On the same day House Democrats in D.C. trotted out their much anticipated health care reform bill, with cost control a major concern, Minnesota's own UnitedHealth snagged a gargantuan Defense Department contract worth $21.8 billion, with $1.5 billion to the Minnetonka health insurance giant, if all goes well. Chen May Yee delivers a strictly nuts-and-bolts Day One story for the Strib. The South Florida Business Journal reports that one of the losing bidders for the contract, Humana, is not happy. “Our company will evaluate its strategic options with respect to the government’s decision, including protesting the award," says a Humana spokesman. A scan of a dozen stories on the award showed consistent concern for the effect on stock prices of the affected companies.

Andersen Windows will lay off more than 500, including 250 management and staff positions, in two separate moves in the past week, with the latest announced Tuesday. Steve Alexander of the Strib writes, "The management and staff cuts are being made because the company believes its markets won't recover until late 2010 or early 2011." The PiPress story, by John Welbes, notes that, "The cuts announced Tuesday are tied to a market hurt by unemployment, foreclosures, falling home prices, tighter credit markets and low consumer confidence ... ." No word on the effect of health insurance costs on these cuts.

No Rammer in '10. Former Congressman Jim Ramstad announced, via an e-mail, that he will not run for Governor next year. This will surprise some who regard Ramstad as a candidate with crossover appeal and a genuine talent for one-on-one retail politics. Kevin Duchschere of the Strib reports, "Dan Hofrenning, a St. Olaf College political science professor, said Ramstad's biggest problem as a candidate would have been securing the endorsement of a party generally more conservative than he is." One theory is that this leaves the "moderate" slot in the local Republican race more open to Norm Coleman.

Strib editorial writer Lori Sturdevant mulls the way hyper-partisanship has had the majority in Congress thwarting the minority in recent years. Her piece opens with Rep. John Kline complaining about the current batch of Democrats shutting Republicans out of the process, then jumps to a chat with Minnesota native and human quote machine Norm Ornstein of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Ornstein, as usual, sounds reasonable enough saying, ""But this is not simply a one-way street. Look at the appropriations bills. ... The Republicans were offering 150 to 200 amendments, not because they had a bunch of amendments that made a lot of sense, but because they wanted to slow-walk the process." It's all a fair squabble with garden variety legislation. But we're into something critical these days. So it is interesting that there is no contextual reference to the loyal opposition's "alternatives" to either the stimulus bill or health care reform. Kind of important stuff.

It'd be nice to lose those student loans, wouldn't it? But the Grand Marais guy who ran up $350,000 in loans getting his law degree can't take the bankruptcy route out of debt. So says the court. The Strib's Jenna Ross tells the story of 45-year-old Mark Jesperson, who was on the 11-year plan ... to his undergraduate degree ... and is currently painting houses and living out of a camper. A key element in the court's decision was the fact that Jesperson, "hadn't made a single voluntary payment toward his student loans." To which Jesperson replies, "That's true. I'm just like everyone else on the planet. I've been surviving. Housing and food and diapers." And yes, at one point alcohol was involved.

KARE's Scott Seroka has a story about Minneapolis considering a plan to assess residential and commercial property owners for ... street lighting. Facing a $20 million whack to its share of state aid ... via unallotment ... "The fee or assessment would generate $3 million annually for the city. The assessment would be added to residents' county property tax bills; they would be required to pay $4 for every 1,000 square feet of property owned. 130,000 property owners would be affected." The report quotes one Minneapolis woman arguing that the city "should look elsewhere for a budget fix, saying streets lights are a very basic right." Maybe Minneapolis could take a cue from the airlines and start charging for ... use of sidewalks, breathable air rights and a late fall per-leaf removal fee.

Good piece by MPR's Tom Weber on the continuing ... and widening ... test achievement gap between black and white students in Minnesota. The twist is that it isn't because black students are performing more poorly. They're actually improving their scores. But the white kids' test results have spiked up even more dramatically. Weber quotes a Bloomington school official explaining, "I think some people look at the gap and would assume that African-American students in our state don't do as well, for example, as they may in other states. And that isn't necessarily true. The gap is more due to that extremely high score for the Caucasian population." Weber adds, "Take eighth-grade math, for example. In 2007, the national average score was 31 points higher for whites than blacks. But in Minnesota, that gap was 37 points; only four states had a larger gap than Minnesota." So apparently the kids aren't spending all their time texting about "Gossip Girl"? Who knew?

Under the heading of "I Guess You Really Can't Trust Anyone," Nicole Garrison-Sprenger of the PiPress has the story of Minnesota AG Lori Swanson going after National Arbitration Forum. a St. Louis Park company that supposedly resolves credit and collection disputes. Except that, "Swanson cited a study by Public Citizen, a watchdog group, that found that of more than 19,000 cases in which a National Arbitration Forum-appointed arbitrator was involved, the business won 94 percent of the time." 94 percent. That's a pretty good batting average in any league.

If you ever wondered what a judge would give you for pulling a gun over a dead skunk, now you know. The PiPress runs a story by Mark Stodghill of the Duluth News Tribune in which a brother, Jake Johnson of Gilbert, cocked a shotgun in his sister's face and two of her friends when she threw the dead skunk back at him. "According to the criminal complaint, Johnson brought a dead skunk to the station and placed it on his sister's vehicle. Either the sister or one of her friends returned the favor by throwing the skunk at Johnson's truck. That angered Johnson, and witnesses said he either pumped or cocked the shotgun and aimed it at the heads of the three other people." Let's have a show of hands. How many of you would even pick up a dead skunk?

Joe Mauer scored a run and drove in another in a 4-3 win by the American League in last night's All-Star game. Joe Christensen was in St. Louis for the pageantry, and a briskly played game. Joe Nathan pitched an inning and escaped damage and Justin Morneau hit a rocket to center for the American League's last out. The appearance by Stan Musial was pretty emotional.