Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Tad Jude: "I am the Niiiiiiight!"
I wasn’t crazy about The Bat Man, or whatever it was called. But against my better judgment, I still get my hopes up whenever a trailer for a new superhero movie drops. Maybe this time they’ll get it right. And while whoever’s doing the voiceover on this new clip for Batman: Never Again sounds a little hesitant, like he’s reading cue cards, the description of Gotham City is pretty cool.
“A broken criminal system, further hijacked by the demands of the mob, whose reckless rhetoric to defund and dismantle police drove away many of our finest and emboldened criminals more than ever before.”
Oh man, that place sounds like a hellhole! Sure, glad I don’t live there. Can’t wait to see Batman fuck up whoever’s responsible. I’m a little confused though: Is that Jim Gordon talking? What happened to Jeffrey Wright?
“And those we placed our daily trust in, held to an oath, let even the most violent back out onto our streets, failing repeatedly to keep them behind bars, and so, even more lives and businesses were lost.”
OK, OK, we get it. We’ve seen these movies before. The burning car is cool, but get to the action already.
“More families torn apart, engulfed with grief and loss, and our communities only became more divided.”
Ugh, is this guy still talking? Why? Who is he? Who’s the villain? Where is Batman? Do they really expect me to see a movie about a crime-fighting grandpa who watches too much TV?
Goddammit, somebody punch somebody!
And then bam, it just ends with the tag line: “Make Crime Illegal Again.” No cast. No release date. No real hints at the story. It’s frustrating but also… intriguing? I don’t know much about this Tad Jude guy, but his style is so over the top he might just be a new Joel Schumacher in the making.
Law Firm Urges City to Keep Paying It Shitloads of $$$$
Remember that Minnesota Department of Human Rights report on MPD, the one that's almost uniformly described as "scathing"? The city didn't like it very much, and it has been haggling with the state over a so-called "consent decree," a legal action that would require MPD reform. Much of that legal wrangling has fallen to international law firm Jones Day, Minnesota Reformer's must-read staffer Deena Winter reports, and holy shit is the city paying a lot for its services. Specifically, almost $157,000 per month from last July through November. In October, your tax dollars purchased a $74 meal for Jones Day Partner Yvette McGee Brown, the Reformer found, plus her $585 plane ticket complete with first-class upgrade. Jones Day, whose past clients include Big Tobacco and Donald Trump, won a $1 million contract with the city. They've managed to collect every cent. When Jim Rowader, the ex-city attorney/former Target anti-union propagandist, quit back in May, talks between the city and MDHR broke down. Jones Day's solution, according to Winter's anonymous source? "It appears that Jones Day is advocating for a more litigious path forward." No shit.
Gia Vang is Moving On From KARE 11 Anchor Gig
This morning, folks watching KARE 11's morning program got breaking news that Gia Vang would be leaving the station after three years as anchor. She made the announcement herself on-air at the end of the show. "It has been one of the hardest professional decisions I have ever had to make," she wrote via Twitter. "I am grieving the loss of community, especially my thriving and vibrant #Hmong community." Vang, who grew up in California, is the first Hmong-American news anchor in the Twin Cities. During her time at KARE 11, she worked on pieces that celebrated the local Hmong community and launched the #VeryAsian campaign against racism. Next week will be her last at the station. Though she has teased that she already has future plans, she's waiting until June 17 to make an announcement.
Salad Is Bad For You
PSA: SuperMom is still alive, and she's out to kill you. With salad. And diarrhea. That's our takeaway of the latest listeria recall featuring the former Super America brand. These days, Mom is making salad for low-ranked Speedway in her lair (aka SuperMom's Kitchens in downtown St. Paul). There, Mom discovered listeria on the menu during routine testing, and now she's warning the public about the 905 pounds of bacteria she has released to the public. According to the press release, at least two of the recalled items are already past their expiration date. If you have a SuperMom chef salad with expiration date of June 9 or 11 or a Caesar salad marked May 26 or June 16, it is recommended that you bury it in your backyard or set it on fire in your driveway (not really, just toss it in the trash where it can live its best life in a landfill).
