Last month, the U.S. General Services Administration announced that the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building would get a hefty $115,130,000 for “High Performance Green Building Modernization,” part of a $4.2 billion plan to make federal buildings more energy-efficient. This immense but decidedly unlovely 40-year-old concrete block of an office, an island in the asphalt parking lot sprawl at Fort Snelling, houses a number of federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, Defense Department and Fish & Wildlife Service. The only other Minnesota federal building on the GSA stimulus list is the 12-year-old federal courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, slated to get $2.977 million for energy efficiency upgrades.

My colleague Mary Jane Smetanka reported on the destination of $5.5 million in stimulus money for local police. The lion’s share, $3.8 million, goes to sustaining 87 officers at the big kahuna, the Minneapolis police. That’s not surprising, given President Obama’s speech to Congress that included a shout-out of how the stimulus spending kept cops on the streets of the City of Lakes. Here’s the full list of who will get the stimulus bill’s “Justice Assistance Grants,” approved by the Hennepin County Commissioners:

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The feds have left a $48 billion chunk of the stimulus spending for states to divvy up largely as they please, and Minnesota lawmakers are leaders in figuring out where to spend their piece of it, the Associated Press reports. Here’s how AP’s Martiga Lohn describes it:

One Minnesota lawmaker wants $2.5 million in federal stimulus money for a suburban community arts center. Another would settle for $15,000 to make windows airtight in a community center in his district. On their colleagues’ wish lists: solar heat for public school swimming pools, a children’s museum, a family center, an early childhood reading program and an industrial biomass fuel plant.

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Jay Lunde, “half retired” in Bloomington, called me this afternoon to ask whether I was planning to tell the public how many speechwriters, lobbyists, big airplanes etc. make up the entourage for President Obama’s big European tour. Lunde and his friends sometimes play golf together. Other times, like today, they’re “political analysts” bemoaning the lack of news reporting to hold government accountable.

At first, I directed him to the Washington media. Then, I realized my folly. Why not use Lunde’s question as a test of the White House’s promises to be a glass house, as “open and accessible” as can be? I wanted Lunde to make the request himself, as part of Whistleblower’s mission to empower citizens with information. But Lunde’s computer has gone on furlough. I agreed to ask the question myself, but as a private citizen, rather than going through the press office. I filled out my questions at the White House contact page. I will let you know when the White House gets back to regular citizens with burning questions.