Another priority will be informing people about the dangers that Asian carp pose and how to keep them out of the lakes, which the two nations share, said Keith Ashfield, minister of Canada’s Fisheries and Oceans department. Canada also will work with law enforcement agencies to prevent unlawful transport of the fish.

“We are committed to working with our American counterparts to continue to protect the Great Lakes basin,” Ashfield said. “Together, these measures will go a long way toward our ultimate goal of stopping Asian carp from entering and becoming established in the Great Lakes.”

The Obama administration has spent more than $100 million on efforts to shield the lakes from silver and bighead carp, which were imported from Asia decades ago to clean fish farming ponds and sewage lagoons in the southern U.S. They escaped during floods and have migrated northward, gobbling huge amounts of plankton — microscopic plants and animals at the base of aquatic food chains.

Scientists say if the aggressive carp reach the Great Lakes, they could destabilize ecosystems and damage the $7 billion fishing industry.

The epicenter of the battle is a network of rivers and canals in the Chicago area that form a link between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi watershed. The U.S. government operates an electric fish barrier there, and officials are considering whether to build structures that would separate the two systems.

Asian carp have been exported to Canada for live sale in markets, although the fish are banned in Ontario and British Columbia. Canadian authorities have stepped up enforcement actions at the border in recent years, intercepting a number of shipments.

The proposed early warning and monitoring system will be designed to alert experts if Asian carp are detected in the lakes and to have a plan ready if they appear to be spreading.

The International Joint Commission, a treaty organization that advises both nations about issues affecting the Great Lakes, has urged them to step up their detection efforts. Joe Comuzzi, the commission’s Canadian chairman, said Canada’s funding pledge was an important step.

“Our two nations must work together to stop this very real threat, to protect both the fishery and the health of the entire ecosystem,” Comuzzi said.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

While a bipartisan executive branch is hardly unprecedented considering 18 states elect the offices separately, the unusual arrangement could to lead to some ugly politics in Wisconsin, already considered one of the most polarized states.

The recall efforts against Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch stemmed largely from Walker’s successful push to strip most public-sector workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, which threw the state into an uproar as tens of thousands of protesters swarmed the Capitol for three weeks of raucous demonstrations.

Walker’s Democratic opponent is Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who lost to Walker in 2010. Kleefisch is opposed by Mahlon Mitchell, president of the statewide firefighters’ union. Both Democrats were squarely on the other side of the union issue.

Governors have managed to coexist with lieutenant governors of different parties elsewhere, as is currently the situation in Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. But some political experts say the arrangement in Wisconsin could be more reminiscent of California in the 1980s, where things got so out of hand that the state Supreme Court was asked to intervene.

“I think it means the governor would never leave the state,” said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee. “Just think of all the legal complications.”

In Wisconsin and most other states, the lieutenant governor’s position is largely ceremonial. About the only responsibility is to assume the governorship if the incumbent dies, is incapacitated or is impeached. Most state constitutions also put the lieutenant governor in charge if the governor is “absent” from the state, but there’s debate about exactly what that means in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin’s attorney general’s office noted in a 1979 opinion that the state constitution was drawn up in the mid-19th century, a time when a governor who left the state couldn’t immediately contact other state officials. The opinion noted that in a modern era of telephones and air travel a governor could perform his duties from out of state.

And in 2012, a governor can be almost anywhere in the world and still reach his staff.

Still, Wisconsin’s constitutional language hasn’t been challenged in court, meaning a lieutenant governor could declare himself in charge every time the governor crosses the state border. Once in control, the lieutenant governor could sign or veto bills, issue or revoke executive orders, make judicial appointments, call lawmakers into a special session, demand access to confidential governor files or issue pardons. While the governor could undo most of those moves upon returning, a pardon is irreversible, and any secrets learned by the opposition wouldn’t be unlearned.

In the 1960s, when the offices were elected separately, Patrick Lucey was a Democratic lieutenant governor to Republican Gov. Warren Knowles. Lucey, who went on to serve as governor, said it worked then, but times were much different.

“Warren and I had known each other for a long time. We got along fine,” said Lucey, 94. “But I think it’s always made sense that (the governor and lieutenant governor) should be of the same party.”

Wisconsin’s constitution was amended in 1970 to ensure just that, pairing the governor and his running mate on a joint ballot.

The cautionary tale that most resonates is that of Mike Curb, a conservative Republican elected in 1979 as California’s lieutenant governor behind Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who was running for president. California’s constitution gave the lieutenant governor full gubernatorial powers whenever the governor left the state, and Curb used it.

During one Brown absence he promoted a conservative judge to the appellate court. Brown returned and withdrew the appointment, but when he left again, Curb reappointed the judge. Brown undid it again and also sued to stop Curb. The California Supreme Court issued a split decision, upholding the governor’s authority to withdraw the nominations, but also upholding Curb’s right to full power when the governor was gone.

Things have since improved in California. Former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger faced no such shenanigans from the Democratic lieutenant governor he inherited in 2003 when he replaced the recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

And, “the governor still has an institutional staff that runs the government” in the governor’s absence, noted Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger’s former spokesman. “So it’s actually pretty hard (for the acting governor) to make any meaningful governing decisions.”

Of course, a lieutenant governor who’s power-hungry still could engage in political hijinks even if she and the governor are members of the same party. That happened in Kentucky in 1978. When Gov. Julian Carroll briefly left the state, Lt. Gov. Thelma Stovall, a fellow Democrat, used her temporary veto authority when the Legislature tried to rescind its earlier ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. The veto held.

In Missouri, the lieutenant governor can’t even try. In 1991 the state Supreme Court ruled that gubernatorial powers “do not devolve to the lieutenant governor … based upon mere physical absence of the governor from the state.”

Peter Kinder, Missouri’s Republican lieutenant governor, did make gubernatorial decisions when former Gov. Matt Blunt, a fellow Republican, transferred power to him when Blunt traveled. But current Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, didn’t even transfer power to him when Nixon was in Afghanistan visiting troops, Kinder said.

While it’s possible for Wisconsin voters to choose a governor and lieutenant governor of separate parties, some political analysts say the odds are slim. It would require voters to either split their ticket — unlikely given the hyper-partisan nature of the recalls — or to vote for one race and skip the other.

J. Gordon Hylton, a professor at Marquette Law School., said even if it happened, there could be public-relations fallout if a lieutenant governor were to assert too much power.

“I think people of both parties would agree that no good could come of that,” Hylton said. “But then again, the way Wisconsin politics have become, you never know.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

It’s possible the streak could end in November, when Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington state are likely to have closely contested gay marriage measures on their ballots.

For now, however, there remains a gap between the national polling results and the way states have voted. It’s a paradox with multiple explanations, from political geography to the likelihood that some conflicted voters tell pollsters one thing and then vote differently.

“It’s not that people are lying. It’s an intensely emotional issue,” said Amy Simon, a pollster based in Oakland, Calif. “People can report to you how they feel at the moment they’re answering the polls, but they can change their mind.”

