His coverage of that vast south Minneapolis neighborhood runs that gamut, from serious to silly, but today we'd like to highlight this ambitious piece of spooktacular public-service journalism: 100 yards and houses decked to the nines in horrifying what-have-yous, all mapped and photographed by Born. Get clickin', it's a real Halloween hoot.
