The morning, after what had to seem like a really bad date, had both sides in the state's deficit/budget war playing to their audiences. The Strib's Pat Doyle and Bob Von Sternberg corral comments from DFLers and Republicans blaming each other for the failure to get the job done. They work the angle that Gov. Pawlenty's "unallotment" scheme may face legal challenges from affected parties. They write, "While avoiding many specifics, Pawlenty sought to minimize the impact of what he called the 'trimming' that he's expected to make. The overall spending reduction, he said, amounted to less than 4 percent."

MPR's Tim Pugmire covers the standoff and quotes the president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities saying, "We're just going to have to march on St. Paul. We're going to have to bring the outcry that we're hearing in main street communities from Ely to Edina in saying that Local Government Aid, Market Value Credit are important." Ely and Edina, hand in hand. I can see it now. Mukluks and Prada.

The PiPress's Joe Soucheray strums the nanny-state chords popular with talk-radio audiences, mocking spend-crazed DFLers for never having enough taxpayer dough to, "use the state as a clearinghouse for their mothering instincts." As a metro columnist Joe gets points for boldly wading into the fray. (He might even be serious about more casino gambling.) But you have to like this line: "DFLers need a similar funding source for their programs, many of which are just mind-blowingly expensive and have nothing to do with what hard-working taxpayers expect or want from government." What do we have in mind there, Sooch? Health care? Classrooms with less than 60 kids?

Rachel Stassen-Berger of the PiPress covers a new Rasmussen Poll on The Political Animal blog. The nut of it? By 54 percent to 41 percent Minnesotans want Norm Coleman to concede the Senate race to Al Franken. And by 67 percent to 25 percent we want Gov. Pawlenty to sign the certificate.

The strange tale of Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old New Ulm kid whose parents are resisting medical treatment for cancer, took a stranger turn when the kid and his mother went on the lam yesterday rather than show up in court. The Strib's Warren Wolfe quotes the county attorney talking about the father, who claims not to know where his wife and child are: "This whole thing is pretty crazy. Maybe he's telling the truth and really doesn't know what's going on."

Don Seeholzer of the PiPress covers the misery that is just about everything involving the Minnesota Timberwolves. Our NBA team ... in case you forgot we had one ... managed to slide lower in the draft lottery yesterday than its ghastly record should have allowed. This comes simultaneously with yet another GM candidate saying, essentially, "Thanks, but no thanks."

If President Obama thinks he got a bad deal getting stiffed on that honorary diploma from Arizona State, he'll feel better knowing that the St. Paul School Board has renamed Webster Elementary "Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue like "Reagan National," does it? The Strib's Emily Johns reports.

 KARE 11's Rick Kupchella announced his departure from the station yesterday after 20 years. The official-speak from management was pretty thick.  MinnPost's David Brauer has the best coverage. Do note Kupchella's stated inability to do the kind of long-form pieces he's done in the past. Every reporter has his fans and critics, but Kupchella's "Extra" pieces were invariably thoroughly researched and well-produced. (Dad was a college president after all.) And he says HE can't do as good a work as he'd like on local TV? Great. Another reason to watch "The Daily Show."

And finally, the last time you heard about a Pontiac burning down an apartment complex was when? KSTP-TV's Jessica Miles covers the story -- and drops in good consumer info -- of a guy's 9-year-old Grand Prix exploding in flames last week in his garage and taking $3 million worth of apartments with it. Seems the thing was on a recall list, and this week the owner was no longer available to say whether he got the warning letter from GM. One word pal: "Toyota."