State lawmakers and transportation advocates have their summer homework cut out for them in crafting a politically feasible way to begin addressing a projected $20 billion shortfall in the state’s transportation funding over the next two decades.

The centerpiece of the bill is a new standard for investor-owned utilities like Xcel Energy to generate 4 percent of their electricity from solar sources by 2025.

Legislation that would replace contested judicial elections with an up-or-down vote on sitting judges has been introduced in both legislative chambers. Similar proposals have been put forward in each of the last three bienniums, but failed to gain traction.

The battle over transit funding that’s brewing at the Capitol this year has its roots in the 2008 transportation bill that ultimately saw the Legislature override Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto.

Silica sand mining has become a booming business in southeastern Minnesota, and as a result it’s also become a burgeoning issue at the Legislature.

The bill is nearly $500 million smaller than Gov. Mark Dayton's proposed bonding bill, and doesn't include a number of key projects.

As the House Transportation Policy and Finance Committee creates its omnibus bill, a turf war over transit systems is playing out among suburban and urban legislators.

Republicans in the state Legislature are advancing a new set of initiatives to overhaul environmental regulation. The measures come after they reached accord last year with Gov. Mark Dayton on a sweeping bill that streamlined the environmental permitting process.

When lawmakers reached a truce that ended last year’s government shutdown, one essential sweetener in the final budget deal was a bonding bill to pay for state construction projects.

Last year voters in Wisconsin witnessed an ugly campaign for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court between incumbent justice David Prosser and assistant attorney general JoAnne Kloppenburg. Some three dozen outside interest groups spent $4.5 million seeking to influence the outcome of the contest, according to a report by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.