During the first Saturday floor session of the year, the state Senate passed a spate of legislation, including several tort reform proposals and the omnibus game and fish bill.

State Rep. Rick Hansen's time on the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council was rocky from the start.

New faces fill seats previously held by Kelliher, Prettner Solon, Moua

Chaudhary's primary loss made him the body's fifth departing chair

Hours after Tuesday's DFL primary, the Minnesota GOP launched a TV ad attack calling DFLer Mark Dayton "erratic" and wondering out loud what frequency he was on.

Capitol lobbyists are speculating that Sen. Tom Saxhaug is the likely choice to be chairman of vaunted Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

Mark Dayton rode a dominating performance in greater Minnesota to a narrow victory in Tuesday's DFL gubernatorial primary, edging party endorsee Margaret Anderson Kelliher by just over 6,500 votes out of over 440,000 cast. One-time House Minority Leader Matt Entenza, who spent over $5 million on his primary campaign, garnered just over 80,000 votes.

Sen. Satveer Chaudhary faces possibly his toughest race since he was first elected to the state House in 1996. Chaudhary has won general elections in the liberal district by comfortable margins, and hasn't faced a primary challenge since 2002, but this year he doesn't have the DFL-endorsement behind him and faces a former state representative in the primary.

The 201 legislative seats on this November's general election ballot include 23 races featuring intra-party challenges that will be settled in Tuesday's partisan primary.

Embattled state Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, DFL-Fridley, paid off the $250,000 in back taxes he owed just in time for the Aug. 10 primary.