Republican Rep. Tim Kelly introduced the proposal in a Capitol news conference on Wednesday, which would add civil union language in state law next to any mention of marriage. Kelly was joined by Republican Reps. Pat Garofalo, Andrea Kieffer and Denny McNamara. Rochester DFL Rep. Kim Norton has also signed on to the bill but was not at the news conference.

For Branden Petersen, the past week has been, in his words, “unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.” It all started when the 27-year-old Republican senator from Andover told the Star Tribune that he’s likely to support a DFL effort to legalize gay marriage in 2013, just months after voters rejected a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

The Republican takeover of a Minnesota House seat that’s home to cities like Cottage Grove and St. Paul Park was one of the more surprising turns among the many upheavals in the 2010 election.

The landscape is shifting for the 12-member citizen-legislator group that recommends conservation habitat land acquisitions to the state Legislature.

Near-miss 2010 GOP challenger Karin Housley mounts primary bid for retiree Vandeveer’s seat

Silica sand mining has become a booming business in southeastern Minnesota, and as a result it’s also become a burgeoning issue at the Legislature.

After piling on to an old-style, double-decker excursion boat at Rosemount on Wednesday morning, scores of citizens, politicians and government agency employees listened as officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outlined an ambitious plan to revitalize the most degraded stretch of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

After adjourning in the wee hours of Thursday morning, the Minnesota House of Representatives plunged ahead with the bittersweet biennial ritual of retirement speeches from departing members.

A state fund that helps pay for game warden salaries and other state natural resource operations is projected to run out of money as of July 2013.

The state House on Thursday passed an environment policy bill 74-52 that drew fire from environmental groups.