Only 35 U.S. House Members Voted Against Hot Chicken for SNAP Recipients. 2 Were From MN.

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

Reps. Craig, Emmer: No Rotisserie Chickens for SNAP Recipients 

Now here we've got a piece of legislation that seems like a slam dunk: an amendment that would allow folks on SNAP to use food stamps to purchase hot rotisserie chickens. We can agree that's a good idea, right? Most of the members of the U.S. House of Representatives did, too: The Hill reports that the measure cleared the House in sweeping bipartisan fashion Thursday with a vote of 384-35.

It probably won't surprise you to learn that Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota's 6th District was among the 35 nay-sayers. Slightly more surprising? Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig was one of just 12 Democrats nationwide to vote against the measure. 

In a statement, Craig said that she voted against the measure because it effectively bans SNAP recipients from buying all other hot foods. (Republicans had previously rejected a Dem proposal to make all hot food eligible under SNAP.)

"Along with other members of Democratic leadership, I voted against it to send a message that the amendment does not go far enough to expand SNAP-eligibility, and we will continue to push the Senate to include a further expansion in the final version of the bill," Craig writes. "There is no question that SNAP recipients need access to more hot food options, but this amendment was pushed by big grocers and retailers and the chicken industry. We can do better."

We definitely can—the fact that we police what SNAP recipients can and can't buy with their benefits at all is an embarrassing blight on our supposedly great nation. But let's start with the rotisserie chickens, alright? 

The chicken resolution was part of the broader $390 billion farm bill, which the House passed Thursday after some MAHA-related Republican infighting. The bill includes a $187 billion cut to SNAP.

And Speaking of Emmer: New Study Proves He's the Biggest Asshole in MN's Congressional Delegation

At the Minnesota Reformer today, Chad Maschke uses science to demonstrate that the aforementioned Tom Emmer is the nastiest social media user among Minnesota's lawmakers.

Responding to Emmer's recent comment, in the wake of the latest failed attempt to shoot the president, that “we all have to do a better job of watching the rhetoric,” Maschke set up a program to flag objectionable posts by members of Minnesota's congressional delegation. Such posts were calls to violence, dehumanizing language, stuff like that. Of the 99 posts that were flagged, 71 originated with Emmer; the House Whip made a sweeping use of the term "criminal illegals" and a number of posts disparaging Somali-Americans.

Not a good guy, if you ask us!

Immigrant Pardons Could Be a Hail Mary

There's a new, possibly ineffective strategy emerging in a handful of local immigrant deportation cases: Minnesota certificates of pardon. Getting one is a slow process and, in the end, it guarantees nothing. But some think it's worth a try.

“It's 50-50,” Tina Huynh-Chandee tells Alanna Elder of MPR News. Her husband, At “Ricky” Chandee, is currently detained in Texas and awaiting a deportation trial over a second-degree assault conviction from 1993. “Like with everything else we're going through. So we're just hoping for the best result," Huynh-Chandee says.

To obtain a pardon from the state, a hopeful recipient must first get a recommendation from the Clemency Review Commission, which considers things like the severity of the crime (no domestic violence or weapons charges, for example), how long ago it occurred (many of these cases go back decades), and how the individual has handled themselves since. Next they need to apply to the Minnesota Board of Pardons, which meets twice a year. Should they get the certificate, they can then bring it to their deportation hearing, where it may or may not help their case. 

It’s not ideal, especially in situations where time is of the essence. “If someone is facing immediate deportation, they're never going to have enough time to finish the pardon process,” St. Paul-based lawyer Nico Ratkowski tells MPR.

Ancient Aquatic Weaponry Saga Explored in Folksy Detail

Sorry, we're total suckers for Maury Glover! Part Boyd Huppert, part Perd Hapley, and part "Kent's People"-era Kent Brockman, the buttery-voiced Fox 9 reporter crushes every human-interest story that comes across "Maury's Stories." It's pure TV news comfort food. Glover's latest adds a dash of violent historical intrigue: The curious case of 18 antique firearms discovered beneath the waters of Bde Maka Ska.

Zero notes on Maury's lyrical lede, which begins... "Bde Maka Ska is the largest and deepest lake in a city full of them, with as many stories as there are waves." And off we go to meet Jeff Withers, a St. Louis Park diver who, armed with scuba gear and a metal detector, combs the floor of Bde Maka Ska three to five times per week. He finds old-ass bottles. He finds loads of keys. He even finds a horse's jawbone. At one point, we watch underwater video of him petting a muskie. "But around a decade ago," Glover teases, "he started uncovering a mystery, that caused his imagination to go ballistic."

Guns. Sixteen to 18 of 'em, all submerged near one another on the north end of the lake. The shameless Fox 9 production team proceeds to take the segment black 'n' white and add 1920s saloon music as our narrator speculates about Twin Cities gangsters like Isadore "Kid Cann" Blumenfeld.

"With the history of organized crime Minneapolis had, I believed that I had found someone who was either giving up their evil ways or someone that was getting rid of some evidence," Withers says.

Notice that past tense on "believed"? That's because this soggy six-shooter mystery has a resolution, one we won't spoil here—start your weekend off with a bang below.