California experienced that phenomenon in November 2008, when voters, by a 52-48 margin, approved a ban on same-sex marriage in the state constitution. A statewide Field Poll that September indicated Proposition 8 would lose decisively; an updated poll a week before the vote still showed it trailing by 5 percentage points.

California is an unusual case. It’s one of a few reliably Democratic states that have had a statewide vote rebuffing same-sex marriage. The vast majority of the referendums have been in more conservative states, which have a greater predilection for using ballot measures to set social policy. The 32 states that have rejected gay marriage at the polls make up just over 60 percent of the U.S. population.

Voters in liberal states such as Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York, where gay marriage was legalized by judges or legislators, might vote to affirm those decisions but haven’t had the opportunity.

Most of the states that voted against gay marriage did so between 2004 and 2008. Since then, only Maine in 2009 and North Carolina on May 8 have rebuffed same-sex marriage in referendums, while legislatures in Washington state, Maryland, New Jersey, Hawaii, New York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Illinois and Delaware have voted for same-sex marriage or civil unions.

In all, there are now six states with legal same-sex marriage and nine more granting gay and lesbian couples broad marriage-style rights via civil unions or domestic partnerships. Together, those 15 states account for about 35 percent of the U.S. population.

Over the past year, there’s been a stream of major national polls indicating that a majority of people support same-sex marriage. According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday, 53 percent of those questioned say gay marriage should be legal, a new high for the poll, while 39 percent, a new low, say it should be illegal.

Political consultant Frank Schubert, a leading strategist for campaigns against same-sex marriage in California and elsewhere, said such polls are misleading and he asserted that same-sex marriage would be rejected if a national referendum were held now.

“The pollsters are asking if same-sex marriage should be legal or illegal, and that phrasing is problematic because it implies some government sanction against same-sex couples,” Schubert said. “People want to be sympathetic to same-sex couples, so polls that use that language aren’t particularly useful.”

The more useful question, Schubert said, is whether marriage should be defined as the union of a man and a woman — the gist of the constitutional amendments approved in 30 states.

“If you ask that question, you get strong majorities,” Schubert said.

Mark DeCamillo, director of the Field Poll in California, agreed with Schubert that same-sex marriage probably would lose in a hypothetical national referendum now. One important factor, he said, is whether there would be more intensity among supporters or opponents.

In California, same-sex marriage has such overwhelming support today that Prop 8 almost certainly would be overturned if a new state referendum were held, DeCamillo said.

The latest Field Poll, in February, measured voter approval of gay marriage among registered California voters at 59 percent, which was the highest in 35 years of polling on the issue, while only 34 percent disapproved. In the first Field Poll on the topic, in 1977, 59 percent opposed gay marriage and 28 percent were in favor.

Nonetheless, the largest gay-rights group in the state, Equality California, remains cautious and isn’t yet ready to begin a campaign to overturn Prop 8. A federal court has struck down the law, but that ruling has been appealed.

“We aren’t confident that the level of support is stable enough to withstand the rigors of a referendum,” said spokeswoman Rebekah Orr. “We know that people are conflicted. Their intellectual position can show up in a poll and their emotional position shows up in the voting booth.”

California is among 30 states where voters have approved amendments limiting marriage to unions of one man and one woman. In Hawaii, voters passed an amendment in 1998 empowering the Legislature to ban gay marriage, which it proceeded to do. The ban remains in effect, though Hawaii lawmakers approved civil unions last year.

The other statewide vote was in Maine in 2009, when 53 percent of the voters overturned a law that would have legalized same-sex marriage.

The issue is back on Maine’s ballot for Nov. 6, with voters getting another chance to approve same-sex marriage. Schubert, who is advising gay-marriage opponents in Maine, depicts it as the toughest contest for his side among the four statewide elections this fall.

In Minnesota, voters will be deciding whether to approve a gay-marriage ban similar to those in the other 30 states. In Maryland and Washington, assuming enough valid signatures are gathered by gay marriage opponents, there will be ballot measures seeking to overturn same-sex marriage laws passed by legislators this year.

However those four referendums turn out, there’s widespread belief among gay rights activists and many pollsters that support for same-sex marriage will continue to grow nationwide.

“The numbers are inexorably moving in one direction,” said DeCamillo. “Older folks, who are more in opposition, are dying out and younger folks are more inclined to support it. It’s not rocket science.”

He said support for gay marriage is surging in California among young Latinos and Asian-Americans. Nationally, according the recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, support has risen among blacks since President Barack Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage on May 9.

Phyllis Watts, a consulting psychologist from Sacramento, Calif., has worked with several recent ballot-measure campaigns, including the failed effort to defeat Prop 8 in California and a successful drive last year to defeat an anti-abortion “personhood” measure in Mississippi.

She believes a statewide vote in favor of same-sex marriage is likely to come soon. But she suggests that any particular poll should be viewed with caution.

“People are in a fluid state around same-sex marriage. They really can feel one way one day and another way another day,” she said. “I don’t think the polls are able to track, with a level of nuance, what’s actually occurring inside people’s hearts.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Five appointed members will make up the new Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, holding sway over the massive public investment at the downtown Minneapolis site of the Metrodome. Gov. Mark Dayton and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak have until mid-June to name the members, in a decision Dayton described last week as “the first and very important responsibility” in turning the stadium deal into a 65,000-seat reality.

Dayton will name the chairman and two members, and Rybak appoints the other two.

The posts are not likely to be high-profile. But the members have an important role in representing the public’s interest in a construction project with a $498 million taxpayer investment.

“These commissioners are not employees of the Vikings — they’re employees of the people of Minnesota,” said John Wade, a Rochester business leader who served as one of former Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s appointees to the Minnesota Ballpark Authority that oversaw Target Field construction.

Ballpark Authority Chairman Steve Cramer, who guided Target Field from a law on paper to a functioning facility at the other end of downtown Minneapolis, said the new authority’s power to approve construction spending gives it the last word if disputes arise. In the Twins’ case, the team managed construction but no bills were paid without the authority signing off.

“We had the ability to stop the thing in its tracks,” Cramer said.

Cramer, a Minneapolis-based housing developer, said the ballpark group never blocked a payment but its power to do so led to “many, many hard conversations about what’s going on here to avoid being in that position.”

For instance, Cramer said one snag in the $545 million Target Field project was the unexpected $3 million to $4 million extra to fulfill the Legislature’s intent to build the stadium in an environmentally sustainable fashion.

“In the context of a half-billion-dollar project, it seems like not much. But when you’re at the negotiating table and everybody’s saying, ‘We put $230 million in.’ ‘Oh yeah? Well, we put $130 million in.’ And three or four million turns out to be a big issue,” Cramer said.

Eventually the authority came up with an extra $1.5 million and the team added some more to conform to a set of environmental standards. Cramer said the Twins ended up spending more than $50 million above their original commitment of $130 million to cover extra costs including land acquisition and construction upgrades.

