There's really no other way to put this: Congressman Keith Ellison messed up by not reporting all the details of a privately paid Mecca pilgrimage. The Strib's Eric Roper says the Inver Grove Heights-based Muslim American Society paid the freight, but Ellison won't say how much that freight is. The ex-lawyer falls back on a House Ethics ruling not requiring disclosure (the panel is revisiting that). Still, public trust is involved here; no legal pettifogging, please. Ellison's office wouldn't even release Ethics Committee letters.

More Mecca: Among the Minnesota delegation, only Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Tim Walz have forsworn privately paid travel; Collin Peterson's staff took the second-most trips in Congress; Jim Oberstar has taken $44,000 worth, and Michele Bachmann got a "several thousand dollar" Israel travel spiff. (No exact amount? Does that mean she lacks full disclosure, too?) By the way, the Muslim American Society head is also principal of the Tarik ibn Ziyad charter school, which has had its share of controversy.

Gov. Pawlenty mocks the DFL's strategic stupidity in allowing him unallotment powers, the PiPress' Bill Salisbury reports. While this is stating what politics-watchers already know, the guv says all the DFL needed to do was withhold a spending bill or insert a "poison pill" to keep him from signing an unbalanced budget. It's a backhanded way of defending the $2.7 billion premeditated unallotment as constitutional. DFLers predictably disagree.

Elsewhere in state non-spending, U Regents approved $95 million in cuts with 1,240 lost jobs and 370 layoffs, the PiPress' Doug Belden writes. The Strib's Jenna Ross says $81 million is because of reduced state appropriations. A move to redeploy $4 million to trim a 7.5 percent grad-school tuition hike got only one vote. Federal stimulus money trimmed the damage; the governor's $50 million unallotment will kick in the following year.

More U hikes: Strib editorialists caution against freaking out about higher tuition, increasingly, the "sticker price" is brought down by higher aid. They also rationalize the rise by noting the U is only at "the midpoint of that charged by the competition." Also, as expected, the regents voted 10-2 to make the new football stadium a dry hole, liquor-wise, the Strib's Alex Ebert writes.

With so little good news, perhaps it's understandable why Minnesota's suicide rate is rising. The Strib's Chao Xiong says the rate has been growing since 2000, but a 24-hour crisis hot line has seen a 20 percent jump this year. First-time, middle-class callers are propelled by the lousy economy, hot line spokesfolk report. The state rate fell from 13.8 deaths per thousand in 1986 to 8.9 in 2000; now it's up to 11. (And not in the fun Spinal Tap way.) Epidemiologists aren't leaping on the economic-explanation bandwagon.

Nice lede from PiPresser Dave Orrick: "Leave it to actor-comedian Bill Murray and a descendant of baseball prankster Bill Veeck to pitch a backward-facing baseball stadium in downtown St. Paul." Seems $25 million in public funding will buy Lowertown a stadium where the evening sun shines in batters' eyes. Saints exec Tom Whaley swears buildings will shield hitters. Murray notes downtown's deadness, saying the place "would really make downtown pop." Just like the area around the Metrodome!

St. Paul voters can opt to join Minneapolis — at least in using instant runoff voting, Orrick reports. The City Council wording for a ranked-preference charter-change question was forced on them by petition. Somewhat petulantly, they made it lengthier, enumerating "fourth, fifth and sixth" options instead of just "first, second, third and so forth." Critics attack IRV as overly complex; Minneapolis will provide the test case, but St. Paul voters won't know the results when they vote.

Partly to justify Gov. Pawlenty's unallotments, and partially to neutralize anti-allotment spokesman and 2010 gubernatorial hopeful R.T. Rybak, Republicans have been banging on Minneapolis spending. New ammo: a $201,000 settlement the city must pay noisy northeast Minneapolis bar Gabby's. According to the Strib's Steve Brandt, a court said the city went to far penalizing the watering hole for patrons' off-premises misbehavior. The bar filed federal suit alleging the city was racist for cracking down on hip-hop nights that attract black patrons.

MPR's Mark Steil takes a substantive look at the federal climate change bill's fate now that Collin Peterson has signed off on it. Powerful ag (and other) interests are still opposed, and claim moderate and freshman Democrats will face a tough vote. Meanwhile, the Union of Concerned Scientists says if nothing is done, by century's end, Minnesota temps will rise by up to 12 degrees, with 30 plus-100 days and 70 over 90 degrees. Yuck. For now, crop farms are still producing strong profits, the Morris Sun-Tribune says.

New State House Minority Leader Kurt Zellers is "the most politically vulnerable" politician to hold such a post in years, Smart Politics' Eric Ostermeier writes. Zellers won his Maple Grove seat by 4 and 6 percentage points in the last two House elections; by contrast, Steve Sviggum, Tim Pawlenty, Eric Paulsen and Marty Seifert won their seats by no less than 21 points. Will Zellers' new status give him vote-getting clout or make him a bigger target? Probably the former.

As 100 people protest Iranian ballot-counting in Minneapolis, the PiPress' Ruben Rosario reflects on torture that in-country demonstrators face and talks to local survivors. He also checks in with folks at the local Center for Victims of Torture about initiatives struggling to get funding, and America's declining moral standing on the issue. Minnesota Independent's Chris Steller has more from the U march.

WCCO's James Schugel says Burnsville cops have stepped up patrols in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Area because of gay sex and other lewd public conduct. "Is there a reason you're rubbing yourself and have a partial erection while you're rubbing yourself?" one cop asked an alleged perp. No word on the answer.

Tom Petters, eclipsed by Denny Hecker in the Bad News race, gets back in the headlines — twice. The Strib's David Phelps reports Petters' Florida estate found a $9.5 million buyer, who will pay more than the 2004 purchase price — in this market! (Amenities such as wine collection and "digital cameras, flat-screen TVs and digital picture frames worth more than $4,000" made the difference.) Elsewhere, Phelps and Matt McKinney say Petters will likely be ordered to disgorge a 16 percent interest in Redstone American Grill.

Good news: KARE's Joe Fryer says Minneapolis has removed 75 "no right on red" signs since 2005, including 10 this year. As a resident, I can say many are absurd, and the city did a good thing changing policy a few years ago. However, Fryer finds folks near Uptown who consider the move hair-raisingly dangerous. More good news west of the river: Hennepin County juvenile detentions are down 33 percent over three years, AP notes. On the other hand, Minneapolis has a dangerous cat, KSTP notes.

MnIndy's Steller makes engaging linkage between AWOL South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Minnesota's last disappearing governor: Rudy Perpich. Unlike the internationally philandering Sanford, Perpich took off unescorted to secretly visit power line protesters in the '80s. It's a great tale.

Nort spews: Nick Blackburn has become an ace on the mound, but not so much as a fielder; his eighth-inning error resulted in a 4-3 loss at Milwaukee. The Twins are now a hefty five games out of first, and it's certainly justified. Elsewhere, the Wolves didn't make a trade Wednesday; for now, they have the fifth and sixth picks in tonight's draft. Fox9 says Mankato, home of Vikings training camp, is preparing for the Favre era.