The governor and his DFL allies at the Capitol crafted an election-year ready legislative agenda with plenty of curb appeal for the party’s base but unlikely to alienate swing voters.

Senate special committee aims to cut the widening gulf between white Minnesotans and minorities in economic success, health, education and other topics.

A coalition of women’s groups spent years on the Women’s Economic Security Act, which Gov. Mark Dayton signed it into law on Mother’s Day.

A comprehensive study issued at the end of the legislative session provides a solid factual framework for understanding the stagnation of the middle class, gender and racial inequality, and the widening of the overall economic divide.

The legislation would cut an estimated $103 million in revenue during the current biennium, with an out-biennium tax reduction of $118 million for 2016-2017. An initially slow-moving conference committee, kept many of the House's property tax cut proposals intact, but drifted closer to the Senate tax reduction target.

A Senate panel on Monday unanimously approved the Women’s Economic Security Act, which funds programs to lure more women into better-paying, male-dominated fields.