The Vikings stadium cleared its last political hurdle Friday with Minneapolis City Council approval. Dayton and Rybak, both Democrats, drove the deal to completion. Now they will shape, through their appointments, how the stadium is built and run.

Former state Rep. Barb Sykora, who serves on the ballpark authority, urged Dayton to look to greater Minnesota as he selects members for the Vikings authority. Sykora, a Republican from Excelsior, said she is the only suburbanite overseeing Target Field after Dayton replaced Pawlenty’s two appointees; the other members live in Minneapolis or St. Paul.

“The Vikings are really very much a statewide team,” Sykora said. “People watch them from all over.”

Members of the new authority can see the Vikings’ finances but are required by law to keep it private. The new entity will absorb the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which will be abolished.

Dayton appointee Ted Mondale heads the commission and has served as the governor’s top aide on the stadium issue.

The authority will deal with a huge construction project involving architects, contractors, utilities, a light-rail line, city streets and other partners.

The law allows the group to decide whether to oversee design and construction or let the team do so. If the team takes over, the authority is prohibited from covering cost overruns. If the authority runs the project, it’s required to find a construction team that will cover overruns. The law also caps the public contribution to construction at $348 million for the state and $150 million for the city.

The money comes from state taxes on new electronic pull-tab and bingo gambling in bars and redirecting city taxes originally imposed to pay off the Minneapolis Convention Center. The team will bring $477 million in private money, including proceeds from the sale of stadium naming rights and an anticipated NFL contribution.

Sen. Julie Rosen, a Republican from Fairmont who sponsored the stadium bill, said the authority would have to move quickly to open the stadium by 2016.

“It’s game on,” she said. “They have to get to work.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

HUDSON, Wis. (WCCO) - In just ten days, Wisconsin voters will decide if Governor Scott Walker stays in office or is replaced.

Walker is facing Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the gubernatorial recall election.

The race is tight and both sides are doing what they can to get the attention of voters.

Walker brought his campaign to Hudson, Wisconsin, where he was warmly received at the packed Republican Party Victory Center on Saturday.

“We’ve got a secret weapon – the truth,” said Walker.

After two years in office, Walker said his record speaks for itself.

“We now have $154 thousand dollar budget surplus, and for the first time ever, we put money into the raining day fund for two consecutive years,” he said.

Walker faces this special election after he upset democrats and labor unions by pushing through the state legislature a law that strips public sector labor unions of a lot of their power.

“We’ve documented more than $1 billion in savings for the hardworking taxpayers of Wisconsin,” he said.

Some of those taxpayers, like Barrett supporter Celeste Koeberl, raised their voices against Walker.

“What we’re seeing under the Walker administration is we lead the nation not in job growth but job losses, we’ve seen the biggest cuts to public education that have ever been implemented in Wisconsin history,” said Koeberl.

Some say the election has divided the state.

“We have seen unprecedented tax cuts that benefit powerful corporations and the well to do Wisconsin, while the rest of us have raised taxes on the working poor and elderly homeowners and renters,” said Koeberl.

Walker knows all eyes are on Wisconsin and says if he does not keep his job, lawmakers in other states will be afraid to stand up and do what’s best for taxpayers.

“I think it sends a horrible message whether Republican or Democrat to shy away from making tough decisions what we’ve done repeatedly and think about the next generation,” he said.

Walker’s opponent, Tom Barrett, was on the campaign trail as well today and courted voters at the Burlington Chocolate Festival.

Many say this race is tight and counties like St. Croix could help decide who wins.

Walker and Barrett will debate next Thursday, five days before the election.

Minnesota has 10 electoral votes, but many political experts say  that anyway you put together the Electoral College math, the president will need Minnesota to win.

The president’s campaign slogan is “the only candidate fighting for the middle class.” And in the end, it is the middle class who will decide who wins the presidency. The difficulty for the president is that the past four years have not been kind to the middle class, with unemployment, underemployment and a depletion of home values that have dramatically lowered the net worth of millions of Americans.

The president will make the case that things were even worse before he took office, with the economy losing 800,000 jobs a month back in 2008. But in the rear view mirror, 2008 seems like a long time ago, as does the president’s message then of “hope” and “change.”

The promise of change won him the election last time. But if voters want “change” in 2012, the president’s chances of carrying Minnesota and the nation are in doubt.

Protester Nick Espinosa said Occupy Homes MN protesters are still occupying the Cruz family home, located on the 4000 block of Cedar Avenue South, and negotiating with the family’s bank, PNC.

This celebration comes after the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office made two attempts to evict protesters from the home. One attempt, which happened around 4 a.m. Friday morning, ended with five protesters being arrested.

Police said they arrested the five for failing to leave the house, which protesters anchored themselves to by means of a “sleeping dragon” – a device which is made of chains, PVC pipe, iron pipe, concrete, and duct tape.

When police made the arrests, they broke down a door, which was used hours later by protesters who brought it to the sheriff’s office, Espinosa said. The Cruz family, along with 75 protesters, demonstrated by “redecorating” the sheriff’s office with sticky notes.

Espinosa said the family wants an explanation as to why authorities want the house evicted, even though protesters are negotiating with the family’s bank.

Protesters also said that the five who were arrested Friday would be released that evening on $100 bail. “Massive public pressure,” Espinosa said, is the reason for the quick release.

As of 9:40 p.m. Friday, the five arrested were released, according to the Occupy MN Facebook page.

Initially, however, protesters said police told them the five would be released on Tuesday.

On April 26, Hennepin County District Court ordered the eviction of the Cruz house. Authorities first attempted to evict the house on Wednesday, but when they arrived at the house that afternoon, they found a large group of protesters who refused to leave. Thus, they rescheduled the eviction attempt.

Protesters recorded video of both eviction attempts.

Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate and St. Croix County Republican Party Chairwoman Jesse Garza said Friday they’re removing their ballot photos after finding out the postings violated state law.

The law bars voters from showing their completed ballots to anyone. The intent is to prevent people from selling their votes and then showing their ballots as proof they voted as requested.

But state elections officials say they aren’t aware of anyone ever being prosecuted for posting such photos online.

Voters are casting ballots ahead of Wisconsin’s heated recall elections targeting Republican Gov. Scott Walker and several other elected Republicans.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Lisa Kiava said the “sleeping dragon” device is a difficult to move object made of chains, PVC pipe, iron pipe, concrete, and duct tape. Protesters typically chain their hands together with the device, making it difficult for police to arrest or move them.

Police arrived to evict people from the house, located on the 4000 block of Cedar Avenue South, at 4 a.m., Kiava said. When officers arrived, they found the house’s door heavily barricaded.

Police removed a door and made their way inside, where they found 12 people – none of which were occupants of the home. Seven agreed to leave, Kiava said, but five stayed, chained in the sleeping dragon.

Police trained to dissemble the sleeping dragon did so, and officers arrested the five people. Officers booked the five into the Hennepin County Jail for “probable cause gross obstruction of the legal process,” Kiava said.

