So who has today's punchiest Hauser case headline? That would be the Mankato Free Press' "Chemo fugitives return." But the Strib dominates this story, reporting-wise. Curt Brown says one California lawyer (Susan Daya?) bought the credit-card-less Hauser a plane ticket out, a second bought the return ticket, and a third arranged the charter flight after talking with the FBI. Lawyer No. 2 and her filmmaker husband made a treacly video that, coincidentally, promotes their rainbow-inflected production company.

Everyone reports that Brown County Sheriff Rich Hoffmann — also just back from SoCal after his son's Dodgers debut  — made good on his promise not to prosecute Colleen Hauser. Can't help wondering if ticket-buying barrister No. 1 will be in trouble with the California authorities, though. The good news, says lawyer No. 3, is that Colleen Hauser will abide by the court's decision on Daniel's treatment; the court hearing is today. He was evaluated at a Twin Cities hospital Monday but not removed from his home.

The PiPress offers a four-piece package on Twitter's local political impact. Rachel Stassen-Berger (@polanimal) says she uses it as a "first alert" and to promote her stories (but never about what she's had for lunch). More importantly, politicians use it as a direct channel, sometimes for rapid response, and occasionally no-filter "tweets" they later apologize for; good details on an end-of-session meltdown. Julio Ojeda-Zapata (@jojeda) says citizen watchdogs use it the same way, and details his own philosophy.

Related: Politco has a story on Twitter as a political "weapon," featuring west-metro Congressman Erik Paulsen, who says it's a "mistake" not to embrace the technology. Use grew 1,382 percent among people 35 to 49, a key voting bloc. A local political directory is here; don't forget @dbrauer and @minnpost!

No one will accuse the Strib of browbeating Gov. Pawlenty over his anti-bullying bill veto. Though the editorial states that Pawlenty "should not" have vetoed the legislation, it resists the urge to speculate that the state's interests are cravenly held hostage to Republican primary voters nationwide. In related timidity, the page urges a special summertime revenue forecast that maybe possibly would prompt a special session. The editorial board passed on a chance to help stop the brinksmanship in the session's final days.

The Strib's David Shaffer has a surprisingly interesting story on a $70 million upgrade for a Red Wing lock-and-dam. The feds were supposed to fix a 70-year-old problem — the lack of a fish passage — but that part got dropped somewhere along the way. Now, the Army Corps wants another $10 million from somewhere. There've been 100 barge accidents on the site, and concrete blocks will be embedded "along vast stretches of shore and bottom land on the Wisconsin side of the river."

Among my many quirks, I've long been intrigued by porous pavement that prevents runoff; I think I did a story on it a decade or so ago. Now, the Strib's Laurie Blake says Shoreview is installing a million bucks of the stuff, which (hopefully) eliminates the need for a costly storm drain system. An aggregate sublayer apparently mitigates increased freeze-thaw danger. Authorities contend the 33-to-50-percent upcharge is offset by the drainage savings.

The Strib's Gail Rosenbloom localizes a recent Supreme Court decision denying women who took pregnancy leaves before 1979 credits toward their pension. The Supremes overturned an appeals court decision that deemed the women victims of retroactive discrimination, instead reasoning that companies shouldn't be liable for what was legal at the time. In other news, there will be no reparations for slavery.

I shouldn't be amazed, but WCCO's Darcy Pohland checks out the Hugo neighborhood largely rebuilt after a killer tornado one year ago. Don't know why I expected it to look more moonscape-y, but with the exception of an odd backhoe, the area seems untouched. Still, the family whose son was killed moved to another development where they could better care for their brain-damaged daughter.

Members of a Maple Grove Hindu temple buried vandalized statues Monday, WCCO's Esme Murphy reports. There's already been lots of coverage about how the temple folks forgave and embraced the vandals, who committed the acts three years ago and are still on the hook for restitution. Still, the ceremony offers a nice bit of closure.

The PiPress' Andy Rathbun chronicles the story of a western Wisconsin family's efforts to get their Roman Catholic mother out of Pakistan. Nassem Francis' husband got his exit visa 18 months ago and had to leave without his wife before the pass expired. The family is worried that the non-Muslim woman living alone will be targeted and hopes the publicity will shake her loose. However, I couldn't help wondering if it raises the likelihood of such targeting.

Somewhere along the way, I missed that veteran actor James Hong was a Minneapolitan; he's the centerpiece of Neal Justin's look at the documentary "Hollywood Chinese," which is on PBS Wednesday. Hong talks of being pushed toward radio when he tried to tread the boards at the U.

Ex-Wilco band member Jay Bennett died Sunday; according to Gawker, he'd recently blogged about needing hip surgery stemming from "a 'daring,' well, uh, really just ill-planned, and poorly executed, stage jump at Seventh Street Entry in Minneapolis, with Titanic Love Affair." The site suggests Bennett didn't have health insurance and might have harmed himself because of the pain. An autopsy is scheduled.

Nort spews: Frankie Liriano and Delmon Young stunk up the joint and Joe Mauer's pinch-hit, two-run homer couldn't save the Twins, who fell 6-5 at home to Boston. The makeshift lineup lacked Mauer, Denard Span and Joe Crede. The Duluth News-Tribune's Brandon Stahl profiles the 96-year-old World War II vet who sang "God Bless America" at the game.