Words that begin with F and N: Michael Lacey, co-owner of Village Voice Media (City Pages’ parent company), apologized this week for using the “n-word” in his acceptance speech at an awards banquet on Friday, stating that it was “inappropriate” to use the term to honor his late friend, Pulitzer-winner Tom Fitzpatrick. But his apology also seemed to have an implied f-word to colleagues who were outraged. “It is regrettable that any phrase of mine offended those attending a First Amendment awards banquet,” he said.

Politics and Pulitzer: Did MnDOT employees submarine the Strib’s shot at a Pulitzer for its coverage of the 35W collapse? News Cut links up a December piece at Politics in Minnesota in which Sarah Janecek wrote, “MnDOT has been keeping a file documenting every fact that it deems the Star Tribune has gotten wrong. My sources tell me the file has become inches high…and that MnDOT plans to make sure the Pulitzer Prize Board receives it.”

Brauer’s beat: David Brauer at MinnPost has been all over the Strib beat. Worth reading: his recent columns on the paper’s venture into TV and its hiring of man-about-media and Campbell Mithun senior VP John Rash to sit on its editorial board, a rare crossing of the “ad-edit barrier.”