Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
UHG: Pure Evil or Just Really, Really Evil?
Two cool stories related to Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group dropped today.
First up, a just-released Federal Trade Commission report found that between 2017 and 2022, prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) at three companies—UnitedHealth’s OptumRx, Cigna’s Express Script, and CVS Caremark Rx—hoarded $7.3 billion in revenue above costs on generic drugs. “The Big 3 PBMs marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,” the report concludes. A spokesperson for UHG tells Fortune that, no, no, no, you got it all wrong—those PBMs actually save patients money.
In very much related news: UnitedHealth Group reported Q4 2024 revenue of $100.81 billion, which actually fell short of Wall Street expectations. Thursday marked UHG's first earnings call since the December killing of Brian Thompson, a Minnesota man who headed the company's insurance division. UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witt told investors today that “the health system needs to function better,” but he stopped short of suggesting the obvious solution: abolishing companies like his and adopting a single-payer government system. In 2022, annual per capita health-care costs in the U.S. hit $12,555, Peterson-KFF reports. That's over $4,000 more than any other rich nation studied.
New Database Launched to ID Problem Cops
Cops: They work for you! And beginning this week, public information about their past employment will be available to all thanks to the National Police Index. Conceived by a group of journalists and lawyers, this new interactive database is intended to shed light on officers with unsavory pasts.
“So-called ‘wandering officers’ have presented a significant danger to residents of every state, and an impediment to lasting police accountability,” Chaclyn Hunt, the legal director at journalism nonprofit Invisible Institute, tells Susan Du at the Star Tribune. Du cites the case of Sean Grayson, an Illinois sheriff’s deputy who was charged with murdering a woman last year. Had information about Grayson being discharged from the U.S. Army for wrongdoing, pleading guilty to multiple DUIs, and bouncing around to five different police departments been more available? Maybe he wouldn't have gotten the Illinois gig. Nationally, Minnesota is a leader in providing transparency around police employment histories, Du reports, though places like Florida go even further—you can look up why Florida cops got canned.
“As much as I believe that journalists should be empowered to access data freely, so should the public,” says Tony Webster, an independent journalist and onetime local. “And that is all the more important when news organizations are shutting down and journalists are getting laid off.”
Graze Food Hall Adds 3 New Restaurants
Me? I'll never fully forgive Graze Provisions + Libations for being called Graze Provisions + Libations, an Obama-era eyeroll of a name that summons this classic Onion article. But! Graze has been historically pretty damn good, so buzzkill pedants such as myself can (respectfully) take a hike.
Last November the team at Travail took over the North Loop food hall (those guys are taking over everything!), and today three new tenants were announced: Umami By Travail, Tixtli By Nixta, and Caja Fried Chicken. Umami is a long-running Travail pop-up concept that specializes in Asian street foods, and it'll get an assist from Racket-loved Saturday Dumpling Club. Tixtli is an offshoot of Nixta, chef Gustavo Romero's award-stacking taco/masa empire in northeast Minneapolis. And the folks behind Alma and Brasa cooked up the concept for Caja Fried Chicken, which'll specialize in New Orleans-inspired battered bird.
Umami will be up 'n' running this coming Monday, while the other two new shops are set to open next month. BBQ joint Fabled Rooster and burger spot Two Mixed Up will remain in the Graze lineup, according to a press release, along with Wrecktangle's Wrap, which has already transitioned to Wrap and Wrad—they started serving tavern-style pies around the time Travail's takeover was announced.
RIP Bob Uecker, David Lynch
A dark pall has been cast over today, which happens to be the birthday of Racket's Keith Harris: the deaths of Bob "Mr. Baseball" Uecker, the legendary Milwaukee Brewers announcer, and David Lynch, the visionary film and TV director. RIP, kings.
Ginning up tenuous local angles is my sad little job, and I'm sorry to say I couldn't find anything connecting Uecker to Minnesota other than... Wisconsin being right next door. At any rate, the golden-voiced baseball player-turned-sportscaster was an Americana fixture since the 1960s, whether as a bench-riding MLBer, witty play-by-play ace, or charismatic product pitchman. Uecker died Thursday at his home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. He was 90.
Let's hear from Norm...
Elsewhere in the obit-verse: We're also mourning the loss of David Lynch, whose boundary-pushing work in TV (Twin Peaks), movies (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet), and regular L.A. weather reports challenged and enthralled audiences since the 1970s. Last year Lynch revealed that he was battling emphysema, and his family announced his death earlier today. He was 78.
In terms of locally angled tidbits (I'm so, so sorry for that transition...), you won't do much better than this straw-grasping 2011 MinnPost piece that details the Minneapolis past of Twin Peaks co-creator Mark Frost. Instead, we encourage you smash play on this bewildering example of Lynch covering Bob Dylan's 1964 song "Ballad of Hollis Brown" for his own experimental blues album, 2013's The Big Dream.
Oh, yeah! P.S.: Be sure to read Kyle Maclachlan's heartfelt remembrance of his dear friend and frequent collaborator.
