Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
What Do We Know About Yesterday’s Raid? Still Not Much!
It’s been over 24 hours since south Minneapolis Mexican restaurant Las Cuatro Milpas was raided by the FBI, ICE, DEA, and ATF, with the aid of MPD and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office. At least 100 community members, including our colleague Em Cassel, showed up to witness events. No arrests were made during the raid, though a handful of boxes were removed from the premises.
In a statement, Jamie Holt, a special agent for ICE Homeland Security Investigations St. Paul, referred to Tuesday's raid as a “groundbreaking criminal operation,” but offered scant details as to what actually happened and why. (The full statement, which reads like an awards acceptance speech, can be found at the Strib.) WCCO found federal search warrants connected to the raid at the U.S. District Courthouse in Minneapolis, but they were sealed.
But some local officials are justifiably unimpressed with this "groundbreaking" collab between federal and state agencies. “ICE has confirmed that local law enforcement assisted them,” writes Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty in a statement, one that suggests she's as out of the loop as the rest of us. “Obviously, our community has questions.” Here's AG Keith Ellison speaking to reporters earlier today: “If [law enforcement] want to inflict fear, and they wanted to discourage cooperation, they achieved both those goals yesterday,”
“There is no circumstance in which MPD should cooperate with ICE,” writes Sen. Omar Fateh (DFL-Minneapolis) via Bluesky, adding that Minneapolis's separation ordinance, which is meant to prevent MPD officers from enforcing federal immigration laws, apparently "still allows collaboration with ICE."
In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey objected that MPD had no involvement beyond protester crowd control, and scolded people—including his political opponents—for assuming the worst when masked ICE officials show up on city streets with military-style guns and trucks. “Stoking panic can be a tempting short-term social media strategy in politics—it’s a good recipe for viral content,” he wrote. “But it also erodes trust in government.”
Hm, and what does federal immigration agents showing up in full fatigues with long guns to a multicultural corridor of Minneapolis do?
Meanwhile, City Council Vice President Aisha Chughtai voiced support for community members who showed up yesterday, while Council Member Robin Wonsley says that she and Council Member Jason Chavez (whose full statement you can read here) are authoring a legislative directive “requesting the Mayor publicly present on how he is implementing the separation ordinance within MPD.”
How MPD Is Failing Domestic Abuse Victims
When Cheryl Thomas, an executive director at Global Rights for Women, published a study outlining the ways the Minneapolis Police Department fails to respond to domestic abuse calls, she hoped that the city would take notice and consider her recommendation. Two years later, she's calling them out for inaction.
The 2023 report findings looked at three years worth of data, focus groups, MPD input, and other resources. The nonprofit group concluded that police frequently fail to interview witnesses or document things like names, contact, and property damage, which can make investigations and litigations more difficult. The report also revealed that abusers frequently fled the scene to avoid contact with officers. “Some assailants have learned officers will not make a serious effort to locate them afterward, even if the victim has a no-contact order in place,” Andy Mannix writes for the Star Tribune.
“When abusers know it is a city practice to not follow up, they are empowered, and that is what has happened in Minneapolis,” Thomas told Minneapolis City Council members Tuesday.
St. Paul Foundry Could Lose Its Permit
It’s probably going to be a long, drawn-out process with lots of appeals, but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has begun the process to shutter Northern Iron’s St. Paul Foundry for good. The foundry has been in East St. Paul for over 100 years.
“Northern Iron has repeatedly failed to provide us with information required under state law necessary to write a permit for the company that protects human health and the environment,” MPCA officials wrote in a statement to Andrew Hazzard at Sahan Journal. “We expect Minnesota businesses to comply with the law.”
The agency and the company have been in a variety of legal battles since 2023. The MPCA says Northern Iron has been unable to fill out a permit application properly; Northern Iron is suing MPCA over a 2024 order to cut operational hours due to excessive smog in the area.
The foundry, located in a residential area with many immigrants and low-income households, will be able to continue operations during proceedings. A recent test by MPCA of residual soot in the area found heavy metals such as lead, which likely came from the plant.
Fare Thee Well, Dan Kelly’s Pub
After 28 years, one of the few remaining low-key bars in downtown Minneapolis is no more.
The owners of Dan Kelly’s, located at the base of Capella Tower at 212 S. Seventh St., announced via Facebook last week that the Irish pub would be closing on May 31. The haunt was known for its unpretentious sports-bar eats, two-for-one happy hours, and appropriately grimy floors. (It was also a popular beer spot for Strib reporters who worked above and, for a time, City Pages ones, too.)
Erik Forsberg, who has owned the space since 2016, tells J.D. Duggan at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal that "changing work patterns, reduced office foot traffic, ongoing safety concerns, and a tough hospitality labor market" were all factors in its closing. We spoke with Forsberg in 2022, back when DK's started serving Broadway Pizza.
