Elsewhere in Minnesota news this morning …

STATEWIDE: ‘Rithmetic favors referendums. Voters approved more than half of school districts’ requests for more money.  [Minnesota Public Radio]

DULUTH: School board seats split. Voters gave wins to two candidates who favor the “Red Plan” to close and build schools and two from the opposition, which still lacks power to stop it. [Duluth News Tribune]

STATE FAIR: “Everything is pre-existing.” That’s what one elderly fairgoer told U.S. Sen. Al Franken this year about her medical status, and he repeated the remark in a major floor speech on health care. [Political Pulse]

ST. PAUL: Sullivan sizing up GOP bid for guv. Businessman Brian Sullivan might give it another go, and Norm Coleman’s success fishing for friends on Facebook suggests he might too. [TPT Almanac: At the Capitol]

STATEWIDE: Warren Buffett buys BNSF railroad … for $200. Investor types will now drive out to Big Lake to ride the Northstar Commuter Rail line back in, simply for the privilege of traveling on track owned by the Oracle of Omaha. [Star Tribune; Parker Brothers]

PROCTOR: Renegade recliner re-dubbed “DWI Chair” on eBay. Police bent over backwards to please La-Z-Boy lawyers who wanted them to change the name under which they are auctioning off the souped-up chair they confiscated after a drunk “driver” crashed it. But the change will cost them bids from states where they say “DUI.” [Duluth News Tribune]