Minneapolis - St. Paul Metro

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SexWorld Headed to Sex Shop Heaven

It's the end of a horny era for the North Loop (née Warehouse District). SexWorld, the landmark Minneapolis sex shop that opened there in 1993, will close for good this Sunday, employee Jay Limbacher confirmed to Racket earlier today.

"In recent months, it has been observed that SexWorld has been struggling to maintain stock and keep customers coming back," Limbacher wrote Monday night on Facebook. "So for those who have been regulars at the shop for late night cigarettes or sex-focused fun, it has been clear the end was coming sooner rather than later."

Racket contributor Patrick Strait authored this 2016 history of SexWorld for Thrillist, in which he documents: its founding by Dennis Buchanan and Robert Bonynge, the Dollhouse peepshows, the giant/saddled golden dong that once greeted visitors, the $5.9 million building sale that forced it to downsize nine years ago, and the generations of giddy smuttiness that defined its run. (SexWorld's home at 241 Second Ave. N. was sold yet again three years ago for $14.9 million.)

Now, as North Loop's yupster gentrification nears completion, only Runyon's, Deja Vu, Cuzzy's, the Monte Carlo, Bunker's, and Acme remain. Or, as one Racket tipster eulogized via email: "RIP, no more 3 a.m. dildos for the masses." Amen.

   A shelter-in-place order is in effect in Brooklyn Park after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot by someone impersonating a police officer.
  Sources say Sen. John Hoffman and Rep. Melissa Hortman were shot.
  The shelter-in-place order is near Edinburgh Golf Course, and the at-large suspect is considered armed and dangerous.

Something happened at Lake and Bloomington, gossip was ICE but officials are claiming the feds were there on a warrant for drugs and money laundering.

BLOOMINGTON, MN — A child with a confirmed case of measles was infectious while visiting the indoor theme park at the Mall of America on May 24, according to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

Anyone who was at the MOA between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. that day may have been exposed, health officials said Monday. Symptoms of measles could appear between May 31 and June 14. Unvaccinated individuals, or those who have never had measles, are most at risk and should monitor for signs of infection.

The child, who is from Dakota County and is unvaccinated, has not traveled outside Minnesota recently and had no known exposure to measles, MDH said. Officials called the case concerning because the source of the infection is unknown.

Target's Pride Line Is, Uh, a Little Subdued

As someone who’s never quite understood why Minnesotans love Target so much, watching The House That Bullseye Built step on one public relations rake after another has filled me with a warm sense of schtargetfreude. After hastily dismantling its DEI initiatives to appease the Trump admin, a backlash from customers helped cause the Minneapolis-based company’s Q1 sales to drop 2.8% compared to the same time last year. I’m not a business reporter, can someone tell me if that’s bad?

The latest fumble from the retail behemoth next door? Its 2025 Pride line, which is overwhelmingly… beige? Almost as though Target, which was lambasted for pulling its Pride merch from some stores in response to a homophobic 2023 boycott campaign, didn’t want anyone to notice the new line. Maybe they could even find a special section of the store to house these items. A closet, perhaps?

Target said “this year for Pride we’ve abandoned all structural initiatives within the company that may have benefitted any queer people BUT we will help you avoid being hate crimed by blending in with this uninspiring beige ass bullshit” pic.twitter.com/a7EVpoQvOp

— Lydia Kauppi (@lydiakauppi) May 28, 2025

Go Mag has a roundup of online responses to this year’s Pride merch, and says “the designs feel like they were created by someone who Googled ‘gay’ and then immediately got nervous.” What’s more, the tags on many Pride include “lorem ipsum” placeholder text.

School Segregation? Here in Minnesota?

Kyle Stokes of Axios has a story on how open enrollment is shaping school districts in the metro area that gives readers a whole lot to chew on. (There are also cool maps, which—pro tip—will always give you a good shot at getting into The Flyover.)

Where do open enrolled kids wind up? Well, almost half of the students in Brooklyn Center schools live in other districts, while 40% of the students at Minnetonka Public Schools live outside that district, and six other suburban districts import a third of their students. In total, 13 of 47 metro districts enroll at least 20% of their student population through open enrollment.

"WHY THIS MATTERS," Stokes screams via Axios style on Twitter. "State dollars follow students who open enrolls So each incoming student brings additional state funding to a district, and each student lost comes at a cost."

On its face that seems, well, not ideal. Now toss in the fact that a third of the white students in open enrollment head to less integrated districts. The story quotes perpetually quoted U of M law professor Myron Orfield as saying that Minnesota’s longstanding open enrollment law only began to really trigger movement between districts in the 2000s, after the state weakened integration rules.

