Daily Glean: Norm fires back at Star Tribune questioners

Today’s most watchable video is the Strib’s belated but wise decision to record Norm Coleman’s editorial-board interview. He makes his basic election-law case here. Far more watchable is Norm’s agitation over the Strib’s investigative reporters, who chased after him at a late-campaign rally and brought theDonorGate issue to YouTube. “I take great offense to that,” says Coleman. The discussion comes after this non-answer about a possible FBI investigation into scandal-plagued donor Nasser Kazeminy. Transcript here.

The setting for the exchange was another stop on Coleman’s “stay the course” media tour. Coleman says he could win because GOP-leaning areas had more absentees nixed; unnoted is that hasn’t played out in similar counted piles. Norm also claims, “I don’t spend 30 seconds worrying about my political future,” even though that’s been his organizing principle for, oh decades. He does say election-contest lawyer Joe Friedberg will argue his Supreme Court appeal.

Away from the Coleman smoke, Strib editorialists attenuate their historical support of medical marijuana. Due to Gov. Pawlenty’s roadblock, legislative supporters may go the constitutional amendment route, which requires no gubernatorial approval. The Strib hates legislating that way, but instead of setting up relief in 2010 through the only route available, clicks its heels and hopes Pawlenty will accept a temporary pilot program. It is, as Cheech and Chong might say, a nice dream.

The PiPress plays up approval of three big Minnesota power lines. The paper’s Leslie Suzukamo says a last-minute compromise requires more renewable energy riding the $1.7 billion lines. Not all lefties are happy, notes MPR’s Sea Stachura; the renewable requirement is only on one line. Existing state standards will require a big wind-power jump. Ratepayers will pick up the lines’ tab. AP notes 18 more months of permitting hurdles.

AP burnishes the legend of Amy Klobuchar. Being a state’s only senator isn’t as tough as mining coal, though some profiles make it seem that way; the wire service again talks up A-Klo’s humor while steering clear of her actual votes. The interesting tidbit is at the end: GOP operative Vin Weber told her to stay close to the GOP convention and pound the crap out of his team.

In today’s Bachmann news, Minnesota Independent’s Paul Demko says Democrat El Tinklenberg sounds ready for a rematch. Good news: he’s got the groundwork; bad news, says one insider, is El “ran a piss-poor campaign.” Tinklenberg explains the dough flooded in too late to be used effectively. There also that third-party Anderson guy. Meanwhile, the PiPress’ Opinuendo gives the congresswoman a lesson in the difference between Americorps and true totalitarian re-education camps.

AP reports on the final state settling-up on the 35W collapse. All 179 claimants signed off; one family with four injuries received $3.1 million of the $36.6 million payout. The PiPress’ Debra O’Connor does a nice job with individual profiles.

Southwest CEO Gary Kelly pronounced the airlines’ move into MSP an “instant success,” and an “immediate contributor” to the company’s bottom line, the PiPress’ John Welbes writes. As a recent Southwest flier, I’m happy the company’s happy. However, the perennially profitable carrier announced a $91 million first-quarter loss. The company’s oft-praised fuel hedges turned south as prices fell. What kind of a world do we live in where Sun Country makes money while Southwest doesn’t?

Meanwhile, the Strib’s Suzanne Ziegler has a fun feature on bird discouragement at the airport. MSP has never had a major bird incident, even as conservation programs increase the number of fowl aloft. Canada geese are the prime danger followed by the diminutive starling. Airport workers got to make things go boom.

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Strib piece about North Minneapolis absentee landlords, the PiPress’ Chris Snowbeck says buyers are “burning through” the massive pile of Twin Cities foreclosures. Lender-mediated supply has fallen 14 percent in two months as prices have plummeted. Still, everyone cautions there’s a long way to go. Snowbeck and the Strib’s Steve Brandt also note the sentencing of major mortgage fraudsters. The TJ Waconia investors received eight and seven years in prison.

As the budget session gets to crunch time, state-backed organizations are publicizing the coming carnage. The Minnesota Historical Society says it will whack 100 of its 660 jobs and cut the hours for another 223 employees, Minnesota Public Radio’s Melanie Sommer and Euan Kerr report. Of course, travelers are more interested in the destinations; three historic sites would close and hours would be cut at many others. State cuts are magnified by admissions and donation losses.

Classy: WCCO-TV, which has absorbed some jibes from fired weatherman Paul Douglas since last year’s exit, profiles Douglas’ new weather venture with Conservation Minnesota and MinnPost. Douglas defends his campaign to raise awareness of global warming, once again reminding viewers of the difference between weather and climate.

This sounds a little like the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors”: The Strib’s Mary Abbe writes about a genetically manipulated petunia that carries a protein-coding sequence from an artist’s blood. The plant and attendant controversy are on display at the U’s Weisman Gallery. The U helped make the hemophilia hybrid.

The Strib’s Tom Horgen recounts the local bartender who broke the Guinness record for mixed drinks: 662 in an hour. Most drinks were dumped; Chris Raph went through 110 bottles of vodka and tequila, and raised money for charity. The old record was 389 — and each drink had to be different.

Nort spews: Let’s just blow past the Twins’ 9-2 shellacking by Toronto as too depressing, and instead celebrate the Wild’s removal of underwhelming G.M. Doug Risebrough. The Strib’s Pat Reusse, who’s generally phlegmatic on the subject of hockey, jumps with joy; PiPress puck addict Tom Powers sides with Risebrough, and Sid Hartman acts like Wayne Gretzky was demoted to a fourth line.