#ScoutGate: Yet Another Walz Scandal

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

WALZ WATCH: “Walz Lied,” People Cried

Over at the Minnesota Reformer, in a piece that’s neither hand-wavy nor overblown (see this multi-sourced AP story, their latest of many on the subject of Walz’s military service), J. Patrick Coolican evaluates the claims that have been raised against Gov. Tim Walz since he became the Democratic vice presidential nominee. (An interesting side note: At MinnPost, Peter Callaghan says that Walz’s contention that “outside agitators” were doing the most damage after George Floyd’s murder may have been an exaggeration, but this also helped contain the protests.) Coolican’s summation: Walz “should be more careful” when he speaks, but he’s no Donald Trump. 

Coolican does not address the latest gang against Walz: the Scout Truthers. Today, Minnesota Republican would-be gadfly Dustin Grage tweeted a pair of photos. One is the guv with his dog, Scout. The other is a photo of Walz with a different dog while at the dog park with Scout. The implication is… Walz is somehow lying here? Scout doesn’t exist? There are two Scouts posing as one? Hard to say! Apparently this was an attempt at a joke (these guys are always “just joking”) but the folks in the replies, not much given to nuance, are chalking this up as Walz’s latest deception. Maybe they can add “Lie About Scout” to the Never Walz wheel at the State Fair, which Fox 9 saw fit to write a story about. The guys behind the anti-Walz booth apparently didn't lock down the URL for their group's confusing name—see for yourself.

Park & Reside 

If you’re unhoused in the Duluth area, but you own a car, it turns out you have options. Duluth actually has parking lots for people who want to sleep overnight, reports Dan Kraker for MPR News. In this story you’ll meet 65-year-old Mike Lane, whose current home is his 2005 Ford Escape while he saves up for rent. His family doesn’t know about his circumstances. “I don’t want them to worry about Grandpa,” Lane tells Kraker. “Because I’m a pretty tough old guy, really.” Or at least they didn’t know. They might read this story, Dan! The facility is called Safe Bay, and it’s in its second season of providing other services in addition to a spot where you can park and snooze. Staffer Natasha Lindberg calls it a place “where you can come take a shower and relax and get some good rest, and not have to worry about cops knocking on your window, or people coming up to you, creeping you out.” 

Pretty Vacant

Today in the *MINNESOTA!* Star Tribune, Susan Du follows up on the city of Minneapolis’s plans to enforce tougher rules against the landlords of vacant buildings as a new ordinance takes effect. Previously, the city charged a $7,000 vacancy fee; that penalty can now reach all the way up to $24,000 if owners don’t work with the city to find a way to sell or rent the property. Du’s story focuses on West Broadway in north Minneapolis, where the revitalized Capri Theater and Juxtaposition Arts are surrounded by numerous boarded up, long-dormant spaces. (The story includes a useful map of empty North Side storefronts.) There’s a common belief that property owners are holding on, waiting to be reimbursed for eminent domain when the Blue Line light rail extension is built. Du also notes that many are owned by C. David George, “Minneapolis’s most mysterious landlord,” who owned two business that caught on fire in 2022. Anyway, do Uptown next!

Hugh Gotta Go

Would you belong to a gym that wouldn’t have you as a member? Former gubernatorial candidate Hugh McTavish has been fighting for two years to get a Life Time Fitness membership reinstated. But MPR reports that beautiful dream ended today, when the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against him. McTavish, the author of the book COVID Lockdown Insanity, was the Independence-Alliance candidate for Minnesota governor in 2020. (Among his proposals: “a system resembling jury duty in which 1,000 randomly selected Minnesotans would be chosen to decide whether to sign or veto bills sent to his desk from the Legislature and to make regulatory decisions.”) In a bout of GOTV eagerness, he flyered an entire Life Time Fitness parking lot, and in response the gym booted him. The Supreme Court expressed little interest in McTavish’s supposed First Amendment right to campaign to fellow Life Time members. You know, I can be a pretty vindictive “principle of the thing!” idiot when I feel I’ve been wronged, but even I would just join another gym in this instance.