Why Are We Suddenly Talking About ‘Somali Gangs’ All the Time?

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

What We Talk About When We Talk About “Somali Gangs” 

By Design, veteran Minneapolis journalist Molly Priesmeyer’s newish blog/newsletter/website (what are we even calling things on the internet these days?), is fast becoming a must-read. Most recently, Priesmeyer has detailed, in her words, "How Star Tribune reporting gave Republican rhetoric and police allegations the authority of news."

In July 2025, she writes, the Strib criticized inflammatory anti-Somali rhetoric coming from U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN). Yet soon the newspaper was employing his framework to discuss youth crime in the Twin Cities, particularly after the October 2 shooting at Eden Prairie High School's homecoming football game. Moreover, Priesmeyer says, the Strib was accepting police statements attributing to “gangs” without independent investigation of the facts. 

And maybe you don’t know this about cops, but they tend to, let’s say, fib on occasion. Priesmeyer dives into Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher’s supposed list of “more than 100 criminal cases” that were “believed to be connected to these gangs” and finds many of the connections tenuous and unproven if not outright laughable. For instance, a 2-year-old wounded by gunfire is said to have been en route to meet with gang connections.  

That’s just a taste of how coverage of youth violence is being steered, in advance of a significant election, not coincidentally. The whole post is worth your time.

GOP Candidate’s Website: “The President Is Not Popular”

You never know what you’re gonna find on a political candidate’s website. On Tuesday, a sharp-eyed Reddit poster noted some unusual language the site for Eric Pratt, the GOP candidate running to replace Angie Craig in Congress. 

Posters speculated that the Trump reference was an AI prompt, though Pratt’s campaign told Bring Me the News it was “an internal staff note” that had somehow inadvertently made it to the site. The language about Trump has since been scrubbed from Pratt’s website; local policies and needs, consider yourself focused upon.

This isn’t the first time Pratt’s campaign has found itself in the news for embarrassing reasons. Last month, senior staffer Matt Brown resigned after screenshots of social media posts circulated in which he declared himself a “White Christian Nationalist.” 

In a bit interesting timing, you can read more about the race between Pratt and his DFL opponent Matt Little in this Minnesota Reformer story from Tuesday.

Unpopular President Gives Nick Shirley $10K of Your Money

In a new attempt to crowdsource unsubstantiated racist accusations, on Tuesday flailing crime kingpin Donald Trump announced the (probably unconstitutional) creation of a $25 million slush fund to be disbursed at the executive’s whim to “anti-fraud” whistleblowers. 

The first recipient of this totally above-board cash handout is Nick Shirley, the (questionably literate) right-wing operative who went viral in late 2025 for a video of him harassing Minneapolis daycare operators. Trump bestowed $10,000 upon Shirley, which is both $10,000 too much and a hilariously piddling handout, proof that these guys really are in it for the love of the grift. 

“Nick's work to stop taxpayers from being ripped off is a direct threat to the radical left's effort to turn America into a third world country ruled by people who hate America,” Trump said, playing nothing but the hits for his fans. 

We should reiterate that Shirley’s video revealed nothing except that daycare operators are justifiably loath to produce children upon demand when some wacko with a camera shows up at their door. Local news outlets had already reported on daycare fraud; state authorities had already prosecuted it. But the stunt did encourage harassment of Somali-owned businesses and taught the stupidest people on the internet to reply “learing center” to every Facebook story about Minnesota.  

While we’re on the subject of Shirley, let’s reminisce for a moment about how Lisa Demuth, the GOP gubernatorial candidate currently cosplaying as a moderate, praised his antics last December and boasted that the Minnesota Republican caucus had in fact colluded with him.

Peggy Flana Kappa

Sure has been a rollercoaster of a day for people who care for some bizarre reason whether Minnesota's DFL-endorsed U.S. Senate candidate belongs to Phi Beta Kappa or not. The Wall Street Journal got the ball rolling this morning with a supposed bombshell: Peggy Flanagan, who’d claimed to be a member of the prestigious academic honors society, had… NOT. 

As political hit pieces go, I guess that’s a tiny step up from trying to hold the alleged actions of Flanagan’s long dead grandfather against her. Or it would have been a step up, had it been true. By lunchtime the Phi Beta Kappa Society had cleared things up: Peggy Flanagan is a member.

Annoyingly, the Star Tribune ran a “the Wall Street Journal is reporting” type story earlier today (gift link) without investigating the easily debunked claim. The Strib has since updated its story, as has, with extreme petulance, the Wall Street Journal.