U.S. Senate Hopeful Peggy Flanagan to Nation: ‘I Want to Avenge Minnesota.’

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Peggy Flanagan looks tough as hell on the June cover of The Nation, where a photo of Minnesota's lieutenant governor at a January vigil for Renee Good is paired with the quote "I want to avenge Minnesota."

Over dinner at Hai Hai in northeast Minneapolis (nice choice), the country's highest-ranking Native woman in an executive office tells national affairs correspondent Joan Walsh about her political past and her current run for U.S. Senate, as she attempts to fill the shoes of the retiring Tina Smith.

Walsh visited Minneapolis in late February, when ICE's drawdown was still fresh; "The beleaguered city felt like a sacred site of profound grief and trauma," she writes. She asks Flanagan if the agency's departure felt like a victory, to which she responds, “Did we win? I think we demonstrated that we’re not powerless. And I think that that’s really important right now."

Their conversation also covers Flanagan's early days in politics (she got started young and is only 46 now); her centrist opponent, Angie Craig; and the progressive wins the DFL has been able to notch with her support. If you're looking for a good overview of Flanagan's political bona fides and beliefs, this is it.

And there's a national nod for another Native Minnesotan as well: Ashley Fairbanks, founder of Stand With Minnesota, is one of this year's TIME 100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy. "In a matter of months, Stand With Minnesota has become a beacon for generosity, collective action, and caregiving as an act of resistance," the magazine's Lucy Handley writes.

Flights, groceries, rental assistance—the website Fairbanks created on a whim during the dangerous days of Operation Metro Surge has helped raised millions to aid immigrant Minnesotans with a wide range of needs. “The most important thing people can do is actually meet the people who are around them in community, and invest in them,” she tells Time. Hell yeah.

How Does the NYT Cover MN?

While we're on the subject of national publications reporting on Minnesota, journalist Ted Alcorn had an interesting question: Which topics in each state does the New York Times cover disproportionately?

Alcorn used data from the NYT API and published all of his findings from each state in this Twitter thread. In Alabama, the Times disproportionately covers incinerators and embryos; in Nevada, it disproportionately writes about Burning Man Festival and nuclear waste. (Two sides of the same coin, ha ha ha.)

And in its coverage of Minnesota, the Times writes more about Somali Americans (572 times as common as in the rest of its U.S. coverage); looting (117 times as common); police reform (102 times as common); police brutality, misconduct, and shootings (48 times as common); and Muslim Americans (31 times as common). "Four of the top five flow from police violence and subsequent unrest in the Twin Cities in 2020," Alcorn notes.

Well, Shit: Bauhaus Brew Labs to Close

After more than a decade in northeast Minneapolis, Bauhaus Brew Labs will close this June.

The brewery announced the impending closure on social media Thursday afternoon, thanking loyal fans and followers and citing untenable economics and unpredictable events both global and local for the closure.

Here's a little more from the closing announcement:

Unfortunately, we have faced a number of serious challenges over the past few years, including substantial cost increases in our supply chain, shifts in consumer preferences away from craft beer, a global pandemic, and most recently, a surge in federal immigration enforcement that directly targeted our wonderful city and deeply affected businesses across the hospitality industry. We have been working furiously to identify ways to shift our business model, reduce costs, increase revenues, and find a pathway to operational stability. Despite pulling every lever available to us, the financial headwinds have proven to be insurmountable, and we have made the very difficult and heartbreaking decision to close our doors.

We want you to know that we did not arrive at this decision without an exhaustive fight. We diversified into new product categories, including Bolo Hard Seltzer, Nah N/A Beer, and Tetra THC beverages, and brought on co-packing partners to keep our production humming. We reimagined our taproom with more programming than at any point in our history. Ownership and staff worked tirelessly to put solutions into action. We leave knowing we gave everything we had.

I am gonna miss Bauhaus beer, and I know a lot of folks who will be bummed as hell about the loss of its NA brew, Nah.

Minnesota has lost quite a few breweries over the last year and a half: LynLake and Wild Mind Artisan Ales (Minneapolis), Burning Brothers (St. Paul, though it's currently being replaced by another gluten-free brewery), Mankato Brewing (Mankato), Chaotic Good Brewing Co. (Kasson), Hoops (Duluth), Alloy (Coon Rapids), Invictus (Blaine), Schram Haus (Chaska), and Fair State Brewing Cooperative (Minneapolis), which closed its Northeast taproom but is still brewing.

Keith Ellison on Shorelunch

The preeminent local fishing and cooking show, Shorelunch With Nate P., has welcomed some pretty cool guests to the program over the years: chefs like Yia Vang, scientists like Kelcee Smith, musicians like Sebastian Murphy of the Viagra Boys.

On the latest installment of his YouTube series, host/local legend Nate Pischke returns to Minnehaha Creek, the site of the series' first episode. And this time around, he's joined by perhaps his highest-profile guest yet...

That's right, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison joins the show on a sleety April day to eat chicken stew and talk turkey—more specifically, to talk about Minnesota hardiness, taking Trump to court, and prosecuting fraud. The video is full of delightful little exchanges like this one:

"I told you, I'm nervous," Pischke says.

"Don't be at all, man," Ellison reassures him. "I'm like, the most normal guy you've ever met."

"Well, you do seem normal," Pischke responds, finally at ease.

We asked Pischke to reflect on the experience, and here's what he had to say...

I can’t even believe a small-time, low-rent YouTube fishing show like ours was approached by Keith Ellison to join us for an afternoon on the water. Keith is a wonderful human being full of hope, a delight to chat with, and just 100% awesome. Also, the guy cares about the people of Minnesota, and he makes it very very clear that that's his main thing: the people of Minnesota.

Does the AG catch any fish? You'll have to watch to find out.