None were hurt in the process, Kiava said. However, protesters said they suffered minor injuries when officers removed them from the sleeping dragon using jackhammers and electric saws.

On April 26, Hennepin County District Court ordered the eviction of the house – an order that police had 30 days to comply with. Initially, police attempted to evict the house on Wednesday, but when they arrived at the house that afternoon, they found a large group of people – Occupy Homes MN protesters — refusing to leave. The group, which police said were not residents of the house, barricaded themselves inside it.

Occupy protesters celebrated their stand Wednesday, saying in a press release that some 100 protesters had successfully defended the house from eviction.

(credit: Occupy Homes MN)

In that release, protesters said they had been occupying the house, which belongs to the family of David Cruz, for three weeks.

During that initial eviction attempt, protesters said they tied themselves to structures in the housing using bike locks. After 30 minutes police retreated.

Protesters said the Cruz home went into foreclosure in 2011, when the family’s bank (PNC) didn’t accept an online mortgage payment. As punishment, the bank imposed a fine of two months payment. The family was unable to pay; thus the home went into foreclosure.

On Wednesday, protesters said the bank contacted them, asking for loan modification documents for the family. It is unclear, however, what came of that contact.

Protester Martha Ockenfels-Martinez said Occupy Homes wants the bank to negotiate a mortgage that allows the family to stay in their home.

“We’ll do whatever it takes for them to come to the table,” she said.

Protesters recorded video of both events.

(credit: Occupy Homes MN)

The White House confirmed Obama will speak on Friday at Honeywell International’s campus in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley.

Obama’s so-called “to do list” includes incentives to bring jobs abroad back home, encourage small businesses to hire, increase investment in alternative energy and increase job opportunities for veterans.

No other details were released.

Obama’s last visit to the state was in August, when he addressed an American Legion convention in Minneapolis. He also passed through the state earlier that month on a Midwest bus tour that stopped in Cannon Falls. He easily carried Minnesota in the 2008 presidential election.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Currently, Minneapolis won’t take your recycling unless the cans, glass, plastic and newspapers are separated. But a pilot program last year tried out single sorting, and now, the city said that’s the way to go.

Twenty percent of households in Minneapolis recycle, compared to 30 percent in St. Paul, where multiple sorting is also used.

Friday’s decision to switch to single sorting will save neighbors the weekly hassle, and money.

Minneapolis hopes to recycle 35 percent of waste in the city by 2015.

More recycling also means more revenue for the city, as it sells the recycled material to keep costs down.

The city said when people recycle more, their garbage will decrease, so the average household’s bill for waste and recycling shouldn’t change.

Overall, the new system should save the city nearly $180,000 a year. Minneapolis hopes to get the program in place sometime early next year.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A decade-long battle for a new Vikings stadium ended with a 7-6 vote on Friday, the same split as approved the plan in subcommittee form on Thursday afternoon.

The full City Council voted on whether to pay $150 million in construction costs to help build the nearly $1 billion stadium. The city would have another $159 million in operating costs later on.

The stadium deal was signed by Gov. Mark Dayton earlier this month. Dayton thanked some of the members of the City Council on Friday in a statement:

“I want to thank the seven members of the Minneapolis City Council who voted to approve the People’s Stadium. Their vote is a testament to Mayor RT Rybak and Council President Barb Johnson who have shown the vision and courage to lead Minneapolis in putting together a stadium plan that is best for Minneapolis and Minnesota.”

The Vikings will pay $477 million and the state will pick up the rest of the bill through gambling revenue.

The stadium deal is one of the largest capital investments in the city’s history. The plan is to redirect hospitality taxes from the convention center to pay the city’s share of the stadium.

In Thursday’s meeting, people in hard hats and Vikings gear sat side by side. Some say the stadium deal is a lifeline to jobs in a construction industry during a time of massive unemployment.

“There is a strong link between them, between the things we like to do for fun and the jobs we get to support our families,” said City Council member Don Samuels. “And this is the link right here. We are making that connection today. And it costs us something, but it’s worth it.”

Lisa Goodman was one of several opponents who argued the stadium is not a good investment, but a bad one with no public referendum and no evidence of economic benefit.

“I do not want to be part of the DFL party for sure after what happened at the legislature … a group of people in the city who have pushed forward the largest public subsidy in the state and city’s history,” said Goodman.

The billing detailed $330-an-hour legal services from an outside attorney, Dayle Nolan, retained to defend the Senate over the firing of Michael Brodkorb. It covered her work from January through March, although the matter has lingered past April 1.

It’s the first solid accounting of costs so far from Brodkorb’s termination. He was dismissed shortly after his boss, GOP Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch, resigned her leadership position. It was later revealed the two were having an affair.

Brodkorb has hired his own attorneys and is taking steps toward a federal gender discrimination lawsuit, arguing that he was treated differently from other employees involved in workplace affairs. His legal team has also threatened to bring lawsuits in state court against several senators and Senate officials on other grounds, including defamation of character and invasion of privacy. Those officials could be entitled to state-paid legal expenses.

The billing for the Senate’s potential defense came in just under a $50,000 threshold that would trigger a public hearing by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. It’s not clear whether the next invoice will come due before November’s election, which will decide which party leads the Senate.

The invoice showed that many of Nolan’s hours involved meetings with Senate Secretary Cal Ludeman, one of the potential targets of a lawsuit. Brodkorb’s team has threatened to sue Ludeman personally for defamation of character after Ludeman compared Brodkorb’s legal threats to “extortion or blackmail.”

Nolan and four associates at her firm, Minneapolis-based Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren, put more than 160 hours of work into the case during the time period covered by the invoice. Several hearings have been held and other legal work has been done on the case since then.

Most of the work was billed at Nolan’s hourly rate, but some was done by an assistant charging $60 an hour. For instance, the cost for Nolan to prepare for and attend a March Senate ethics hearing over then-Assistant Majority Leader Geoff Michel’s handling of the matter reached nearly $4,000.

The legal work also included telephone conferences, legal research, reviewing media reports, drafting memos and speaking with senators and staff.

Ludeman said the invoice will be paid once Majority Leader Dave Senjem, R-Rochester, and Minority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, sign off.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel found at least 500 cases in which aggravated assaults had been misclassified as lesser assaults. The newspaper is still awaiting records that involve 800 similar cases to see whether those were misclassified as well.

If the 500 incidents been classified properly, the violent-crime rate last year would have risen 1.1 percent from the previous year’s figures, instead of falling 2.3 percent as the police department had reported.

Walker quickly turned the report into a campaign attack, saying it raised serious questions about the way Barrett has managed the city of Milwaukee.

“I think it’s time he focused on fixing Milwaukee, not on screwing up the rest of the state,” Walker told hundreds of cheering supporters in Waukesha.

Walker joined other officials in calling for an independent audit of the crime numbers.

Barrett said any crime statistics that were wrong would be corrected. He also said there was no allegation that the numbers had been deliberately manipulated.

