MN State Fair Art: AI Butter Sculptures, Political Doxxing, and Viral Chudmaxxing

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories. 

Three Very Important Art-Related State Fair Stories

First up: AI boosters from the University of Minnesota’s Data Science and AI Hub are sullying one of our state's purest traditions. On Saturday at the Minnesota State Fair, the DSAI Hub used artificial intelligence to 3D print plastic mini busts of fair attendees meant to resemble the real buttery busts real artists painstakingly carve to honor Princess Kay of the Milky Way. "The novelty is also meant to serve a larger purpose," KARE 11's Samie Solina writes—churning the AI PR hype cycle, more or less. Thankfully, the AI merchants are only scheduled to be inside our holy dairy temple for that one day.

Next up: The bad-faith ghouls at Alpha News sicced their knuckle-dragging readers on a State Fair artist. The artist in question submitted a piece of seed art that reads "8647"—aka boot out President Donald Trump. Pretty anodyne stuff, especially amid the dozens of other politically barbed crop art entries. But to certain right-wing media figures, the "8647" artwork amounted to... man, I don't even know, this is all so stupid. In any case, the St. Paul-based artist had their home address and phone number blasted around the internet by MAGA trolls. “Let her know how much you love her art,” one user posted, menacingly.

“The Minnesota State Fair removed the artwork at the request of the artist,” a fair spokesperson tells Bring Me the News.

And, finally, a fantastic bit of State Fair art is going viral. St. Paul-based artist Rachel Mei submitted a work called "CHUDMAXER," and 48,000 Twitter uses have upvoted their approval of the oil painting that depicts a lady slacker gaming and snacking the day away. We've reached out to Mei to learn more about the inspo behind "CHUDMAXER."

OK, actually, let's make it four very important art-related State Fair stories. Please enjoy Will Stancil's thread of anti-ICE fair art over on Bluesky:

Speaking of Operation Metro Surge: MN Lost at Least 1,700 School Children During the Federal Government's Terror Campaign

In a tough read from Sahan Journal's Becky Z. Dernbach and Cynthia Tu, we learn that, following Operation Metro Surge, at least 1,700 students vanished from Minnesota schools.

“Kids literally disappeared,” Brenda Lewis, the superintendent of Fridley Public Schools, tells Sahan. “Literally in an unprecedented manner. Overnight.”

For their analysis, Dernbach and Tu requested enrollment data from the 40 school districts and charter schools with the highest percentages of English learners in the state. Twenty-nine responded with figures from October 2025 (pre-OMS) and March 2026 (post-OMS), and the reporters discovered that, compared to that same period from the previous year, declines were around 70% higher. “It was heartbreaking because their absence was definitely felt, and it was profound,” Gabby Benavente Hobart of North High School in Minneapolis says.

Educators and advocates hope some students will return for the new school year, though they say many families spent the summer prepping for self-deportation. This story is a reminder that the many wounds of Operation Metro Surge have yet to be realized, and the policy behind it isn't going away—July was a record month for ICE arrests.

The New Yorker Asks: "Why Isn't Everyone Talking About Olivia Miles?"

We'll be provincially pedantic here and tut-tut the New Yorker's Louisa Thomas by pointing out that 'round these parts, in Lynx county, we talk about rookie sensation Olivia Miles plenty. (For proof, see the elite writings of Racket hoops columnist Britt Robson.) With that outta the way: Hell yeah, love seeing Miles getting national props.

Thomas's headline alludes to the fact that, despite Miles posting MVP-caliber numbers as a rookie while the WNBA enjoys surging popularity, much of the league discourse centers around the anti-trans activism of Indiana Fever role player Sophie Cunningham, courtside trolls, and how "every hard foul has become a referendum on racial injustice."

Instead, Thomas argues, we could be talking about Miles's eye-popping passes, lethal pick-and-rolls, punishing drives, and finishing moves that resemble "a ballerina’s jeté." Napheesa "Queen Phee" Collier seems to agree that her begoggled rookie teammate (nickname: "The Spectacle") is a bigger story than ginned-up drama and a bigoted guard in Indiana who averages 8.3 points per game. “I’ve never played with a player like her before,” Collier says of Miles.

To which Thomas concludes: "When visionaries appear, sometimes it takes a little while for the world to catch up."

Buy the Racket Book

What's black, white, and read all over? (Hm, this classic joke doesn't translate to text, does it?)

The answer, of course, is Racket's first-ever print product, which debuted last Friday at our birthday bash. We're talkin' eight longform Racket stories—four by staffers, four by freelancers—across 70 pages, all of 'em beautifully designed and produced over in Seward by union printshop Smart Set.

You might expect to pay upward $1,000 for such a fine collection of writing and reporting. And frankly? We'd let you. But as of Monday, you can score the Racket book at Minneapolis's Moon Palace Books for the low, low price of $20—a heckuva deal! Head to Moon Palace and (with maximum politeness) demand, "Where the hell is the Racket book?!"