Election contest minute: Al Franken's extremely confident legal team rested its case two weeks early, the PiPress' Jason Hoppin reports. The three-judge panel should get the case soon; Coleman's lawyers say their rebuttal will be quick, as does an attorney for a handful of Franken voters.

Related: Franken's win isn't cinched, but given the direction of things, here's an especially ludicrous quote from Coleman spokesman Cullen Sheehan: "Al Franken doesn't know the difference between a light in the tunnel and the freight train that is coming right at him. The freight train is coming, and it's Sen. Norm Coleman being re-elected to the United States Senate."

Related: The PiPress' Bill Salisbury writes that a bill to allow excuse-free early voting passed a state House committee. Right now, absentees have to affirm their inability to get to the polls. The bill would set up a 15-day window where any eligible voter can cast a ballot before Election Day. DFLers deleted a Republican-backed photo ID requirement. Gov. Pawlenty says he could sign the legislation if there are fraud protections in place; does he consider photo ID a deal-breaker?

Salisbury says a state Senate committee passed a bonding bill that's probably too rich for the House or the governor. The $367 million plan includes $57 million in St. Paul projects the governor line-item vetoed last year, such as the Como Zoo. Other facets include a Bell Museum renovation at the U, LRT money and a new hospital wing. A House leader says their bill will probably come in at under $300 million. Although this isn't a bonding year, economists say joblessness make something worth doing.

Travelers will keep its headquarters employees in St. Paul, but change its legal home base to New York, the PiPress' Nicole Garrison-Sprenger reports. CEO Jay Fishman lives in the Big Apple. As for the survival of the 2,500-worker node, Fishman offers cold-blooded reassurance: If there were a better place to move them, he'd have already done it. The action means the Twin Cities has one fewer Fortune 500 company, however.

Seven bucks a pack: Local cig prices jumped "literally overnight," KSTP's Chris O'Donnell reports. A higher federal tax goes into effect April 1, but convenience stores and Wal-Mart are getting the jump; a carton of Marlboros could run you $50.

Alzheimer's sufferer Verne Gagne was responsible for two attacks before the one that led to 97-year-old Helmut Gutmann's death last month, Fox9's Tom Lyden notes. He punched a man in the ribs in November and attacked Gutmann in September. All incidents occurred in a Bloomington group home, and the 2008 incidents weren't criminally investigated. Gagne likely won't be charged with any crime, given his own condition. The owners of Friendship Village won't comment about their practices, the Strib's Abby Simons writes.

RNC Molotov cocktail-plotter Matthew DePalma got three and a half years in prison, the PiPress' David Hanners reports. DePalma showed remorse, and the judge acknowledged the 23-year-old was unlikely to reoffend, opting for a sentence closer to what the defense had asked for. DePalma built five devices, but didn't use any on people or property.

A St. Paul substitute teacher whipped out a pint of vodka and drank it in front of 20 St. Paul fourth-graders, KSTP's Jennifer Griswold says. Dude blew a .18 at 1 in the afternoon! School officials said he'd been a frequent sub with no problems, and KSTP says the man might not be charged with a crime.

Minneapolis schools leaders tabled a plan to withdraw from a metrowide desegregation district that's doing little desegregating, the Strib's Patrice Relerford reports. Supt. Bill Green did serve notice that big changes must be made or his side will pull out of the WMEP district in 2010. The deseg district includes the FAIR school in Crystal and IDDS in downtown Minneapolis.

Related: Lakeville, with just 11 percent kids of color, is prepping a magnet school deseg plan because the next door Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district is 35 percent minority. The PiPress Maricella Miranda writes that state law requires adjoining districts with a 20-point-plus disparity to have a redress plan.

Forum Communications' Don Davis reports the Senate DFLers bashed a rural first-term Republican's plan to take Twin Cities transit money to fund rural school buses. “Maybe you’d like to give up your ethanol money to serve transportation," quipped Woodbury's Kathy Saltzman. Lawmakers did express interest in combining school bus and rural transit programs.

Not like they don't have enough to do: The Strib's Gregory Patterson says schools are trying to do more to support families in economic crisis. The Mounds View district has a food shelf; White Bear Lake's superintendent sent out a letter offering unspecified help from the school's nonprofit education foundation. There's good eyewitness testimony about teaching stressed kids. Schools long ago became de facto social service agencies, but you wonder where they find the time. No critics are quoted questioning mission creep.

MPR's Tim Pugmire sets up the clash between Gov. Pawlenty and state workers on a wage freeze. He wants them to eat it; they say, see you at the bargaining table. A union rep says a freeze won't save union jobs; the savings will plug other budget holes. But won't plugging those holes benefit at least some union workers? A Republican estimates a government-wide freeze could save $1 billion a year.

Sun Country's amazing turnaround gets front-page play in the Strib; the airline paid off a bankruptcy loan and expects first-quarter profitability, Susan Feyder writes. Sun Country already paid back money it garnished from workers' paychecks at the depths of the Petters debacle — with interest. Higher fares and fees helped; a trimmed route schedule is also credited, but the airline will add Boston flights and another route to be disclosed today.

Did the Pioneer Press really blow out most of its front page for pictures of critical-habitat license plates? Oh yes they did.

Considering their 125 cats were euthanized, it's no shock that the St. Anthony feline hoarders were charged with animal cruelty. The Strib's Jim Adams says Bob and Cheryl Saladis also face public nuisance charges. Bob says Cheryl was in the psych ward for three weeks, while the machinist "spent three weeks in my shop."

The Minnesota Daily's Briana Bierschbach notes that a much-ballyhooed Minneapolis bike-sharing program will be delayed a year, to Spring 2010, because it's still $1.6 million short.

KARE reports 48 Minnesota State Patrol squad cars have been struck this winter, and has video of one of them. The total is more than double last winter's number.

City Pages' Erin Carlyle looks at Xcel's installation of smelly telephone poles. Few will be shocked that there's all kinds of nasty chems in these things, which Carlyle richly details. Though critics say noxious wood has been planted all over town, the utility claims it's just one bad pole. (No one else complained). Still, they've dragged their feet about replacing even that one.

Nort spews: The Wild get a point in a 5-4 home overtime loss to San Jose. Minnesota, which rallied from a 3-0 deficit, is now ninth in the West, a point out of the playoffs.