Unless the Supreme Court issues a long-awaited opinion first, the Canvassing Board will certify Al Franken the U.S. Senate winner today. The Strib's headline all but invites a GOP legal challenge: "Coleman's best hope is in court"; the PiPress' Rachel Stassen-Berger provides the best rundown on the remaining ballot pools for court examination; the Republican could add new issues as well. MPR's Curtis Gilbert quotes one expert noting Coleman has raised too many dollars to concede now.

In honor of Franken's proto-coronation, and a grumpy post-holiday Monday that needs a laugh, here's a clip of our U.S. Senate leader channeling Mick Jagger (Hat tip: Talking Points Memo):

Here's MinnPost's look at national reaction on the Senate recount developments.

Great story from the Strib's David Shaffer: Could Minnesota's three coal ash dams could fail like one near a Tennessee power plant Dec. 22? That collapse fouled local waters and destroyed homes. Two of Minnesota's dams — which can rise five stories high — haven't been inspected; rules say they should be every eight (!) years. A dike upstream from Minneapolis was checked last year. The good news is they are built more solidly than the Tennessee one. No word on whether any homes are close.

We'll have a bunch of Capitol previews Tuesday, when the deficit-wracked legislative session opens, but MPR has DFL Speaker Margaret Kelliher not ruling out the "t" word — taxes — which is more upfront than she's been before, while Gov. Pawlenty says his top priority is "military and veterans affairs." Education comes in No. 3, after public safety.

By the way, Slayton state Rep. Doug Magnus is pushing an off-year bonding bill -- "the rare Republican promoting a massive public works program," writes Forum Communications' Don Davis. With two more GOP reps, Speaker Kelliher would have a veto-proof majority, if all DFLers agree. The DFL Senate is already veto-proof.

MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki has a neat preview of a legislative move that could affect thousands of Minnesotans: changing the child-custody presumption in divorce cases. Instead of judges starting with a clean slate, they would "presume the child would live with both parents unless there's a good reason not to — such as child abuse." That would mirror the existing presumption of joint legal custody; only one state (Iowa) does physical custody this way.

Report from the hustings: Forum Communications' Carolyn Lange says general assistance requests in Kandiyohi County (Willmar) were up 13 percent in 2008, with MinnesotaCare enrollment soaring 19 percent.

Strib roadguy Jim Foti says a 50-cent Metro Transit fare hike won't close a gap left by collapsing motor vehicle sales taxes. At a time when transit use is climbing, the system faces a $71 million deficit through June 2011. Last year's gas tax hike can't be used for operations; some regret giving up property taxing authority in 2001.

They call it "Californication" — the post-Prop 13 tactic of raising fees rather than taxes. The lefty think tank Minnesota 2020 says it's happening here; state fees have risen 20 percent above inflation in five years, the Strib's Matt McKinney notes. Fees have risen 80 bucks a person at a time when per-capita taxes are down 5 percent, the PiPress' Bill Salisbury writes. M2020 calls the fees regressive; Gov. Pawlenty's spokesman attacks the messenger as "The Matt Entenza Political Rehabilitation Committee."

The PiPress' Emma Carew looks at dramatically differing technology spending in state schools: 2007 outlays ranged from $178 per kid in South St. Paul to three bucks in Forest Lake and Centennial. Projectors and whiteboards turn out to be a big point of differentiation. Only anecdotal evidence of tech's educational effectiveness is presented, but one U educator notes we assume kids will graduate computer-fluent.

Get ready for recent college grads teaching kids in poverty. MPR's Tom Weber says the Teach for America program is coming to Minnesota, because our achievement gap is now large enough. The group — which placed 6,000 teachers nationwide this year — will operate in Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center next year if it can raise $4.3 million. There's nothing in the piece on TFA's effectiveness, exactly which kids and districts will benefit, and what teachers' unions make of all this.

Whoa: Winona State is not only banning smoking campus-wide Jan. 12, it's outlawing chewing tobacco, AP reports. I'd love to have the nicotine-patch concession closest to campus.

Fun slow-winter-weekend piece from KSTP's Bob McNaney on the State Patrol's thermal-imaging cameras. Miscreants and lost kids show up particularly well this time of the year, as the video shows.

The Downtown Journal's Michelle Bruch notes that the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission will allow the Shubert Theater's balconies to be torn out to save money. I thought historic preservation was the goal of this two-decade-long saga! The theater will focus on dance, but developers now say the balconies "would actually chop off sightlines of dancers' feet and lifts." Fundraisers must find $1.2 million to start construction; there's $11 mil of state bonding authority in the deal.

A fancy, needless outhouse, from the PiPress' Molly Millett.

Nort spews: Now you know why the Vikes tried so hard to get Brett Favre before the season started: T-Jack looked rattled; Chilly's strange coaching didn't help, and Minnesota is out of the playoffs. (I know, the end-of-season Favre wouldn't have gotten us to the promised land, either.) On a happier but less heralded note, the Wild shut out Colorado to move back into third place in the Northwest Division.