The porta potty has been towed away, the makeshift shower has been disassembled and the waste pipe is flowing again at Steve Lang’s Minneapolis home.

His sister Angela called Whistleblower at lunchtime Wednesday to report that crews had fixed the damage done by a wooden pole installed this winter for the city Wi-Fi equipment. My story in today’s paper chronicled the creative ways the Langs maintained their personal hygiene over the weekend.

It took a while to sort out what caused the collapse of the waste pipe, but Angela Lang said one of the contractors at the scene told her an auger had likely nicked the pipe when the pole was put in place. For several months, the pole sank into the ground until it ruptured the pipe last Friday.

Lang said she was told by a city inspector Wednesday that “the city would take care of everything.”

Given how much we depend on our drains to drain and our toilets to flush, many of us would have found somewhere else to stay if we had experienced the ordeal of Steve Lang and his sister Angela. Whistleblower reporter Lora Pabst reported today how the siblings improvised for five days after a Wi-Fi pole installed by the city of Minneapolis may have crushed the home’s wastewater service pipe. Here are two photos Pabst took of the open air shower:

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Helen Pratt knows that the cottonwood tree towering over her Fridley home has been there since at least 1955, when her parents bought the property on Fourth Street N.E. What she doesn’t know is who owns the tree. That question is becoming an increasing worry for her. About five years ago, Pratt noticed that the tree seemed to be “tilting” in an alarming way toward her house.

“If another storm came through, that tree would fall down and it would take my house,” she said.

A few years ago, Pratt talked to city and state employees because the land is adjacent to the entrance ramp for Interstate 694 at University Avenue. Fridley said it belonged to the state of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota said it belonged to Fridley.

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Late Friday afternoon, I got word from the state Department of Revenue that they were raiding the assets of the biggest fish on the list of revoked sales tax permits - a defunct Lake Street car audio joint called Bass Zone, Inc. that I wrote about in April. My colleague Katie Humphrey, stationed in Burnsville, went to the scene of the seizure - another car audio business, BZ3 - and produced this video, as well as contributing to this story. Stay tuned for a state of Minnesota warehouse sale for some tire rims, car speakers and a 2003 Lexus.

Fellow Star Tribune Whistleblower Lora Pabst traveled to New Prague for her inaugural Sunday column, which detailed the limits of a city’s help in dealing with problems caused by a city-hired contractor. It’s one of the recurring themes of Whistleblower: just because government is involved doesn’t mean government is responsible.