Star Tribune
Some of Minnesota’s rejected state flag designs are now for sale
Brandon Hundt said he “let hope creep in” when his design — a North Star and a snowflake on a deep blue background — was chosen last month as a finalist for Minnesota’s next state flag.
Those hopes were dashed this week when the State Emblems Redesign Commission voted to eliminate his flag from the next round of finalists. But Hundt’s concept is getting newfound support in the wake of their decision, as fans try to stake a claim on their preferred design — even if it won’t fly as the official flag of the state of Minnesota.
“I was immediately asked: ‘I want a t-shirt of this, I want a hat, or I want to fly this flag,'” said Hundt. “It’s been cool to see this response.”
The St. Paul product designer sketched out the concept for his flag — known as “starflake” among supporters — more than eight years ago, and he’s been selling a T-shirt version of it for four years. Before the commission’s decision, he hadn’t done any promotion and had sold only seven shirts. He’s sold roughly 40 in the last few days.
The design is also getting a limited run printing by Flags For Good, a company run by designers that promotes flags they like. Michael Green, founder of Flags for Good, said they’ve never sold a version of Minnesota’s current flag, but they’ve promoted an alternative called the North Star flag for years.
It was designed decades ago by two Minnesotans who were pushing state legislators to consider a flag redesign. The North Star flag was submitted to the commission but didn’t make it to any of the final rounds of consideration.
Still, Flags for Good has seen a boost in traffic from Minnesota and interest in both the starflake and the North Star flag designs.
“We are uniquely in this weird business of selling alternatives to flags,” said Green. “I think a lot of people aren’t excited about the final three that were announced, so they’re staking their claim.”
The 13-member commission was created by the Legislature last session to redesign both the state flag and the seal after decades of criticism that the white settler imagery on both was offensive to the state’s tribal communities. They sought designs from the public, who flooded the commission with more than 2,600 alternatives for the state flag and seal.
The commission adopted a final seal design this week and narrowed down six flag finalists to three. They could select one top finalist at a meeting scheduled for Friday.
Despite not having his design in the final round of consideration, Hundt has been following the process to get a new flag for years and he’s glad there will be something new flying in 2024.
“We’re going to get a new flag and ultimately that is the most important thing, because the current flag is so bad,” he said.
He thinks Minnesotan’s response to the current flag redesign process should encourage other cities and counties to consider their own flags and symbols. He’s also created a redesign of the Minneapolis flag.
“I hope other municipalities see how engaged Minnesotans are in this process and think: this would be a good way to engage our community,” he said.
Two men are dead and one woman was injured in a shooting at a homeless encampment in south Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, police said. It was the second shooting at a Minneapolis encampment this weekend.
At about 2:20 p.m. Sunday, police responded to a reported shooting in the 4400 block of Snelling Avenue near the railroad tracks at the small encampment between Snelling and Hiawatha avenues. At the scene, officers found two men with fatal gunshot wounds, said Sgt. Garrett Parten Minneapolis Police spokesman. Responders rendered aid, but both men died at the scene.
A woman was found at the scene with life-threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital where she was being treated Sunday night, he said. Police have yet to say whether the three were living at the encampment.
Officers detained three people, who Parten said have since been released after police found they were not believed to be involved in the shooting. No suspects had been identified as of 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
The shooting is the second at a southside homeless encampment this weekend. One man died and two were critically injured early Saturday at an encampment shooting near E. 21st Street and 15th Avenue S. On Sunday, the man was identified as Deven Leonard Caston, 31, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“We don’t know if there’s a connection between this homeless encampment shooting and the one that occurred yesterday,” Parten said on Sunday. “That is a consideration of the investigation. We can’t rule it out.”
Ward 12 Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the area and lives nearby, was at the site of the shooting Sunday afternoon. She said officials need information about what happened to better understand how to address situations like this long-term.
“This is an absolute tragedy, and this type of violence should never occur within our city,” she said. “It really makes me think about how we need to look at this more systemically and not just take a whack-a-mole approach and expect the problem to go away.
During Sunday’s Twitch stream, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez played Madden while discussing making homebuying more accessible, building affordable housing, eliminating student loan debt and raising the federal minimum wage.
After the match, Walz showed off his Sega skills in a round of “Crazy Taxi,” the Y2K-era racing game where gamers play as a taxi driver picking up passengers and taking them to their destination for cash.
Walz called himself a “first-generation gamer” and recalled playing “Crazy Taxi” when he bought a Sega Dreamcast. He also mentioned the Minnesota Star Tribune’s coverage of how his old game console was sold and ended up with a Plymouth resident, who still has it.
Afterward, Walz and Ocasio-Cortez watched a short clip of Trump denying on Rogan’s podcast that he lost the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden won that year.
Ocasio-Cortez during the livestream also showed viewers her farm on the cozy, indie game Stardew Valley. Walz said the game reminded him of Minnesota: “You’ve got mining,” he said. “You’ve got agriculture. You’ve got snow.”
Before Walz headed out to a rally in Nevada, he pleaded with viewers to vote. More than 12,000 viewers tuned into the livestream on Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitch channel. More watched from Harris’ channel.
”Hey guys, they’re now scrambling and trying to call us Nazis and fascists,” said Alina Habba, one of Trump’s attorneys, who draped a sparkly ”MAGA” jacket over the lectern as she spoke. ”And you know what they’re claiming, guys? It’s very scary. They’re claiming we’re going to go after them and try and put them in jail. Well, ain’t that rich?”
Declared Hogan in his characteristic raspy growl: ”I don’t see no stinkin’ Nazis in here.”
Trump has denounced the four criminal indictments brought against him as politically motivated. He has ramped up his denunciations in recent weeks of ”enemies from within,” naming domestic political rivals, and suggested he would use the military to go after them. Harris, in turn, has called Trump a ”fascist.”
The arena was full hours before Trump was scheduled to speak. Outside the arena, the sidewalks were overflowing with Trump supporters in red ”Make America Great Again” hats. There was a heavy security presence. Streets were blocked off and access to Penn Station was restricted.
In the crowd was Philip D’Agostino, a longtime Trump backer from Queens, the borough where Trump grew up. The 64-year-old said it was appropriate for Trump to be speaking at a place bills itself as ”the world’s most famous arena.”
”It just goes to show ya that he has a bigger following of any man that has ever lived,” D’Agostino said.
