Wanna Buy the Cursed Rudolphs Bar-B-Que Building?

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

Your Chance to Lift a Saucy Curse

Let's get into a little cursed Minneapolis real estate history.

From 1975 to 2018, 1925 Lyndale Ave. S. wasn't cursed at all—it was blessed with Rudolphs Bar-B-Que! (Fun aside: Replacements biographer Bob Mehr once told me that Prince’s posse would enjoy massive feasts at Rudolphs, and that the Purple One would leave his sauce-covered lace glove as a bonus tip.) But the saga of the subsequent tenant, Cheers, changed all that.

Before the LGBTQ bar opened (it never actually did), owner Emad Abed staged a $2 million crowd-funding effort under the guise of buying the building, thus keeping Cheers queer-friendly in perpetuity. Members of gay community sensed bullshit, and it was soon revealed that the hetero Abed had a history of anti-Semitic Facebook rantings. (“Hitler should have finished them all,” he wrote in one unambiguous post.) Cheers promptly sued the building owner in civil court, claiming the structure needed six figures in repairs, before fizzling away.

Last year it appeared like a new owner had plans for the ol' Rudolphs building, but it lingered in ghostly fashion at the corner of Lyndale & Franklin, attracting fresh coats of graffiti but no fresh signs of life. Fast-forward to earlier this month, and 1925 Lyndale reemerged on the market for $489,999. (Team Steady Real Estate purchased the 5,865-square-foot property in early '24, Finance & Commerce reported at the time.)

"A rare opportunity to redevelop [an] iconic, high-visibility space in the heart of South Minneapolis," the Coldwell Banker listing exclaims. "Formerly home to the iconic Rudolph’s restaurant, this well-built property is ideal for a bar or restaurant but also flexible for medical, dental, or retail use."

Did Law Enforcement Bungle Boelter Manhunt?

The June shootings of state lawmakers Melissa Hortman, John Hoffman, and their spouses set off the largest manhunt in Minnesota history, and the press conferences that followed the arrest of alleged shooter Vance Boelter were staged as victory laps for law enforcement. But a tremendous new Strib report paints a portrait of intra-agency blunders, "raising questions about whether the suspect, Vance Boelter, could have been caught earlier."

Courtesy of Strib reporters Jeff Day and Ryan Faircloth, we learn that Brooklyn Park cops waited more than hour before entering the home where prosecutors say Rep. Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed by Boelter. Instead of rushing in after hearing gunfire, officers waited to deploy a drone that, eventually, captured footage of Hortman's lifeless body, the Strib reports. Brooklyn Park PD hit back at the Strib's "inaccuracies," though Faircloth defended his reporting via Twitter.

Here's another particularly baffling anecdote:

Inside law enforcement circles, Boelter’s interaction with the New Hope officer after the shooting of the Hoffmans was instantly critiqued.

A video shared with the Star Tribune that was allegedly passed among officers within days of the shootings includes a clip from the film “The Town” that shows a group of bank robbers dressed as nuns and wearing silicone masks when they pull up beside a Boston police officer. The men are holding guns and the officer stares at them for several seconds before letting them leave.

In the modified clip, the logo for the New Hope Police Department is superimposed on the cop car.

Worth noting: The mayor of New Hope, John Elder, led the Minneapolis Police Department PR team that issued the infamous press release about George Floyd's "medical incident."

Derecho Watch: 100 MPH Winds Headed for MN?

If you're anything like me, a weather idiot, you googled "derecho definition" earlier today. According to the National Weather Service...

A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to the strength of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath.

Why are we talking about this? Because weather forecasters say a damn derecho might be blowing in from South Dakota! Using its 1-5 severe weather scale, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center currently has southern and central Minnesota under on level 4 alert, while most of the Twin Cities is at level 3.

"The sheer size and duration of these events pose a significant risk to people and property," writes Mandy Thalhuber of MPR News. "Unlike tornadoes, which are more localized, derechos can impact entire regions and span multiple states."

Derechos can bring hurricane-force winds, heavy rainfall, and "embedded tornados"—great! Just last month a derecho pummeled Bemidji, knocking down an estimated nine million trees and causing almost $10 million of damage to public infrastructure.

Bring Me the News is live blogging our local derecho developments.

Tarantula-Tossing U.S. Senate Candidate Sues County for $28M

Marisa Simonetti makes herself difficult to forget.

While working as a sex worker and simultaneously running for District 6 Hennepin County commissioner, Simonetti was arrested on assault charges last year after throwing a tarantula at an alleged squatter. That case is still pending, but Simonetti wasted no time after losing her commissioner race to announce that she's running as an independent to fill departing Sen. Tina Smith's seat. (You can browse her campaign website here—notice that her education platform features identical text to her energy one.)

And, today, Simonetti released a press release saying she has sued Hennepin County "for tortious interference with political relationships and violation of her constitutional rights, alleging coordinated acts by public officials aimed at disrupting her 2024 and now 2026 campaign, damaging donor trust, silencing her voice, and obstructing her ability to serve the people of Minnesota." She says she's seeking $28 million in damages. Those millions would reportedly go to her Great Give Back Campaign... which was apparently inspired by a recent viral TikTok... which seems to suggest she also works in a food truck selling OG ZAZA pizza?