Faced with a set of budget targets that concentrate most new spending on the education sector, some House committee chairs are seeking to augment their own budgets with added marginal revenues from fee hikes.

Beneath the noisy debate about guns that has erupted at the Capitol this session, there is a quieter legislative push to improve mental health services in schools and public health programs.

Gov. Mark Dayton's signature means an additional 35,000 low-income adults will be covered by federal money in a state-crafted Medicaid program, including adults without children making less than $15,000 a year. "I haven't done one of these for awhile," Dayton joked as he signed the bill in a ceremony on Tuesday alongside its two Democratic authors in the Legislature, Sen. Kathy Sheran and Rep. Tom Huntley.

Key question: Does Minnesota want to be more like Massachusetts or Utah?

Close observers and key players in Minnesota’s project to create a health insurance exchange have some advice for those who want to follow the process: Pay close attention, and don’t blink.

Close on the heels of Tuesday’s election, members of the new DFL House and Senate majorities gathered behind closed doors on Thursday to elect their leaders. As expected, the minority leaders who helped steer Democrats back into control — Rep. Paul Thissen, DFL-Minneapolis, and Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook — were elevated to House speaker and Senate majority leader.

Duluth DFLers will gather Saturday to endorse a write-in candidate to replace Gauthier after sex scandal

DFLers plan to endorse a new candidate in Duluth’s House District 7B on Saturday in the wake of a sex scandal that led incumbent DFL Rep. Kerry Gauthier to suspend his bid for reelection.

It’s been a dizzying 10 days for Democrats in Minnesota. It was back on August 15 that news reports first indicated that first-term DFL Rep. Kerry Gauthier was investigated – but not charged – by police for having oral sex with a 17-year-old male at a public rest stop.

DFL Duluth Rep. Kerry Gauthier now says he will not seek reelection to his House District 7B seat in west Duluth, breaking the news to Duluth's Northland's News Center at about 5 p.m., or less than eight hours after he initially told the station he planned to continue his campaign.