Capitol View: March 5, 2008 Archive

The Daily Digest: 3-5-08

Posted at 8:17 AM on March 5, 2008 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

Lawmakers will announce legislation this morning that would put a yearlong moratorium on foreclosures.

Gov. Pawlenty will be in Washington DC this morning and USA Today is reporting that he will announce a study that suggests suggest "that ordinary vehicles could burn a mix of 20% ethanol, called E20, as routinely and harmlessly as they now burn E10."

The Minnesota Senate approves a $1 billion bonding bill. MPR, the Pi Press, Forum Communications, the Star Tribune and KARE have stories.

Gov. Pawlenty says get the arenas, sans Duluth, out of the bonding bill.

A Senate committee kills a plan to change the state's open records laws.

The Pi Press says the long troubled state health database encounters a new snag.

State officials consider a ballast water permit. MPR and the Duluth News Tribune have stories.

Students march for the Dream Act. MPR, KARE and the Star Tribune have stories.

Oil prices drill into budgets.

A Duluth rail line may veer towards Hinckley.

There's a proposal to open up adoption records.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak delivers his state of the city today.

Congress

The House will vote on the mental health parity bill today. The Star Tribune says it was a cause that the late Sen. Paul Wellstone championed.

The State Department reverses its course on USAID. GOP Sen. Norm Coleman is mentioned.

Coleman also tours a 3M plant.

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar blogs about reforming the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Klobuchar also held a news conference on the idea.

DFL Rep. Tim Walz will speak about Farm Policy on March 8th in Clarks Grove

Walz also tells the Albert Lea Tribune that partisanship is harming Congress.

CQ says a push an outside ethics panel in Congress faces an uphill battle. Walz is mentioned.

DFL Rep. Keith Ellison reflects on his first year in Congress.

GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann is holding a fundraiser for a Colorado Republican in New Orleans. The fundraiser is being held in conjunction with a group spearheaded by Tim LaHaye, a religious right figure who wrote the Left Behind books.

Bachmann is also mentioned in this Worthington Daily Globe series on the Cottonwood bus crash.

DFL Rep. Collin Peterson talks about the Farm Bill at the National Farmers Union Convention.

Peterson again backs mandatory national animal ID.

Congress will probe the TSA and flight schools. DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar is mentioned.

2008 U.S. Senate Race

DFL candidate Al Franken faces a $25,000 fine for failing to pay a worker's comp penalty in New York.

The Wall Street Journal mentions the U.S. Senate race in a story on how Democrats are hoping to win working control of the U.S. Senate.

Minnesota Machinists endorse Franken.

2008 Race for President

John McCain wins the GOP nomination. Hillary Clinton wins three of the four Democratic primaries. Story here.

Minnesota Greens support Cynthia McKinney for President.

Pawlenty for VP Watch

McCain said he'll now start thinking about the process to pick a VP.

Reuters says McCain now has to pick a nominee.

Karl Rove says on Fox News that he's heard that Pawlenty is being mentioned as a possible VP.

The Times of London says McCain's focus now turns to foreign policy and a running mate.

2008 Race for Congress

The city of Edina won't issue bonds to help a Christian school pay for its expansion. Edina Mayor Jim Hovland (who is running for Congress as a Democrat) is mentioned.