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Howe takes plunge into nearly empty CD 2 pool
John Howe hasn’t taken out a personal loan since 1996, according to an answer he gave reporters during a Tuesday morning press conference. That period of conservative financial management is about to come to an end, but there’s one small wrinkle. Howe is going to be both the debtor and the creditor in this transaction, ...
The Capitol Note: Senate office building lawsuit dismissed
The office building and two adjacent parking lots were provided for out of last year's tax bill, a surprise inclusion that appeared with hours to spare.
Southeastern MN lawmakers mull solutions to hay shortage
State lawmakers from southeastern Minnesota are assessing their options to help livestock producers who are facing steep prices for forage to feed their cows. Three extreme weather trends have happened in succession in the last year to create a hay shortage.
Broadbased state regulations emerge for frac sand mining
House and Senate conferees have agreed on a set of regulations for frac sand mining in southeastern Minnesota. One conferee said the breadth of the issues that are addressed makes the legislation the first of its kind in the country.
Conference committees hash out differences
While the public’s eyes were glued this week to the passage and signing of the gay marriage bill, most lobbyists were camped out in the Capitol well into the night tracking — or awaiting — the deliberations of numerous conference committees.
Frac sand limitations fail in Senate Finance Committee
The Senate Finance Committee turned down Sen. Matt Schmit's bid to amend frac sand legislation into the game and fish bill less than a week after it removed from the same bill by a different committee. However, Gov. Mark Dayton's administration has voiced strong support for Schmit's proposal, creating the potential for it to reemerge before session's end.
Tomassoni says frac sand mining will have a “placeholder” in omnibus bill
Opponents of frac sand mining won’t likely see their favored moratorium in the Senate omnibus budget bill for the environment and natural resources. While the committee's chairman Sen. David Tomassoni said frac sand mining will be limited to a "placeholder" in the bill, he said the proposal's author Sen. Matt Schmit can pursue legislation outside the omnibus bill as the session heads for adjourn[...]
Majority midterms: 10 frosh who shine
There’s an old adage at the Capitol that first-term legislators should be seen and not heard. St. Paul can take some getting used to, the thinking goes, and most issues debated at the Legislature are so complex that newcomers would do well to sit back quietly and learn.
New frac sand proposal starts moving in the Senate
A new proposal has been added to the heap of bills to regulate frac sand mining. The Senate Environment and Energy Committee has passed a game and fish bill that would significantly restrict mining activities in southeastern Minnesota, which is rich in the silica sand that’s a key ingredient in the hydraulic fracturing technique of oil exploration that’s being pursued in western North Dakota.
Sand in the gears
If DFL majorities in the Minnesota House and Senate are to act on the brewing issue of frac sand extraction, they will first have to overcome internal differences that yawn as large as an open-pit mine.
The sandman cometh
Environmental and industry groups clashed at the state Capitol on Tuesday in the first large-scale airing of the emerging policy issues that surround frac sand mining.
Meet the freshmen: Senate DFL (part 1)
Of the 38 seats won by DFLers in reclaiming control of the Minnesota Senate on Nov. 6, no fewer than 14 will be filled by members who were not part of the caucus in 2011-12. But in several cases, the newcomers will hardly be strangers.
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