Friday 3/17 news cruise

FRIDAY MORNING NEWS CRUISE: WAL-MART NO, WOLFIE YES, AND THE SHOCKING DETAILS OF THE ST. PATRICK'S DAY MASSACRE

In the Strib: The town of Ham Lake says no to Wal-Mart; Northwest Airlines to trim fleet and cut 900 jobs; St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly is not a very nice man; CJ reveals that "Joe Millionaire" is only a TV show. Tabloid-friendly crime story of the day: Murdered St. Paul woman was pregnant. (That's right--just like Laci Peterson. The top-o'-page online story teaser calls Memory Pachowicz's pregnancy "the most shocking detail to come out of the case so far." We'll say!)  

In the Pi-Press: It's hard but kind of zany being a gal of Swedish-English descent married to an Irishman on St. Patrick's Day. Sigh. (This is sooo Tracy and Hepburn.)

Other papers: Some government studies of the Yucca Mountain nuclear fuel repository were falsified (NYT); Dana Priest writes that the CIA's safeguards against the torture of prisoners in third-party countries are a sham (WashPost); Europeans don't like new World Bank appointee Paul Wolfowitz--well, it's mutual, actually (The Independent); oil prices to continue rising (LAT).