Flanked by almost the entire GOP caucus, Sen. Geoff Michel vigorously defended his handling of the Amy Koch-Michael Brodkorb scandal at a hearing before the Senate ethics panel on Friday afternoon.

Nobody knows what the legislative maps will look like in 2012. The politically charged redistricting process will almost certainly be decided by the courts, most likely in February. But that uncertainty over legislative district boundaries hasn’t stopped numerous challengers on both sides of the aisle from declaring their candidacies.

St. Clair City Council member Chris Cousins plans to challenge Sen. Kathy Sheran in 2012, according to a report in the Mankato Free Press. Cousins is a sales representative at Lowe's and a reserve officer with the St. Peter Police Department.

Freshman Republican Sen. Gretchen Hoffman must apologize to DFL Sen. Barb Goodwin for a tweet she sent out in the midst of a health and human services debate during session, the Senate Ethics Committee ruled on Monday.

In previous legislative sessions, proposals to expand gambling have attracted more support from Republicans than DFLers. Given Minnesota's $5 billion state budget deficit and the new Republican majorities in the House and Senate, gambling proposals would seem to stand a much-improved chance of landing on the governor's desk as part of a budget agreement.

A bi-partisan Senate panel dismissed an ethics complaint against Sen. Scott Newman stemming from an email sent out by his office stating that he would not meet with any individuals or groups that supported his opponent in the November election. Following an occasionally contentious, five-hour hearing on Wednesday, the Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct voted 4-0 that the Hutchinson Republican's behavior did not violate the body's rules.

Sen. Kathy Sheran and Rep. Terry Morrow say former Human Services Commissioner and now secretary of the Senate, Cal Ludeman, withheld critical information from the Legislature when he edited a report on sex offender treatment.

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.

Sen. Kathy Sheran (DFL-Mankato) signs the Health and Human Services bill after a press conference Wednesday.

R.T. Rybak called a Capitol press conference this afternoon to announce support from seven state legislators for his gubernatorial campaign. The only problem: the House and Senate members were still stuck trying to complete their work before the Easter break.