Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily noontime(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
Cops Keep Lying: Jaleel Stallings Editon
I guarantee that this Minnesota Reformer piece will be the most gripping, horrifying, eye-opening local news story you read today. During the 2020 unrest, the occupants of an unmarked white van driving down Lake Street shot at Jaleel Stallings. He returned fire, thinking he’d been targeted by white supremacists. But he was actually in the sights of an MPD SWAT team firing “less lethal” rounds, who then brutalized Stallings, arrested him, and lied about what happened. There’s a reason the Reformer just hired Deena Winter full time.
Gazelka Not Not Running for Governor
This was supposed to be Michelle Benson’s day. The Minnesota State Senator had a nice little event planned in Blaine where she would announce her candidacy for the Republican nomination for governor. Then Paul Gazelka manspreaded his way into Wednesday’s top headlines, saying he was stepping down as State Senate Majority Leader and… well, not quite that he was running for governor, but that he’d be a really, really, really good candidate. Gazelka would hit the trail with a well-packaged narrative: He stood firm against the “tyranny” of Governor Tim Walz’s “small-business-killing” public health decisions. Oh, damn, we just fell for his trick too. Sorry, Sen. Benson.
Omar, Ellison Back Charter Change, Rondo Can’t Bear It
Minnesota Democrats continue to choose sides in the debate over the proposed public safety ballot question. The nays weighed in early—Tim Walz, Jacob Frey (of course), a rotating cast of folks with access to the Strib editorial page—but now the yeas are catching up. Rep. Ilhan Omar contributed an opinion piece to the Star-Tribune, while state Attorney General Keith Ellison said yesterday he’d be voting yes. (Ellison’s views had previously been misrepresented by those "All of MPLS" flyers you carried from your mailbox to the recycling last week.) On the other side, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has said it would be “unbearable” for a police chief to answer to city council.
Who Wants to Be Hennepin County Attorney?
Not Mike Freeman, not anymore. The 74-year-old officeholder, who will have held the job for 24 years at the end of his term, announced today he would not be running for re-election in 2022. Let the speculation about his possible successor begin. Remember, though, that election is a whole year away. Who even knows what the world will be like by then?
You Could’ve Seen Low at Icehouse Last Night
In fact, maybe you did. The special guests opening for Derecho, the new group featuring Alan Sparhawk and Al Church, turned out to be pretty special indeed: Sparhawk’s other, older, slightly higher-profile band, Low. The veteran Duluth trio played their upcoming album, Hey What (due September 10 on Sub Pop) nearly straight through, the Strib’s Chris Riemenschneider reports, in a set that marked the debut of new bassist Liz Draper.
