Mark Dayton signed the bill into law Thursday.

It's official: Come August, the power of the Minneapolis Civilian Review Authority will be downgraded.

Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill into law Thursday that restricts the civilian oversight board's ability to make a "finding of fact" in police misconduct cases. The CRA will now only be able to make recommendations.

In practice, it's hard to say how much this will impact the CRA's role. The board has accused Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan of undermining it in the past for regularly ignoring its calls for discipline throughout his tenure.

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This stadium will have to wait until the legislature's New Year's hangover wears off.

​The Minnesota Vikings are, putting it kindly, not a very special football team right now. Fittingly, the team won't get a special session from the legislature to rule on its new stadium(s?), and will have to wait until January 2012, when the regular legislative session comes back.

And when we mean they have to wait until January, we mean they have to wait until May, when the legislature ends, and lawmakers are up against a deadline.

And when we say May, we mean July 20, the unimaginably late date this year's Minnesota budget was finally signed in to place.

Oh,  great. What in the name of the Los Angeles Laker-Vikings could possibly go wrong here?
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Vikings stadium, State Capitol: What's important to us?

​The Minnesota Vikings need a new stadium, and they need lots of money the state doesn't have to build it. But now, they're not the only state institution that needs a pile of cash.

Yesterday, Mark Dayton spoke about two separate issues, both of which would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. One issue is finding a new building to house a few dozen popular people, who work in town eight days a year and are usually cheered on by tens of thousands. The other issue is fixing up an old building to house a couple hundred unpopular people, who work 120 days a year, and would be roundly booed if anyone cared enough to go watch them.

The questions on funding for the Vikings stadium and the State Capitol get right to the soul of Minnesota. Are we the kind of state with a crumbling football stadium, or a crumbling statehouse?

City Pages wants to know where you stand.
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Look, we did something!

​Miraculously, the Minnesota Legislature found time in its busy schedule of not making a budget to pass a few bills.

Not only that, but Mark Dayton actually signed these pieces of legislation, promptly, and they're about to debut as new laws.

Starting August 1, there'll be new rules on the books about restaurant servers pooling their tips, drug testing for pro athletes and running away from the cops. Plus, an important  new law open a "church lady" loophole for food inspections.

Times like this give Minnesotans a chance to realize the things that weren't laws, but seemed like they should've been. For example, any caretaker who has sex with a vulnerable adult -- that is, a person with a physical, mental or emotional disability -- will have to register as a sex offender... which means that they didn't have to do that before now.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't you dare hurt a police horse or K-9. 
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Dayton said he was forced to sign a budget he didn't like.

​Minnesota's shutdown is over.

Mark Dayton signed the nine budget bills and three spending bills at 9:00 a.m., ending the state's embarrassing, costly lockout on its 20th day. The shutdown's end is good news for the 22,000 state employees, who will be recalled to work at 6 a.m. tomorrow, according to the state's BeReadyMN.com website.

Dayton also announced that state parks would reopen tomorrow.

But even at the announcement, Dayton sounded a disappointed chord about the budget, saying he was forced to sign bills he didn't like.

"I'm not particularly happy with this budget I've just signed into law," he said. "I signed it because otherwise Minnesota wouldn't go back to work."
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Gretchen Hoffman throws the baby out with the bathwater.

​After using Twitter to twist the words of DFL state Sen. Barb Goodwin beyond their meaning, and getting spanked by the Senate Ethics Committee as a result, GOP Sen. Gretchen Hoffman has now apologized.

"I am certainly sorry for my own misunderstanding of what you said and how I subsequently handled it," Hoffman says in an official letter.

And in what looks like a shot at a fresh start with the whole social media thing, she has also wiped out her old Twitter account, @gretchenmh, offending tweet and all.

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​In another reminder of how the looming Minnesota government shutdown is going to impact real people and not just political careers, the Department of Human Services mailed out something like 572,000 letters to its clients today, warning them that there may be an interruption in their benefits.

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@gretchenmh

Hoffman didn't show up at her own hearing.

​The state Senate Ethics Committee has ordered a helping of humble pie for freshman Republican Sen. Grethen Hoffman, after she used Twitter to falsely accuse DFL Sen. Barb Goodwin of calling mentally ill people "idiots and imbeciles."

Goodwin was actually arguing on the Senate floor that mentally ill folks not be treated like idiots and imbeciles, and the two Republicans and two Democrats on the panel agreed that Hoffman owed Goodwin an apology on Twitter and on paper.

Here's the offending Hoffman tweet:

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What's an essential service?

​We're 18 days away from a state government shutdown, and the prospect that only essential agencies and services will continue to operate.

But, what's an essential service? Attorney General Lori Swanson took a stab at that in a Ramsey County court filing today: Anything that might deprive Minnesotans of their "life, health, safety and liberty."

Let's makes sure that 9,000 prisoners and more than 600 sex offenders aren't suddenly on the street because guards aren't working, Swanson says. State Troopers must remain on the job. More than 1,000 mentally ill patients shouldn't go without care. Roughly 600,000 Minnesotans on medical assistance keep getting coverage, as should war veterans.

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​There's logic in here somewhere, we're sure of it: The crew at the Capitol that promised jobs, jobs, jobs in the last election is now presiding over a budget stalemate that's resulted in layoff warnings being sent to 36,000 state employees.

Even more layoffs loom if state government shuts down on July 1. And we'll all feel the pinch when that happens.

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