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Check out the final design for Minnesota’s new state flag
The decision follows months of debate and final design tweaks by the State Emblems Redesign Commission.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota, a star, and the state’s waterways are the centerpieces of the final design chosen for Minnesota’s new state flag.
The State Emblems Redesign Commission voted to approve the final design modifications on Wednesday, after approving a slightly different general design last Friday.
The final design keeps a dark blue Minnesota-style shape with a white star on one side, but ditches the designer’s original tri-color stripes in favor of a single field of light blue to represent the waters of the Mississippi River.
“I think it’s an outstanding choice,” said Ted Kaye, a member of The North American Vexillological Association. “It’s so simple a child can draw it form memory, which is one of our tests of a great design of a flag.”
Kaye says the elimination of the color green from the flag helps it convey its symbolism more clearly.
“Many people love the color green and talk about the lush, verdant land of Minnesota, but that idea of the land of the Minnesota is already represented in (abstract) Minnesota shape,” he said. “The second challenge with the green in the flag is that it didn’t contrast well with the dark blue. By eliminating it, you also now have a symmetrical flag that can’t be flown upside down.”
The panel last Friday settled on the design known as F1953, which featured a large star on a dark blue abstract Minnesota shape on the left side and three stripes — white, green and light blue — on the right half. In their final in-person meeting the commissioners tweaked that basic concept quite a bit.
They replaced the large star with a smaller, eight-sided one patterned after the star on the floor of the State Capitol Rotunda. They made the Minnesota shape more symmetrical by placing the indention in the center. They dropped the green and white stripes on the right side of the flag, doing instead with a field of solid light blue to honor the Mississippi River and the state’s lakes.
“It just hit me. Why are we here? And if we go back to the first settlers, it had to be because of this beautiful river,” Commission Chair Luis Fitch told reporters afterwards.
“I think we’re gonna hear from other states, and other experts around the world, first appreciating our flag, before we do internally. So, I feel it’s an A-plus flag.”
Vice Chair Anita Gaul said Minnesota’s process of selecting a new design will likely be copied by other states looking to update their emblems.
“The entire way the public has provided input and has guided us, and I think what we have ended up is a quality product, both in our seal and our flag, that Minnesotans are going to rally behind and be proud of,” Gaul remarked.
She acknowledged that it will be hard for people who’ve lived with a different flag their entire lives to adjust to the new one, but she predicted it would grow on Minnesotans.
“By the time my kids are adults they’ll embrace this flag. They’ll hardly remember we had a different one before. Everyone will get on board.”
In November, the state gave the public its first insight into the designs the commission collected over a month-long submission period.
The commission narrowed the field from more than 2,000 options in recent months with public feedback, facing a Jan. 1 deadline for a final decision. The Minnesota Legislature can ultimately reject the new design, but if accepted, the new flag will start flying on Minnesota’s statehood day, May 11.
Kaye says there are plenty of differing opinions about the new flag, and says he knows plenty of people won’t initially like it. Though, he says the simple design and symbolism should win over Minnesotans in the long run.
“I would remind them of what happened in Canada in 1965,” Kaye said. “Canada adopted the Maple Leaf flag and it was widely criticized. A majority didn’t like the new flag for Canada. In fact, two provinces of Canada, Ontario and Manitoba adopted a provincial flag based on the old flag of Canada. Within a few years though, that falls away and by familiarity and by understanding the meaning of the flag, people will become enthusiastic about the flag of Minnesota and they will love it.”
The new design follows calls to change the current Minnesota flag, which features the state seal on a field of blue. The seal shows a Native American riding off into the sunset while a white settler plows his field next to a rifle leaning on a nearby stump. Critics have called that imagery offensive for depicting a Native American being driven off the land.
Earlier, the commission also accepted a design for a new state seal, which features a loon and incorporates a Dakota phrase, Mni Sota Makoce, meaning Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds.
Republican lawmakers who sat on the commission as non-voting members say they will file a minority report to the legislature, asserting the Dakota phrase violates the law because it represents only one group of Minnesotans. They also want a public vote.
“Our minority report will contain the recommendation that the people of Minnesota have the ability to vote to approve this flag. We are a democracy after all,” Rep. Bjorn Olson of Fairmont told the commission.
Secretary of State Steve Simon pointed out that in Minnesota the only legal mechanism for voting on the flag design would be if as a proposed constitutional amendment, and the DFL-controlled legislature would have to vote to that amendment on the ballot.
Rep. Mike Frieberg, the Golden Valley Democrat who authored the bill creating the emblem redesign commission, said there are four different Dakota communities in Minnesota. He also pointed out that the word Minnesota, which is on the current state seal, is a Dakota word.
The commission is set to meet one final time on Dec. 27 to officially sign off on its final report to the legislature, but no changes are expected to the flag design at that meeting.
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Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Columbus woman has gone viral on TikTok after sharing a story about finding a rug buried in her yard. The discovery prompted the Columbus Division of Police to get involved.
Katie Santry has lived at the east Columbus house for about a year. She said she stumbled upon the strange discovery while digging holes for fence posts.
