Born-again ballot counter Norm Coleman now wants all 12,000 rejected absentee ballots reconsidered, including those he vetoed during the canvass, the Strib's Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba write. The move makes sense in that there should be a consistent standard but has two interesting effects: It delays an outcome and sets up a U.S. Supreme Court equal-protection appeal if across-the-board re-recounting is rejected. The PiPress' Rachel Stassen-Berger says 7,000 votes could enter the stream. The Franken forces chuckle at the about-face. MinnPost coverage here.

Elusive local inauguration angles: Franken planned to dine with Energy Secretary-designate Steve Chu, go to Al Gore's "Green Ball" and attend an event for the Democracy Alliance, the PiPress' Jim Ragsdale reports. The PiPress follows Matthew Little, the Minneapolis leader who marched on Washington 46 years ago; Ben Garvin has video. It's also a nice day to read Syl Jones' op-ed exultation in the Strib. St. Cloud Ron Paulites play killjoy with an anti-Obama rally.

Even with a change to a Democratic administration, Rep. Tim Walz will probably still vote against releasing bailout money, the Winona Daily News' Mark Sommerhauser reports. The southern Minnesota congressman voted against the original bailout bill. The House begins debate this week. Meanwhile, Minneapolis Rep. Keith Ellison gets a Foreign Affairs Committee seat, the Strib's Mitch Anderson reports. Somewhere, a cultural conservative is going apoplectic.

Criminal and police mole Taylor Winthrope Trump can't be found, imperiling a Minneapolis cop's corruption trial, the PiPress' David Hanners writes. Trump helped persuade officer Michael David Roberts to turn over police reports and other privileged info. Trump had been sentenced to 20 years in jail and was remanded to U.S. marshals' custody; after being labeled "in transit" for several months, he's now listed as "not in BOP (Bureau of Prisons) custody." Oopie. Let's hope it's just a clerical error, since Trump is mixed up in other corruption cases.

I'm not sure I would've unveiled a big project on Inauguration Day, but MPR probes the state budget crisis by focusing on one 'burb, White Bear Lake. Since there are no cuts yet (Gov. Pawlenty's budget address is Jan. 27), you get set-up stories on a local nursing home, K-12 education, transportation, public safety and the arts, plus charts, video and audio. As of Tuesday morning, many of the links were broken, but check back for repairs.

The Strib's Steve Brandt comes up with a concrete and paradoxical victim of the budget mess: a federal grant for 12 Minneapolis firefighters. The $1.3 million grant requires the city spend $2.5 million and keep the new firefighters on the payroll for five years. The city cut 42 firefighters the last time the state cut Local Government Aid. The city's 450-member force is down 43 from its authorized strength in 2000; the grant dough was the best shot at filling out rig crews.

Brandt also has an interesting piece on a $750,000 state program to keep U-area housing owner-occupied. The cash was part of a deal to build the U's football stadium. Sellers can convey their homes to an intermediary at fair market value; it's nice to have a possible buyer even at these prices. Brandt says 156 homes in one neighborhood have gone rental in since 2000; rich parents often buy a home for their student offspring, then flip it to a landlord.

PiPress drivers will start delivering Stribs in the east metro area, Nicole Garrison-Sprenger reports. The cost-sharing deal was in the works pre-bankruptcy, the PiPress publisher declares. It's not uncommon for drivers to deliver multiple papers, but the two Twin Cities rivals have remained separate until now. There are tantalizing hints the PiPress has the upper hand in this deal. MPR's Bob Collins, an ex-carrier, laments the deliveryfolks' fate here.

Peanut butter cookies from the Girl Scouts are safe, but locally based General Mills is pulling theirs, AP reports.

Tiny town news: Swan-feeding woman falls into freezing casino holding pond, from the Red Wing Republican Eagle.

Nort spews: The Wolves keep winning, this time over the injury-plagued Clippers 94-86; Britt Robson's analysis here, Sore Loser here. And the Wild played way above their usual mediocrity, beating Chicago on the road 4-1; Sore Loser here and here.