The first deadline has come and gone at the Capitol. Stadiums for the Twins and Vikings didn't make it, medical marijuana did and what's alive, and what's dead is anyone's guess. On the stadium story, MPR's Laura McCallum says they're alive...unless they're dead:

[House Speaker Steve] Sviggum says he's not opposed to either stadium, as long as it doesn't use any general fund money. The Twins bill, introduced by Sen. Steve Kelley, DFL-Hopkins, last week, doesn't specify a funding source or a location. Kelley says he wanted to introduce the placeholder bill to make sure stadiums remained on the Legislature's radar.

"They're not the most important thing on the agenda," Kelley acknowledges. "Education, health care, public safety are at the top of the agenda. But what, if anything, we can do on stadiums this year should be on the agenda somewhere."

Kelley says missing the first committee deadline isn't a major setback. He says the bill could always bypass the normal deadlines if legislative leaders support it.

As for the medical marijuana bill the Pioneer Press reports it's alive...for the moment:

The Senate panel voted to bar such arrests and passed a bill to sanction marijuana's use for those with debilitating illnesses — the first committee vote on the measure in Minnesota after years of debate.

Backers say the bill probably won't pass all the legislative hurdles this year. Even if does, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he is unlikely to sign it into law."I'm not for it. I think we have enough other medicines and pain relievers available that we don't need to use that one," Pawlenty said Tuesday.

But those testifying before the Senate Health and Family Security Committee said other pain medications don't help them as much as marijuana does. And they said they came to marijuana as a last resort.

Conrad deFiebre has a fascinating story in the Star Tribune about a benefit former lawmakers receive. Most people probably don't know about it, and it's an interesting counterpoint to the debate over state health care programs like MinnesotaCare:

State Employee Relations Commissioner Cal Ludeman says as many as a dozen former legislators have moved in and out of the health plan in the past six years, about five of them "with regularity."

Citing severe federal penalties for disclosing confidential health information, Ludeman has named no names. But he is asking the 2005 Legislature to tighten up the rules to curb what he says would be an abuse if it weren't completely legal.

The law, on the books for at least 30 years, allows former legislators to enroll in the plan "at will, for no particular time, and to re-enroll any number of times during their lifetime," Ludeman said. "The claim cost is paid by all other members of the group -- state agencies and employees."

Some lawmakers say the program should stay exactly as it is, no matter what the cost. And because all current lawmakers will someday be former lawmakers, don't look for any changes soon.