Did Dakota County prosecutor James Backstrom witness tamper by threatening to jerk business away from a county-paid forensic pathologist? The PiPress' Frederick Melo says a lawyer's responsibility board is investigating emails that threatened the pathologist's contract for testifying for the defense in certain cases. Through a spokesperson, Backstrom denies the allegations, and Melo can't get the emails, though the pathologist generally confirmed the contents. The lawyer's board says the case is confidential.

Even Republicans are hatin' on the governor's Local Government Aid cuts, Forum Communications' Don Davis reports. Moorhead GOP Rep. Morrie Lanning asks why cities and counties must suck on a 25 percent decrease while state departments are only being nailed for 5. The story also notes the guv's total LGA appropriation, $368 million, precisely matches the total from 1997.

Related: From the land of symbolic legislation, GOP Sen. Geoff Michel proposes a public employee wage freeze, the PiPress' Bill Salisbury writes. It would cover local government, too. Even though most deals are collectively bargained, his stick would be cutting LGA for places that avoid the freeze. Unions suggest Michel's Edina constituents might want to pay a bit more in state taxes if we're being truly fair. A PiPress editorial notes the difficulties but says the freeze should be considered.

No shock: The man jailed for groping at least 11 U students is schizophrenic, his family tells WCCO's Heather Brown. They say he was trying to get help for years. Makes you wonder what will happen as we further shred the safety net for people with brain diseases. Also in the symptoms department, Nick Coleman looks at Minneapolis' new way to corral the increasing ranks of the homeless: No Trespassing signs.

I'll admit I enjoy seeing bank execs squirm about taking fancy trips while sucking down TARP money. It's especially fun to see drown-goverment-in-the-bathtub guy Bill Cooper defending a $200,000 Aspen getaway as his TCF nets $361 million from the feds. The Strib's Chris Serres and Kara McGuire offer disclaimers — TCF is forking out less, and getting less, than Wells Fargo (which canceled a Vegas junket), and employees pay some of the cost. But still — why not stay in Minnesota?

Fox9's Jacqueline McLean says 40 percent of food stores surveyed impermissibly levy sales tax on grocery items. There's some confusion since snacks, candy and prepared foods are taxed. Pure juice is non-taxable, but juices with added sugar are. Corn, soup and tomato paste are no-brainers, though. There's no evidence store owners are pocketing the needless tax.

The Strib editorial page, which has supported Gov. Pawlenty's Q Comp experiment for tying teacher pay to activities, says there's still too little evidence to mandate it, as the governor wants.

It will take six weeks merely to read every contested U.S. Senate ballot into the record, the PiPress' Rachel Stassen-Berger notes. That's the consequence of the three-judge panel's eminently defensible pledge that "every legally cast and wrongfully rejected ballot is opened and counted." Franken's forces say Coleman's pile is cherrypicked and wants to add 771 votes — or more.

Related: The Strib's Kevin Duchschere says Al's side goes to court today in a no-hope bid to get a provisional election certificate. Also, the PiPress' Tad Vezner runs down election-reform proposals from Ramsey County election chief Joe Mansky. He would expand mail-in voting, eliminate witness signatures, let overseas voters file by email and automatically register driver's license applicants.

Lost in the digital TV switchover debate: Many Minnesota stations are killing analog Feb. 17, even though the feds just moved the drop-dead to June. AP lists stations in Rochester and Duluth; stations in Duluth, Moorhead and Thief River Falls have already switched over. There are rumors afoot that one Twin Cities station will switch off analog before June.

Downtown Minneapolis' top 20 employers shed 7 percent of their jobs in 2008, the Business Journal's John Vomhof Jr. reports. That amounts to 3,300 lost positions; there total employment numbers 47,700 overall. Interestingly, the city of Minneapolis fell out of the Top 20 list; Capella Education Co. entered at eighth.

Minnesota has more farms than it did five years ago, the PiPress' Tom Webb reports — but fewer full-time farmers. Orchards, organic farms and chickens contributed to a bare 153-farm increase; we have 80,992 farms overall, according to the USDA's Ag Census. But cow and hog farms declined, and full-time workers plunged from 50,000 to about 39,000. The Strib's David Peterson and Joy Powell note we gained 2,200 small farms and 100 mega ones, while mid-size operations took the hit.

Foreclosures last year were up 53 percent in Hennepin County and 2 to 8 percent in Minneapolis, the Strib's Steve Brandt reports. He offers a pretty good primer on how these things are counted — it's more of an art than you may think.

The PiPress' Leslie Brooks Suzukamo has a neat piece on Xcel contracting with the feds for hourly wind forecasts. More precision allows them to more efficiently supplement phlegmatic wind with fossil fuel-burning plants. Fun but alarming fact: The forecasting technology is a post-9/11 thing developed to respond to biochem dispersal.

The PiPress' David Hanners covers the court appearance of a teacher and foster parent accused of sexual abuse. A couple of interesting facts beyond the sorry specifics: Foster parents abuse is rare, accounting for 1 percent of kids abused in Minnesota in 2007, and 60 percent of Hennepin County's foster parents are solo practitioners.

Authorities search for drug dealing, find bra shoplifting, from the PiPress' Melo.

A Metro Transit driver gets suspended for napping while leaving his passengers freezing in the cold, Fox9 reports.

Cuddly and altogether fun story from the PiPress' Jessica Fleming on a dolphin calf gestating at the Minnesota Zoo. It would be the first birth since a 2006 dolphin die-off at the facility. Things I probably should've known: Dolphins live 40 to 50 years.

Nort spews: Terrible night on the hardwood for the Minnesotans; the Gophers men are humiliated on Michigan State's floor 76-47, while the Wolves lost at home to Atlanta 94-86. Britt Robson's take on the latter here. The Wild upheld the state's honor with a 3-0 beating of Anaheim.