The questions are the same ones the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services uses to test applicants for citizenship.

The DFL-controlled Senate’s bill faced unanimous Republican opposition as well as three DFL defectors, but prevailed in a 35-28 vote.

K-12 education finance bills that account for roughly 40 percent of the state’s general fund spending are moving through the House and Senate floors this week.

The Senate omnibus E-12 education budget released on Thursday calls for a total of $15.6 million in spending on K-12 education for the next two years, or a nearly $500 million increase in projected spending for the 2014-2015 biennium.

Coming off the 2012 election, lawmakers are looking to make good on campaign promises to improve education and lower property taxes. On the issue of special education, both of those concerns are at play on a large scale.

The Senate DFL has formalized its committee structure and appointed the chairs who will direct the flow of legislation in 2013.

The new DFL legislative majorities that will take power in January owe a lot to the rejiggering of the geographic balance within their caucuses.

On paper the open seat in House District 43A should favor the DFL nominee. Partisan indexes suggest the district tilts in their favor by anywhere from 2 to 14 percentage points.

House District 43A is an odd creation. It meanders from the border of St. Paul to the northeast and contains at least part of five cities, including Maplewood, White Bear Lake and Mahtomedi.

Left for dead in April, the Vikings stadium bill sprinted to passage in the session’s closing days. What happened?