News Day: January 6

Norm Coleman will sue to overturn the election results, despite calls from distinguished Minnesotans, including Democratic former V.P. Walter Mondale and Republican former governor Arne Carlson.

Twittering? Watch out for phishers, who have been trying to get e-mail contacts from Twitter users. Someone also hacked 33 Twitter accounts over the weekend, including Barack Obama and Britney Spears. According to BBC, the hackers promised free petrol from Mr. Obama and ” some very personal statistics from Ms Spears.”

Snow, ice, sledding and broken backs – that’s winter in Minnesota, according to the Hennepin County Medical Center. Docs say they’ve seen twice as many back injuries this year as last year. Icy hills made sledding more dangerous.

And the beat goes on — Alcoa cutting 115,200 employees, Toyota shutting down its Japanese plants for 11 days.

Here in MN, the PiPress reports that social services are seeing more need. In Sherburne County, “14 people called the county every day in 2008 for information about financial assistance. That’s up from an average of three calls a day in 2006.” December 1 saw an all-time one-day record of 625 calls for help.

NPR’s Planet Money asks “Where would we be if FDR had done nothing?” And over at NYT, Paul Krugman warns that Congress and the incoming Obama administration have to act quickly. “The fact is,” writes Krugman, “that recent economic numbers have been terrifying, not just in the United States but around the world. Manufacturing, in particular, is plunging everywhere. Banks aren’t lending; businesses and consumers aren’t spending. Let’s not mince words: This looks an awful lot like the beginning of a second Great Depression.”