The finding clears the path for the state to sell bonds that will help finance the stadium construction.

K-12 education finance bills that account for roughly 40 percent of the state’s general fund spending are moving through the House and Senate floors this week.

Legislation aimed at reducing bullying in schools is almost certain to be enacted this year. Bills in the House and Senate have advanced through all the requisite policy committees and enjoy broad support from the DFL legislative majorities.

GOP Rep. Sondra Erickson is herself a plaintiff on the suit, and attorney Erick Kaardal -- who represented Republican lawmakers during 2011's government shutdown -- is involved as well.

A bi-partisan group of 31 legislators sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton on Friday urging him to raise funds for a Minnesota Vikings stadium by allowing full-fledged casinos at the state's two horse racing tracks. It was signed by 27 Republicans and 4 DFlers.

A report by the Minnesota Legislative Auditor that points to flaws in the state’s K-12 online education program is likely to land on the 2012 legislative agenda.

DFL Rep. Mindy Greiling has spent years wrangling with the likes of education lobbyists as groups tried to sway the former House K-12 finance chairwoman to change longstanding policies or win a bigger piece of the multibillion-dollar budget pie. But no other group was more persistent, or powerful, than the so-called “education cartel.”

With newly installed Republican majorities in the House and Senate, K-12 education reform became the subject of intense debate this year, a struggle that began in the regular session and continued until just hours before the Legislature convened to pass the package of budget bills that ended the shutdown in July.

After the framework of a budget deal was announced last Thursday, commissioners, chairs and fiscal staff members went to work, turning the still-closed Capitol into a hive of private meetings on each bill, featuring shuttle diplomacy visits from the leadership as needed.

Gov. Mark Dayton did not attend a meeting on Monday with GOP legislators on the education budget - the first of a series of meetings scheduled in the coming weeks to solve the $5 billion budget deficit before a required government shutdown.