Wanna Buy the Minnesota Golden Gophers Hearse for $3K?

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

Ski-U-Wha? Goldy-tastic Deathmobile Hits Market.

Earlier this week when I, Racket's Jay Boller, saw this Facebook Marketplace listing, I almost dropped my phone as I giddily texted two buddies from college a link with the caption: "Boys.................."

For about 30 minutes we toyed with the logistics and realities of collectively buying and owning a 1998 Cadillac DeVille hearse that has been pimped out to high heaven in University of Minnesota Golden Gopher regalia. The price ($3,000) and milage (94,653) made it feel obtainable, but cooler, hearse-less heads prevailed. And then the damn thing went viral-ish, with accounts like Twin City Vintage doing numbers by showing off the sick ride:

Once it became clear the tailgating machine, one whose coffin mechanism has been retrofitted with a beer-pong table, wouldn't be mine, my mind turned to Racket readers. I had to know more; one of you has to buy it.

"My husband worked at a dealership that serviced hearses and saw it and had to have it. I said no… lost that battle," Anoka-based seller Liz McFarland tells us via Facebook. "The color combo is original, so we added decals and we went tailgating. Sooo much fun. Selling it due to life and job changes. Can’t get to games like we use too. Sad to see it go."

When this reporter expressed his own great desire for the vehicle, and his own wife's reluctance, the sales pressure ramped up.

"This is Liz’s husband," the chat box flashed. "Just buy it you know what they say it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission."

Great advice—will you take it?

McFarland tells us offers are pouring in, and that few folks are stopping by this weekend to kick the tires.

MPD Surveillance at Renee Good’s Memorial

For a long time after Renee Good's January 7 killing by an ICE agent, you'd see Minneapolis police cars posted up near the intersection of 34th Street & Portland Avenue where she was shot. More than once, I, Racket's Em Cassel, mused to friends about what the point of that could be—Good had already been killed, so what were officers doing at the site?

Well... they were certainly doing something, according to this report from Molly Priesmeyer, which outlines the four-day MPD operation that followed Good's killing. But officers don't seem exactly sure what they were doing.

Here's how Priesmeyer introduces the piece:

MPD records reveal a coordinated system of drones, city cameras, command-post intelligence, body-worn and helmet cameras, person and vehicle checks, and evidence preservation around the memorial site as part of a four-day police operation that generated $1.92 million in overtime. At least 101 MPD personnel were assigned to the deployment at the memorial, where records show only seven people were holding vigil.

...It's the Dril candle tweet, but for Minneapolis Police Department overtime.

Priesmeyer's report, which was compiled with public records and is supported by MPD schematics and case files, notes that officers referred to a need for “securing the area” and “maintaining inner and outer perimeters,” while drones were for “threat assessment” and "evidence collection."

"Those purposes could overlap," Priesmeyer writes. "But the records do not offer one consistent account tying them together or explaining why clearing the intersection required the full combination of 101 MPD personnel, tactical units, equipment, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and evidence collection MPD deployed that morning."

And that's just some of it. You can read the whole story here.

MN Tourism Groups Learn Influencers Are Cheap Labor

Back in April, Instagrammer Sierra Nicole Reece posted a viral video asking for a brand deal that would take her to the Minnesota State Fair. A few months later, the Atlanta/New Jersey-based influencer was on her way to our get-together.

According to Tori Van Oot over at Axios Twin Cities, Explore Minnesota, the state’s tourism bureau, dropped $5,000 for her to come while Visit St. Paul ponied up $1,000 for lodging. In return, Reece was contracted to post at least four Instagram videos and daily Instagram stories showcasing the fair, Mall of America, and HmongTown Marketplace. 

Was it worth it? By ad metric standards, yes. Lauren Bennett McGinty at Explore Minnesota notes that Reece’s content, cross-posted on socials, scored great traffic. (This one alone racked up over 180K views.) And while $5,000 for five days of work might seem steep, that’s actually a steal when you consider what would have been spent at a traditional ad agency or marketing firm. 

"If we were to go to Atlanta, where she's from, and try to market there, it would be tens of thousands, if not $100,000-plus, to make any kind of impact," McGinty tells Van Oot.

Unionize the influencers? Work ain't easy down in the content mines. (Just kidding; it's beyond easy.)

It's Time to Start Monitoring the (Freshly Animated!) Fall Color Map

If your fall/autumn bible happens to be the DNR's indispensable Fall Color Map, you should know the percentages are just now beginning to rise. And, unless we've been asleep at the leaf-peeping wheel, this year's webpage seems to be souped-up with new technology: There's now an "Animate Map" button that forecasts future, date-specific peak color progressions around the state. Byrds-like, you can watch Minnesota turn, turn, and, crucially, turn. Cool! Fast-forward just a couple days from now and the Grand Forks–Bemidji–Warroad corridor hits 25–50% peak color—it's happening, people!