1) A key Senate committee Thursday morning will hear a proposal that would allow severely ill patients to access medical marijuana, marking the first movement ...

The approval sends the bill to the House, where House Speaker Paul Thissen has said his caucus intends to adopt the Senate language.

With a quick swipe of his pen, Gov. Mark Dayton made Minnesota the 12th state in the nation to allow same-sex marriages as a crowd of more than a thousand watched on the front steps of the Capitol Tuesday.

All but three members of the Senate DFL caucus voted in favor of the bill -- Dan Sparks of Austin, LeRoy Stumpf of Plummer and Lyle Koenen of Clara City -- while only one Republican senator, bill co-sponsor Branden Petersen, voted in favor of the bill.

With most major finance bills clearing the House and Senate floors, attention will now turn towards conference committees this week. Conferees on several bills have already been appointed by legislative leaders.

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

Close on the heels of Tuesday’s election, members of the new DFL House and Senate majorities gathered behind closed doors on Thursday to elect their leaders. As expected, the minority leaders who helped steer Democrats back into control — Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook — were elevated to House speaker and Senate majority leader.

A bi-partisan group of 31 legislators sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday urging him to raise funds for a Minnesota Vikings stadium by allowing full-fledged casinos at the state's two horse racing tracks. It was signed by 27 Republicans and 4 DFlers.

Gov. Mark Dayton stirred the pot last week when he acknowledged he will not include revenue from gambling ventures in his budget presentation on Feb. 15. The news left disappointed advocates of gambling expansion fretting that the DFL governor may be yielding to his party's long-standing alliance with tribal gaming interests - which have given lavishly to DFL party units and campaigns in the past decade - in blocking incursions onto their turf.

Republicans are wasting little time in moving a proposal to lift the 17-year-old state ban on nuclear power plant construction. But while the newly elected Republican majorities in the House and Senate are making a hard charge on repealing the moratorium, the issue is not radiating with much intensity outside the Capitol halls.