The mayor credited the police department for requesting its own audit from the federal government last year and said he expected the results would be available within about a month.

“I am certainly going to look at that and see what steps are necessary after that,” Barrett said. “But I applaud my police department for asking for this audit. This was not something that they had to do.”

Walker also got a boost from a fellow Republican governor, Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, who appeared with Walker and Lt. Gov. Kleefisch at the Waukesha rally. Jindal played down his out-of-state influence by saying that even though Wisconsin’s election was being watched around the nation, it would ultimately come down to how Wisconsinites wanted to be governed.

“He has shown what strong, principled conservative leadership looks like,” Jindal told reporters afterward about Walker. “He has shown that produces real results for the people of Wisconsin.”

The campaigning and competing news conferences came one day before the candidates were scheduled to meet for the first of two debates ahead of the June 5 election.

The Journal Sentinel report also comes on the heels of a poll by St. Norbert College and Wisconsin Public Radio that found Walker holding a slight lead, 50 percent to 45 percent, with 5 percent undecided. The poll of 406 likely voters was conducted between May 17 and Tuesday and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.

An earlier poll released last week by the Marquette University Law School showed Walker slightly ahead of Barrett 50-44, with a 4.1 percentage point margin of error.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — The ornate Minneapolis City Council room was packed with construction workers and Vikings fans. Silent protesters held handmade signs as council members were deeply uneasy.

“The largest public subsidy, the largest corporate subsidy in the history of Minneapolis,” council member Sam Gordon said. “And maybe, who knows, the biggest boondoggle that anybody will be able to remember.”

Minneapolis will put up $150 million for the new Vikings stadium on the site of the current Metrodome, re-directing hospitality taxes from the convention center to the new facility.

“To me this is a really sad day for the city,” council member Lisa Goodman said.

Opponents argued it is not a good investment, but a bad one, with no public referendum and no evidence of economic benefit.

“I do not want to be part of a DFL party, for sure, after what happened at the legislature,” Goodman said. “And a group of people in the city who have pushed forward the largest public subsidy in the state and city’s history.”

But supporters gave an impassioned defense of the project, pointing to hard hats and Vikings horns sitting side by side.

Some called it a lifeline to jobs in a construction industry with massive unemployment.

“But there is a strong link between them,” said council member Don Samuels. “Between the things we like to do for fun and the jobs we get to support our families. And this is the link right here. We are making that connection today. And it costs us something. But it’s worth it.”

The legislation would ban a substance known as 2C-E and eight similar substances. It also takes aim at some chemicals found in synthetic marijuana and synthetics marketed as bath salts.

Efforts to tighten regulation of synthetics follow the 2011 death of a Blaine man, Trevor Robinson, who was among 11 partygoers sickened by using the substance 2C-E.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is a sponsor of the legislation. A similar version of the legislation has already passed the House.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Trailed by several reporters, Minnesota state Rep. Michael Beard said the Depression-era Capitol is nothing like an insurance company headquarters — no matter what Minnesota Republican House majority leader Matt Dean had said.

“I’m a pilot. I’m a map guy, so I love heights. Your 18th floor just blows me away,” Beard, a Republican from Shakopee, Minn., said after visiting the top floor of North Dakota’s 242-foot Capitol tower.

Beard, who was in North Dakota for an oil industry conference, said if he worked in the Capitol, he’d ask for a 16th-floor office “just so I could enjoy the view.”

During debate last month on legislation to finance renovations to Minnesota’s Capitol in St. Paul, Dean called the North Dakota building “embarrassing.”

“It’s like State Farm Insurance called, they want their office building back,” he quipped.

Beard said Dean’s intent was to tease the Minnesota House’s speaker, Kurt Zellers, who is a North Dakota native. Beard described the majority leader as “a 30-something guy who says anything that comes into his head.”

Dalrymple said he was surprised by the national attention the remark generated.

“At first, I didn’t see the great importance of it all,” the North Dakota governor said. “We got over it pretty quickly.”

With three reporters and a television photographer joining in, Dalrymple on Thursday took Beard on a tour of his own office, the North Dakota House chamber, a legislative committee room, the Capitol’s 18th-floor observation deck and Memorial Hall, where a 440-pound bronze replica of North Dakota’s Great Seal hangs. Dalrymple carried a pamphlet used by tourists for self-guided tours.

The building is undergoing its own $2.8 million restoration project, which includes washing and repairing its limestone exterior.

North Dakota’s Capitol — one of the state’s tallest buildings — was constructed shortly after the state’s original Capitol burned in December 1930. It was finished in 1934 for $2 million, or about $34 million in today’s dollars.

It was designed by Holabird and Root, a Chicago architectural firm that helped design St. Paul’s City Hall.

The observation deck features several photos of the Capitol’s construction, including an aerial image showing it surrounded by open farmland.

Beard noted the Minnesota’s only observation deck features four golden horses, “and since gold is $2,000 an ounce now, nobody gets there without having an escort with a gun.”

Beard is a member of Minnesota House energy committees and chairman of the Minnesota House’s Transportation Policy and Finance Committee. He said he was in Bismarck to attend an oil industry conference, and is also exploring potential business opportunities in western North Dakota’s oil-producing region.

He said Dalrymple offered the tour after the pair met at the conference.

“It is more interesting than the State Farm insurance building,” Dalrymple told Beard during the tour. “You would not be able to build this today.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) –- There isn’t much left to stand in the way of a new Vikings stadium being built in Minneapolis.

A Minneapolis City Council subcommittee, which consists of all the council members, voted 7-6 Thursday to approve the city’s portion of the stadium deal already approved by the Minnesota House and Minnesota Senate, as well as Gov. Mark Dayton.

The City of Minneapolis is being asked to contribute $340 million in operating and construction expenses over 30 years. With interest, that figure jumps to $675 million.

A final vote scheduled for Friday will determine if the plan moves forward.

If the stadium deal passes, it doesn’t just mean a victory for the Minnesota Vikings. Target Center would get $150 million for renovations.

According to a report from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, early plans have the box office location moving from its current location and closer to Target Field. About 1,400 seats would be added to the arena and all the current seats would be refinished. It would also get a new state-of-the-art scoreboard.

The city of St. Paul will also score big. The stadium bill includes $54 million for the capitol city. Officials say it’ll be used to pay off the remaining costs of the RiverCentre.

The deal isn’t sitting well with some Minnesota taxpayers, and they see this week as their last chance to stop it. Opponents rallied outside Minneapolis City Hall Wednesday afternoon.

A new unscientific phone poll from the Taxpayers League of Minnesota found a majority of Minneapolis voters are against the stadium plan.

The league said 55 percent of the Minneapolis voters surveyed over the phone were against the stadium plan. About 27 percent support it and 18 percent were still undecided.

ST. PAUL (WCCO) – A dramatic protest from a group of Minnesota seniors Wednesday: They cut up their AARP cards, upset because AARP is opposing the Voter ID amendment on the ballot this fall.