“We were building a fence, and we, through digging a post wall, came across a carpet. It was weird but I kind of let it go,” Santry told 10TV on Thursday evening.
LATEST UPDATES: Columbus police provide update after digging up rug from woman’s backyard; no remains found
Some time later, she said her computer was shattered and her desk strewn about in the middle of the night, but no one in the home reportedly did it.
“I jokingly said, ‘did the body in the rug do it?’ and I put that on TikTok, and now everyone at this point has seen it,” she said.
Santry said she was going to leave the carpet-like fabric alone but was influenced by TikTok viewers to call police to dig it up.
“When they first came out, they thought nothing of it, and I think because of the virality of the TikTok, they called me today [Thursday] when my friends and I were actually going to dig this rug up today out of curiosity,” she said.
Columbus police told her they wanted to bring K-9s to investigate.
Santry streamed some of the investigation on TikTok Thursday afternoon. More than 100,000 users tuned in to watch at times, as she showed video of the K-9s sniffing through her yard.
At one point, Santry watches as the dog sniffs a spot and then sits down. She can be heard gasping in the video.
“The world saw the dogs sit on the hole and it kind of ended there,” Santry said.
When asked about the previous owners of the home, Santry told reporters that they were in their 90s and had moved into a nursing home. She believes they were the only owners before her family moved in.
While viewers have tuned in to watch what happens next in the investigation, Santry has watched her following grow.
“The day I posted it I had 6,000 followers,” she said, “It happened like snap of a finger. I didn’t anticipate virality in the slightest.”
A nearby neighbor who has lived in his home for 20 years told 10TV that the attention has been disturbing and alarming.
“This is the loudest it has been in a long, long time,” he said. “I hope they find what they’re looking for and we can get back to life as normal and quiet and peaceful.”
Columbus police began excavating outside the home Friday morning. Officers provided an update in the afternoon saying that no remains had been found.
On Amy Schultz’s birthday, she finally got word their new house withstood catastrophic flooding in their town.
DALLAS — Amy Schultz was supposed to be in the mountains of Western North Carolina for what she called one of her speedbump birthdays – a year that ends in a five.
She lives in North Texas but used to be a Florida resident, so she doesn’t take hurricanes lightly.
She and her husband were scheduled on an American Airlines flight from DFW Thursday.
But when the airline waived its change fees because a hurricane was bearing down across the southeast, they took it as a sign to cancel their trip.
“I am so grateful that we didn’t go,” Amy said. “On the other hand, I’m so devastated by seeing people and their lives and their property. And the culture of that Asheville community is just been toppled and it’s catastrophic.”
Amy Schultz is an artist, and the Blue Ridge Mountains is a haven for the arts.
That’s one reason the couple started visiting years ago. Amy called the region “a national treasure.”
“It’s just so special. It’s out of a fairy tale. The natural beauty is extraordinary,” she said.
Regular visits turned into buying a home in the city of Black Mountain.
They closed on the home on Second Street two months ago. Then came deadly floods.
Buncombe County, where Black Mountain is, reports 57 lives lost and the search for survivors continues.
The Schultzes had become fast friends with their new neighbors, but without power or cell phone service across the region, they couldn’t reach any of them.
They left messages and held onto hope for days on end.
Finally, on Amy’s birthday, a neighbor who had driven to Raleigh finally got cell service restored and let them know their house was standing and only had minimal damage.
“Damage on our end of the street was due more to falling trees than flooding,” Amy said. “We are so relieved and grateful. And still so sad.”
“Our plan is to go back as soon as we can. As soon as it’s safe. As soon as we’re not taking gas away from people who want it, and as soon as we’re not taking water away from people who need it, That’s when we’re going to go back,” Amy said.
Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close by a busy playground.
MINNEAPOLIS — Editor’s Note: This video originally aired Aug. 19, 2024.
A 10-year-old is in custody after Minneapolis police said he drove a stolen vehicle recklessly across a crowded school playground.
Minneapolis police (MPD) said officers responded to Nellie Stone Johnson School on Sept. 20. Surveillance video shows the car driving on the grass and sidewalk close to the busy playground multiple times. School staff moved children out of harm’s way and no one was struck.
The 10-year-old boy was identified as the driver and was booked into the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center on Thursday for probable cause second-degree assault.
MPD stated that the boy has been arrested at least twice before for crimes related to auto theft. He is also a suspect in more than 12 cases ranging from auto theft to robbery to assault with a dangerous weapon.
MPD Chief Brian O’Hara said the family is cooperative with police and have asked for help working with their son.
“It is unfathomable that a 10-year-old boy has been involved in this level of criminal activity without effective intervention,” O’Hara said. “Prison is not an acceptable option for a 10-year-old boy. But the adults who can stop this behavior going forward must act now to help this child and his family.”
“This is only one example of the revolving door we’re dealing with – arresting and re-arresting the same juveniles for auto theft and other violent crimes,” he added. “This is a complex issue, and we need every entity involved in intervention to come together immediately to establish short- and long-term solutions.”
