The perennial bill to install slots in the state’s two racetracks was yanked from its first hearing in the Senate Education Committee amid fear that the committee’s conservative members would kill it early in the session.

The bill emerged largely as introduced Wednesday, except for a nominal amount of funds for a Mankato civic center, which supporters added as a placeholder Thursday morning.

The Minnesota Vikings stadium prospects faltered in their first stop in a legislative committee. The Senate Local Government Committee laid the bill over without a clear indication of when they would restart debate.

The bills are the first to pass the Senate, where a number of shutdown-mitigating bills have been introduced. Republicans are also weighing an "umbrella" shutdown bill.

House and Senate races across the state are rapidly shaking out following the release of new legislative maps.

State Sen. Al DeKruif has announced he won’t seek a second term. He was paired with fellow Republican Sen. Julie Rosen in the new redistricting maps.

For all the fanfare that attended Thursday’s announcement of an agreement among the main players in the Vikings stadium saga, the plan as presented begged as many critical questions as it answered.

The Minnesota Vikings, Gov. Mark Dayton and key legislators have reached a deal on a $975 million stadium from the Minnesota Vikings to be build by public and private sources.

A slew of former DFL and GOP legislators announced campaigns for House and Senate districts this week, including Carrie Ruud, a former Republican senator from Breezy Point, former DFL Rep. David Bly of Northfield, former DFL Sen. Kevin Dahle and former DFL Rep. Paul Rosenthal.

Fallout has been almost constant since release of the state's redistricting maps last week, and over the weekend a few more incumbent-on-incumbent match-ups became clear, some House members switched to run in open Senate seats and new candidates emerged to take their place.