U of M Food Service Workers: “The Labor Relations System Here Is Broken”

If you’re an employer and there’s a story about you in Workday Magazine, you know you’ve done fucked up. So University of Minnesota alums shouldn’t be too excited to see their alma mater named in the latest from Workday’s Amie Stager about the U’s food service workers represented by Teamsters Local 320. In 2022, the school contracted out its food service to the private company Chartwells, and things have not gone well for workers since.

“According to Local 320 business agent Jackson Kerr, there has been an ‘explosive’ increase in harassment, discipline, suspensions, and terminations of dining workers since Chartwells took over,” Stager writes. Kerr accuses the company of “disciplining workers out the door,” a backdoor union-busting tactic, and failing to address grievances.

Truck Amok!

We’re not big on car crash news at The Flyover—highway mayhem tends to get enough coverage elsewhere. But sometimes an accident is so spectacular we’ve just got to go along with the crowd. Like when, for instance, an 18-wheeler somehow skids into the wall separating east- and westbound Minneapolis traffic in the Lowry Tunnel. And also when that truck is carrying ammunition. (Isn’t ammo among the “hazardous materials” vehicles prohibited from transporting through the tunnel? That’s a question for another day, I suppose.)

OK, let’s gawk:

Somehow, no other vehicles were involved in the crash and the driver is being treated for non-fatal injuries. That’s all great news, almost miraculous. In fact, if this was a Final Destination movie, Death would soon be coming to claim all the drivers who passed safely through that tunnel after the crash in an elaborately macabre fashion.

As a U.S. Army veteran who served five combat deployments, I’ve seen firsthand the physical and psychological scars that many of my fellow service members carry with them after returning home.

I’ve walked alongside soldiers battling PTSD, chronic pain, anxiety and the long-term effects of traumatic brain injuries. These are not just war wounds — they are life-altering burdens that often go unseen and untreated.

In the years since I returned home, I’ve come to see that the path to healing doesn’t always come easily. And for many veterans, traditional treatments aren’t effective, leading us to turn to alternative treatments like cannabis.

I say this not as an outsider or a casual observer, but as a patient, an advocate and a former member of the Minnesota Cannabis Advisory Council. I’ve had countless conversations with fellow veterans and civilians alike who have found relief through cannabis when traditional medicine failed them. I’ve seen its power, not as a miracle drug, but as a legitimate and effective treatment for various conditions.

That’s why I strongly support the push to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. The work that started during the Biden administration on this issue appears to have stalled out, and it needs a jumpstart.

Rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III would be more than a symbolic gesture. It would represent a tangible, meaningful shift in how we treat cannabis and those who rely on it. It would open the door to comprehensive clinical research that has long been stifled under federal restrictions. Researchers and medical professionals would finally be able to conduct studies with the rigor and scope this issue demands, helping us better understand the full spectrum of cannabis’s therapeutic potential.

And let’s be clear: Support for this change is not partisan. In fact, President Donald Trump has expressed support for rescheduling cannabis, recognizing the benefits of modernizing our drug laws. When leaders from across the political spectrum — conservatives, libertarians, progressives and independents — are aligned on an issue, it tells us something: This isn’t a radical idea. It’s a reasonable one.

Despite this growing body of evidence, our federal government still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I drug, putting it on par with heroin and declaring it to have “no accepted medical use” and a “high potential for abuse.”

Veterans, perhaps more than any other group, understand the consequences of bureaucratic inertia. We’ve watched the Veterans Affairs system struggle to keep up with the growing mental health crisis in our community. We’ve watched our brothers- and sisters-in-arms cycle through prescriptions, such as opioids, antidepressants and sleeping pills, many of which come with debilitating side effects and limited long-term effectiveness.

Cannabis has been a lifeline for many of us. And the irony is, in states where medical cannabis is legal, veterans often still face stigma from health care providers and risks to their federal benefits if they choose to use it. Why? Because cannabis remains stigmatized by outdated federal laws that ignore decades of research and real-world experience.

Reclassifying cannabis would legitimize it in the eyes of our health care system. It would allow providers, especially those within the VA, to have honest conversations with patients about medical cannabis as an option. It would remove the concern that many veterans face when they bring up cannabis with their doctors, fearing judgment or repercussions.

We can’t talk about supporting veterans and then ignore a reform such as this one that could improve our lives. We can’t claim to respect our service members while denying us access to a medicine that helps us live with dignity and purpose. We served our country with honor. We did our duty. Now we are simply asking our government to do theirs.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22488392

Every bit is worth something, even if no one person or group can do enough.

Minnesota lawmakers have voted to strip funding from the Northern Lights Express – the long-debated, proposed a passenger rail service designed to connect the Twin Cities and Duluth.

Both the House and Senate have approved a measure to redirect $77 million of approved state funding for the project.

