Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Strib Scoop: Sloppy Texts Reveal Trump Admin Toying With Deployment of Elite Troops on Civilians
In our current age of cartoonishly vile and stupid rulers, Peter Brian Hegseth of Forest Lake, Minnesota, stands apart. That's why SNL's 51st season cold opened Saturday with Colin Jost, oozing alpha-bro corniness, spoofing the secretary of war's recent monologue in front of our nation's top generals. "I summoned all of you here today to address a serious problem, OK?" Jost barked. "Our military is gay as hell!”
But the Star Tribune, the Upper Midwest's largest news organization, has struggled to land any punches on the (alleged) alcoholic (alleged) rapist from our own backyard, an (alleged, by us just now) buffoon who parlayed a weekend Fox News gig into leading the U.S. Department of War. Until late Friday, that is. That's when our buddy Andy Mannix landed a haymaker with this stunning scoop: Hegseth considered deploying "an elite U.S. Army strike force"—the 82nd Airborne—on civilian protestors in Portland, Oregon.
The Strib learned as much after an anonymous source watched Anthony Salisbury, an underling of White House advisor Stephen Miller, send sensitive messages over Signal while "in clear view of others" during his travels in Minnesota. "They were sharing this information so indiscreetly that the source couldn't help but notice it," Mannix tells WCCO, adding that the source photographed the text exchanges.
Salisbury reportedly "chatted candidly, and at times profanely" with Hegseth adviser Patrick Weaver and other high-ranking officials about militarizing Portland. Hegseth apparently wanted his boss, President Trump, to directly order the 82nd Airborne into action. “Between you and I, I think Pete just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” Weaver wrote.
The Trump administration is cracking down on Democratic-led cities like Portland by ordering the deployment of National Guard troops, which would be unthinkable, say, pre-2016. “It’s war from within,” Trump recently said at a recent appearance alongside Hegseth, calling U.S. cities “training grounds” for military forces. And, say, pre-2024, it'd be unthinkable to see the leader of the Pentagon be implicated in a single leaked chat scandal, but of of course this is Hegseth's second such rodeo.
The Strib went to tremendous lengths to confirm its reporting, but that didn't stop White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson from calling Mannix and others "morally bankrupt reporters." (Speaking of name calling: Salisbury called FBI Director Kash Patel a "giant douche canoe" in those sloppy, publicly visible chats.) Mannix's reporting has been picked up the Guardian, the Daily Beast, MSNBC, and others. You can read his follow-up report here—don't miss the killer kombucha quote from a Portland politician.
Let a Neat Quiz Decide Your Preferred Mayoral Candidate
On Monday, Sahan Journal debuted "Meet Your Mayor," a new quiz that matches Minneapolis and St. Paul voters with the mayoral candidate who best represents their views. The quiz is powered by information that candidates supplied directly to Sahan on a wide range of issues—policing, rent control, taxation, etc. "Sahan has published voters’ guides before, but we’re always looking for new and dynamic ways to engage readers," Director of Editorial Chao Xiong says, failing to plug the super-cute bobblehead illustrations that accompany the piece.
Question No. 1 for Minneapolis includes an ideological catch-all answer that made our newsroom chuckle:
Craving a traditional voter guide? Naomi Kritzer's is inching toward completion, with the Minneapolis mayoral section already ready for your perusal.
Wanna Buy Longfellow's Butterfly House?
Nice find by Trevor Born at Longfellow Whatever: The Butterfly House, a mid-century modern stunner at 4736 Coffey Lane in Minneapolis, is about to hit the market for $395,000. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,380-square-foot home is "a rare architectural gem designed in 1960 by Herbert Fritz, a distinguished student of Frank Lloyd Wright," according to listing agent Katey Bean with Keller Williams.
Born dives deep into the the history of the Luella A. Anderson neighborhood, a tangly mini 'hood located just off West River Parkway. He writes about the Lang family, who've owned the Butterfly House since its completion in 1960. And he gets into the condition of the home, as well as its potential future. Writes Born...
Now 65 years old, the house hasn't been so much preserved as it has been left untouched entirely. Which is for better and worse... The home's $395,000 price tag reflects the fact that it could use an expensive amount of refreshing. With just two bedrooms and 1,042 square feet on the main floor (the basement is effectively unfinished), that could be a tough sell as-is, and has some neighbors curious whether a new buyer might prefer to tear down the small house and build something new on the desirable site. Realtor Katey Bean says she hopes to find a buyer who is motivated to either restore the home to its original glory, or at least use a light touch in adding onto it.
At the risk of editorializing: It would be a crime against humanity to tear this house down and replace it with a tacky, hulking new build; I would personally escort you to the Hague. Feel free to borrow and build on that rant at Sunday's open house, which runs from noon to 2 p.m. Private showings begin at 9 a.m.
Gotcha Interviewer Ambushes Liz Collin With Impossible Q
John O'Sullivan—aka the One Minute Tours guy—hosted Alpha News personality Liz Collin last month on his One Hour Detours YouTube show. The conversation was mostly nonconfrontational (for Collin confrontation, click here), but our guest did manage to twist herself into ridiculous knots when presented with a real fastball: Can you name anything you like about Minneapolis?
O'Sullivan: Do you like Minneapolis?
Collin: I mean, of course. I mean, again, I had a house here. I worked here for 15 years. Do I like the politics of Minneapolis? No. Of course not.
O'Sullivan: Maybe it would help me to understand... when people talk about Minneapolis, now it becomes like a political signifier if they don't live here.
Collin: Almost, how could it not be?
O'Sullivan: Well, I mean because it's a city, right? It's not a political whatever. It's just a city where people live, and work, and eat, and live their lives.
Collin: After my lived experience, and what I've lived through, which again I come at this obviously at a different angle than many people, I can not not associate politics with Minneapolis at this point.
O'Sullivan: Can you share with me some things you do like about Minneapolis?
Collin: I've said... I've said... I've interviewed many people that live in Minneapolis on Alpha News.
O'Sullivan: I know, but like, are there like neighborhoods or things to do or things you like about the weather or whatever?
Collin: I lived very close to Lake Harriet. That's where... my son went to Annunciation. He was a preschooler there. We were members of that Catholic church at Annunciation. So I don't really think that's exactly a fair question, John.
Honestly? Kinda sad, a case study of what happens when the human brain marinates 24/7 inside festering swamps of right-wing propaganda. Get out there, Liz! Visit an Eat Street restaurant. Catch a Timberwolves game. Take a sunset stroll across the Stone Arch Bridge. Escape the paranoid prison of your own mind. Somewhere, deep down, the reporter who didn't understand she was interviewing Paul Westerberg outside the old Lyndale Avenue Walgreens still exists.
