Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Wicked Walz's Wrath: Normal '80s Romance; Supportive Football Coach; Handful of Hometown Detractors
If you’re determined to criticize Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, legitimate targets do exist. Just yesterday this excellent ProPublica feature hit the Democratic VP candidate from left, focusing on his history of caving to big-biz pressure from Mayo Clinic and rideshare companies. There’s his hands-off approach to Feeding Our Future accountability, there’s his tendency for rhetorical embellishments.
But then there’s the firehose of ginned up right-wing nonsense attacks, which don’t appear to be waning as we approach Election Day. This week saw three doozies from that beat, beginning with this—we’ll generously call it “story” from the U.K. Daily Mail—about Walz’s brief ‘80s romance with a Chinese woman named Jenna Wang. Walz, then 25, hit it off with Wang, then 24, while teaching in China as a single man in 1989 (check out his sick fit); Wang’s father worked in the Chinese government, and her partnership with the future governor “blossomed behind closed doors as they sipped tea, made love and listened to George Michael hits," according to the British tabloid. Things reportedly ended with hurt feelings, as 20-something relationships tend to do. Full stop. Remarkable stuff, Daily Mail.
Elsewhere, the shameless dipshits at Fox News ran a headline that screams: “Tim Walz allegedly told high school football player struggling with crime and alcohol to keep playing.” The scummy framing seems to suggest that Walz, then a Mankato West football coach in 1989, cared more about winning than the mental health and safety of his players. But then we hear from the player in question, Dan Clement, who—we kid you not—offers the following quote that feels ripped from Friday Night Lights:
"The caring attention he gave, that positive support can pull you through really dark times in your life," says Clement, who adds that he told Coach Walz, “‘I’m leaning on you. I’m trusting you here. I think partying is a better idea. You don’t think so. And I’m going to trust you on that.’ And he was right. I was wrong. And later in life, when I continued to do that, when I continued to trust other people who love me, then it led my life in this beautiful direction. Just like it did back then."
What a monster!
And, locally, we’ve got the two-bit shameless dipshits at Alpha News with this shocking exposé about… how five or six unnamed Mankato residents don’t like Walz, generally speaking. The one named source Liz Collin managed to highlight? Doug Hitzemann, treasurer of the Blue Earth County Republicans. (He also doesn't like Walz, you'll be shocked to learn.) Great work, guys.
Maddening Details Emerge Regarding Sawchak Shooting
The more you learn about the situation surrounding John Sawchak, the Minneapolis man who was (finally) arrested this weekend after (allegedly) harassing and eventually shooting neighbor Davis Moturi, the more you'll identify with the folks who interrupted Thursday's City Council meeting to call for MPD Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing.
Liz Sawyer and Paul Walsh of the Minnesota Star Tribune have a solid and infuriating story today (gift link) on Sawchak's history of harassing, stalking, and physically assaulting his neighbors along Grand Avenue. The behavior reportedly goes back at least 15 years, with people of color such as Moturi serving as frequent targets of his abuse. "Police reports and reams of restraining orders concerning Sawchak date back nearly two decades," the Strib staffers write, with alleged incidents that include but are not limited to:
- Running after a 77-year-old neighbor and her dog and smacking her with a large stick, causing her to fall over and slash her hand on the pavement.
- Harassment of one neighbor, a Liberian immigrant with three children, that included cutting their cable cord, filming their movements, peeping in their bathroom window, slicing open a window screen, and screaming at one child while he was in the shower. (As with Moturi, police had simply told her to move, which she eventually did after draining her 401K; it's her former home Moturi now occupies.)
- Ongoing threats and intimidation toward the other residents of his fourplex, including an incident in which he left spent ammunition outside a tenant’s door and another in which he blocked a woman from leaving the building while demanding she pay her rent.
- And of course, shooting the 34-year-old Moturi, who had previously called police nearly 30 times in addition to filing a harassment restraining order against Sawchak. His harassment of Moturi and his wife included dumping human waste down their mail slot, attacking Moturi with a gardening tool, and making racist remarks and death threats.
Taken individually, any one of these incidents seem like they'd be worthy of a little follow-up footwork from police. Put them together, and it's a damning indictment that the fully funded Minneapolis Police Department is incapable of or uninterested in doing the thing police departments are always saying they do: protecting the people who live in the communities they serve.
Despite being the subject of at least five criminal complaints beginning in 2016, just once was Sawchak held criminally liable: When he slashed the tires of a Minneapolis police officer's squad car. Can't make this stuff up.
As a reminder, Moturi's GoFundMe is here.
It’s Illegal To Eat Beaver in MN, But Only Under Very Specific Circumstances
Stop your snickering! We’re talking about giant water rodents here. And now, thanks to a 2024 environmental/natural resources omnibus bill, if you catch a nuisance beaver on your property, “human consumption of a retained beaver is prohibited.” But wait, who asked for this? Are people eating beaver? Why is this a problem? According to Tony Kennedy over at the Star Tribune, no one is sure why this ban exists or why it was necessary. Where's the song for that, School House Rock?
During a Senate floor debate, Sen. Foung Hawj (DFL-St. Paul), who co-authored this part of the omnibus bill with Rep. Rick Hansen (DFL-South St. Paul), half-heartedly argued that there’s little data on the safety of beaver consumption. But a few fans spoke out in favor of the meat as well. “I have eaten them and it is pretty good,’’ said Sen. Steve Green (R-Fosston). “I think it’s a little problematic that we are making it a crime.’’ “We can’t eat beaver? That’s just ridiculous,’’ said Sen. Nathan Wesenberg (R-Little Falls), who thought last year’s bill would legalize pedophilia. (Fact check: It did not.)
Don’t worry, beaver eaters: It still isn’t 100% illegal. If you have a license to hunt beavers, it’s A-OK to eat them, too. Just don’t plan on eating ‘em if you hit one with your car or you kill one in hand-to-hand combat on your deck. That’s where civilized society draws the line.
57K With Felony Records Eligible to Vote Next Week
We’ll start to feel the effects of Minnesota’s Restore the Vote law on Election Day. According to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, about 57,000 former prisoners can fill in an oval for president next week. Convicted felons in Minnesota, even after they had completed their sentences, had been barred from voting in until the new law went into effect this past June.
There’s no knowing how many of those eligible are registered, or how many will vote. But Nicole Ki of MPR News spoke with two men who’ll be voting in a presidential election for the first time. Mario Jackson, 41, was locked up at 22, and phone-banked for the new law after his release. “Those years I was incarcerated, I looked for the moment to be able to come out and let my voice be heard,” he said. And 35-year-old Calvin Boswell, who was incarcerated at 15, told Ki, “I get to take back something that should have never been taken away,”
And he’s right. Ideally, incarceration would not be a bar to voting. After all, the U.S. Census counts prisoners as residents of the town where they’re imprisoned. States can then use these numbers when creating voting districts, resulting in a kind of “prison gerrymandering” that inflates the power of rural areas when prisons are typically located. As of yet only Maine and Vermont permit prisoners to vote.
