Star Tribune
Oh say, can you see Minnesota’s new flag popping up everywhere?
Minnesota’s new state flag doesn’t actually become its official banner until May. But Christopher Finlayson has already been flying the blue-and-white colors outside his home in Columbia Heights since the end of January.
“It’s new, [I’m] just more excited to show it off than anything,” Finlayson said. In the weeks since the state flag commission approved the new design in mid-December, following months of debate, it’s started to show up on flagpoles as well as mugs, stickers, hockey jerseys and other merchandise, as entrepreneurs try to capture the excitement generated by the process of replacing the old flag, which was adopted in 1957.
Minnesota’s statehood day, the anniversary of the day in 1858 when it became the 32nd state to join the union, is May 11. State lawmakers must officially approve or reject the new design by then; the DFL-controlled Legislature is expected to do so over the opposition of Republicans, who are trying to turn their opposition to the redesign into a political rallying cry.
The new flag is simpler in design than its predecessor, which featured an illustration of a Native American on a horseback waving to a farmer set on a blue background. The new version works better from a design standpoint, said Michael Green, owner of Flags for Good, an Indianapolis-based retailer that sells flags in an online store and to other businesses.
Green said Minnesota’s new flag looks much better than the old one on merchandisable items.
“They need to be recognizable at a distance,” Green said. “Any flag that has a seal on it, fails the test off right the bat.”
Flags for Good made garden flags, stickers and an LGBTQ version of the new Minnesota state flag since its reveal in December 2023.
Lee Herold, owner of Herold Flags, a flag store in Rochester, advocated for a new state flag since 1987. He said the old one was “not popular.”
“People would come in to get the state flag and they didn’t even know what it looked like,” Herold said.
“I had originally purchased it thinking, ‘oh, I’ll hang it on Flag Day,'” Greene said. “But then I got excited when it arrived in the mail.”
Republicans want to give voters final approval over the new design.
Rep. Bjorn Olson, R-Fairmount, served on the flag redesign commission, which included 13 voting members. He and other GOP legislators say the process was rushed and included only a handful of opinions.
“Thirteen people don’t have the right to tell 5.5 million people who they are and what they should identify with,” Olson said.
Herold, the Rochester store owner, is a member of the North American Vexillological Association, which is an organization of flag lovers who talk about and promote flag designs. He and Rev. William Becker submitted one of the 2,000 designs for the flag commission to consider, but the panel went with a mockup created by 24-year-old Andrew Prekker as the basis for the new state flag.
Prekker joined a Reddit server called “Vexillology” to learn how to create a meaningful flag. His final design had three main concepts to represent the state. The North Star, blue for water, and an abstract shape of the state. Prekker said it’s been a thrill to see it start popping up in the real world.
“People around the state are putting it on their front porches, which is crazy, and a really cool process to see,” Prekker said.
Anti-police brutality activists interrupted a Minneapolis City Council meeting Thursday to call for Police Chief Brian O’Hara’s firing, saying his department failed a Black man who begged police for help for months, to no avail, before he was finally shot in the neck by his white neighbor.
John Sawchak, 54, is charged with shooting Davis Moturi, 34, even though three warrants had been issued for his arrest in connection with threats to Moturi and other neighbors.
Activists showed up at the council meeting and asked for time to talk about the case. Instead, the council recessed and activists took the podium and castigated the city for failing Black people, even as state and federal officials are forcing the police department into court-sanctioned monitoring because of past civil rights violations.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, founder of the Racial Justice Network, said O’Hara needs to be held accountable.
“This is not the first time instance where the community has raised concerns about his poor judgment, poor leadership, blaming the community and excuses. It’s completely unacceptable for him to get away with it,” she said. “How many Black people’s doors have they kicked in for less?”
On Thursday the council voted to request the city auditor review the city’s involvement in and response to the matters between Moturi and Sawchak.
Mayor Jacob Frey released a statement in response saying he supports the council’s call for an independent review of the case, but O’Hara “will continue to be the Minneapolis police chief.”
Protesters also questioned why the public hadn’t heard from Community Safety Commissioner Toddrick Barnette, who called a news conference within hours to say he’s not going to fire O’Hara and the city leadership supports him.
A Girl Scout from Troop 58068 told the Woodbury City Council recently that they should allow backyard chickens in the city: They cheer people up, she said.
It turned out that chickens were on an upcoming agenda and, perhaps pushed a bit by the scout’s lobbying, the Woodbury City Council at their next meeting passed a new ordinance allowing for backyard hens.
The new ordinance went into effect on Oct. 23, the night of the council meeting, and will allow people who live on property zoned R-2, a “rural estate” district, to have backyard chickens. A typical city lot is zoned R-4 and those areas still cannot have chickens, the council said.
The city has received requests “here and there” for the last several years about backyard chickens, City Council Member Andrea Date said.
Backyard chickens come have home to roost — and never leave — in a host of other Minnesota cities that allow them, from Hopkins to Thief River Falls. It’s long been allowed in both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and new cities started approving backyard coops during the pandemic, when interest spiked.
In Woodbury, it wasn’t until the question was included on the city’s biannual survey that city staff knew how people felt. The survey found less support for chickens on a typical city lot — just 13% of respondents said they strongly approve of the idea while 43% percent strongly disapproved — but a majority approved of backyard chickens on lots of 1 acre or more.
The city’s rules until recently only allowed chickens on “rural estate” properties of five or more acres.
The new ordinance allows up to six hens, but no roosters, on property less than four acres that meets the zoning requirements. Larger properties can have an additional two chickens per acre above four acres. The ordinance also sets a height limit for chicken coops of 7 feet. No license or permit is required in Woodbury for backyard chickens.
Star Tribune
Anonymous donor pays overdue bill for Fergus Falls home where town’s first Black resident lived
A $10,000 overdue special assessment bill threatening tax forfeiture of a historic Fergus Falls home was paid off this week thanks to an anonymous donor.
Prince Albert Honeycutt lived at 612 Summit Avenue East, renamed Honeycutt Memorial Drive in 2021. Not only was Honeycutt the town’s first Black resident — settling there in 1872 from Tennessee — he was the state’s first Black professional baseball player, first Black firefighter and first Black mayoral candidate.
He was an early pioneer and prominent businessman who owned a barbershop in town. Missy Hermes, with the Otter Tail County Historical Society, said Honeycutt and his wife were likely the first Black people in Minnesota to testify in a capital murder trial of a man who was convicted and hanged in Fergus Falls.
“In other places, you would never have a Black person testifying against a white person, especially a woman, too, before women could vote even,” Hermes said. “Obviously he was respected enough.”
Nancy Ann and Prince Albert Honeycutt with their children inside the now-historic Honeycutt house in 1914. Photo from the collections of the Otter Tail County Historical Society.
When dozens of people from Kentucky moved to Fergus Falls in April 1898, known as “the first 85,” Honeycutt helped integrate them into the community.
He died in 1924 at age 71 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Fergus Falls.
Up until 2016, several owners lived in the Honeycutt home. But the city bought and sold the house to nonprofit Flowingbrook Ministry for $1 to take over the tax-exempt property and operate the ministry.
Ministry founder Lynette Higgins-Orr, who previously lived in Fergus Falls, moved to Florida several years ago and little activity has been going on in the historic home since. But she said there are plans to make it into a museum.
