If there’s anything to the notion that all politics is personal, then it’s not hard to see how Erin Murphy wound up in the Minnesota Legislature. Murphy, the DFL state representative from St. Paul, is a nurse by profession. She comes from what she describes as a “big Irish Catholic family” that lionized John F. Kennedy.

After two hours-plus of floor debate this afternoon, House Democrats failed to peel off a single Republican vote to override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of General Assistance Medical Care legislation. House DFLers came up three votes shy of the two-thirds majority required to enact the bill without Pawlenty's signature.

Can Democrats pick off three GOP votes and override Gov. Tim Pawlenty's veto of General Assistance Medical Care legislation? That's the question that will be front and center as the House heads into session today.

The House and Senate are rushing into conference committee this week, hoping to make good on the pledge of DFL leaders that an early bonding package will be passed quickly.

The proposed expansion, which would increase capacity at the Moose Lake facility by 400 beds, came before the House's Health Care and Human Services Finance Division for a hearing earlier this week.

Since the GOP night of the long knives that followed the transportation veto override in 2007, no House Republican has ventured outside the fold on any high-profile matter of taxing or spending. But a lot of legislative DFLers think the 2010 session and a looming election could change that equation.

A funny thing happened on the way to GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty‘s announcement today that he’s devised an end-of-session headline that should read, "No special ...

A funny thing happened on the way to GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty‘s announcement today that he’s devised an end-of-session headline that should read, "No special ...

The Legislative Commission to End Poverty by 2020 is putting the finishing touches on more than a year’s worth of work toward figuring out how ...

Rep. Neil Peterson, R-Bloomington, started the legislative session on Feb. 12 as the House assistant minority whip. But that changed the day after Peterson voted ...