Just like that, the Twins and Hennepin County have a stadium plan. The official announcement is Monday afternoon, but both Twin Cities newspapers had the whole story on Sunday. Here are the basics: A 42,000 seat, open air stadium would be built in the warehouse district of Minneapolis. The $478 million stadium would be financed by a 0.15 percent sales tax on purchases in Hennepin County which adds up to 3 cents on a $20 purchase. Twins owner Carl Pohlad would pay $125 million.

The twist is that even though no state money would be required (unless everyone decides the stadium needs a roof), state lawmakers still have to give their permission for the county to raise its sales tax. That's the angle the Star Tribune focuses on:

The 2005 plan comes at a time of extraordinarily tight budgets and stretched public services.

The Minneapolis City Council has already suggested raising the city's sales tax by one-half of 1 percent to hire more police officers. That idea will go to a referendum, but county and Twins officials don't want residents to vote on the sales-tax increase for a stadium, saying a referendum would kill the deal.

"We're still in the midst of a horrible budget that will have a lot of impacts on people in the county," said Rep. Diane Loeffler, DFL-Minneapolis.

Sen. Jane Ranum, DFL-Minneapolis, was a shade more blunt: "I don't understand why this is even being shopped."

And Ranum represents Minneapolis. What will lawmakers like Rep. Ron Abrams, R-Minnetonka, and Rep. Joyce Peppin, R-Rogers, think of making their constituents pay higher taxes to build a stadium a long way from their districts? And of course any proposal to allow the county to raise taxes will have to go through the House taxes committee, which is chaired by long-time stadium opponent Rep. Phil Krinke, R-Shoreview.

Speaking of proposals that are showing new life, how about this plan for two casinos at Canterbury Park? It sprang to life Friday night, with lawmakers in the House going out of their way to avoid the aforementioned Rep. Krinke. The speed with which the plan was patched together left some saying it smelled less than fully baked. MPR's Michael Khoo had this:

"We think this will work, but I can't say that we have worked with our investment bankers because this is something that's just been coming together in the last week," [Canterbury Park president Randy] Sampson said.

The uncertainties make it difficult to say how revenues from the two facilities might be split between the state and the tribes or between the state and Canterbury. The financing was further complicated by an amendment that would limit any individual's losses at either of the casinos to $500 a day. That restriction has been used in other states, but it's not clear how it would affect revenues.

Democrats on the committee fumed that the plan remains half-baked and that many important questions remain unanswered. Tim Mahoney of St. Paul says the short notice, abbreviated debate and late night vote were an attempt to ram the plan through uninspected.

"It's just an indication that they don't have the votes to pass this at a floor level. They're still trying to manipulate the system, get it through the process," according to Mahoney.

And while spring is the time to celebrate new life, it's also time to say goodbye to former U.S. Sen. Rod Gram's attempted comeback. This is how the Associated Press wrote it:

Citing the potential for a divisive campaign ahead, former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams said Sunday he is ending his bid to run for Senate in 2006.

Grams told The Associated Press that while he believed he could have won the Republican nomination for the seat he lost to Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton in 2000, he knew there would be a tough fight within the party. Dayton announced in February that he would not seek re-election.

"I felt this was the time we should be united," Grams said. "So ... I said I didn't want to be part of that type of a campaign whether I won or lost, and decided to not run."

Grams said he'll support the party's nominee, likely to be U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy, who announced earlier this month that he had raised $550,000 over a six-week period, though he was only actively fundraising over three weeks.