For the second consecutive election cycle, a St. Paul Senate district has no incumbent running. Two years ago the open seat in Senate District 67 attracted nine DFL candidates — easily the most challengers in the state.

The House voted after only brief discussion on SF 958, the public safety and judiciary bill, and SF 887, the Jobs bill. Both passed the body on a vote of 71-61.

When Kathy Lantry’s mom was growing up in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood of St. Paul in the 1940s, the Sacred Heart Church held Masses in both English and German. Today the Roman Catholic parish still conducts Mass in a pair of languages, but the non-English service has changed to Spanish.

Buried in the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force report released today is a long list of programs and tax incentives that other states have enacted to attract the capital needed to provide fast Internet download speeds to citizens and businesses.