The stimulus is not working, or so we are told. Rep. Michele Bachmann, for instance, has been making the rounds decrying the stimulus plan, as has Gov. Tim Pawlenty. But are they right?

Not if you're a rural Minnesotan, they're not, at least if USDA Rural Development's director for Minnesota Colleen Landkamer is to be believed. She is quoted by the Associated Press as saying the stimulus money has "meant new jobs, improved infrastructure, and increased home ownership in rural Minnesota," including helping at least 2,600 people get new homes.

Of course, it's a bit premature to even speculate on a hypothesis regarding the success of failure of the stimulus, as most of the money hasn't even been spent yet. In fact, according to Brandt Williams of Minnesota Public Radio, a third of the $60 million meant for Minneapolis just arrived in January. Williams doesn't say how the money arrived; we like to imagine President Barack Obama showing up at R.T. Rybak's house with one of those giant novelty checks. We'll revisit the question of the effectiveness of the stimulus once the money has been spent, and it's hard not to be curious about what Bachmann and Pawlenty will be saying then. Perhaps it will just turn out to be a massive boondoggle; who knows? We at the Daily Glean try to keep an open mind about things like this, and not just go spouting off about whether something has worked or not until the results are really in. That's why we're not politicians.

Speaking of Pawlenty, the governor's showdown with the bicameral got a little more heated Thursday when the Minnesota Senate voted to overturn Pawlenty's veto of the bill to extend General Assistance Medical Care. According to Jason Hoppin of the Pioneer Press, the vote was 45-21 along party lines. Pawlenty seemed unimpressed, calling the vote "ceremonial." After all, the process now moves to the House, where Pawlenty is sure he has enough Republican votes to uphold the veto. Pawlenty didn't mention it, but even if the House overturns the veto, as things stand now, he could simply unallot the money down the road. Last year, he initially used his line-item veto to strike $381 million in funding for GAMC and then unallotted another $15 million which, in effect, speeds up the demise of the program (now April 1).

And speaking of Bachmann, she will be welcoming a very special guest to help her — and the Minnesota GOP — raise funds in April. That person, according to Polinaut's Tom Scheck, is Sarah Palin, which might prove to be a boon to the local economy in its own way. After all, when Palin was here for the Republican National Convention, the McCain campaign bought her $75,000 worth of clothes and whatnot at Neiman-Marcus. It's probably too much to expect her to spend that sort of money again, but, still, sales associates, be alert!

Duluth has its own ideas about stimulating the economy, and it involves souping up the Internet, with the help of Google. Specifically, a short while ago Google announced that it wants to try out super-fast broadband in a test city, and, as Bob Kelleher of Minnesota Public Radio explains, Duluth Mayor Don Ness wants Duluth to be that city. Ness explains that Google's fiber network would mean that Duluth "will be a magnet for talent. We'll be a magnet for venture capital. We'll be a magnet for entrepreneurs that are looking to test and use this new, exciting tool." Google claims their network will be 10 times faster than current networks, which would mean a lot more humorously labeled cat photos would get sent back and forth, the web being what it is.

That's some good press for Duluth's mayor; alas, there is also some bad press for St. Cloud's former mayor, John Ellenbecker. According to the Associated Press, Ellenbecker was reprimanded by the Minnesota Supreme Court for unprofessional conduct as an attorney. What had he done? According to the AP, he "failed to return property to clients, failed to pay a private investigator even after ordered to do so by a court, and failed to cooperate with the investigation."

As attorney misbehavior goes, however, Ellenbecker's was not Thursday's most-notable. No, that award goes to criminal defense lawyer Al Garcia, who, as the Star Tribune's Rochelle Olson details, was sentenced to five years in the gray-bar hotel for possession of methamphetamine with the intent to sell it. And that's potentially just the start of Garcia's tale: On Monday, Garcia goes on trial for allegedly raping a potential female client in 2008. Olson quotes U.S. Chief Judge Michael Davis, who had worked with Garcia many times when Garcia was a City Hall activist. Davis said "It's not pleasant for me to see you standing before me as a defendant."

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn's tale seems to be mostly one of getting hurt and skiing anyway. For instance, she broke her pinkie in a crash on the first run of the impressively named Giant Slalom on Wednesday. Will that stop her from competing in the final women's Alpine event? Heck no, says the AP. And while we at the Glean want to wish Vonn the best, we'd like to note that one of the Glean writers has been composing his capsule summaries of the news with a broken pinkie toe for several weeks now, without complaining or seeking press coverage, so we can't help but think that Vonn is a bit needy for attention.