Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
"Call to Action" Urged Over Isabel Lopez's Arrest
Federal agents arrested St. Paul poet Isabel Lopez on Tuesday as she left an interview with independent journalist Georgia Fort. There was plenty of commotion at the scene, as the feds seem to prefer these days. “How did they know where she was? Was she being followed? Surveilled? Targeted—for speaking to the press?” Fort asked while sharing a video of the arrest.
Later we learned law enforcement’s side of the story: Lopez had been arrested for “assaulting, resisting, or impeding” officers on June 3 outside Las Cuatro Milpas in Minneapolis, according to the warrant for her arrest. An affidavit from a federal agent alleged that Lopez had punched an agent’s head, shoved and kicked officers, and hurled “a softball or other ball-shaped object” at a Hennepin County deputy’s back.
The warrant also reveals why federal agents raided the Lake Street restaurant, along with seven other sites in the metro area. The affidavit claims that the feds seized 900 pounds of meth from a Burnsville storage locker. (If true, we may owe a slight apology to Robert “Bob” Kroll, though we do have good cause not to take his word on anything.)
The agents’ haul also included two gold-plated guns, and, er, some Scarface posters. “Such ‘homage’ images are regularly observed by law enforcement in the homes and businesses of those involved in the drug and related money laundering trades,” the affidavit explains. The affidavit does not explain why the agents showed up in riot gear at Las Cuatro Milpas while casual blue windbreakers offered enough protection at the other sites, or why ICE agents were present at the scene on Lake Street.
Yesterday, Minneapolis City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison posted a "call to action" in response to Lopez's arrest. If you'd like to learn more about her, here’s a video of Fort profiling the poet/activist in 2021.
Investors to UnitedHealth Group: Keep Doing the Profitable Evil Shit, Please
Mamma mia! UnitedHealth Group's stock has plummeted by 38% this year, and investors reportedly want the Eden Prairie-based health care giant to double down on its already staggering denial rates.
That's according to a new report from lefty populism website The Level, which analyzed a recent lawsuit filed by an investor against UHG. In it, the company's poor stock performance is attributed, in part, to “increased coverage and care for beneficiaries of Medicare Advantage.” Reporter Katya Schwenk writes that this "investor revolt" is a reminder "that Wall Street greed is one of the reasons for [UHG's] tendency to deny patients care."
Wendell Potter, a former insurance exec who's now a reform advocate, agrees. He says investors “certainly want to hold [UnitedHealth Group] accountable to make themselves richer, to enhance their earnings, their portfolio," adding: "That is not the same objective that most patients have, but it is the way that our health care system is now being run.”
Potter says the investor lawsuit demonstrates Wall Street's power over the U.S. health-care system. UHG has touted reforms in the wake of last year's killing of Brian Thompson, who led its insurance division, but continues to do things like grant its new CEO $61 million compensation packages.
“It’s mostly for PR," Potter says of UHG's gestures toward self-regulation. "The top objective of these companies is and always will be to increase shareholder value.” If only a different type of system, one the U.S. could mimic, existed in industrialized countries around the globe!
Ann Kim’s Young Joni Might Owe $143,169 in Rent
That’s what the James Beard Award-winning Northeast restaurant's landlord, Minneapolis-based real estate company the Lander Group, is alleging in a lawsuit filed this week in Hennepin County District Court. Young Joni’s 10-year lease expired in 2024, according to court documents, and negotiations to renew stalled over rent increases. Lander wanted $30-$36 per square foot; Young Joni ownership countered with $18 per square foot.
When Lander suggested arbitration, the folks at Young Joni declined, explaining in an email that “it did not have ‘the time and energy to go through such a process’ due to ongoing union issues at other restaurants Kim owned.” Kim was probably preoccupied around this time: After workers at one of her other restaurants, Kim’s, agreed to unionize last year, Kim shut the place down entirely. (You can read her anti-union email sent to staffers here.)
In addition to owing $100,826.94 in back rent, Lander also alleges that Young Joni owes $42,342 in unpaid Covid rent deferment.
RIP Brian Wilson, Beach Boy Genius. And Also: Meet the Local Beach Boys of Yore.
Brian Wilson, the deeply talented and deeply troubled leader of the Beach Boys, has died at 82. His family announced the passing via Instagram, but didn't specify when, where, or how the songwriting genius died. You can read Wilson's full New York Times obit through this gift link.
In search of a local angle that didn't involve Bill Pohlad's (pretty good!) 2014 Beach Boys biopic, Love & Mercy, we dove deep in the Star Tribune archives in search of Wilson lore, but stopped when we came across... well, something entirely different.
Under the headline "'Beach Boys Theft Club Described," the September 26, 1962, edition of the Minneapolis Morning Tribune lays out a wild crime syndicate made up of beach-living Minneapolis miscreants with mandatory goatees, snitch girlfriends, and ironclad stipulations about not holding jobs outside of payphone burglary. Enjoy!
The "Beach Boys"—a club whose members allegedly had to grow goatees, live on the beach at Lake Calhoun and steal for a living—was described Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court. The club's existence was reported at the sentencing of Gerald Lee Owens, 21, 4444 3rd Av. S., on a charge of possession of burglary tools. Owens was arrested July 25 with two companions, one a teen-age girl. Burglary tools were found in their car. Owens pleaded guilty to possession of burglary tools and admitted breaking into telephone booths. The girl told court officials about the club. Girls, mostly 15 and 16 years of age, could also join if they had money to give the men, she said. Members could not work for a living, she said. They apparently lived on the beach or in cars around the lake. Owens yesterday denied existence of the club. Judge Leslie Anderson sentenced him to three years in St. Cloud Reformatory for possession of burglary tools.
