Legislation making significant changes to the state’s troubled civil commitment program for sex offenders appears to be all but dead following a Friday setback in the House Judiciary Committee.

Legislation that would change how dangerous sex offenders are indefinitely detained cleared the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday with bipartisan support. The bill is now cleared to be taken up on the Senate floor.

When Rep. Tina Liebling’s bill proposing substantive changes to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) came up for a committee hearing last month, she pleaded with legislators not to turn it into a political mallet.

A ten-member conference committee has been named to hash out differences between the House and Senate versions of the health insurance exchange bill.

Beneath the noisy debate about guns that has erupted at the Capitol this session, there is a quieter legislative push to improve mental health services in schools and public health programs.

Gov. Mark Dayton's signature means an additional 35,000 low-income adults will be covered by federal money in a state-crafted Medicaid program, including adults without children making less than $15,000 a year. "I haven't done one of these for awhile," Dayton joked as he signed the bill in a ceremony on Tuesday alongside its two Democratic authors in the Legislature, Sen. Kathy Sheran and Rep. Tom Huntley.

The Senate DFL has formalized its committee structure and appointed the chairs who will direct the flow of legislation in 2013.

Democrats in the Minnesota House and Senate have had two choices regarding their posture heading into the 2012 campaign season: Withhold votes on key bills to set up the claim that Republicans presided over a do-nothing session, or put up the votes to ensure passage of key initiatives and cry “job creation!”

It's been nearly a month since the committee last met to discuss complaint, opting to meet again after talks stalled. This time senators acknowledged their unbreakable stalemate, and voted 3-1 to adjourn to the call of the chair with no final decision.

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.