At least, that's the estimate from the stimulus bill the U.S. House passed Wednesday, the Strib's Kevin Diaz reports. All told, Moody's estimates 92,000 jobs for Minnesota, which is losing 60,000 a year. Line items include $1.9 billion for Medicaid, $1.1 billion in budget-backing block grants, $437 million for schools, $211 million to weatherize things, $175 million for food stamps and $84 million transit.

Minneapolis U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison got $3 billion more for transit spending nationwide; that achievement is underplayed. Minnesota will get $21 million more for deficit-plagued Metro Transit as a result. AP's Ann Sanner says Minnesota will get $477 million for roads and bridges. That will more than fill a $50 million revenue slump from dedicated taxes on gas and car sales.

The state's congressfolk split 4-4 on the bill, with nominal DFLer Collin Peterson joining GOP no's. The congressman who might be most vulnerable because of the vote, Tim Walz, explains his "yes" vote to the Mankato Free Press' Mark Fischenich.

The PiPress' Bill Salisbury notes ex-TV newsie and former Norm Coleman staffer Tom Steward fingered 10 allegedly stupid local stimulus-related spending requests in his new role as "investigative director of the conservative Freedom Foundation's government transparency team." Surprisingly, no Minneapolis projects made the list, topped by a St. Cloud skateboarding park. A lot of these wouldn't make it past an initial congressional review. (MinnPost coverage here.)

MPR's Tim Pugmire looks deeper at Gov. Pawlenty's plan to borrow against future tobacco settlement payouts. Administration officials claim this is a better way to get $950 million than selling proceeds outright, which other states have done at a big discount. Anti-tobacco advocates say the money was meant to stop smoking. DFLers wonder if using the ciggie credit card hurts the state's bond rating; what's the repayment risk in out-years? Republicans rally around the guv.

Related: Two DFL legislators want to ban smoking in cars with kids, the PiPress' Jason Hoppin writes. Four states have passed the prohibition. Proponents say there's no safe level of secondhand smoke, and parents must be stopped. No one speaks out against the idea, but I'm holding out hope for City Pages' Matt Snyders.

The Strib editorial page calls Pawlenty's K-12 education funding plan "visionary." The 2 percent biennial increase includes a new (and undefined) pay-for-performance plan, tied to achievement goals. It also includes more Q-Comp, a "pay-for-activity" plan for teachers designed as the thin edge of the wedge against seniority. Meanwhile, business owners dig the guv's business tax cuts, MPR's Tom Scheck notes.

WCCO's Pat Kessler judges as "not true" Pawlenty's claim of a "broad consensus in this country" against tax hikes during a recession. Many deficit-strapped states are considering them, and Minnesota's deficit is among the biggest of all.

Meanwhile, local officials are getting their heads around proposed Local Government Aid cuts, assuming the DFL Legislature doesn't save them. St. Paul officials, staring at a $44 million cut over three years, say "cutting entire departments for the libraries, parks and city attorney would still fall short of meeting that number," writes the Strib's Chris Havens. The PiPress' Dave Orrick offers current spending details and says police don't automatically rule out pay cuts.

Alarming headline: "Death after police Taser incident is ruled a homicide." Apparently, that means a guy died, but Minneapolis police didn't necessarily murder him, the Strib's Lora Pabst writes. Quincy Smith was killed Dec. 9 after a domestic assault call; police said he had a gun, and a rifle was found nearby but may not be connected. Oddly, the Minneapolis homicide unit worked the case, and now its county partners will investigate.

One of Tom Petters' merry band of schemers went back to jail after spending 14 grand from supposedly frozen funds. The Strib's David Phelps says Michael Catain was re-imprisoned because his actions constituted probable cause for theft. He'd been freed awaiting sentencing.

Related: An initial bid for Petters' Polaroid came in at $42 million, about a tenth of what T-Pet paid four years ago, the Strib's Dan Browning and Liz Fedor write. It's one of the few solid assets amid the $3 billion scam. Improbably, Petters' former airline, Sun Country, made a million bucks in the fourth quarter; it cut flights and staff, borrowed from worker paychecks and got a fuel-price break, Fedor notes. Workers will be paid back by April, with interest.

Election contest minute: Secretary of State official Jim Gelbmann spent a day on the stand, where he said a Supreme Court order disenfranchised valid absentee voters, MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki reports. He also said Norm Coleman's camp had radically changed its tune about counting those ballots, and lately, more. Coleman lawyers say (with justification) the rules were different for the canvass, according to the Strib's Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba. The PiPress' Rachel Stassen-Berger offers a good drill-down. (MinnPost coverage here.)

The RNC Molotov cocktail-cooking trial continued, with defendant David McKay claiming paid informant Brandon Darby talked him into it, the Strib's James Walsh reports. McKay says the older Darby, who came with street cred, heavily influenced him, the PiPress David Hanners writes. McKay said he only confessed to being uninfluenced because the FBI told him it would look better in court. Ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley says entrapment will be very hard to prove.

Go ahead and get someone to carve out your kidney; you'll live just as long, the Strib's Josephine Marcotty writes. U researchers tracked down 3,700 people who gave up the organ between 1963 and 2007 and found them doing as well or better than peers. I couldn't help wondering if donors were a healthier population to begin with. By the way, 90,000 kidneys fail per year, but in 2007, only 13,000 were donated, half from the living.

Tuesday, lots of press for Target Corp. getting rid of 600 workers — I'm fine with that; major, influential employer. Wednesday, circuit-board assembler Celestica laid off 590 folks in Arden Hills. The PiPress' Leslie Brooks Suzukamo gives the story the attention it deserves, noting pending lawsuits involving back pay and treatment of Muslim workers. Rochester's IBM plant may have laid off up to 800 people, the Strib's Steve Alexander notes, but they're doing it furtively and the news gets buried.

Union membership went up nationally but fell in Minnesota, AP's Sam Hananel writes. The state's 2008 decline was slight: about 8,000 workers off the previous year's 400,000 base. Nationally, 428,000 more workers were unionized, most in the public sector.

Get rid of the Minneapolis Park Board? Where do I sign? On Wednesday, our own Steve Berg described an outgoing council member's planned charter amendment; the Strib's Steve Brandt has more, including gored-ox bleats that our parks are great only because of divided government. That appears untrue based on national examples. The plan would also create a city administrator, reducing council power. They'll probably need a petition drive to get it on the 2009 ballot. Mayor Rybak hedges.

Shocker: Commercial building offered for sale — then sold. Finance and Commerce says a new Uptown building went for $2.6 million, or $400 a square foot.

Winter Carnival medallion found — but it was almost washed down Phalen Creek first, notes the PiPress' John Brewer.

Need more stimulus? Wipe out everyone's student debt, opines Wy Spano in the Strib. Cost: $70 billion. Too bad I paid mine off — but prices were a helluva lot lower then.

The Strib is looking for two new columnists who "must possess a distinct voice, superb writing and reporting skills and knowledge of Twin Cities events, people, culture and politics." In other words, something like Nick Coleman's column on the jobless today.

Nort spews: The Wolves got whomped in the fourth quarter and lose at home to Detroit 98-89; even though Kevin McHale was sad, SOTC's Britt Robson is not so bummed. Looking ahead to summer, Grandma's Marathon has reversed a ban on headphones, AP reports.