Minnesota seniors make up the largest single voting block on Election Day. Polling data seems to show a majority of Minnesotans support the idea of showing ID when they vote. But AARP, the state’s largest senior advocacy group, says the amendment could stop thousands of the elderly from voting.

So, in a show of protest and defiance, conservative seniors cut up their AARP cards. They are calling the state’s biggest advocate for the elderly out of touch with its members, whom they say support Voter ID.

“We think it’s wrong for a membership-based organization to take a position on an issue that’s diametrically opposed to a super majority of its members. It’s just upside down,” said Jeff Davis | MN Majority

AARP Minnesota says it’s never polled its 700,000 member, but says that seniors oppose it once they hear what’s in it. What’s in it, says the state director, is troubling.

“For not only seniors, but for the disabled, this will make it significantly more difficult for them to vote. It may even prevent them from voting,” said Michele Kimball of AARP Minnesota.

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office estimates at least 64,000 Minnesotans 55 and older do not have a current, valid ID.

AARP says seniors also face sudden life changes that could put them in a nursing home, and many others gave up their driver’s license long ago.

“Right now, we know there are 64,000 people in the state of Minnesota who would have great difficulty getting a valid ID, a government-issued ID, in time to vote in the election,” added Kimball.

However, the protesters who cut up their cards say it’s not hard to get a new ID, and claim AARP’s alternative is worse.

“I am concerned that what they are promoting is continued voter fraud, and not voter freedom,” said Joe Rimley of White Bear Lake.

AARP Minnesota says it is non-partisan and has only one goal: protecting seniors.

AARP saw similar protests when it supported President Barack Obama’s federal health care plan, but also President George W. Bush’s Medicare prescription drug plan.

By cutting up the cards, the seniors lose the senior discounts and other AARP-sponsored programs, including insurance help.

The vote came after hearing concerns from neighbors and golfers who are against the project.

Eden Prairie-based developer Hunter Emerson purchased the 43-year-old course and is looking to build more than 170 single-family homes on the 80-acre site.

Golfers may be excited for the time being, but co-owner of the course, Robert Zackheim, says the course continues to lose money.

“As much as we would like to make it work, continuing to run our golf course operation long term is simply not viable,” Zackeim said.

Zackheim says Parkview has been impacted by the over building of golf courses throughout the years, also the economy and the rising cost of maintenance.

He says even with a $1 million investment, the revenue they need to stay open is not coming in.

The owner told the commission at its peak, more than 50,000 rounds were played on the course. In 2011, that dropped to 37,000, a 25 percent decrease.

Emerson is not calling it quits, the Eagan Patch reports the developer plans to change the lay out to include senior housing.

The city council is expected to the review the request on June 19.

The survey, released Wednesday, showed that 27 percent of people said they are in favor of the current Vikings stadium proposal. About 18 percent of residents were still undecided as the Minneapolis City Council prepares to vote on the final bill at the end of the week.

For the survey, officials with the Taxpayers League of Minnesota contacted residents by phone and did a single question survey.

The city council’s final vote is expected Friday. That’s where they can pass the bill and construction plans would start or they could vote the stadium bill down and send it back to the State Legislature to negotiate a better deal for Minneapolis taxpayers.

“Many people don’t realize that the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is the largest child care provider in the state of Minnesota,” said John Erwin, park board president.

The board serves over 86,000 meals to kids in Minneapolis parks. If you add snacks into the equation, there are approximately more than 220,000 food opportunities.

“We think it’s really important that we try to feed kids as healthy a food as possible,” Erwin said.

Last week a proposal came forward that would require all meat served in city parks, such as hot dogs and burgers, to be lean. Also soda pop would be banned and all breads served would have to be made with whole wheat. Juice servings would also be limited to only 8 ounces a drink.

Park Board Commissioner Jon Olson, who’s also the owner of a Dairy Queen in North Minneapolis, is against the proposal. He was too busy to do an interview WCCO Radio, but he did tell the Southwest Journal: “Can’t we have choices anymore? Do we have to dictate everything?”

Erwin says the proposal was sent back to park staff for revising last week. He said it was too “overreaching.”

Parents at parks in north Minneapolis are excited to hear healthier food options could soon be coming.

“The kids eat a lot of junk already, and they get it at home,” said Nakisha Tyus, a mother of two. “If kids can get a better meal at the park, who better to give it to them then the city.”

The board will review the revised proposal next month before making a decision.

The ruling means that settlement checks could be mailed to members of the class-action lawsuit within weeks, said plaintiffs’ attorney Dennis Gingold. Further appeals would delay that disbursement, and the attorney for the challenger, Kimberly Craven of Boulder, Colo., said they are considering their options.

The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed the challenge by Craven, who had objected that the settlement did not include an actual accounting for how much money the government lost and said that the deal would overcompensate a select few beneficiaries.

But the judges said in their ruling that the government would be unable to perform an accurate accounting, the deal is fair and it is the best that can be hoped for to avoid years of additional litigation.

Craven’s characterization of the settlement as taking shortcuts “is to ignore the history of this hard-fought litigation and the obstacles to producing an historical accounting,” the judges said in their ruling.

The settlement is the result of a class-action lawsuit filed in 1996 by Blackfeet tribal member Elouise Cobell, who died of cancer in October. The lawsuit had originally sought to find out how much money had been mismanaged, squandered or lost by the Department of the Interior, which held the trust money for land allotted to Native Americans under the Dawes Act of 1887.

“Our deepest regret is that Ms Cobell did not live long enough to see this victory,” Gingold said in a statement

The lack of records created a problem in creating an accurate accounting of who was owed what, and the cost of creating such a record for each beneficiary would have cost more than what they were actually owed. After more than 13 years of litigation, the government and Cobell made a deal.

The agreement would pay out $1.5 billion to two classes of beneficiaries whose numbers have been estimated to be between 300,000 and 500,000. Each member of the first class would be paid $1,000. Each member of the second class would be paid $800 plus a share of the balance of the settlement funds as calculated by a formula.

Another $1.9 billion would be used by the government to purchase fractionated land allotments from willing individuals and turn those consolidated allotments over to the tribe. An education scholarship for young Indians also would be established under the agreement.

Congress approved the deal in December 2010 and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan approved it after a June 2011 hearing. Hogan said that while the settlement may not be as much as some wished, the deal provides a way out of a legal morass and provides some certainty for the beneficiaries.

As part of the deal, Cobell was awarded $2 million and the three other named plaintiffs were awarded between $150,000 and $200,000.

Craven and others objected and appealed the settlement, claiming the deal creates a conflict between the beneficiaries as some would be overpaid while others would be undercompensated for their claims. Creating a lump-sum award without an accounting creates an arbitrary payout system without knowing who is actually owed what, she argued.

The appellate panel quoted Hogan in saying, “It is hard to see how there could be a better result” than this settlement. Few beneficiaries are likely to have substantial claims, Craven did not provide evidence that some beneficiaries would be underpaid and Congress’ authorization of the deal “carries significant weight and sets this case apart from others,” the appellate court ruled.

