Brehm’s Coleman gig "not germane" to PiPress story: As MnIndy’s Paul Demko blogged yesterday, we can learn a lot about Andy Brehm (pictured, during a recent appearance on TPT’s Almanac) in a Sunday Pioneer Press article about how young people are gravitating toward Sen. John McCain’s campaign: He’s 27, just graduated from law school, has a Facebook page and is a tech-savvy "emailaholic." But the fact that Brehm is a onetime payrollee of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman — he was Coleman’s press secretary — didn’t merit mentioning. Megan Boldt, who wrote the piece, explained why in an email: "[T]he paper doesn’t see how that was relevant or germane to the story," she wrote. "I did know about Andy Brehm’s background, but the story was on how young Republicans are trying to invigorate their peers behind the candidate before the upcoming convention."

Across the river, the Star Tribune has a mixed record on such disclosures. While it doesn’t seem that Brehm has been the subject of a story, his guest columns mention his political jobs, but sometimes when he writes a letter to the editor — as he did on July 26 — they aren’t. But they should be: When I brought up a Nov. 2007 Brehm letter that ran without a mention of his Coleman relationship, Letters editor Tim O’Brien said it "fell through the cracks." (Apparently, the Strib’s budget cuts mean they still can’t afford proper sealants.)

PiPress partners with Politico, Yahoo: Meanwhile, the St. Paul paper has sealed another deal — its second, following the announcement that it’s been teaming up with D.C. political site Politico to cover the Republican National Convention — related to the RNC: It’s partnering with Yahoo to host a series of eight morning breakfast forums at St. Paul’s Crowne Plaza each day of the convention. The talks, moderated by newspaperfolk, will include "political, entertainment and media leaders" and will be available for viewing at both Yahoo News and Politico. And over at the Star Tribune… well, no such alliances have been announced yet.

City Pages award-winner bolts: City Pages has had at least a few months free of big staff firings or resignations, following a yearlong run in which its editorial roster saw an all but total makeover [current vs. Feb. 2007 version]. But that ended Thursday with the resignation of staff writer Jeff Severns Guntzel. A co-founder of Electronic Iraq with past gigs for diverse publications including the National Catholic Reporter and Punk Planet (not to mention several trips to Iraq on journalistic and humanitarian missions), he told MinnPost’s David Brauer he’ll be pursuing freelance projects for the time being (he wouldn’t speak on record to me for this post). But Guntzel’s exit may have something to do with the addition of an online newsblogging job at the paper. He would’ve begun that job — to "anchor the news blog on a full-time basis," according to a City Pages posting — yesterday, had he stayed. Guntzel won a first place at this year’s Society of Professional Journalists Page One Awards for his piece on churches protesting the same-sex marriage ban.