For Phyllis Kahn’s ethics complaint against Denny McNamara to advance, she needed to win over one of two Republican voting members of the House Ethics Committee, but both took a dim view of the merits of Kahn’s claim from the start.

After failing in a lower House committee a week earlier, the elite Ways and Means Committee has advanced the publicly subsidized stadium project for the Minnesota Vikings to the House floor on a voice vote.

Hutchinson Mayor Steve Cook watched as the Legislature finished its work in a mid-July special session. Like many other local government officials, he was not impressed.

The Republicans' budget resolution passed the House Ways and Means Committee over the objection of Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan.

Republican leaders at the Capitol have set committee deadlines for the 2011 session, bumping up the date for finance proposals to be heard in face of a multi-billion budget deficit.

There were few surprises when the Minnesota House GOP released committee rosters last week. Legislators, Republican and Democrat alike, landed in spots where they've sat before, or - in the case of new lawmakers - where they have accrued relevant experience in their professional and personal lives.

The makeup of the state Legislature that will sit down for the 2006 session starting in March may depend on what happens in St. Cloud. ...