Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Big Fish Caught; Turkeys Hunted
It isn’t every day that someone in Minnesota catches a big fish, though it can sure seem that way. The latest big-fish-catcher, Bring Me the News reports, is Art Weston, who reeled in a 54-inch muskie on Lake Mille Lacs in October. If Weston’s name sounds familiar to you, well, you certainly pay a lot of attention to big-fish-catching stories—per BMTN, Weston “holds numerous records and keeps chasing more.” The International Game Fish Association says this big fish may just be the largest muskellunge ever landed, though that is still under review.
Speaking of non-human creatures, did you know that people in Minnesota hunt turkeys? Probably. Now, the whole country knows, thanks to the New York Times’ Kim Severson (gift link), who visited Alexandria and Osakis to go turkey-hunting with the Swenstad family. The story also includes these thoughts on how important turkeys apparently are to us here in Minnesota:
Still, wild turkeys are part of the fabric of life here. In urban areas, they are an object of both fasciation and annoyance, chasing children and clawing up gardens. A flock that hangs out on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis is so beloved it has its own Instagram account.
Fitzgerald Shipwreck, Theater-of-the-Mind Style
This Sunday will mark the 49th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the ore freighter that went down with 29 lives near Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, during a pummeling Lake Superior storm. (Related: 49 minutes ago, I learned about this incredible Fitzgerald-themed bumper sticker.)
A handful of years after the Fitzgerald disaster and Gordon Lightfoot hit inspired by it, Minnesota writer Hal Barnes came up with another way to artistically depict the events of that stormy November night: an audio play based on real-life radio conversations between Fitzgerald Capt. Ernest M. McSorley and Capt. Bernie Cooper, who chased after the Fitz with his cargo ship, the Arthur M. Anderson.
But, following its completion in 1982, the script would sit in a desk drawer for 40-odd years, MPR News reports. After Lightfoot's death last spring, Barnes revealed his hidden passion project to his two buddies—the musically inclined Gary Muellerleile and veteran journalist Dave Nimmer.
“It read like a reporter wrote it. ‘She was loaded with 21,000 long tons of taconite pellets, and she carried 61,000 gallons of number-six diesel fuel, and she left at 2:15 when the last hatch cover was closed,’” Nimmer says. “And I'm thinking, ‘Are you kidding?’ This reads like somebody knew what he was doing and that just started the story going.”
Together, the three old-timers worked to make “The Last Voyage of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald” a reality, with Muellerleile telling MPR's Cathy Wurzer: "It's stimulating, it's exciting. And I got to do it with two of my best friends.” You can listen to their collaborative work of historical storytelling here.
Black Minnesotans Receive Racist Texts
One of the myriad ways in which another Donald Trump presidency will undoubtedly unravel the fabric of our society is that he'll embolden the worst people on earth to be the worst versions of themselves—and publicly. We're already seeing it: with the Texas State protesters and their "women are property" signs, with the "your body my choice" message proliferating the internet, and with the racist text messages delivered to Black Americans instructing them to go to "the nearest plantation."
Sahan Journal's Peter Cox spoke with folks in Minnesota who received the text, including Tawonda Burks. "I instantly got angry and upset,” she tells Cox. “I’m just still trying to comprehend, like, did somebody really send this message out to me? Who and why and for what reason?”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that his office received reports of these text messages, and the FBI also put out a statement that it is "aware of the offensive and racist text messages." Burks also reported the text, which CBS News reports was sent to people in at least 17 states, to the Rochester branch of the NAACP.
“We see the election—that brings out more courage of individuals that are racist,” she told Sahan Journal. “I feel like they feel like they have the freedom to express their racism more loudly and bolder, which is sad to see.”
How Trump’s Immigration Policies Will Fuck Everyone Over
Elsewhere in "things that will happen when white supremacist Donald Trump retakes office in January," immigrants will probably be the first to be completely screwed over. This excellent Minnesota Reformer piece from Ariana Figueroa lays out which local and national orgs are bracing for and how it could affect us all. “What is likely to immediately follow is the re-implementation of his previous immigration policies, such as bans on allowing people from predominantly Muslim countries into the United States and reinstating the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy,” Figueroa writes.
That’s terrifying news that could directly impact as many as 288,000 people, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Should those policies be expanded, it would come at a massive cost; it would take at least $968 billion to remove all unauthorized immigrants over 10 years (not to mention losing the $75.6 billion undocumented immigrants pay annually in taxes).
Losing 4.8% of the U.S. workforce would also have catastrophic impacts on industry in the U.S. “Should any president choose to pursue mass deportation, it would come at an extraordinary cost to the government while also devastating the economy,” said Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, in a statement.
