Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily 1 p.m.(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
The Teens Have Had Enough
Minneapolis students from North High are staging a sit-in at City Hall today to protest the police killing of Amir Locke. (There's a live feed from journalist Georgia Fort here.) This follows yesterday’s mass walkout by more than a thousand students across the Twin Cities. Organized by MN Teen Activists, Tuesday’s walkout started at noon at St. Paul Central High School, where the students held a rally and listed their demands, including a ban on all no-knock warrants, the resignation of Mayor Jacob Frey and interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman, and the dismissal of Mark Hanneman, the officer who killed Locke. Many of the students continued marching down to the governor’s mansion. There were similar walkouts in Lakeville, Hopkins, St. Louis Park, and Minneapolis. Protests over the killing continued in Minneapolis as well, as they have every night since Locke was killed.
Google Doodle Celebrates Rondo-Raised Baseball Pioneer Toni Stone
Today’s Google Doodle honors Toni Stone, the first woman to play for a men’s professional baseball team, who grew up and started her career in St. Paul. Stone was born in 1921 in West Virginia; her family moved to the Rondo neighborhood in 1931, where she played baseball with the neighborhood boys and earned the nickname "Tomboy." She was the first girl to play for the St. Peter Claver Catholic Church boys' baseball team, and by 16, she was playing for the Twin City Colored Giants, a men's semi-pro team. In 1953 Stone broke the gender barrier when she signed with the Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro American League—the Clowns needed someone at second base to replace Hank Aaron, who had just joined the Milwaukee Braves. Stone was inducted into the Minnesota Sports Hall of Fame last year. Charles Hallman wrote a nice piece about Stone for the Spokesman-Recorder back in 2018, and there’s even more in the ol’ MNopedia.
MN State Patrol Can Only Attack Non-Journalists Now
In a major First Amendment win, a federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against the Minnesota State Patrol that bans them from arresting or beating the shit out of journalists. (Seems like that should go without saying, but…) The injunction is part of a settlement which also awards $825,000 to the journalists who police injured while covering protests over the police killings of George Floyd and Daunte Wright. As you may recall, journalists, like other folks at the protests, had some grisly shit done to them, and the police behavior made national news.. Under the order, the state patrol can no longer arrest (or threaten to arrest) journalists, use physical force or chemical agents against them, order journalists to stop documenting or observing a protest, making journalists disperse, or seize/smash equipment. I’m afraid the rest of you are on your own though.
Sports!
Hello, my fellow sports enthusiasts! Have you been watching the sports taking place at the Beijing Olympics? Well, Minnesotans have come out of the gates strong. St. Paul-born, Afton-raised Olympian Jessie Diggins took bronze yesterday in the women's freestyle sprint, making her the first U.S. athlete to medal in an individual cross country sprint since Bill Koch in 1976. Next week, she’ll be back with teammate Rosie Brennan for the team sprint, a race that Diggins took gold in with Kikkan Randall in 2018. Tomorrow’s a big day for Minnesota Olympians in general, with the men’s hockey team taking on China and the women’s team going up against the Czech Republic. (There are 13 Minnesotans between the two teams.) The always delightfully weird/intense sport of curling will also see USA’s teams compete tomorrow. Minnesota curlers include John Shuster and Tara Peterson. There are 23 Minnesotans in this year’s Olympics, and around 30 competitors total with ties to our state.
