A week before Election Day, I asked foolhardy would-be seers to predict the outcome of 10 U.S. House and Senate races.

It's the Business Agenda, retail doom edition. Best Buy says this season is the worst retail climate it's ever seen. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that retailers nationwide are "terrified" and brainstorming strategies to lure shoppers. Target's emphasis is on value, promoting gifts under $25 and many popular toys at $10 or less. And the owner of six Minnesota malls, including Ridgedale, Knollwood Mall and Eden Prairie Center, is on the brink of bankruptcy, Finance and Commerce reports.

If you thought the campaign for the Senate was slimy, hang on. The recount process is going to be worse.

As election officials all over the state prepare to start recounting Minnesota's still unresolved U.S. Senate race, political junkies are looking back to an earlier statewide recount to see what lessons it teaches us in 2008.

HALMA, MINN. — As a boy growing up in tiny Halma (pop. 73), Shane Olson, 37, rarely missed a gathering to honor local veterans. It was a family thing.

Delta Air Lines says it wants to renegotiate terms of a $245 million debt its subsidiary Northwest Airlines owes the Metropolitan Airports Commission, the Star Tribune reports. The financing was contingent on Northwest maintaining a hub and headquarters in Minnesota. If the airline violates those terms, the agreement says the money must be paid back by 2012 instead of 2022.

While Sen. Norm Coleman waits to confirm whether or not he's been reelected, the late-breaking controversy that dominated the last days of the campaign hasn't gone away, and has been spiced up with a new detail.

The list of Smith College alums is impressive. Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Barbara Bush, Julia Child, Molly Ivins, Yolanda King, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Mitchell, Julie Nixon Eisenhower and Nancy Reagan are just a few of the notables.

Artists have been selected to create artwork for the 15 stations along the proposed Central Corridor light rail line that will connect the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Both Twin Cities mayors stopped by MinnPost's "One Year Anniversary" party Sunday night to offer their good wishes at St. Anthony Main in Minneapolis.

Best Buy rival Circuit City filed for bankruptcy protection this morning. How good is that news for our hometown electronics retailer? Last week, analysts forecast that competitors' store closings could hurt Best Buy in the short term because it means lots of liquidation sales. The shaky economy will dampen any bump Best Buy might get, but in the long term it looks to be a positive.

I'm not supposed to be writing this. I'm supposed to be letting my brain rest. My brain is recovering from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, and I'm supposed to be letting the blood be reabsorbed into my brain. No heavy lifting is how I interpret this, but the neurology people consider my work – reporting, writing and editing – heavy lifting for the brain.

Hennepin County tax officials will hold a tax-forfeited property auction Friday to sell 17 Minneapolis properties, including 16 vacant residential lots and one commercial property with a structure.

Is the Independence Party ready to move beyond Ventura and Barkley?