Minnesota counties have begun arguing that they can handle basic services — road maintenance and plowing, for example — better than is being done now under a minor mountain of Capitol-driven restrictions. The PiPress's Bill Salisbury reports on yesterday's press conference by the Association of Minnesota Counties. "With the state facing a $1.2 billion budget deficit, counties know their state funding is going to be cut, said Jim Mulder, the association's executive director. Instead of whining about the cuts, Mulder said, counties want Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Legislature to give them more flexibility on how they deliver services and fewer spending requirements. 'We are not going to do more with less. We are going to do less with less, and hopefully ... do it better,' he said. The association estimated their 'redesign plan' could save the state $1 billion over the next two years."

Norm Coleman formally announced his new job, or is it jobs? Eric Roper, writing in the Strib's Hot Dish Politics blog, covers Coleman's not exactly surprising announcement. "... the 'American Action Network' and 'American Action Forum' — modeled after the liberal Center for American Progress has been known for several weeks. Monday was merely a formal introduction. The outline is essentially as follows: The 'Forum' will be a think tank focused on policy work and the 'Network' will be geared toward spreading that message through forums, education, advertising, etc. (not to mention some possible lobbying)." Coleman is calling the two offices "center-right" and asserts, "If you line up 10 Minnesotans and 10 Texans and 10 New Yorkers, 10 Californians, we believe that six to seven of them without a doubt don’t want the government running General Motors and they don’t want the government running their health care." Hmm, note to self: Check where funding for these two is coming from.

MPR's Dan Olson covers a study out of the University of Florida that concludes increasing the price of booze does in fact reduce the amount of drinking going on. The relevance is that a tax increase might push a little dough into state and local coffers AND reduce the number of traffic deaths. Olson points out, though, that, "Increasing the price as a way to try reduce the role booze plays in crashes is not on the table this legislative session in St. Paul. The governor and some lawmakers oppose any new taxes.

"That opposition helped kill a proposal last session to raise the state's excise on liquor, beer and wine. The state excise tax hasn't been raised since 1987 and the federal excise tax hasn't been raised since 1991."

They must be so proud. Andy Birkey, writing in The Minnesota Independent, notes that Republican gubernatorial candidates Tom Emmer and Allen Quist picked up "A" ratings from a group calling itself Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform. Uh, huh. That's nice. But what is this "reform" group all about, really? "Minn-SIR got its start as the Minnesota Minutemen, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as 'Nativist Extremist.' The group has falsely claimed that immigrants from Mexico are responsible for a record increase in cases of leprosy (also known as Hanson’s disease) and has campaigned to get Spanish-language radio stations shut down. Minn-SIR is a frequent poster in the online chat group Confederate Americans for Secure Borders." That "huddled masses" stuff is so 1900.

That deadly 2006 crash of a 1996 Toyota on a Snelling Ave. off-ramp gets another review, from Emily Gurnon of the PiPress, following yesterday's congressional testimony. The car is older than other Toyotas mentioned in the current fracas, but the events were eerily familiar to other recent crashes. The question remains, "How did prosecutors make a case of vehicular homicide against a guy coming back from a church event with his family along for the ride?"

The cranky professors at the SCSU Scholars blog aren't having any of that happy safety/protect our children babble coming from the sponsors of a bill that would require registration and insurance from anyone operating those inflatable bounce house/jumping rooms often hauled in for kids' parties — you know, the ones where little Stevie from next door mashes his head against little Dora and there's bleeding and howling and parents jump in and bounce around trying to rescue their kiddies?  "My guess is this bill is really meant to go after people who rent them for their kid's birthday party. Nothing like a legislator who protects moms and dads from their own stupidity in putting an inflatable bounce house up in a 30 MPH wind."

It was a movie, I think, where things got so bad for the guy the jeweler repo'ed the engagement ring off his girlfriend's finger. It's kind of like that now for Denny Hecker. The bankruptcy trustee, looking for every nickel Denny, and Denny's various female companions, have that can liquidated, has told girlfriend Christi Rowan to fork over assets valued at as much as $425,000. Dee DePass writes in the Strib, "She is also ordered to give back $11,000 Hecker spent on lodging and airplane expenses for travel to Aspen, Colo.; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; and Hawaii. The order to forfeit property and cash is technically a 'default judgment' that leaves Rowan in a pickle. Kressel signed the order Tuesday after Rowan supposedly failed to respond to [bankruptcy trustee Randy] Seaver's Jan. 15 lawsuit."

David Hanners of the PiPress covers a con man scam involving a trick called "black money." The part where the chump is supposed to stand on two pieces of paper and some weird liquid sandwiching a $100 bill makes for a pretty silly image. Writes Hanners, " ... in the 'black money' scam, the con man shows his mark stacks of what he says is U.S. currency covered by a black substance to avoid detection. Usually, they're just black pieces of paper cut to the size of a Federal Reserve note.The con man then tells his mark that the black can be washed off the bills only by using a chemical that is ridiculously expensive. The con man tells his mark that if he gives him the money to buy the chemical, he'll give him a percentage of the money once it is cleansed." Silly me, I prefer more reliable scams, like Goldman Sachs CDOs.

We are of course delighted to hear that Target is doing well. Apparently the combination of lighter inventories and modest improvement in demand pushed 2009 4th quarter profits up 54 percent over 2008, the quarter the economy fell off the cliff. The Strib's Jackie Crosby says, "While staples such as food, health care items and beauty continue to be the main sales drivers, Chief Financial Officer Doug Scovanner said in an interview that the sales mix in the fourth quarter 'felt much more typical' of pre-recession days. 'Low margin [merchandise] outpaced the sales in higher margin — but not by much,' he said."

The Wall Street Journal online notes at least one trader selling "a strangle" on Target's July options. A what? "A short strangle involves the sale of both call options and put options and signals a belief the stock will trade in a range. The trader in this case sold July $47 puts and July $52.50 calls, collecting about $3.65 for a position that makes money if Target shares stay between $43.35 and $56.15 until mid-July." Oh. Right. "If the trader already owns shares in Target, he or she is committing to buying additional shares if the stock slips below the strike price of the put and to selling the shares if the price moves above the strike price of the call." Like I said, I'm sticking with 30-to-1 leveraged derivatives.