Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Republican Senator Arrested for Soliciting a Minor
Just yesterday we called Justin Eichorn (R-Grand Rapids), one of five Minnesota senators to co-sponsor the bill that would define “Trump Derangement Syndrome” as a mental illness, a "hopeless and charmless dumbass" and a "grievance-pilled, sore-winning dullard."
It turns out he's also, allegedly, a predator. Eichorn was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of soliciting sex with a minor. The senator, who is married and has four children according to his bio on the legislature's website, believed he was talking to a 16-year old; instead, he was in communication with Bloomington Police, who arrested him near the 8300 block of Normandale Avenue. BPD says felony charges of soliciting a minor to practice prostitution are pending.
The allegations are of course disgusting, but they also could have implications beyond what happens with Eichorn (who, it must be said, looks like Towelie from South Park). As Michelle Griffith writes for the Minnesota Reformer, "Eichorn’s arrest complicates efforts by Senate Republicans to expel DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell from the upper chamber, following her arrest last year after she was alleged to have burglarized her stepmother’s home." We're not gonna top this kicker from Griffith's story:
Republicans have said she’s brought dishonor to the institution and should be immediately expelled, even before a criminal trial.
During debate about a motion to expel Mitchell, Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls, said doing so would restore integrity to the Senate.
“We don’t need the results of a criminal trial to know Sen. Mitchell’s conduct fails to meet the standards of ethical behavior that we expect from senators,” Rasmusson said in January.
That argument presumably now applies to Eichorn, as well.
The Reformer's Christopher Ingraham has a good thread on Eichorn's other endeavors, including co-authoring a 2022 bill increasing child pornography penalties, and, that same year, loudly criticizing a bill to teach children about gender identity in schools. Every time with these guys!
Could the Grand Rounds Get its Missing Link?
The Grand Rounds Scenic Byway rocks. The 51-mile stretch of trail circles most of Minneapolis, taking cyclists and pedestrians from Theodore Wirth Park to the Chain of Lakes to Minnehaha Falls and just about everywhere in between. Explore Minnesota calls it one of the most ambitious park systems in the country, and it's a joy to ride—I once wrote a guide to seeing the city by bike for Meet Minneapolis, and relied on the Grand Rounds so heavily I told readers to save the map.
But ambitious (and fun!) as it may be, the scenic byway is also incomplete: A so-called "missing link" between the Mississippi River and northeast Minneapolis has vexed the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board for decades. Now, that section is the subject of renewed focus, reports Elliot Hughes for the Star Tribune. The plan, which could take 20 years to implement, would add trails and green space to link the Grand Rounds between the Mississippi River and Sunset Cemetery on St. Anthony Boulevard, with new segments in the Prospect Park, Como, Mid-City Industrial, and Saint Anthony areas.
The MPRB estimates the full project will run about $30 million, and it's currently funded with $6 million that'll cover "near-term design, land acquisition, and construction." They'll have more info for the public this summer.
Cohort of Kiddos Capture Criminal
Here's a fun piece of history from Nick Woltman at the Pioneer Press: Did you know one of the FBI's original 10 Most Wanted Fugitives was caught in St. Paul? Did you know a gang of kids tracked him down?
In March of 1950, Woltman reports, St. Paul police got an "unusual" call from two Dayton’s Bluff boys who said they thought one of the guys on the FBI's list had been living in a cave below Indian Mounds Regional Park. James Lewis, who was just 14 at the time, and his 13-year-old buddy James Radeck, said they recognized a photo in the St. Paul Dispatch of convicted killer William Raymond Nesbit, who'd escaped a South Dakota prison in 1946 and been on the run for years. Kids... they really do say the darndest things.
Lewis and Radeck knew him only as "Ray," but apparently they and their friends often visited the cave-dwelling hermit on their way home from school. (How's that for free-range parenting?) “We were suspicious of him right from the start,” one of the boys later told the Pioneer Press. Officers went to the cave and arrested Nesbit; the boys got $100 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to tour FBI headquarters and meet the Bureau’s director, J. Edgar Hoover, courtesy of the Pioneer Press and Dispatch.
Music! Theater! Etc.!
We're fans of the TPT local live music series Stage, which'll return next month with a series of intimate shows recorded at 7th St Entry. Here's the Season 4 lineup, which dropped today, courtesy of TPT:
- April 7 – Kiss the Tiger with Diane (read the Racket profile here)
- April 14 – Your Smith with Raffaella
- April 21 – Cory Wong with Misty Boyce
- April 28 – Laamar with Lucia Sarmiento (read the Racket profile here)
- May 5 – Gully Boys with SoulFlower (read the Racket profile here)
- May 12 – The Suburbs with Matt Wilson
Lotta names that should be familiar to devoted readers of Racket's music coverage in there! You can catch new episodes on TPT 2 and streaming on the PBS App; they also air on The Current’s Local Show on Sunday nights.
And while we're at it, let's run down some of the other arts announcements from the past week, shall we?
- The Minnesota Opera just announced its 2025-'26 season, which kicks off November 1-9 with the comedy Così Fan Tutte and asks the question, "Who are we, really?"
- The Minnesota Orchestra's just-announced 2025-'26 season will include famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma, multi-Grammy Award-winning singer Joyce DiDonato, and Dessa. The New York Times had a great profile of MN Orchestra music director Thomas Søndergård in January—here's a gift link.
- The Guthrie Theater's upcoming season includes Macbeth, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Ibsen's A Doll’s House, and of course, A Christmas Carol returns from November 8-December 28. "The Guthrie was founded on the belief that theater is essential to building connections with one another and the world, and our 2025–2026 Season of enduring classics and electrifying new work is a beautiful reflection of that mission," Artistic Director Joseph Haj says in a statement.
- Tickets went on sale today for the Minnesota Zoo's 2025 "Wild Nights" series, an 18+ event that this year will bring artists including Nur-D (June 13), Cloud Cult (August 8), and Bad Bad Hats and Cactus Blossoms (July 11) to the zoo.