Ted Frank, Craven’s attorney, said he believes they correctly argued the shortcomings of the settlement. Frank is considering his options, which could include a request for the full appellate court to review the decision.

“So we’re certainly disappointed, because we believed we were correct on the law, though we understood that we had an uphill battle given the exhaustion factor of a case that had already generated 22 (now 23) published opinions,” Frank said in an email to The Associated Press.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Minnesota’s new system — called Multiple Measurement Ratings — puts schools into three initial categories: priority, focus and reward.

The first 42 priority schools will qualify for state assistance to develop a turnaround plan.

But Joe Nathan of the Center for School Change says the key may be the best-performing schools — those in the reward category — because they have qualities other schools can learn from.

“The next step is really critical. That’s to take lessons learned from the most effective schools and apply them in schools all over the state of Minnesota,” said Nathan.

Critics are wary of the changes, saying they take away the needed pressure and incentives for schools to get better.

The filing period for the 2012 election opened Tuesday at the Secretary of State’s office and continues through June 5.

Early filers include state Rep. Joyce Peppin, a Republican from Rogers who is seeking a fifth term. Frequent candidate Dick Franson submitted his name as a primary challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Also filing paperwork was Republican state Sen. Mike Parry of Waseca, who hopes to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Walz in southeastern Minnesota’s 1st District. But Parry may face a GOP primary after he and former state Rep. Allen Quist battled to a draw in an endorsing convention in April. Quist has two weeks to file.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The decision comes almost a year after The United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500 contested the 137-85 vote against unionization in June 2011. It argued that Target illegally intimidated workers for months leading up to the vote. Target denied the allegations.

A “yes” vote would have made the store Target’s first with a unionized workforce. Target has 1,700 stores, all in the U.S.

“Target completely poisoned the democratic process from day one,” said Patrick Purcell, assistant to the president of the UFCW Local 1500 in an interview with The Associated Press. “And now a judge agreed with everything we said.”

Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said late Monday that the company “respectfully” disagrees with the decision.

“We firmly believe Target followed all the laws throughout the union’s campaign at its Valley Stream store and that the process leading up to the June 2011 election was fair and legal,” she said.

The company is evaluating the appropriate steps to take next, she said.

The Valley Stream, N.Y., store closed April 28 for “extensive renovations” and will reopen later this year, Snyder said. Target says that all eligible workers can transfer to other stores and transfer back to the Valley Stream store when it reopens.

The UFCW has contended the temporary closing came “in retaliation” for the unionization vote.

The UFCW charged that, before last year’s vote, Target barred employees from wearing pro-union buttons and said those who spoke about the union would be fired. The union also said Target circulated fliers threatening employees that the Valley Stream store would close if employees voted to unionize.

In a 40-page decision issued by Steven Davis, administrative law judge for the NRLB in New York, said Target “engaged in certain unfair labor practices.”

The ruling followed a 10-day trial earlier in the year.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Fifty-eight-year-old Jeanette Meyer, a West District Council member, passed away surrounded by family. She had lived in Brooklyn Park for 35 years and had served on the Citizen Long-Range Improvement Committee, the city’s Audit Committee and as a liaison to the Brooklyn Historical Society and the North Hennepin Human Services Board of Directors.

She was reelected to her fourth-consecutive term in 2010; she was diagnosed with stage four cancer in March 2011.

A memorial service is currently being planned for out-of-town residents, the city said.

Meyer was married to Terry Gearin, a former West District Council member.

The city says it is currently waiting to hear from state officials about the possibility of a special election designed to fill Meyer’s council seat. Meyer’s term was set to end in 2015.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — It’s not over until it’s over when it comes to the Vikings Stadium.

Before the stadium deal is truly done, the Minneapolis City Council has to pass it. The debate over the amount the City will contribute to the new stadium is making the deal anything but an easy score.

Late Monday afternoon, the Minneapolis City Council began debating the Vikings Stadium with the initial vote by the Council scheduled for Thursday.

Supporters say the stadium will pass the council by the slimmest of margins, by a vote of 7-6.

The Committee didn’t vote but it’s clear some members have an awful lot of questions. While supporters say their seven votes will hold, opponents say they will do what they can to defeat or at least delay the council action.

Council member Gary Schiff peppered City officials with questions about the Stadium deal.

“On the site plan to be made tax exempt how is that in the city’s interests?” Schiff asked.

Schiff has been the Council’s most vocal critic on the stadium deal. He says his constituents in southeast Minneapolis are overwhelmingly opposed to the plan.

“Constituents I represent are saying, ‘enough is enough, we spend so much money on property taxes, our homes are underwater in their mortgages and now we are subsidizing a football enterprise?’” Schiff said.

Schiff says the deal is a bad one for the City. Over 30 years, the City would pay $340 million in construction and operating costs. With interest, that figure rises to $675 million with the funding coming from existing sales liquor restaurant and lodging taxes.

Opponents say the best chance of defeating the stadium is switching the anticipated “yes” vote of Council Member Kevin Reich, who alone among the seven council stadium supporters signed a more vaguely worded letter of support. Reich did not return WCCO’s phone calls.

However, stadium supporters, including council President Barb Johnson, said Reich is a firm “yes” vote.

“I talked to Kevin just yesterday. We were at an event together and I don’t have any indication he is changing his mind and the Mayor has spoken to him also,” said Johnson.

Supporters at City Hall insist they could pick up another vote over the next few days. There are some odd coalitions at play: liberal Council Member Schiff is teaming up with the conservative Taxpayer League to generate thousands of calls to council members in opposition.

In support of the stadium, you once again have the powerful, but odd alliance of Organized Labor and big business saying vote “yes” for the stadium.

But even those involved in the charitable gambling industry question whether the customers and the money will be there when paper pull-tabs and bingo are translated into animated games on portable electronic devices. And legislators were concerned enough to include backup financing in the new stadium law in the form of a sports-themed lottery and a stadium suite tax.

“I’d be shocked if it’s successful,” said Roger Richter, who oversees gambling for the Burnsville Lions Club, one of the state’s top-grossing charitable gambling operations. “I don’t think it’s going to make the money that everybody thinks it’s going to make.”

Lawmakers approved the stadium deal based on projections showing annual tax collections from pull-tabs and bingo would more than double, from $37 million to almost $95 million when the games are fully implemented by mid-2013. The new technology is projected to push up total wagering from almost $1 billion to $2.3 billion.

The new tax revenue will cover debt service on the state’s $348 million contribution to a new stadium in downtown Minneapolis at the current site of the Metrodome, the NFL team’s current home.

Minnesota will be the first state to widely offer electronic pull-tabs in bars and restaurants, and the only state with electronic linked bingo, where players in multiple locations vie for a common pot of money. Electronic pull-tabs are allowed in Mississippi bingo facilities and coming soon to fraternal and social clubs in Virginia. California banned electronic linked bingo for charities after it conflicted with American Indian casinos.

