Last Wednesday, just a day after new Republican legislative majorities unveiled their downsized committee structure, it rained gavels at the Capitol. Incoming caucus leaders Amy Koch and Kurt Zellers handed down a total of 40 chair appointments as a substantial contingent of the anointed stood beaming at their side.

Making good on what they called part of their core campaign message, Republican leadership at the Legislature on Tuesday rolled out a drastically scaled back committee roster for the upcoming legislative session. The committee reconfiguration reduced the total number of legislative panels from 61 to 40, and GOP leaders predicted the move could save as much as $800,000. And they followed it up just a day later by appointing chairs to lead the freshly reconstituted committees.

House and Senate Republicans announced a slate of legislators to chair committees before taking off for a fly around of the state.

Fourteen Republican state legislators, including gubernatorial nominee Tom Emmer, received perfect ratings from Minnesota Majority for their voting records during the 2010 legislative session. Conversely, seven state senators, all Democrats, received zero ratings from the conservative advocacy group.

When Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty released his budget in February, the DFL-controlled Legislature scoffed. In the proposal, he relied on nearly $400 million in federal Medicaid stimulus dollars that had yet to be approved by Congress. DFL leaders said they would wait to finish their budget until they were certain that the money, meant to help states battered by the sluggish economy, was going to come through.

Session 2010's tempest over whether to take a federal deal that would have jump-started Minnesota's entry to a new federal Medicaid expansion hasn't subsided. It simply followed legislators out the doors of the Capitol and onto the campaign trail.

The Minnesota Association of Professional Employees has released its legislative rankings for the 2010 session. The public employees union scrutinized 16 House votes and 15 Senate votes in assessing the performance of legislators. Among the issues considered: support for the bonding bill and a plan to salvage the state's General Assistance Medical Care program for poor individuals.

For five days, often late into the night, legislators haggled over the details of a comprehensive health and human services bill. The 10 members of the conference committee debated nursing home surcharges, mental health grants and birthing center license requirements. On Tuesday, as the negotiations neared completion, lobbyists camped outside the packed Capitol hearing room on folding chairs parsing the details.

A conference committee met this afternoon on HF2798 / SF2519, bills that would make public the data on certain expenditures by public utility companies. But a final section in the House version, added as a pair of amendments on the floor, swung the utilities bill into the realm of election law.

Hennepin County commissioners unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday rejecting a proposed state contract that would have cleared the way for Hennepin County Medical Center to participate in a revamped General Assistance Medical Care program. Commissioners expressed concerns that the hospital would become a statewide safety net for indigent patients and that the economic stability of the facility would be put at risk.