Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Have Meds, Will Travel
In late October, while we were putting the finishing touches on our Halloween costumes and dreading the arrival of Election Day, the city of Minneapolis was previewing its first Mobile Medical Unit. As Katrina Bailey reports for The Minnesota Daily, the unit can provide vaccinations, care for wounds, dental care, preventative screenings, and medications to counter opioid overdoses. “It can bring healthcare regardless of which zip code you live in, regardless of where you are, we are going to bring health right to you,” Mayor Jacob Frey says. Over $1 million was drawn from opioid lawsuit settlement funds to pay for the unit, which will be up and functioning in 2025—perfect timing, since the less-than-ideal U.S. healthcare system is certain not to become more accessible over the next four years. We definitely need this a lot more than food delivery robots.
Three More Years! (Of HERC.)
Last week, the Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously on a resolution to shut down the Hennepin Energy Recovery Center (HERC) by 2027, and Mayor Jacob Frey signed that resolution today. While this creates a timeline to shut down the downtown Minneapolis trash incinerator, there’s no way to force Hennepin County to adhere to that. In fact, the county has given itself a very flexible deadline—officials say they're hoping to close HERC between 2018 and 2040. Among the concerns are whether the city can reduce waste so that what’s currently being processed at HERC doesn’t just windup in local landfills. “The resolution is just the start,” says Council Member Katie Cashman, who wrote the resolution. “We need to rapidly ramp up our zero-waste programming to make that possible.”
Can MN Stand a House Divided Against Itself?
As we mentioned yesterday, pending a pair of recounts, the Minnesota House of Representative looks as though it’ll be split evenly between the DFL and the GOP this session, with 67 seats apiece. So, who’s in charge when there’s no majority? For a glimpse of the future, MPR News looks at the last time this happened, in 1979, when a divided House resulted in “months of backroom negotiating, public bickering, a heart attack, allegations of unfair campaign practices and a power-sharing agreement.”
Both current House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) and House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) are publicly confident that the two parties will work something out. Since the state constitution does not allow the existence of more than one House speaker at a time, the MPR story reports, one party may get the speakership in exchange for giving the other important committee positions.
Sound good? Well, you voted for it, Minnesota! The two parties worked out a deal by January last time, but that was 1979, a comparatively idyllic time in Minnesota politics, or at least a more cooperative one. (Who could forget this 1973 Time cover?) Anyway we really hope no one has a heart attack this time. Well, unless it’s—no, we will not wish cardiac arrest on even the worst Republican legislators on this website. (Maybe in the group chat.)
Canada Plays Minnesota in New Action Movie
Normal is an upcoming action film starring Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler, and Lena Heady that takes place in a small Minnesota town, presumably someplace Up North. Does this mean we can expect to see Queen Cersei kickin’ it with Jessica Lange in Cloquet, or the Fonz keepin’ it cool at Zorbaz, or Saul Goodman himself buying the deluxe edition of Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash at River City Records? In short, no. Don’t expect any local sightings of the movie’s stars unless you live in Winnipeg, which is where Normal will be filmed. And Winnipeg, while apparently a lovely place to visit, is not in Minnesota. Upset? Oh, we’re not upset. Not at all. But this winter we’re gonna shovel right to the edge of the Canadian border and not an inch further.
