1) The state Senate passed its version of a measure meant to increase protections for working women, the St. Cloud Times reports. Those protections, which ...

After years of inactivity punctuated by sporadic talks at the Legislature, the issue of Minnesota’s civil commitment of the sexually dangerous seems to be coming to a head. The question now is whether a judge will intervene to force changes in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program before the 2014 Legislature even convenes.

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.

In June Joseph Thompson, a civilly committed sex offender, filed a 57-page complaint on his own behalf in U.S. District Court alleging that the conditions of his confinement are unconstitutional. Thompson cited strip searches, confiscation of personal property and inadequate medical care as evidence that his confinement at a facility in Moose Lake is illegal.

State House and Senate conferees negotiated into Monday morning on a nearly $1 billion bonding bill.

Capital Investment Committee conferees from the House and Senate approved a $999.9 million spreadsheet for the 2010 omnibus bonding bill at around 1:00 a.m. today. And, as described in this overnight release from the House's Session Daily, the package omits Gov. Tim Pawlenty's number one bonding priority: $90 million in funding for an expansion of the Moose Lake sex offender confinement facility.