Former Republican Rep. Dave Bishop remembers sitting in the office of then-House Speaker Steve Sviggum, trying to calm him down. Sviggum was fuming, as Bishop recalls, because he had just been voted down on an issue by the executive board, a small group of GOP representatives that serve as caucus advisers to the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Legislature will test limits on the uses of the $540 million in proceeds from the state's 2008 Legacy Amendment

Amid the flurry of big-ticket budget bills and spreadsheets that have overtaken the Capitol in the past week, the comparatively puny environmental budget bills moving through the Legislature have attracted little attention in most quarters.

Tom Landwehr's appointment to head the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) represents a return to the place where he cut his teeth in wildlife management in the 1980s and '90s.

Rep. Denny McNamara plans to take an axe to a swath of proposed environmental projects that are paid for with Minnesota Lottery money.

State Rep. Rick Hansen's time on the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council was rocky from the start.

Rep. Rick Hansen, a persistent critic of decisions made by the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, has been removed from the 12-member body.

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.

Rep. Denny McNamara (GOP-Hastings) today announced plans for a bill that would lift the state's nuclear moratorium. The bill is expected to be introduced to the House on Monday.

After unsuccessful efforts in two recent sessions to push legislation toughening regulations related to the PolyMet mining project near Hoyt Lakes, DFL Rep. Alice Hausman now has a simpler strategy for 2011: Play defense on any front that presents itself.