If you announce you're hiking taxes $2 billion, shouldn't you have a plan for it? A DFL tax-backer, State Sen. Tom Bakk, is throwing out lots of ideas, MPR's Tom Scheck reports. To blunt GOP fear-mongering over whopping income tax hikes, Bakk suggests taxing Internet downloads, but that would only raise about $50 million. Dems have said they'll create a new top tier bracket at $250,000, but Bakk suggests raising all rates to 1990 levels. However, the Strib quotes him saying even his own Senate won't roll back Ventura-era cuts.

Local congressfolk lap up face time in the AIG bonus scandal. Minnesota Independent's Chris Steller notes Michele Bachmann stowed the anti-AIG pitchfork during her Financial Services Commitee question time to pursue fellow legislators and the administration. However, MPR's Tom Crann says Bachmann urged the administration to let AIG fail. Speaking of failed, Erik Paulsen's populist proposal to get the bonuses back in two weeks did just that. Keith Ellison urged legal means to get bonuses back if they were tied to (non)performance.

Lots of demographics today! The Strib's Census guru David Peterson says Hennepin County growth superseded usual champs Scott and Dakota between 2007 and 2008. Peterson concentrates on absolute numbers rather than rates, so the exurban zone's percentage growth may still be tops. But overall, Hennepin's 9,000-person leap looks as big as Washington, Dakota and Scott combined. Gas prices are one possible explanation, as is growth among buyers less enamored of acreage.

Related: AP details 2007's regional growth hot spots, topped by Fargo-Moorhead (up 2 percent), Rochester (1.5 percent), Worthington (1.3 percent) and the Twin Cities (1 percent). Meanwhile, Albert Lea, Breckenridge and New Ulm lost bodies. Remember, these are estimates, less accurate than decennial surveys.

Another growth source: The Strib's James Walsh notes U.S. live births now top the Baby Boom years, and Minnesota mirrors that. Fully a third of the state's new moms were unmarried, up from 27 percent eight years ago. A more salutary trend: Twenty years ago, more than 30 percent of moms were teens; now it's under 20 percent. One researcher says the deepcession will prove an excellent contraceptive.

Election contest minute: In the PiPress, DFL lawyer/lobbyist Brian Rice urges us to open all the uncounted absentee ballots now and ship the case to the U.S. Senate. They'll decide anyway, so skip the court dithering. I think Rice underrates how a Minnesota court decision could provide senators a needed moral compass. He's also too alarmist about Franken's seniority risk, which should be awarded retroactively. He does note the tantalizing prospect that the press will force opening of all ballots eventually.

The PiPress' Jeremy Olson says a U co-authored study shows prostate screenings catch more cancer but don't save more lives. The 76,000-patient study suggests over-70 men need far fewer screenings. However, European studies have shown a 20 percent death reduction; they do more biopsies and prostate removal surgeries. Also, the decade-long study may still be too short to fully assess a slow-growing cancer. The study underrepresented African-Americans, who have high prostate-cancer risks.

The Strib's Maura Lerner and Janet Moore have a damning story about a U psychiatry chief errantly touting an anti-psychotic drug as "clearly superior." The PiPress' Olson notes Astra-Zeneca gave Dr. S. Charles Schulz $112,000 in grants and fees. The manufacturer judged the research overoptimistic but didn't tell anyone; Schulz later changed his conclusion. In the PiPress, he declaims undue influence, blaming the company for overselling, but tells the Strib "I could've said it differently."

Sara Jane Olson returns to town to triple-byline Strib coverage; there's little news; the parolee declines comment. Meanwhile, the husband of the woman killed in an SLA-organized bank robbery tells the PiPress, "You have to be able to forgive. You can't keep carrying grudges." That doesn't stop Smart Politics' Eric Ostermeier from veering away from number-crunching to lambaste the "plea for forgiveness" from MinnPost's Doug Grow. The St. Cloud Times quotes Grow approvingly, telling fulminators (especially officeholding ones), to get a grip.

Tom Petters update: The PiPress' John Welbes and Strib's David Phelps describe the scene when federal agents nailed the alleged scamster at Las Vegas' Bellagio. Wearing a hotel robe, Petters admitted his warehouses held no merchandise and he'd "take a bullet if I had to." Petters' lawyers say the common expression was not a confession. Also during the pre-trial hearing, a magistrate told the lawyers they couldn't withdraw; they want more money released for Petters' defense. The magistrate said a federal judge will rule on that later.

Interesting: The Strib's Steve Brandt says the Minnesota Supreme Court granted expedited review to Minneapolis' ranked-choice voting system, slated for deployment this fall. The timely move bypasses the Court of Appeals; a district court said instant-runoff voting was constitutional, contrary to opponents' claims.

It was a choo-choo kerfuffle: Central Corridor LRT will go right where it wants to, the PiPress' Dave Orrick reports. A train shed will be built in Lowertown. Much venting from neighborhood folks and electeds such as Dave Thune, but the St. Paul Council approved the alignment unanimously.

Orrick also notes St. Paul kids' push to ban candy cigarettes, which are apparently sold at some convenience stores. The City Council seems willing, and no candy-rights opponents have emerged, though Gov. Pawlenty may want to borrow against the sales tax proceeds.

The Strib's Jim Foti says a metro transportation board picked a Hwy. 610 extension into the northern 'burbs as their top stimulus priority. A truncated 169/494 interchange could be a controversial addition; the feds don't like a partial interchange and that could make shovels unready.

Finance and Commerce's Burl Gilyard looks at the uncertain fate of the Jeune Lune's magical but mothballed space, which could become a new entertainment venue -- or a mini-storage facility. Over by the Guthrie, Gilyard surveys plans to temporarily fill a weedy ex-condo parcel. Bill McGuire, who funded nearby Gold Medal Park, answered a request for proposals, but so did the city's parking services unit.

Minneapolis Mirror citizen journalist Terry Yzaguirre offers moving interviews with four mothers of missing local Somali men. One recounts being so desperate that she called the FBI (normally a feared entity) to rescue her son. There is anger at a local mosque accused of radicalizing the men, but what comes through are the mothers' ache at losing their children; the testimony humanizes the disappeared and the people who love them.

Nort spews: The Gopher men hoopsters face Texas at 6:10 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolves gave a spirited accounting in New Orleans; Kevin Love did his best Wes Unseld, but Randy Foye's last-second shot rattled out in the 94-93 loss. Still, lottery balls and honor were preserved.