MINNEAPOLIS: A stadium not named for Hubert H. Humphrey. The Metrodome’s successor, as envisioned by the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, gets shown off today. [Minnesota Public Radio]

VIRGINIA: Iron Range union local backs local boy. If taconite pellets were votes, state Rep. Tom Rukavina would be governor. [Hot Dish Politics]

STATEWIDE: Dems could do worse at getting elected governor. In Utah or South Dakota. [Smart Politics]

SIXTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: A no vote on “dastardly” jobs bill. Michele Bachmann was opposed but the legislation passed the U.S. House 217-212. [St. Cloud Times]

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: Flight attendant wondered if they’d get there by midnight. But the Northwest flight crew member on the jet that overshot the Twin Cities hadn’t heard of Greenwich Mean Time. [Associated Press]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Historic map set for permanent display. The 1602 rarity showing China at the center of the world arrives just in time for the Chinese Century. [Minnesota Public Radio]

Photos: US Senate Historical Office (Grams), Sherman Group (Sherman)

Three Minnesota politicians — none of them now in office — received political donations from accused Ponzi schemer Sir Allen Stanford or his staff. Stanford’s largest and most recent gift ($2,300) was to Democrat Ashwin Madia, who tried unsuccessfully to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad last year. Former Sen. Rod Grams got $1,000 from Stanford for his failed 2000 bid for re-election. And another former senator, Norm Coleman, received $1,000 in 2006 from a top Stanford employee, Jay Comeaux, who was then executive director at the Stanford Group Company. (He’s no longer listed at the Web site for the firm, which is now in receivership.)

The breakdown of gifts to Minnesotans — two contributions to Republicans, one to a Democrat — is the inverse of how Stanford and his employees split the $2.4 million they donated to politicians and political action committees since 2000. Two-thirds went to Democratic candidates and causes.

Stanford’s phony investment schemes are said to have left investors $8 billion poorer. Some politicians, including Sen. John Cornyn from Stanford’s home state of Texas, say they’ll make donations to charity or to the Stanford Group receiver in the amounts they received from Stanford.

Stanford — who goes by “Sir” after having been knighted by his adopted country, Antigua —  usually picked winners, but of the three Minnesotans, Coleman is the only one who might hold office in the near future. And that’s only if he wins his court battle to reverse the Minnesota State Canvassing Board’s election recount in favor of his DFL challenger, Al Franken.

What might have motivated Bachmann to write a letter supporting a presidential pardon for Vennes on Dec. 10, 2007? Vennes made a series of donations to her campaign before and after she wrote the letter — which she withdrew in the final month of her re-election campaign last year, after the Petters scandal came to light.

Vennes has not yet been charged in connection with the Petters investigation.

It’s the second politically unpalatable presidential pardon in six weeks to touch Coleman, who remains in the grips of a drawn-out recount in his bid for re-election against Democratic challenger Al Franken. The Minnesota Independent broke the news last month that soon after taking office in 2003, Coleman wrote letters of support for the pardon application of Frank Vennes, Jr. A convicted money launderer now best known as an associate of accused Ponzi schemer Tom Petters, Vennes was also a donor to Coleman’s 2002 campaign fund and to political action committees that supported Coleman.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann revoked her support of a pardon for Vennes after the Petters scandal broke this year. She also redirected a portion of Vennes’s contributions to her campaign to Minnesota Teen Challenge, a faith-based drug treatment program that’s been a favorite of Minnesota politicians.