Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Woman’s Club Shutdown Imminent
If you’ve never been to the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis in Loring Park, it’s a wonderfully designed space, built in 1928 by Léon Eugène Arnal, the same guy who designed the Foshay Tower. I’ve attended more than one lovely wedding there, and back around the turn of the millennium it was a great setting for special local and touring shows. I saw Low, the Magnetic Fields (on the 69 Love Songs tour), and Bright Eyes there.
And if you’ve never been to the Woman’s Club, you may be running out of chances. The president of the Club’s board, Lois Swanson, released a statement today that the historic venue could well shut down before the beginning of summer.
“The Club is no longer able to fulfill its financial obligations and will run out of operating funds by the end of May,” Carlson writes. “Unless a major donor comes forward, the Club is considering closing.”
In recent months, there have been reports of turmoil between staff and members, with some of the latter insisting that the Club close to the public and even remove its Pride flag. (In Loring Park!) Executive Director Kevin Winge has already announced his resignation, though he is staying on till the end of May.
Walz: If MN Loses Federal Education Funding, We’re Fucked
OK, he didn’t say that in those exact words, at least not publicly. But as the Trump administration prepares to cut half of the U.S. Department of Education’s staff, with long-term plans to eliminate the department entirely, Gov. Tim Walz went on the offensive today, laying out what’s at risk if the federal government decides to no longer make educating children a priority.
“One of the great achievements we’ve had is public schools, and the ability to recognize not one size fits all for students,” Walz tells MPR News. “But what we’re seeing right now is that there’s not a desire at the federal level to adhere to both those values and the commitment to getting it done.”
Adding to the problem is the lack of communication from the feds, who seem to slash and burn with little forethought. “Uncertainty is not a strategy,” Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Willie Jett tells MPR. “Disrupting the foundation of our schools without a clear plan puts students, teachers and communities at risk.”
Most of the $2.2 billion in federal funding for education that Minnesota received in 2024 went toward special education, English language learning programs, and reading and math specialists. Walz was clear that no state funding can make up for the federal shortfall. “I think we need to understand states cannot backfill for this,” he says.
In other “Republicans want to destroy our way of life” news, the Minnesota Reformer reports that The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development canceled (possibly illegally) a $425K grant to Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid to sue discriminatory landlords. I’m sure the discriminatory landlord-in-chief is pleased.
Anyway, it's better to be furious than depressed. So stay mad, everyone. Keep calling your electeds. Set a Tesla dealership on fire.
Front Row Paul Takes a Seat
Paul Engebretson, the enthusiastic Twin Cities showgoer better known as “Front Row Paul,” announced not long ago that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The response from the Twin Cities music community that he has always enthusiastically supported was immediate and generous. Because Paul is unfortunate enough to live in a country where crowdfunding healthcare expenses is necessary, friends set up a GoFundMe, which quickly exceeded its goal of $18,000.
And yet, the news is bad. Engebretson recently shared that the cancer had spread and was inoperable. He posted this recently on Facebook:
I started in-home hospice today, the plan is to try and stay as comfortable as possible and then exit gracefully. A few months, a half a year, your guess is as good as mine. I still hope to attend a few shows so I hope to see you out and about.
We wish him many peaceful days and rockin' nights until he leaves the club for good. So keep an eye out for Paul for now. If you see him up front, you know you picked the right show to attend.
Man Who Walked the Length of the Mpls Skyway to Celebrate His Birthday Somehow Not a Racket Follower?
We were alerted to Rhett Carlson's idiosyncratic birthday celebration—he spent the day walking the Minneapolis skyways—by this Jana Shortal feature for KARE 11. My immediate thought? Only a super weird old guy (which Carlson is apparently not) or a Racket reader (or, yes, "both" is a possibility) would do such a stunt. Yet a quick glance at Carlson's X account revealed that he does not follow Racket on that dismal social media website. Maybe Carlson's a subscriber? I didn't have time to check. But a guy who calls himself "a big fan of new construction mixed-use fast food in cities" who "love[s] a good rendering"? He doesn't know what he's missing.
