At Tuesday's Minnesota Business Partnership dinner, Gov. Tim Pawlenty compared the failures of auto giant General Motors to those of government.

GM, he said, had been arrogant, smug and unwilling to change for years before it failed.

"Are there any parallels to be drawn from the decision-making that you have seen in Washington, D.C. -- not just now but over the last several decades -- regardless of which party has been in power?" Pawlenty said in his rather bleak speech. "Does any of that sound like Minnesota? And if it does, then I hope that concerns you. It concerns me. ... Our federal government in the United States of America would make General Motors look like Google in terms of innovation and moving forward."

The next day he said he plans to "bring that up from time to time" as he politicks across the country.

Pawlenty, who spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday on political travel out of the state, appears to be gearing up for a presidential run.

As part of that process, he addressed Republicans in Michigan last month -- but the GM-bashing didn't come up in that speech.

RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER AND ERIC ROPER

A key question for Rep. Marty Seifert, R-Marshall, as he considered a run for governor: Where will the kids go to school?

"It helped ... that St. Thomas More is across the street" from the governor's mansion in St. Paul, Seifert said. "That was some of the research we did actually in whether we should run for governor or not."

Should he win, he said, his children -- now 6 and 4 years old -- would finish the school year in Marshall before moving to St. Paul.

But no, he said, he hasn't signed his children up for the St. Paul Catholic school yet.

"I want to exude confidence but not arrogance," he said.

RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER

The latest analysis of federal stimulus money coming to Minnesota concludes that not enough is going to where it is needed most -- counties with high unemployment and concentrated poverty.

A coalition of groups that advocate for the poor said much of the money has been given to projects in the Twin Cities' outer suburbs and that too little has gone to public transportation, which would benefit the poor and minorities. Less than 20 percent of the more than $500 million for transportation projects went to public transportation, the groups said in a report released last week. "The public had little to no opportunity to provide input into what projects were funded," the study added.

The study was released by PolicyLink, the Organizing Apprenticeship Project and ISAIAH, which advocate for racial and economic justice. ISAIAH represents 90 religious congregations, primarily in St. Cloud and the Twin Cities. The groups also contend that too few transportation jobs go to minorities.

The groups and MnDOT had been meeting for nearly a year when MnDOT halted the talks for lack of progress and hired a mediator. Recently, the groups met with MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel to kick-start the process again.

"My real goal ... is that they actually do more hiring," said the Rev. Paul Slack of the New Creation Church in Brooklyn Park.

"MnDOT is in compliance with the laws regarding this issue. We can't force contractors to hire minorities," said Kevin Gutnecht, a MnDOT spokesman.

MIKE KASZUBA

Rep. Keith Ellison, addressing the Congressional Black Caucus on the House floor Wednesday night, offered a new reason why Congress must pass health care reform: more grandparents.

The Minneapolis Democrat explained that the life expectancy for blacks is 69 years, compared to the national average of 75, meaning many black children are never grandchildren.

More children "will get a chance to bounce on [their grandfather's] knee, get to know him ... maybe learn how to go fishing," if black life expectancy improves, Ellison said.

"There is one person who you knew thought you were absolutely terrific no matter what you did, and that's grandma, right?"

ERIC ROPER