Mike Mullen//June 6, 2014//
1) The final legal barrier to constructing a $90 million Senate office complex was removed on Thursday, the Associated Press reports.
The state Supreme Court ruled that former GOP Rep. Jim Knoblach had to put up an $11 million bond that a lower court had said he would need to post in order to continue his lawsuit against the building.
“This is going to be the poster-child exhibit for wasteful spending as far as a lot of the public is concerned,” Knoblach said.
2) Former state Sen. John Howe, R-Red Wing, announced on Thursday that he’s dropping out of the secretary of state’s race.
Howe could have taken his party’s endorsed candidate, former Rep. Dan “Doc” Severson, to an August primary, but declined to do so because he previously pledged to abide by the party’s endorsement. Howe has urged members of the GOP to leave behind the contentious Voter ID fights of the past and instead focus on the business functions of the secretary of state’s office.
3) Gov. Mark Dayton celebrated a public infrastructure priority of his on Thursday — the impending expansion $11.5 million expansion of the River’s Edge Convention Center, the St. Cloud Times reports.
Dayton’s push for funding regional centers was finally realized in this sessions more than $1 billion in infrastructure borrowing, and he took Thursday to travel to St. Cloud to enjoy the planned completion of the event center. “On this project, Gov. Dayton did deliver for Central Minnesota,” St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce President Teresa Bohnen said.
COMINGS & GOINGS