Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Perfect Timing to Remember MN-Launched Moron Hegseth Controls the U.S. Imperial War Machine
With simultaneous calamities afflicting our nation and world, it's easy (and perhaps healthful) to forget that Pete fuckin' Hegseth, he of weekend Fox News host pedigree and Minnesota roots, is in charge of history's deadliest military force. The mind? It simply reels.
Contributing to that reeling is New York Magazine's Kerry Howley, who just authored a must-read Hegseth exposé headlined, "Playing Secretary: As war looms, Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is beset by infighting over leaks, drugs, and socks. How long will Trump stand by his man?"
Up top, Howley speeds through the well-documented Hegseth deficiencies—allegations of sexual assault, infidelity, problem drinking, financial impropriety, and generally being a woefully unqualified Trump-humping meathead culture warrior. There's too much new humiliation to address from inside the Pentagon.
Writes Howley of the sitting U.S. defense secretary: "It was clear from the beginning which parts of the job Hegseth most enjoyed: working out, posting about working out, and discussing the imminent removal of trans servicemembers."
Hegseth initially leaned on top advisors like Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, both of whom expressed reluctance to engage in military adventurism. But, as Howley learned from of over a dozen sources close to Hegseth, "The leaks seemed to come as fast as we had meetings in the building." The Department of Defense descended into a paranoid "chaos," with an "increasingly embarrassing" Hegseth flailing to look good on TV as firings, rumors of drug use, and aired war secrets swirl from inside his department.
Caldwell and Selnick get canned. Laura Loomer's nutjob whims get tied to other dismissals. Polygraph test threats get lobbed. By the time a second secret Signal chat, this one featuring Hegseth family members, is revealed, top DoD leadership teeters on “near collapse.” We're talking about the events of late April, mind you.
“That’s what pisses me off the most,” Colin Carroll, another fired top staffer, tells the magazine. “I don’t want a secretary of Defense that can’t even fucking fire people properly and not have it rebound back on his ass. Pete can’t even be a good villain.”
For his part, Hegseth has retreated to playing chum-the-MAGA-waters hits, like "No more pronouns” and "No more dudes in dresses." (“Claims of chaos at the Pentagon under Secretary Hegseth are false,” a spokesman states.)
For additional juicy nuggets, and there are a lot of them, you'll have to read the entire sprawling NY Mag piece. And for your own mental health, we can't advise reading about the brewing Israel-Iran war—or any U.S.-linked global conflict, really—afterward.
Let’s Take a Trip to the Northwest Angle
There’s an unmistakable mystique to the Northwest Angle, the marooned Minnesota land mass of 150 residents that’s unreachable by land without passing through Canada.
As Cobrin Hiar learned when he traveled up north for Politico, the MAGA-minded Minnesotans in this tiny burgh (4/5 of them were Trump voters in 2024) haven’t all been paying as close attention to Trump’s bellicose rhetoric toward Canada and threats of trade war as you might expect, while some that have say Canada has it coming. “We’ve gone through so much shit up here that I’m willing to try something else,” Angle resident Paul Colson says of embracing Trump's approach. (You'd think they'd be a little more concerned, since they depend on Canada for their electricity.)
Anyway, it’s an interesting look at how changing economics might affect Minnesota’s most remote area, even if the Anglers themselves, with their petty resentments and comments about tampons in boys’ bathrooms, aren't any more interesting than the countless other Trump voters the national media never gets tired of profiling.
Bernie Sanders Sends Strongly Worded Letter to MN Grocers
Union contract negotiations for Minnesota-based grocery stores aren't going well. Things are so bad, in fact, that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is getting involved, sending out letters to CEOs at three different companies: one to UNFI CEO Andre Persaud, one to Knowlan’s Festival Foods President Jason Herfel, and another to Haug’s Companies President Dennis Brucker.
Local UFCW 663 members have been working at UNFI-owned Cub Foods without a contract since March, when contract negotiations stalled over pay increases, healthcare concessions, and calls for the union to drop all labor/unfair practice grievances.
"I have personally heard from these workers, who have expressed serious concerns about your company's demands… including what I understand to be approximately $2 million in sick time class action grievances alone,” Sanders writes to UNFI. “These unlawful tactics, including refusing to negotiate, threatening workers, and surveilling employees over their union activity, are unacceptable and have prompted the filing of multiple unfair labor practice charges."
Sanders urges all three CEOs to "negotiate in good faith to sign a fair contract that provides better pay, benefits, and working conditions for these union workers as soon as possible." UFCW President Rena Wong has warned that strikes could be next.
Wanna Buy South St. Paul's Historic Stockyards Exchange Building?
In 1887, the Stockyards Exchange building opened to businessmen who concerned themselves with South St. Paul's booming feedlot industry. Designed in the Neo-Romanesque style by St. Paul-based architecture firm Reed & Stem, the dazzling structure would serve as a heifer 'n' hog hub until the middle of the 20th century, and would be placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Around 2000, the 28,160-square-footer was rebranded the Historic Concord Exchange, a savvy move away from livestock imagery for its latest era as a wedding venue. (Read a beefier history here.)
All caught up? Good, because 200 N. Concord Exchange just hit the market for $2.8 million. "Prime Mixed-Use Venue with Endless Potential – Event Center, Hotel, Office, Restaurant, or Nightlife Hotspot Step into opportunity with this dynamic, multi-functional property currently operating as a successful event center," reads the listing from Pete Guidera at Coldwell Banker Commercial Realty. Interested in running the wedding venue? How about returning it to its roots as a cigar-chomping HQ for barnyard critter salesmen? Something else entirely? Hit up Mr. Guidera or, at the very least, enjoy these lovely photos of the historic space.
