Lawmakers in St. Paul and Washington, D.C., have tried in recent months to free a vast amount of school trust land from the even vaster confines of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA).

Rukavina announced his retirement in a letter Friday morning, the day after both chambers adjourned for the year. The Virginia lawmaker, one-time failed gubernatorial candidate and notorious legislative orator did not give a retirement speech on the last day of session.

Although legislative leaders appear to be hastening to finish the 2012 session early, environment chairs in both chambers still have a number of policy issues to wrestle with before their work is done.

The most anticipated political event of the year at the Capitol — the unveiling of court-drawn state legislative and congressional districts that will be used for the next decade — arrived at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

In 1954, when Tom Anzelc was 8 years old, his family was kicked off their plot of land near Keewatin on the Iron Range. The parcel, along with 40 to 60 others, was confiscated for mineral exploration.

A steady downpour didn’t keep Indian gambling workers from flocking outside the state Capitol in St. Paul last April. At least 1,500 people gathered outside on the building’s steps, some arriving by the busload from reservations hours away. Clad in raincoats and shielded by a canopy of umbrellas, workers thrust signs into the air that read, “Rural jobs count too” and “Don’t gamble with my job!”

Republican lawmakers are wrangling on several fronts as they move Legacy funding bills to the floor. The Legacy amendment, which was approved by Minnesota voters in 2008, provides roughly $550 million in dedicated sales tax dollars for arts and culture, parks and trails, water cleanup and habitat acquisition.

A priority for local governments and House Environment Chairman Denny McNamara regarding Legacy funding for habitat conservation is getting tossed around in a legislative tempest.

For those who followed his promises on the campaign trail, Gov. Mark Dayton's budget proposal held few surprises, save one. Candidate Dayton included a state-owned casino at the Mall of America or the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in his campaign budget. At the time, he said such a casino could produce up to $80 million for the state in the 2012-13 biennium.

Iron Range legislators got riled up during the House floor debate of the omnibus Jobs and Economic Development Finance bill Tuesday over a provision to tap $60 million from a northern Minnesota economic development fund to help solve the $5 billion budget deficit.