Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Pete Hegseth's Wild Minneapolis Weekend
By any objective standard, Pete Hegseth is not a guy who should be U.S. Secretary of Defense. Even setting politics aside, there are corroborated allegations that Hegseth has a severe drinking problem and no less severe anger issues, and he lacks any real leadership experience. There is almost certainly some equally awful person, but one with better credentials and a less messy personal life, who would be just as willing to do all the horrific things that Trump wants Hegseth to do.
NBC News added to the public file of disqualifying evidence today after accessing an affidavit from a former sister-in-law of Hegseth’s. Danielle Hegseth, who was once married to the brother of the deeply, deeply unqualified cabinet nominee, said that Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Deering, had told her she was frightened of her husband. Apparently Deering even shared a code word she would text if she thought she needed to be protected from him.
But this is all national news, well-covered already. Let’s get the tawdry local angle! Danielle told of Hegseth being “drunk, in his military uniform, getting lap dances” at a Minneapolis strip club. In 2009, while in the city during a National Guard drill, “he drunkenly left a bar and was found at a nearby gentlemen’s club that he ultimately had to be dragged out of," per Danielle.
Our big question here is: Which strip club? [Update: It appears the WSJ reported on the affidavit, and the answer is—drumroll please—the Seville!]
Let’s close with a reminder to the ladies who were working that night. The hands Hegseth used to stuff bills in your g-string? We're very sorry to report: They almost certainly had traces of Hegseth’s piss and shit on them.
The Pastor Who Stood Up to Trump? She’s From Here.
Speaking of Trump (sorry, it’s going to be hard not to talk about the guy for the next four years—he is the president, you know), he was met with an unexpected bout of actual Christianity yesterday at the National Cathedral, as Bishop Marianne Edgar Budde asked the incoming prez during her sermon to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” including immigrants and trans people.
The president responded to this plea in his typical good-natured, easygoing style on Truth Social, calling Budde a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” who ”brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way” and was also “boring.”
Again, national news. So why are we covering it? Well, before heading to Washington, D.C., Budde was rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Minneapolis for 18 years. And after her sermon, Minnesotans rose to support her. On Facebook, former Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak posted, “Almost no one had a deeper impact on my moral compass than Marianne Budde, who was our minister at St. John’s in Minneapolis during the time I was Mayor.”
Budde told Time today she will not apologize, and noted that she has been getting death threats. Needless to say, her sentiments should not be surprising. Before certain American evangelicals transformed it into a sort of get-rich-quick scheme, after all, Christianity was a religion for what our current president would call “the losers.”
Will Minnesota Address Housing Costs This Year?
Someday Minnesota will again have a functioning House of Representatives, instead of whatever schismatic Avignon nonsense the GOP is up to right now. And when that time comes, among both parties’ priorities will be reducing housing costs. But while last session saw some unsuccessful big reforms, we’re more likely to see “a more targeted, incremental approach” in 2025, Madison McVan writes in the Minnesota Reformer today.
There is bipartisan talk of a “Starter Homes Act” that would allow for the building of townhouses or multiple homes on a single lot—but only in new developments. This would avoid disturbing homeowners in existing developments, who often get pissy about these sorts of zoning changes. Also likely to come up again with support from both parties? Homeowner association reform, as homeowners revolt against unexpected fees and other institutional abuses. In addition, the GOP is looking to overhaul the building code, though DFL legislators are far less enthusiastic about that.
Refugees Already Barred From MN
Yesterday, we asked how the first barrage of Trump executive orders would impact Minnesota, and today we’re seeing some initial effects on the state’s refugee population. Jane Graupman, executive director of the International Institute of Minnesota, a resettlement agency, told MPR that as a result of the policy changes, a 26-year-old woman who was too ill to travel with her family when they moved from Afghanistan to Minnesota will now be unable to join them, and also two children from Burma whose parents had died will not be permitted to join their relatives. MPR also spoke with Nasreen Sajady, executive director of the Afghan Cultural Society, who noted that the Afghan refugees being turned away were supporters of the U.S. during its occupation of Afghanistan. They now face threats from the Taliban. “Many people are fearful of their lives,” according to Sajady.
