Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Chi-Chi’s Is Back Baybeeee!
If you were a kid growing up in a Midwestern suburb in the ‘80s and ‘90s, your first run-in with chimichangas, fried ice cream, and fajitas may have been at Chi-Chi’s (or, as my friend called it, “that white people Mexican food place”). Marno McDermott and Green Bay Packers Super Bowl hero Max McGee opened the original Richfield, Minnesota, location in 1975. By the time Chi-Chi's shut down in 2004, the Tex-Mex chain had over 200 locations (and hundreds of lawsuits for bringing about the largest hepatitis A outbreak in U.S. history).
Twenty years later, it looks like Chi-Chi’s may rise from the ashes, entering a new (hopefully!) food-safe era, as McDermott’s son Michael announced Wednesday plans to reopen something, somewhere, in 2025. “We have seen the impact our restaurant has had on individuals and families across the country and believe there is a strong opportunity to bring the brand back,” he said via press release.
And with this news comes a chance to share my favorite Chi-Chi’s lore: Did you know Minnesota comedy legend Mitch Hedberg worked at the Maple Grove location in high school? Years later, when it came time to shoot Los Echiladas!, a movie he wrote, directed, and starred in, Hedberg filmed it almost entirely at that same Chi-Chi’s. “The first night they sent the manager to stay there with us overnight, and the second night they just handed us the keys,” Jana Johnson, his girlfriend at the time, told City Pages in 2020. Los Echiladas! —which co-starred future comedy stars Dave Attell, Todd Barry, and Marc Maron—went on to screen at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.
Coming Soon: More Mayoral Candidates!
This time next year we may have a new mayor in Minneapolis, and the race is quickly taking take shape. In October, Minnesota Senate chaplain Rev. Dr. Dewayne Davis announced that he was in, Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) confirmed his plans to run on Monday, and this morning Ward 11 Minneapolis Council Member Emily Koski threw her hat in the ring.
“Over the last 4 years, I’ve had a front row seat to this Mayor’s tenure,” Koski says in her announcement. “I’ve witnessed first-hand his inability to work with your City Council, and his absence at so many tables—whether that be with local organizations and advocacy groups, our County, State or Federal Government.” Well, damn!
One person who hasn’t announced their plans to run for Minneapolis mayor in 2025? Current Strong Mayor Jacob Frey. But you can see over on Twitter that he’s already started fundraising, and he tells Axios that he'll be announcing his candidacy soon.
WSJ Covers Hennepin County Homelessness
Not everyone living on the streets wants a home, but by building trust and understanding that could change over time. That’s the delicate approach Minneapolis social worker Sara Majeres explains in this excellent story from Jon Kamp for The Wall Street Journal. “I’d be a horrible sales person,” Majeres tells WSJ. “I respect no.” The piece follows her as she tries to get Richard Byington, who has lived under an interstate near the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis for years, into an apartment. It’s a slow process with many baby steps along the way; he has experienced trauma and mental illness, and fears that living indoors will feel like prison.
According to a recent report from the Wilder Foundation, 10,522 Minnesotans experienced homelessness in 2023, second only to record high numbers in 2018. “But the county has seen some successes, too,” Kamp writes. “It spent roughly $7 million in federal pandemic aid on a new push that, since early 2022, has gotten about 1,350 people into housing.”
O.J. Confession NOT Found on Thumb Drive in the Twin Cities Suburbs
Did anyone need that cleared up? Blame TMZ if you did. Tuesday afternoon, the celebrity gossip site posted a story claiming that Bloomington PD, who arrested and seized items from Simpson’s ex-bodyguard Iroc Avelli in 2022, had a thumb drive containing a murder confession from O.J., the NFL star/actor who was controversially acquitted of killing ex-wife Nicole Brown and her pal Ron Goldman in 1994.
The police report TMZ obtained noted that the contents of the six drives from Avelli were still “pending.” LAPD took notice of the story, and gave BPD a call. False alarm! Turns out the follow-through just took some time and the report didn't contain any new info.
"In July of 2024 all 6 items were imaged by a Digital Forensics Examiner," Bloomington PD says in a statement. "The images were processed, and a readable version was created and reviewed by Bloomington PD Detectives. The reviewing detectives did not locate any information of evidentiary value for the Los Angeles Police Department."
“We're told ... not only was there no confession, there was no O.J. on any of them,” writes TMZ in an update, “it was just Iroc Avelli talking to himself.”
Simpson, a man who will surely be remembered most for his love of Minnesota golfing and fishing, died this past April.
