St. Paul Sheriff and budding generalissimo Bob Fletcher hid a $300,000 investigation from St. Paul elected officials, the PiPress' Dave Orrick reports. That's because he thought Councilmember Dave Thune would rat him out. No quotes from Thune or the city attorney, who was also kept out of the loop, but a report on RNC policing will be out today. St. Paul's federal grant will pay Fletcher's bill, but he spent $175,000 more than allocated.

Denny Hecker's drain-swirling continues; now Ford is suing him for $3.1 million in unpaid cars and parts, the Strib's Dee DePass notes. GM is already suing Hecker, he's suing Chrysler, and his car rental agency has filed Chapter 11. The PiPress' Gita Sitaramiah says Ford wants the sheriff to repo vehicles for shipment back to the auto manufacturer.

Delta refuses to renegotiate a jobs-and-flights agreement tied to Northwest Airlines bonds, the Strib's Liz Fedor writes. Hear that? It's the sound of the coming Metropolitan Airports Commission cave-in. If the deal blows up, Delta has to pay bondholders $245 million sooner, but a minimum 400-daily-flight and 10,000-job promise will also disappear (before it can be abrogated at some future date).

The Liberian government ordered an Eden Prairie agency to suspend adoptions while it investigates human trafficking allegations, the Strib's David Schaffer writes. The West African Children's Support Network runs an orphanage and a school, but "has been dogged by questions about its adoption practices." Canada has stopped WACSN adoptions; investigators say kids are funneled without proper consent. The group says it works only with "devout Born Again Christian Families."

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak surprised no one by announcing he'd run for a third term. The media treats it like a speed bump on the way to a 2010 gubernatorial run. Rybak's only opposition so far is the pissed-off head of a program the mayor helped end. The Strib's Steve Brandt notes if Rybak gets the DFL endorsement May 16, it will be his first time; the nod is clearly optional in the mayor's case.

Love that dirty water! Brandt reports that Minneapolis is canceling a $90 million water-filtration plant upgrade. That will trim price hikes for city residents and those in Bloomington, Edina, Columbia Height, Hilltop, Golden Valley, Crystal and New Hope. The feds say it's OK because the Mississippi doesn't have as many nasty microorganisms as thought, so an existing plant will work. Hmm. (The city uses microfiltration at another.) Taxpayers are out $4 million for work already done.

St. Paul will co-chair a 13-city nationwide foreclosure consortium to explore suing lenders, the Strib's Chris Havens writes. (The city attorney prefers to call it "working with.") Minneapolis, which has gotten some money from settlements, isn't a part of the mix. At least one of the consortium members, Baltimore, has sued Wells Fargo, whose home mortgage business is based in the Mill City.

Look, I think Al Franken should be provisionally seated in the U.S. Senate while Norm Coleman's court challenge proceeds, so I guess I understand one prong of the Democrat's doomed legal strategy. But man, the overall legal case is a high-ground eroder. The Strib's Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba note that Franken once argued disputed ballots should go to the Supremes; now he's arguing they should be tossed. Meanwhile, 64 Franken voters are suing to be included; MPR's Tom Scheck and Elizabeth Stawicki present their voices.

Related: Republicans agreed to organize Senate committees as if Franken won the race and Dems have a 59-41 margin, CQ reports via Minnesota Independent. That removes one practical obstacle to Al's seating. However, Franken's actual vote remains a towering problem because the GOP wants Harry Reid to need two Republican votes to stop a filibuster, not one.

Also related: GOP state chair Ron Carey blasts the Strib for writing about Norm Coleman's dozen home refinancings, saying "innuendo, titillation, unsubstantiated rumor and hearsay now pass for news and substance." Except the story was based on public records, including a Texas lawsuit. Carey alleges the Strib found Franken's "non-payment of taxes in more than 18 states ... of limited or no news value." In truth, the Strib made a big hairy deal of the tax issue last spring.

Related to the also related: Minnesota Independent's Paul Demko reports that the lawyer for a Texas plaintiff in the DonorGate lawsuit doesn't see politics behind the defense's request for a two-month delay. He still finds a delay unnecessary.

MPR's Tom Robertson reports enrollment in Minnesota's Dislocated Worker program has soared by 20 percent this fiscal year, as the state's deficit has ballooned. Some rural retraining centers have seen traffic double. Employer fees pay for the program, which still carries a miniscule surplus. That seems likely to go away with the July 2009 fiscal year.

The PiPress' Bill Salisbury puts some meat on the bones of the "Minnesconsin" headlines about joint purchasing deals between Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The states could save $1 million on road salt and perhaps $50 million licensing the Badger State's human-services eligibility technology.

Bummer: Brooklyn Park's energy-sipping LED streetlights apparently suck; the light's too dim, the Strib's Jim Adams writes. They use half the energy, though the bulbs are pricey. Strangely, they seem to be working out in Eden Prairie.

Another bummer: Coosje van Bruggen, co-creator of the Spoonbridge and Cherry, died Saturday of breast cancer, AP reports. She was 66.

Nort spews: The Wild scored a month's worth of goals, beating Phoenix 6-3. (No Sore Loser; the Phoenix paper used AP.) Meanwhile, the Wolves had their five-game streak snapped in a highly entertaining 99-96 home loss to Miami; Randy Foye's 29 points almost matched D-Wade's 31. Britt Robson's analysis here.