Locator: 49732ARCHIVES.
NFL: Kansas City Chiefs will have a new stadium in 2031, or thereabouts. The NFL and the Chiefs announced today that the team will be moving .... wait for it ... a couple of miles to the west, crossing the state line from (east) Kansas City (Missouri) to (west) Kansas City (Kansas). Much could be said. There are "no" Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Kansas City (on either side of the state line).
AI prompt: Kansas City was an important railroad terminal and cattle industry in the 1800s. In fact, I think, it was a major RR terminal for troop transport during WWI. It looked like it might be a "major" US city at one time. What happened? It doesn't even have one Fortune 500 company now.
Which takes us to Minnesota. Medicare scandal: it's unlikely that any of the Fortune 500 companies in Minneapolis will move out of Minnesota any time soon, but Minnesota is becoming a less desirable state year-by-year.
State income tax: in 2025, Iowa has a single flat income tax rate of 3.8%, while Minnesota has a graduated income tax with rates ranging from 5.35% to 9.85%.
The highest rate (Minnesota), almost 10%, kicks in at an income level slightly higher than $330,000. Even Illinois has an income tax less than Minnesota's: a flat 4.95% tax rate. Massachusetts? Flat rate of 5.0% with a 4% tax surcharge on income greater than one million dollars. Wow, I never knew Minnesota had such a high income tax. Upwards of 100,000 families in Minneapolis appear to be subject to the highest marginal tax rate. I find that just sadly amazing.
I can understand why Minnesotans outside of Minneapolis might be tempted to move to Minneapolis, but I have no idea why a non-Minnesotan would ever want to move to Minnesota in current environment, except for strong family ties.
A long conversation with Google Gemini led to this bottom line:
While Minnesota experiences "net domestic migration losses" (more people leave for other states than come from them), the substantial influx from bordering states and others, combined with significant international immigration, drives overall population growth.
Well, that explains that.
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Lego
Wow, looking at Minnesota -- what a depressing story.
The good news: Lego.
Lego is rebuilding how consumers engage with motorsport brick by brick.
In 2025, Lego kicked off a partnership with Formula 1 that brought officially licensed sets to global retail shelves and immersive experiences to races around the world. In the nearly year since launch, the collaboration has bolstered fan engagement for both brands, lead to promotional sales of Lego products and expanded the demographic reach for the toy company and the racing organization.
In August, Lego CEO Niels Christiansen touted the company’s Formula 1 sets as one of the innovations that fueled record first-half revenue and operating profit.
The company, which is privately held, reported a 12% year-over-year revenue bump to $5.4 billion for the first six months of 2025.
“It is a massively growing fan base,” Julia Goldin, chief product and marketing officer at Lego, told CNBC. “It is the biggest motorsport now in terms of its fandom. ... We felt that we could really tap into that and deliver something very unique.”
With Formula 1, Lego isn’t just leveraging an existing fandom, it’s expanding it, bringing underserved demographics into the world of racing and engaging new customers.
“Lego has a great reputation for picking out the right trends to become a part of, and motorsports in recent years has been on a real upswing,” said James Zahn, editor in chief of The Toy Book.
