Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
White House Attacks Strib for Covering Immigration
Of all the bullshit happening under this current administration, seeing the White House go after a Midwestern newspaper—or any newspaper!—is wild. But that’s our sad reality. Yesterday the White House attacked the Star Tribune with a press release titled, “This Newspaper Continues to Run Shameful Interference for Illegal Immigrants.”
What constitutes shameful interference? By Trump standards, simply covering immigration. While the White House criticizes a Strib piece from reporter Paul Walsh (“ICE wants to deport Wisconsin driver charged with being drunk, causing crash that killed 2 Minnesota teens"), it also confirms that the paper got the facts right (“... yes, the Trump Administration ‘wants to deport’ her,” the press release confirms).
Other stories that made the administration’s shit list include this one from Tolkkinen about immigrants (rightly!) fearing for their future post election and this one from reporter Susan Du about some Hmong refugees being deported for decades-old convictions (they are!). (Those are all gift links, by the way.)
“We stand by our reporting and don’t have any additional comment,” the newspaper told MPR News this afternoon. They're not kidding: The head Strib PR guy ignored Racket's invitation to publicly fight back against the increasingly authoritarian government bullying his paper.
Hormel Workers Sue Over Alleged Time-off Violations
A class action lawsuit filed today by meatpacking workers at Hormel alleges the company failed and, in some cases, blatantly refused to provide benefits required by the Minnesota Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law.
Not to be confused with paid vacation time, ESST are hours that can be used for things like medical appointments, caring for sick family members, injury recovery, and other hassles life can throw our way. According to the suit, Hormel didn’t provide these types of time-off benefits at all to many employees, and, in some cases, made employees use vacation time to receive pay, didn’t accrue any ESST for some workers, and didn’t roll over unused ESST.
“Workers, advocates, and legislators fought hard to make Earned Sick and Safe Time law. Now, ESST is a statewide standard,” Rena Wong, president of UFCW Local 663, says via press release. “If Quality Pork Processors can implement ESST correctly, and they are right next door, why can’t Hormel?”
UFCW Local 663 represents over 1,600 meatpackers working at the Austin, Minnesota, facility.
Klobuchar vs. Booker: Fight Against Complicity Peters Out With Complicity
U.S. Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) wants Democrats to “have a backbone,” rise up together against Trump, and fight the good fight. Sounds promising! Unfortunately, the impact of his call to action may be lessened by how he did it: throwing a wrench into a package of bipartisan law enforcement bills… he had previously voted for via a committee he’s a member of.
During Tuesday’s legislative session, Booker tried to add a last-minute amendment that would give some states more access to grants in anticipation of Trump retaliation. This resulted in a public fight between Booker, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).
“This, to me, is the problem with Democrats in America right now,” Booker told the floor. “We're willing to be complicit, to Donald Trump.”
“I completely agree with Sen. Booker about what this administration is doing," Klobuchar countered, while also noting that Booker had been absent from some committee meetings. "But you can’t just pick out a few bills that came out of a committee and say, 'I’m going to stop those,' and then allow for other bills that fund other parts of your budget in your state."
After a few heated exchanges, Booker withdrew his proposed amendment and the bill passed unanimously.
Corner Bar Property Sold, Fate Unclear
Could more changes be coming to the West Bank? Earlier this month, Muslim-focused nonprofit Human Development Fund (HDF) purchased J.O. Peterson building for $2.16 million. The property, located at 1501 Washington Ave. S. in Minneapolis's Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, has been home of the Comedy Corner Underground and Corner Bar for over 20 years.
“It’s all under negotiation with the new ownership,” owner William Murray tells J.D. Duggan at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal. The CCU closing would be a huge hit to the Twin Cities comedy scene; the venue regularly hosts shows from touring and local comics, as well as a popular weekly open mic night.
According to its website, Michigan-based HDF runs a wide variety of humanitarian projects worldwide, including emergency relief efforts in Gaza and Sudan, educational programs for kids, and funds for life-saving surgeries—important stuff.
