The city of Kinney, St. Louis County, secedes from the United States. The city council, frustrated by unsuccessful attempts to obtain a grant from the federal government for a water project, decides to secede and apply for foreign aid because "there is less paperwork." Passports are issued by sympathizers in New Haven, Connecticut. Although the United States did not recognize Kinney as a foreign country, Duluth's frozen food king Jeno Paulucci did, giving Kinney a used Ford to replace the city police car (which no longer ran) and ten cases of frozen pizza for good measure.