University of Minnesota Raising Funds for Alex Pretti Nursing Scholarship

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

"He Wasn’t Just My Mentor, But a Friend": New Alex Pretti Nursing Scholarship Surges Toward $50K Crowdfunding Goal

Anyone with a heart mourned Alex Pretti after watching federal agents beat, shoot, and kill him on the streets of Minneapolis earlier this year. But the killing especially impacted the nursing community; Pretti, 37, worked as an ICU nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center.

Earlier this week the University of Minnesota Nursing School honored Pretti, a 2011 graduate, with the unveiling of the Alex Pretti Nursing Scholarship. School officials worked with Pretti's family on the endowed scholarship, which will be awarded to a student in financial need; a preference will be placed on applicants who hope to help vets. So far, the crowdfunded scholarship has amassed $34,400 of the $50,000 goal. You can donate here.

“I was Alex’s nursing student for six months last year in the ICU at the VA. He wasn’t just my mentor, but a friend who cared deeply about the veterans he served and the community around him,” 2025 U of M nursing grad Ben Matson says. “He taught me what it means to care for our neighbors when they were at the most vulnerable point of their lives.”

Souhan Pens Masterfully Stupid Twins Take

When you've written sports columns for decades, it's important to take creative swings. Liven things up! Jim Souhan, the longtime Star Tribune take machine, did just that with his latest, a mock marriage-counseling session between "AngryTwinsFan" and Twins CEO Tom Pohlad. Fine, whatever, surely we'll arrive at something resembling a point.

Turns out we don't. Souhan proceeds to fart out 800 words that both-sides a situation that's black 'n' white to the fanbase: The Pohlad family's spiteful, penny-pinching, incompetent, and tone-deaf ownership of the Twins. Instead of filleting the billionaire nepo-baby dolts who continue to wreck the team, Souhan tsk-tsks fans for the "same old whining" and not buying tickets to watch abysmal baseball. The roleplay ends on a bizarre line about Tom Pohlad dating the Saints.

Souhan's misreading of the room has been fun to behold. Over on Twitter, the column got "ratio'd into oblivion." "There is zero onus on the fans to 'fix' this relationship," one fan points out, correctly. KFAN's Paul "Meatsauce" Lambert puts a finer point on it: "He’s kidding, right? This is an April fools joke!! The Pohlads are the worst owners in sports. Fix what relationship. They used the fans and then cut payroll." (In fairness to Souhan, his hackwork doesn't stoop to the lapdog depths of this recent Pohlad puff piece.)

Anyway, go Twins. Enjoy an hour of hardball talk with The Athletic's Aaron Gleeman on our most recent episode of RacketCast—it's not charitable to the Pohlads.

Outdoor Music Season Is Comin’ Soon

Yes, a mere glance outside today will cause your serotonin levels to plummet, but have no fear—soon the weather will be murderously hot and you’ll feel obligated to leave your house. Maybe you’d like to hear some music when you do so. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you?

Once again this summer, Lowertown Sounds returns to lovely Mears Park with regular free Thursday night events. The series kicks off June 4 with veteran funkateers Dr. Mambo’s Combo and wraps up on July 30 with bluegrassers Pert Near Sandstone, and will also feature soft-c cedillaics Poliça, apostrophe abusers Flamin’ Oh’s, and (is that a euphemism?) the Scarlet Goodbye, among the proverbial “many more.”

But what if you’d rather see a show on top of a hotel? You’re not gonna believe this, but we’ve got you covered here too. The Hewing Hotel in North Loop begins its annual Summer Concert Series on May 17 with tireless rocker Dan Israel. The series stretches all the way to October 4, when Davina & the Vagabonds wrap things up. Featured this summer are Martin Zellar, Dessa, Kiss the Tiger, Nur-D, Tina Schlieske, and Jeremy Messersmith. These shows are not free—they run from $20-$60—and they also tend to sell out.

Watch 10 Minutes of a Wrecking Ball Sending the Cursed St. Paul CVS to Hell

"This demo has: smashing, crashing, collapsing, crunching (ASMR), some old-school wrecking-ball action, even a police K-9 search for a missing gun," writes
Twin Cities On Scene, the YouTube account responsible for the deeply satisfying video below. "THE EXCAVATOR IS 50 TONS OF POETRY IN MOTION !!"

Have a smashing weekend.