Capitol View

Capitol View: January 13, 2012 Archive

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The Daily Digest (Dayton mulling stadium options, Klobuchar looks at drug shortages, Transportation study pushed)

Posted at 6:25 AM on January 13, 2012 by Tom Scheck
Filed under: Daily Digest

The Vikings stadium is front and center at the Capitol. Gov. Dayton is now mulling the bids that were put forward yesterday. Here's the Minneapolis bid. Here's the Ramsey County bid.

Gov. Dayton says he may endorse a stadium site.

The Star Tribune says the state is not rushing to act on the stadium issue.

Under the Dome

Democrats are pointing to a study that shows that local property taxes are rising fast.

Gov. Dayton wants a transportation finance study.

Lawmakers are being urged to create stiffer penalties to caregivers who intentionally neglect the elderly and other vulnerable adults.

Some officials are pushing for more courtroom security.

More of Minnesota's lakes and rivers have been added to the impaired list.

Democrats petition the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the federal health care law.

Congress

The U.S. is sending Iran a warning to not follow up on threats to close the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. identified two of four marines that are in a video that shows them urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban soldiers.

President Obama is formally seeking an increase to the federal debt ceiling.

Obama is also seeking the power to merge and streamline government agencies.

AP has a look at documents that show how the Federal Reserve missed the housing bust in 2006.

DFL Sen. Amy Klobuchar is challenging pharmaceutical companies over drug shortages.

DFL Sen. Al Franken was on MPR's Midday. Listen to the show here.

GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack is working to win labor over in his northeast Minnesota district.

Race for President

President Obama and the DNC raised $68 million in the final three months of 2011.

Mitt Romney is stepping up his defense of his business record. He is now running an ad defending his time at Bain Capital.

Politico says profits, not job creation, are job number one for firms like Bain.

The fractured right could boost Romney in South Carolina.

For example, NPR says Evangelical leaders are struggling to crown a candidate.

The most overlooked stadium bidder

Posted at 9:33 AM on January 13, 2012 by Tim Nelson
Filed under: Vikings stadium

There was A LOT of talking about a Vikings stadium yesterday, by nearly everyone who'd ever thought about the subject.

But you probably didn't note the presence of a lesser known, but critical cog in the political machine: Jan Parker.

The four-term Ramsey County commissioner represents the county's northwestern suburbs. Her district abuts the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site, where the county is planning to build an Arden Hills stadium.

TNN_7300.JPGBut her proximity isn't what matters. It was her presence yesterday as commissioners Rafael Ortega and Tony Bennett walked the county's stadium bid -- with a 3 percent food and beverage tax included -- into the governor's office.

That's her talking up the county's bid, at the presser afterward.

The county board has yet to directly take up the stadium issue, and Parker has in the past voted along with Bennett, Ortega and East Sider Jim McDonough to keep the bid alive in procedural votes.

But as of yesterday afternoon, it looks like she's on board for the full ride -- making for a four-vote bloc that could win formal approval by the county's elected governing body. That would answer affirmatively the question raised by Senator Julianne Ortman at last year's stadium hearings: whether there's local political support for a stadium.

It was no accident she was at the Capitol, Bennett said today. "We would have brought four, but it might have violated the Open Meeting Law.''

Which for now, makes Ramsey County the only stadium bidder with tangible indication that it could put up the votes.

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The feature examines statements made by Minnesota politicians and checks them for accuracy. Based on data analysis, document reviews and interviews with non-partisan analysts, statements are rated true, misleading, false or inconclusive. More

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