Under the plan, which now heads to Gov. Tim Walz for his signature, those funds will instead cover unemployment insurance costs for seasonal school workers – a measure passed by the DFL in 2023 that Democrats wanted to retain during budget negotiations with Republicans.

House Republican Transportation Chair Rep. Jon Koznick (R–Lakeville), a longtime opponent of passenger rail projects, said the move means the Northern Lights Express train is "effectively dead."

“For years, Democrats have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on wasteful rail projects that Minnesotans barely use and can’t afford,” he said in a statement.

Approximately $108 million remains in state funding for the Northern Lights Express. However, lawmakers could also move to redirect those funds as the slim chance of receiving necessary federal funding grows smaller.

Koznick said he'll be focusing his effort on ensuring the remaining funds will be spent spent on infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

If constructed, the Northern Lights Express would operate on approximately 152 miles of an existing BNSF Railway corridor. The service would make four round-trips daily and be operated by Amtrak or a similar provider, according to the NLX Alliance.

With a train operating at speeds of up to 90 miles-per-hour, a one-way trip between the Twin Cities and Twin Ports would take about two-and-a-half hours.

A conservative advocacy group sued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday on behalf of three female softball players who say Minnesota’s policy allowing trans athletes to compete on sports teams that match their gender amounts to sex discrimination against female athletes and a violation of Title IX, the federal statute requiring equity in men’s and women’s sports.

The lawsuit, filed in a Minnesota federal court, was brought by Female Athletes United, a national group that describes itself as an advocate for “fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for women and girls in sports.” It is led by three women with ties to the Republican Party and conservative legal groups.

Three female high school softball players from Maple Grove High School and Farmington High School are described as plaintiffs. According to the suit, the girls say they have competed with transgender athletes and believe it is “unsafe and unfair to play against a male athlete, particularly in softball.”

The Minnesota High School League has allowed students to participate on teams that best align with their gender identity for 10 years. Supporters of the policy say it’s worked without incident.

A recent executive order by President Donald Trump banned transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports. Federal officials are pressuring the state now to comply with Trump’s executive order. That includes investigating the high school league policy.

Ellison has argued that Minnesota’s human rights law lets transgender athletes compete in sports consistent with their gender identity and that the state law supersedes Trump’s executive order. State lawmakers in March rejected an effort to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports.

The lawsuit is asking federal judges to rule that Ellison and other state officials are violating Title IX. It’s also asking for an injunction to preclude state and district officials from allowing trans athletes to compete with or against female members of Female Athletes United.

Lawyers representing Female Athletes United are from the conservative Christian Group Alliance Defending Freedom, which has won more than a dozen United States Supreme Court cases, including overturning Roe v. Wade.

Minnesota authorities would no longer be able to charge people with major drug crimes solely on the basis of the dirty water in their bongs — thanks to a provision in the 192-page judiciary and public safety bill that was sent to Gov. Tim Walz over the weekend. He’s expected to sign it.

Under current law, quantities of bong water greater than four ounces can be treated like the pure, uncut version of whatever substance the bong was used to smoke. That can lead to massive criminal penalties: 4 ounces of bong water used to consume methamphetamine, for instance, can trigger a first-degree felony charge carrying up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

The new language removes that provision and specifies that for charging purposes, a drug mixture “does not include the fluid used in a water pipe or any amount of a controlled substance that is dissolved in the pipe’s fluid.” The change would apply retroactively to August 2023, bringing it in line with a broader drug paraphernalia decriminalization bill that went into effect at that time.

In practice, prosecutors virtually never charge bong water offenses because most people intuitively understand that 8 ounces of dirty bong water is not the same thing as 8 ounces of pure methamphetamine.

“Counting dirty bong water as pure drugs is like counting a beer bottle full of backwash and cigarette butts as 80-proof whiskey,” as one attorney colorfully characterized it to the Reformer earlier this year.

But it does happen: The issue drew national attention last year after a northwest Minnesota prosecutor levied first-degree drug charges against a Fargo woman, Jessica Beske, on account of the water allegedly found in her bong.

Because of the retroactive provision, that case would be thrown out if Walz signs the bill.

“The ACLU-MN is glad to see the legislature fixed this loophole that allowed rogue prosecutors to put people suffering from addiction in prison for smoking drugs out of a bong,” said Alicia Granse of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Beske in court. “Ms. Beske and others like her can no longer be subjected to this cruel and unusual treatment.”

Minnesota became the butt of national jokes after the state supreme court ruled in 2009 that bong water could be legally considered a drug. The justices relied, in part, on the testimony of a Minnesota State Patrol officer who claimed that drug users keep bong water “for future use… either drinking it or shooting it in the veins.”

Legislators attempted to decriminalize small amounts of bong water the following year, but then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed it in order to project a “tough-on-crime” image in advance of a planned presidential run.