Bernie Madoff's local victims were revealed Thursday, and the local press is all over it. The Strib's Bob von Sternberg and Steve Alexander offer some new names, including gambling impresario Lyle Berman and their own Sid Hartman (replete with awesome quote). Ever the optimist, Berman notes he should get a tax refund on the phony profits he honestly reported. Developer Gary Holmes, who reportedly lost tens of millions, says he'll still eat but is worried about others. There's a local list here.

More Madoff: The PiPress' Nicole Garrison-Sprenger says another local developer, Welsh Co.'s Stan Baratz, was on the list. Seven local foundations may have lost $62 million; the American Jewish World's Mordecai Specktor has specifics here. Context: Minnesota foundations hold $18 billion in assets collectively. Mayo Clinic officials don't know the extent of losses from a Minnesotan's Florida-based foundation, which had its full $60 million wiped out.

Cookie crumbles: The Business Journal's Katherine Grayson lists local vendors Madoff stiffed, including the Minnesota Wild and "Love Bites, a gourmet cookie bakery in Eden Prairie." KARE's Joe Fryer talks to one local investor whose son's med school fund was obliterated.

Gov. Pawlenty's clever plan is playing out perfectly: The DFL came out for cutting education yesterday, the PiPress' Bill Salisbury reports. If you remember, Pawlenty proposed 2 percent hikes in the state's biggest spending category while slashing and borrowing against everything else. If the Dems wanted to ameliorate that, they'd have to trim the state's most popular program. "You can't put 40 percent of the budget off-line," noted DFL Sen. Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller. No percentage cut is specified.

Speaking of borrow-and-spend, the Strib editorializes against Pawlenty's tobacco gambit: Obligating future cig company payments is a gimmick that actually invites higher interest costs and only increased the structural deficit already plaguing the state. So there. Also, Forum Communications' Don Davis says even conservative Republicans are bashing Pawlenty's plan for a corporate tax cut.

Found ballots! Found ballots! The boring U.S. Senate election contest experienced the frisson of excitement; Anoka County officials discovered a dozen or more ballots the recount missed, the PiPress' Jason Hoppin reports. Three military ballots are Coleman's; six absentee votes remain unopened, and more should be reconsidered. MPR's Elizabeth Stawicki says Coleman's side is crowing about the rightness of bringing the election challenge.

The Strib's Pat Doyle and Kevin Duchschere offer an excellent primer on how Coleman is gaming the contest. Rather than "count every valid ballot," their absentee pile is heavily tilted to Coleman-friendly counties — 80 percent, not counting GOP-friendly parts of Hennepin and Ramsey. The Franken folks are now scrambling to include 800 ballots; just 24 percent are from Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth.

Related also: The PiPress' Rachel Stassen-Berger has the best rundown of the hopeless Franken argument that the state Supreme Court should issue him a provisional election certificate. Judges brutalized Al's lawyer while treating Coleman's and the state's attorneys with kit gloves. But she notes Coleman's argument may come back to bite him.

Speaking of Coleman, a Texas judge has delayed the DonorGate lawsuit against Nasser Kazeminy for 60 days, AP reports. A Houston company gets more time to investigate allegations that Kazeminy forced it to fork over $75,000 to Laurie Coleman's employer to subsidize the ex-senator.

Draft U Medical School regulations exclude many tougher reforms recommended by a task force, the Minnesota Daily's Emma Carew and Jake Grovum report. For example, a plan to require full research funding disclosure was left out; for any financial tie, there's $500 reporting exception — the task force had recommended zero. One national group pans the changes.

If you're looking for some good news, meth addiction keeps falling, MPR's Lorna Benson says. Minnesota hospital admissions fell 6 percent in the first half of '08; we're now at half the levels of 2005. Even better, kids' share of admissions, once 18 percent of the total, are now 1 percent.

Yikes: a fleeing car thief was killed when he barreled into a second north Minneapolis crime scene, the Strib's David Chanen reports. Ahmed Guled was about to slam into two squad cars dealing with a separate "shots fired" incident. Roadmap here.

Target sales fell 3.3 percent in January while Wal-Mart keeps gaining, the PiPress' Gita Sitaramiah writes. The retailer will fall short of analysts' profit predictions and consumers indelibly think Big Red is more expensive than Big Blue. However, AP says Target beat analysts' predicted 5.5 percent sales drop. And the company performed better than any other major retailer except Wal-Mart and Costco, according to this AP chart.

The Strib's Liz Fedor says St. Paul Ford Ranger workers, just back from a six-week furlough, must take another two weeks off by the end of March. However, there's good news: the automaker is adding airbags and electronic stability control to the tiny trucks, a sign they'll keep being made.

More geographic warfare: MPR's Bob Collins makes the astute point that shortly after rural Republicans proposed siphoning metro transit dollars for outstate school buses, seven city legislators proposed eliminating ethanol subsidies. Ethanol checks came to $15 million in 2007; the transportation plan is $100 million.

The Strib's Jill Burcum says reports of Big Stone II's demise are premature. President Obama's EPA isn't trying to kill the big SoDak coal-burner by erecting new regulatory hurdles, she writes.

The PiPress' Julio Ojeda-Zapata writes that the Twin Cities' Channel 23 will stop broadcasting in analog Feb. 17, despite a four-month digital-switchover delay recently approved by Congress. Twin Cities Public Television will air analog until June 12, as will KARE, WCCO and KSTP. What about Fox9?

In a plan everyone agrees is sensible, Minneapolis is steaming ahead with a plan for ranked-choice voting this November but will prepare for a traditonal backup in case a court appeal overturns IRV, the Strib's Steve Brandt reports. It's the first time I've seen city bureaucrats, proponents and IRV-haters march arm in arm.

The city of St. Paul got a half a million bucks back from a piece of bad paper Wells Fargo sold, the Strib's Chris Havens reports. The city contends Wells misrepresented the risks; the bank denied it but will pay back the initial value of the investment.