Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
So Long, Louie
In the Strib today, Chris Riemenschneider has a nice obit for Louis "Louie" Sirian, the longtime owner of Lee’s Liquor Lounge. Sirian, who sold Lee’s in 2015 after running the Minneapolis bar/venue for nearly four decades, died this weekend at 88.
“Louie was an old-school saloon keeper, not some cool, young nightclub owner looking to cash out. He was in it for the long haul, and it showed,” says Nate Dungan, the frontman for Trailer Trash, a band that played a weekly Lee’s gig for decades. “He treated everyone fairly and was very proud of his establishment.”
Noah Levy recalls, “The first time I settled up with him, he overpaid and said, ‘You kids are good. Here’s some gas money for everyone.’” “Sirian was known to meticulously mop the floors himself and make them shine,” Riemenschneider notes. “He also rented rooms above the bar as apartments for transient tenants.” In short, a good guy who will be missed.
Farmers? Fucked.
At the Minnesota Reformer today, Christopher Ingraham has the story of a Morrison County farmer who was set to receive a $500,000 grant this year through the USDA’s Resilient Food Infrastructure Systems Program. The money was to increase the processing of sunflower byproduct, and farmer Tom Smude made the necessary adjustments to his infrastructure. But like farmers across the country, Smude has been screwed by the Trump administration.
Though courts have ordered the feds to start paying up again, that’s not (yet?) happening, and farmers across the U.S. are desperately taking out bridge loans in the hopes that their broken government contracts will someday be upheld. The signs are not heartening so far. “We have had absolutely no communication from USDA,” says one nonprofit director. Ingraham notes that government payments account for about 20% of Minnesota farm income in recent years. Incidentally, contact info for Rep. Michelle Fischbach can be found here.
U of M Law Prof Goes to Bat for Nativism in the Times, Whiffs
I recently noted that University of Minnesota law professor/authoritarian enabler/all-around opportunist Ilan Wurman had been widely mocked on social media for saying the U.S. Constitution might allow limitations on birthright citizenship. That was unfair, because Wurman had not had a chance to fully make his case.
This weekend, though, he co-authored a piece, ”Trump Might Have a Case on Birthright Citizenship,” that ran in the New York Times, which will apparently print anything these days, and all I can say is, feel free to resume your mockery. Constitutional scholars who specialize in the Fourteenth Amendment are wholly unimpressed with what Wurman and Randy Barnett had to say.
“Fundamentally the problem with the Barnett-Wurman theory is that it doesn't deal with the actual text of the Constitution,” responds Michael D. Ramsey, who has written extensively on the subject, over at The Originalism Blog. That does indeed seem like a fundamental problem. And in general, when the folks at The Originalism Blog have problems with your originalism, well, that certainly says something.
Then again, I’m sure the Heritage Foundation approved, and at least two Supreme Court Justices are likely to agree. And arguing that a legal interpretation no one has ever actually held is the only accurate way to read a 150-year-old provision just might be the path to a federal judgeship eventually.
Duluth Goes to the Movies
Duluth—it isn’t just for quickie Lifetime Christmas romcoms anymore. In the Duluth News Tribune today Jay Gabler reports that, if all goes as planned, The 7th, a new sci-fi flick budgeted between $10 and $12.5 million, will be the priciest one shot up north since North Country in 2005. The film takes place in “a future Duluth that's been partially enclosed by a dome protecting the city against environmental degradation caused by climate change,” according to Gabler. It’s the story of Piper, a Lakota teen, who must escape to the Black Hills through Duluth’s tunnels. Sounds more promising than Merry Kiss Cam, anyway.
