After weeks of committee hearings, each one bearing new amendments and surprises, the already-dramatically divergent House and Senate stadium proposals faced an onslaught of on-the-fly amendments on the floor this week, and some major changes were adopted.A conference committee made up of six legislators is expected to meet sometime on Wednesday.

House Taxes Chairman Greg Davids, Health and Human Services Finance Chairman Jim Abeler and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Hoppe have signed onto a health insurance exchange bill

Last year voters in Wisconsin witnessed an ugly campaign for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court between incumbent justice David Prosser and assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg. Some three dozen outside interest groups spent $4.5 million seeking to influence the outcome of the contest, according to a report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

On Thursday the House and Senate will hold hearings on the possibility of unionizing in-home daycare providers. Gov. Mark Dayton is weighing whether to direct the Bureau of Mediation Services to hold an election to determine whether roughly 11,000 such workers wish to be represented by AFSCME Council 5 and the Service Employees International Union.

Gov. Mark Dayton and Republican leaders of the state House were up early Saturday morning to drop their lines into Lake Pokegama in Grand Rapids for the Governor's Fishing Opener.

Republicans have introduced a spate of constitutional amendments in recent weeks - ranging from photo identification at the polls to a ban on gay marriage - that they want to see in on the ballot in 2012. Powerful Republican Senate Taxes Chair Julianne Ortman added another to the mix on Tuesday to limit state spending.

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.

As HMOs seek a bigger share of Minnesota's health care business, former Minnesota Hospital Association attorney Dave Feinwachs leads a charge to see how they are spending the money

Rep. Sarah Anderson had been a staffer in the Minnesota House of Representatives for 10 years by 2006. That's when her predecessor in House District 43A, former Rep. Jeff Johnson, decided he'd leave the Legislature to make a run for the attorney general's office.

The House GOP has filled out its leadership ranks by naming a majority whip and four assistant majority leaders.