Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
From the Folks Who Brought Us Grape Salad
Credit where credit is due: The dining section behind the great grape salad debacle does a tremendous job understanding the Minneapolis-St. Paul dining scene in today's profile of local Hmong chefs Yia Vang and Diane Moua (gift link).
Twin Cities born-and-raised writer Brett Anderson spent many years speaking with Vang and Moua, who are behind much-lauded local restaurants Vinai and Diane's Place. Here's just a bit of what he had to say:
The two restaurants showcasing Hmong food represent an extremely rare occurrence in American culinary arts: the emergence of a cuisine virtually unknown outside its own immigrant community, stewarded by chefs trained in Western-style restaurant kitchens.
Ms. Moua and Mr. Vang are part of a generation of Hmong Americans—prominently including the gold medal-winning Olympian Sunisa Lee, from St. Paul—whose attention-grabbing talents have raised the profile of the Hmong community in the Twin Cities, home of the largest Hmong population in the U.S.
Both are also veterans of one of the country’s most dynamic restaurant scenes, one whose quality is bolstered by its diversity. That food community has provided a positive counternarrative to a rough half decade in Minnesota, beginning when Mr. Floyd’s murder revealed the state to be neither as equal nor as harmonious as its reputation for conviviality and progressive politics suggests.
There's a lot more in there, including Hmong history, delicious descriptions of the food at Vinai and Diane's Place, and incredible passages like this one: "There had never been a Hmong restaurant scene primarily because Hmong people lived nomadically for centuries before arriving here, and 'there are no restaurants in the frickin’ mountains of Laos,' as Mr. Vang put it."
Which States? Which Rights?
Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it's gunning for the Minnesota Dream Act, which for 10 years has offered in-state tuition discounts to undocumented Minnesotans, and the 2023 North Star Promise Act, which provides free college tuition to low-income students regardless of their immigration status.
The rationale? Well, says Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the laws discriminate against… Wisconsinites and Iowans and all other non-Minnesotans who don’t get an in-state tuition discount.
“No state can be allowed to treat Americans like second-class citizens in their own country by offering financial benefits to illegal aliens,” Bondi announced today in a press release that no reasonable person with hypertension should be permitted to read.
Contrast that belief with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling today that allows states to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood just because they feel like it. What we’ve got here is the Trump administration working in tandem with a brutally reactionary court to design a horrific new “state’s rights” doctrine that says states have the power to discriminate within their borders but not the power to aid their residents.
Melissa Hortman to Lie in State Tomorrow, More News on Boelter
This Friday Melissa Hortman, her husband, Mark Hortman, and their golden retriever, Gilbert, will lie in state at the Capitol on Friday, nearly two weeks after their tragic assassination. To commemorate her life and career, J. Patrick Coolican and Michelle Griffith interviewed around two dozen former staffers, legislators, opponents, and friends in this extensive piece for the Minnesota Reformer. What they found was nonpartisan respect for a woman who preferred to do her job rather than seek the spotlight.
“She wasn’t about the bullshit,” says Rep. Aisha Gomez (DFL-Minneapolis). “The TV cameras or the next higher public office. Or about being glorified or having everyone like you. She was about doing the best she could do for the most people.”
Meanwhile, Jenny Boelter, the wife of alleged Hortman assassin Vance Boelter, has released a statement via her lawyer, condemning the murders and vowing to cooperate with the investigation.
“We are absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely biindsided,” she writes. “This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family. It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith.”
Meanwhile, as federal prosecutors investigate how Boelter came into possession of so many firearms, this terrifying/depressing MinnPost story from Ana Radelat and Shadi Bushra details how and why his stockpile was (probably) perfectly legal.
Local Bear Makes Dental History
You officially have no right to complain about your next dental crown. Tundra, an 800-pound Alaskan brown bear, received a first-of-its-kind silver-capped fang Monday at Duluth's Lake Superior Zoo. “This is the largest crown ever created in the world,” veterinary dentist Dr. Grace Brown, who performed the hourlong surgery, tells the Associated Press. “It has to be published.” Adds Caroline Routley, marketing manager for the zoo: “He’s got a little glint in his smile now.” We've heard of Bear Grylls... but bear grills?! Speaking of bears in Duluth...
