Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Neighbors Attack Homeless Shelter Over Street Parking
According to folks at St. Anne's Place, a shelter in the Jordan neighborhood of Minneapolis, a resident’s parked car on a public street angered a group of neighbors so much that they spent hours last Thursday and Friday harassing people. They broke building windows, and one person shot a gun at the vehicle, residents say. “Allegedly a large gathering of neighbors, including children being egged on by adults, broke the glass of the shelter’s front and side doors in an attempt to unlatch them, kicked a staff member who was holding an infant at the time, and ‘pistol-whipped’ a shelter resident who was trying to flee,” writes Susan Du at the Star Tribune after speaking to People Serving People CEO Hoang Murphy.
The shelter, located at 2634 Russell Ave. N., has since closed and boarded up its windows; its 54 residents (38 of which are children) have been relocated to other facilities. There were plenty of witnesses willing to give statements and security cam footage, but no arrests have been made. “We were unable to determine who the aggressor was in the fight,” Minneapolis Police spokesman Garrett Parten tells Du, noting that he has not watched the video. “One group damaged a vehicle and building windows.” Gee, I sure hope they figure it out.
Apple Genius Retiring
No, not that apple. We’re talking about fruit rockstar Professor Jim Luby who, as head of the fruit breeding program at the University of Minnesota, gave us apple varieties like Honeycrisp, Zestar!, SweeTango, and First Kiss. He’ll be retiring this season after 41 years leading the program. “Some [apples], you just know they’re going to be a winner,” he tells Peter Cox at MPR. “Most of them, it’s a little bit uncertain, but some of them, it’s like, ‘Whoa. That is really good.’”
Luby didn’t start with apples; his actually began his work with grapes, developing varieties that could withstand colder climates. While at the U, he also worked on blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, pears, and plums. "My favorite fruit has been whatever I’m not in the middle of tasting,” he jokes in an announcement posted on the school’s horticulture site, noting that he’s always excited for the next season.
Luby says his favorite apple is the SweeTango. As we noted a few weeks ago, comedian/apple aficionado Brian Frange gave it the highest score on his apple ranking website, right ahead of Honeycrisp.
Fact Check: Minneapolis Is Not a Pile of Ashes
Ex-President Donald Trump may have sported a new hairdo at Tuesday night’s presidential debates, but he was mostly up to his usual bullshit. And yes, Minnesota’s 2020 protests and rioting came up. “She went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people, that burned down Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail,” he said, referring to a single tweet Kamala Harris made encouraging people to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which provided bail to folks arrested while protesting. As always, local Twitter was quick to respond with photographic proof that Minneapolis, in fact, is a resilient town that is looking awfully pretty these days. But it’s good that Minnesota is on Trump's mind; maybe he’ll remember to pay the city of St. Cloud the $209K he owes it for hosting a rally for him in July.
Last Call for Flights to Eau Claire
I’s the end of a (very brief) era: In December Sun Country will no longer provide flights from Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Since 2022, the Minneapolis-based airline has offered four round trip flights a week thanks to a subsidy from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program. But when the contract ends in December, Utah-based company SkyWest Airlines will take over with a $6.5 million contract that will allow for 12 weekly round trips to Chicago’s O’Hare. The Chippewa Valley Regional Airport Commission voted 6-1 for SkyWest Airlines over Sun Country back in July; a contract released today has made it official.
