AM.MN: While Hecker’s in Hawaii, FBI raids his HQ

Wait ’til the birthers get a hold of this: Minnnesota motor baron Denny Hecker just happens to be in Hawaii when his headquarters get raided by FBI agents looking for doctored documents? Hecker hasn’t been charged with anything, but still he can take comfort — heck, refuge — in the fact that Hawaii, President Obama’s “birthplace,” is not a state. (Most Minnesotans do eventually return from visits to Hawaii… but nobody walks!)

Elsewhere in Minnesota headlines this morning …

STATEWIDE: Bad bridges get short shrift. Less than half of $50 million in federal stimulus that Minnesota spends on bridges will go toward spans that are “structurally deficient.” [Associated Press]

MINNEAPOLIS: State breaks silence, files I-35W bridge suit. The consultant on the bridge’s condition, URS Corp., should take the fall for its collapse, the lawsuit says. [Star Tribune]

DULUTH: Franken to address national progressive group. Al Franken makes his first Duluth appearance as senator Sunday in a keynote speech at a Commonweal Institute event. [Duluth News Tribune]

STILLWATER: Prisoner got pot from librarian. So says the criminal complaint against a state courts employee who made monthly visits to the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

ST. PAUL: DFL swears it didn’t know link was foul. The state party recalled a press release that directed the news media to a YouTube video showing an old woman cussing. [Political Animal]

ST. JAMES: Five-foot-four inmate scales fence, escapes. After crashing his car into a funeral home that then burned down (along with an attached house), Josue “Crazy Legs” Sosa was being held in the Watonwan County Jail – emphasis on was. [Associated Press; KAAL-TV]