The bill passed the House by a tally of 68-66, with the entire House Republican caucus joined by five moderate Democrats who voted in opposition.

Democrats in the House have approved an $11.2 billion health and human services budget bill that would trim $150 million from spending over the next two years while also making first-ever investments in mental health programs in schools.

Next week Gov. Mark Dayton is expected to detail exactly what he’d like to see in a bonding bill this year. On Tuesday he provided a sneak preview, indicating that the capital investment package would be worth roughly $750 million. That’s a 50 percent increase over what was proposed in his initial budget in January.

Rep. Joe Atkins (Staff photo: Peter Bartz-Gallagher) Legislation establishing a health insurance exchange cleared the House on a largely partisan vote on Monday evening. The 72-58 vote followed more than five hours of contentious debate over the proposal to provide a marketplace for individuals and businesses to purchase insurance products under the federal Affordable Care Act.

On Monday evening the House Rules and Legislative Administration Committee met to consider proposed rules for the legislative session. The typically arcane and little-scrutinized topic elicited heated rhetoric.

House Republicans submitted their committee requests to incoming DFL House Speaker Paul Thissen on Thursday. Among the notable picks: outgoing Majority Leader Matt Dean, of Dellwood, was put forward as the minority lead on the Capitol Investment Committee.

Rumblings about the marriage amendment’s unpopularity in the western suburbs came early in the campaign season. Orange and blue “vote no” signs vastly outnumbered “vote yes” ones, particularly in places like Edina, and Republican candidates running for the Legislature avoided the issue at the doors and in debates at all cost.

House Speaker Kurt Zellers said he won’t seek the caucus’s top leadership position when they hold their post-election meeting on Saturday. Less than 24 hours after both houses of the Legislature flipped from Republican to DFL control, Zellers said he thought it best for him to step aside.

Timothy Coon could spend his whole life confined to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program for actions he committed as a juvenile. And there are more than 50 others like him inside the walls of MSOP.

Far away from St. Paul, a group of counties in southeastern Minnesota has been trying to convert the much-talked-about notion of government services consolidation into reality. For Laura Elvebak, Waseca County’s administrator, the county’s outlook makes what’s generally known as government redesign a matter of survival.