Advertise on podcast: News from the Crabby Coffee Shop

Kenny and Jay sit down with Scott Johnson, co-founder of the Powerline Blog and a longtime Minnesota attorney who has been reporting on Ilhan Omar since her 2016 state legislative campaign. Johnson walks through the history of Omar’s family’s path from Somalia through a Kenyan refugee camp and into the United States. The narrative Omar has told in her memoir, speeches, and campaign materials have raised substantial questions that Johnson has began uncovering. Drawing on years of document-based reporting open your ears for this jaw dropping episode and hear a fact based explosion. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week Kenny and Jay sit down with Maine State Senator Matt Harrington (R–District 33), Assistant Senate Minority Leader and longtime first responder, to dig into the fraud allegations swirling around Maine and why they look uncomfortably familiar to the massive social-services scandals that have rocked Minnesota. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges joins Kenny and Jay at the Crabby Coffee Shop for a conversation about what it actually takes to keep Minnesota’s biggest tourist attractions safe, what a functioning police department looks like in 2026, and the practical, often frustrating realities of identifying, arresting, and trying to convict members of Somali American gangs. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt talks about keeping kids on the right track, what the job of policing actually requires, and the path that took her from Chicago to the top of Minnesota’s largest sheriff’s office. The conversation covers what Witt's background changed about how she sees the job: early intervention, school contact, and giving kids a reason to stay out of the system before an arrest ever happens.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher and Ramsey County Deputy Jama Shine enter the Shop for a direct look at how Somali gangs are organized and operating across the Twin Cities. Fletcher and Shine walk through what their office has publicly described as roughly a dozen Somali gangs in Minnesota, with an estimated core of about 300 active members, mostly teens and young adults, out of more than 100,000 Somali Minnesotans. They discuss how these groups differ from older Twin Cities sets: high mobility between Minneapolis, St. Paul, and suburbs such as Eden Prairie, Edina, Burnsville, and Hopkins; feuds that move quickly between neighborhoods, and no illegal involvement of alcohol, drugs, or money. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Former Saint Paul City Council member Dave Thune pulls up a chair at the Crabby Coffee Shop to talk about what’s happening at City Hall: Mayor Kaohly Her, Police Chief Axel Henry, the lawsuit, and what it takes to actually run a city. Thune spent two decades on the council representing Ward 2, downtown, West Seventh, the West Side. He knows how council, mayor, and police actually work when the cameras are off. Kenny and Jay get into the current fight: Henry’s lawsuit alleging sexual harassment, unwanted contact, and retaliation; the city’s investigation that found “offensive and inappropriate behavior” but did not substantiate harassment or retaliation; and the budget pressure on sergeants and commanders. They talk city council dynamics, how a mayor and police chief have to work together (or don’t), public safety staffing, and the politics of a high-profile lawsuit that landed days after the city released a short summary of its report. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Saint Paul resident Stacey Hanlin, living near the encampment off the running waters of the Mississippi, sits down and talks about what it actually feels like on the ground: the 911 calls, the crime, and the slow grind on everyday quality of life. Not a press release. Not a slogan. What it costs to live next to a camp that grew into an outdoor settlement. Then downtown weighs in. Bill Collins, owner of Alary’s Bar on East Seventh, joins the table. Collins helped organize two dozen Saint Paul business owners to put their names on a letter backing Mayor Kaohly Her’s push to get the encampment problem under control. They talk about taxes, lost customers, staff who don’t feel safe, and why shopkeepers finally decided the status quo was more expensive than speaking up. This episode is about the bill nobody wants to itemize: public safety, property values, emergency response, and the human wreckage that doesn’t stay neatly in the woods. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Minneapolis Ward 5 Council Member Pearll Warren pulls up a stool with Kenny Olson and Jay Kolls to talk North Side life, City Hall chaos, and cars that drive themselves while the rest of us still need coffee. She took the seat in 2026 and now gets the fun job of explaining what the council actually does, what it pretends to do, and what still is not working on the ground. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Kenny Olson and Jay Kolls sit down with Dr. Manjeet Rege, professor and chair of the Department of Software Engineering and Data Science at the University of St. Thomas and director of its Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence. Rege, the author of Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence, cuts through the hype and the panic. The conversation covers what AI actually does well, where it still fails, who is accountable when it goes wrong, and what “ethical AI” means once the press release is over. Bias, deepfakes, jobs, data centers, governance, and whether Minnesota is ready for any of it all get a turn at the counter. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Former DOJ national-security prosecutor and Guantanamo war-crimes attorney Michael Lebowitz joins The Crabby Coffee Podcast to talk 9/11, the second wave of attacks that almost followed, and terrorist vs. counterterrorist tactics. Dive deep in his new book Second Wave: Inside Al Qaeda’s Post-9/11 Attack Plan and America’s Secret Effort to Stop It. A prosecutor’s view of the first strike, the plot meant to come after, and whether we’re ready for the one that hasn’t happened yet. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Barb Johnson, The longest-serving council president in city history sits down to share her unfiltered thoughts on today’s City Council, the ups and downs of keeping Target Center competitive, and the behind-the-scenes work that helped bring US Bank Stadium (and its economic impact) to Minneapolis. From navigating a changing council to the deals that shaped downtown’s sports and entertainment landscape, Johnson brings decades of institutional knowledge, North Side perspective, and the kind of no-nonsense insight that only comes from 20 years on the dais.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Sheriff Bob Fletcher breaks down the use of Flock Safety license plate reader cameras across Ramsey County, how they’ve contributed to sharp drops in auto theft and violent crime, the auditing and data practices in place, and why he sees them as a key public-safety tool amid ongoing debates in St. Paul and beyond. Then the conversation turns to the upcoming Minnesota State Fair: the extra security measures, increased staffing (especially after dark on the Midway), warning letters sent to hundreds of young people with possible gang ties, and the overall plans to keep the Great Minnesota Get-Together safe for the expected crowds. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on News from the Crabby Coffee Shop, Kenny and Jay sit down with Jen Merrill. A Minneapolis Police officer, military helicopter pilot, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran, and longtime Third Precinct officer. Jen takes us inside life on the force before, during, and after the George Floyd riots. She shares what it was like working out of the Third Precinct, the same station that became a national flashpoint and was ultimately overrun and burned. Standing on the opposite side of the crowds, the chaos, and the flames consuming parts of the city, she gives access into the behind the curtain workings of the department. From the realities of day-to-day policing in Minneapolis to the intense, personal experience of defending order when large parts of the city were on fire, Jen offers a firsthand account rarely heard in the mainstream.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bob pulls his Mobile Command Center into the parking lot to share what it’s really like living the full-time nomad life on the road. From the freedom of ditching the fixed address and becoming one of the early podcast pioneers, to the day-to-day realities of life in a converted rig, endless back roads, truck stops, and the people you meet along the way. Bob dishes on the joys, the challenges, and the lessons of the nomad lifestyle. The crew swaps old radio stories, digs into the ups and downs of life without a permanent home base, and gets Bob’s unfiltered take on what keeps him rolling year after year.   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Breaking exclusive news out of St. Paul on the Mayor Kaohly Her / SPPD “Weiner Wednesday” saga. In this extra, we do a deep dive on the why behind the what bringing first hand evidence with first hand facts. If you are looking for a full cup on the political theater of Saint Paul, heres your shop. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.