Can anything save the Vikings stadium plan? NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue will appear before the stadium conference committee Tuesday to make a pitch. But unless he's got $115 million in his pocket it's not looking good. On Monday the Vikings made what appeared to be a Hail Mary pass by offering to take the roof off the stadium and save the state that aforementioned $115 million. But as MPR's Tom Scheck reports the Vikings teammates Anoka County weren't in on the game plan:

Anoka County commissioners are uncomfortable with the idea. County Board Chair Margaret Langfeld says the panel agreed to a county-wide sales tax in exchange for a stadium with a retractable roof.

Langfeld says Anoka County wants the venue to be used for other events besides Vikings football. She says an open-air stadium in Blaine would never attract a Super Bowl or college basketball's Final Four, premier events that would bring tourists and their money to Anoka County. Langfeld said the board would rethink its support for a county-wide sales tax if state lawmakers pass a stadium bill that lacks funding for a retractable roof.

"We talk about it and we talk about the amount of our contribution. If it doesn't bring us the revenue to the county that a retractable brings, how could we ever be expected to put in the same amount of money?" Langfeld said.

Meanwhile a conference committee will meet for the first time to talk about a Gopher football stadium on the University of Minnesota campus.

As the deadline for adjournment nears the legislature finished work on another of the priority items for the session--a bill that would make it harder for local governments to take private property. The move to reform what's called eminent domain stems from a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that upheld the right of government to acquire private property for redevelopment. Although the final version of the bill passed by wide margins in the House and Senate, MPR's Laura McCallum noted that some local governments say the Legislature overreacted:

In the city of Columbia Heights, the bill will likely put a stop to a project that has already cost the city more than $1 million. Community development director Bob Streetar says the city planned to acquire about five acres of land in the middle of downtown - some of which is contaminated - clean up the land and allow senior housing to be built on it. But one property owner doesn't want to sell, and Streetar says the land the city has acquired so far is now in limbo.

"If you can't assemble property, you can't do a project. The only way you can assemble property is through the use of eminent domain, you can at least bring people to the table to bargain, and this bill prohibits any of that from happening. The rights of the property owner now trump the rights of the community," he said.

And he is predicting the Legislature will have to revisit the issue next year.

Morning Edition talked to Minnesota National Guard Adjutant General Larry Shellito about President Bush's plan to use guard troops to patrol the Mexican border. He says the plan is "doable." he said a short deployment would mesh with regular guard training and would be "routine business." He added that Minnesota, with 2,600 guard troops freshly deployed to Iraq, would probably not be asked to send troops to police the border.

The president made his announcement hours after Vice President Dick Cheney gave a pep talk to Minnesota guard troops at the Twin Cities airport. Cheney also spent some time in the state raising money for the GOP, as MPR's Tim Pugmire reported:

Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Ron Carey says the event is expected to raise six figures. But he wouldn't say any more about it. "This was presented as a private event, a low-profile event. And we chose not to make it into -- not a lot of details on this," said Carey.

The most likely beneficiaries of a Cheney fundraiser are Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Congressman Mark Kennedy, who's running for U.S. Senate. Pawlenty was with the vice president at the National Guard speech. Kennedy was not.

A low profile event? Featuring the vice president?