Minnesota already ranks as one of the biggest states for charitable gambling. Mary Magnuson, attorney for the St. Paul-based National Association of Fundraising Ticket Manufacturers, said Ohio, California and Florida are probably bigger but they don’t report data to her organization.

“We have an extraordinarily large market in the current paper products, and whether the electronic format of that game will prove to be as popular or more popular will just remain to be seen,” Magnuson said of Minnesota.

Richter said his customers bought $6.3 million worth of pull-tabs and bingo cards at bars in Burnsville and Savage last year. But he said they aren’t interested in the electronic games because they gamble to be social.

Paper pull-tabs are often played by groups buying piles of 50-cent or $1 pull-tabs for their table, then taking turns peeling back the tabs to see whether they won. Richter said he won’t add the electronic versions when they hit the market in September or October.

The concern was echoed by others.

“If you’ve got an electronic machine at the bar, I don’t know how you share that with your buddies,” said Brian Kirkpatrick, gambling manager for Confidence Learning Center, a camp for developmentally disabled, deaf and hard-of-hearing people near Brainerd.

Kirkpatrick hasn’t decided yet whether to offer the games by his organization, which sold $8 million worth of pull-tabs, bingo, tip-board bets and raffle tickets last year. He said the electronic games have the potential to help charities raise more money for causes ranging from youth sports to job training for the disabled. But first he needs to see whether the new technology will boost gambling revenues enough to offset the expense.

Tom Barrett, who heads the Minnesota Gambling Control Board, said the state’s projections of new gambling revenue and taxes are conservative. He estimated that 2,500 of the state’s 2,800 charitable gambling sites will add electronic pull-tabs and 1,500 will offer electronic bingo. He expects a change in tax law to result in the charities offering bigger prizes starting in July for the paper versions, piquing interest in the games.

Vendors who apply to sell the electronic devices in Minnesota will face criminal background checks and product testing.

The new devices will be available only in establishments with liquor licenses. Players will have to show a photo ID and pay cash to an operator. The law limits the number of electronic devices in each establishment. The maximum pull-tab win is $299 on a $1 bet.

Barrett expects the electronic games to offer eye-popping graphics in the biggest technological change since pull-tabs came along in the mid-1980s. However, the stadium law prohibits spinning reels or other images “that mimic a video slot machine.”

“What’s being proposed in Minnesota is just the automation of what’s being allowed in the paper format, but with the automation will come a little more animation,” Barrett said.

King Wilson, who represents charitable gambling organizations as head of Allied Charities of Minnesota, said charities are waiting to see what vendors offer before deciding how far to go with the electronic games. The hope is to draw in younger, technologically savvy players.

“There are people that are much more technologically inclined that are just going to prefer to give a try to something on a device like this, where they haven’t had an attraction to paper pull-tabs,” Wilson said. “It’s another option.”

Among those weighing the options is Al Howey, gambling manager for the Hanover Athletic Association west of Minneapolis. Howey said he hopes the new technology will raise more revenue, but hasn’t decided whether to offer it in bars in Hanover and Rockford, where pull-tabs and bingo raise money for youth sports and scholarships.

“Of course, the young people in the country, they like the gizmos, so that will help,” Howey said.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

CHICAGO (WCCO) – An anti-war riot turned violent tonight as thousands protested in the streets of Chicago.

It happened outside the NATO Summit which is focusing on the war in Afghanistan and other international security matters.

Earlier, the rally and march were peaceful.

Then police said a small group began to riot and throw sticks and punches at police.

45 were arrested and four officers were hurt.

This is the first time the summit has been held outside Washington D.C.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Now it’s the Minneapolis City Council’s turn to debate and vote on the Vikings Stadium proposal.

The Council’s Budget Committee will take up the matter Monday, and opponents insist council passage is not a done deal.

In late March, Mayor RT Rybak and Council President Barb Johnson produced letters from seven of the 13 council members saying they are backing the Vikings Stadium.

But since then stadium proposal has changed and the state’s share of the cost has gone down, the city’s share remains at $340 million, or with interest over thirty years – an estimated $675 million.

Council Member Gary Schiff, a leading stadium critic, appeared on WCCO Sunday Morning.

“Whichever way this turns out it is going to be on a one-vote margin and that is a very slim margin for such a big expenditure of $675 million,” said Schiff. “This is the final opportunity the City Council will have to question our finance staff, question our hospitality staff about the impact of this financing plan, and to make amendments and to negotiate our side of the deal.”

The final council vote is scheduled for this Friday.

Schiff says he expects council members will try and make amendments to the current stadium plan.

The catch there is that any amendments adopted would mean the whole proposal would have to go back to the legislature for approval.

You can watch WCCO Sunday Morning with Esme Murphy every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Gary Schiff of the Minneapolis City Council has made it very clear he’s against the current bill for a new Vikings stadium in Minneapolis.

Schiff appeared on the WCCO-TV Sunday Morning Show to talk about the bill and the council’s vote on it, which will come this week. He said it will be a one vote result, but he’s not sure which way it will go. He also said this week is the council’s final chance to present any questions about the bill and address any issues they think the bill currently has.

Schiff said he wants the council to vote against the stadium bill, send it back to the State Legislature and have lawmakers come up with a better deal for the city of Minneapolis. He said the Vikings aren’t going anywhere between now and January, so there’s time to come up with a better deal.

He also said he would switch to support the stadium bill if user fees became part of the financing package again. He said it’s rare to have funding from one city coming into help finance a $1 billion stadium.

The Texas congressman’s backers seized control of the state convention, claiming 12 of 13 open delegate slots to the GOP national convention in August. The 13th slot went to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, who failed to win it on the first ballot. Her opponent, a Paul supporter, conceded out of respect.

Previously, 27 delegates were chosen. In all, 32 of Minnesota’s 40 delegates are confirmed to support Paul over Romney.

Paul appeared at the convention on both Friday and Saturday. He’s no longer actively campaigning against Romney, but has said he intends to make a last stand at the national GOP convention in Tampa. His supporters hope to secure him a more prominent role there and also gain greater support within the GOP for his libertarian-leaning views.

But even the most fervent Paul fans acknowledged Romney is likely to be President Barack Obama’s opponent in November. Sitting in a convention hall festooned with Romney signs on the walls, more than a handful said they weren’t sure if they would vote for the former Massachusetts governor.

“Absolutely not,” said Nathan Atkins, a Republican convention delegate and Paul backer from Minneapolis. “I really don’t think he’s that different than Barack Obama. He doesn’t represent change.”

Atkins was wearing a tinfoil hat, a nod to more traditional GOP activists who have ridiculed Paul’s backers as paranoid conspiracy theorists. He said if Paul isn’t on the presidential ballot, he’d likely vote for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson.

Paul and his backers support deep cuts to government spending, the abolition of the Federal Reserve and a return to gold currency, a more reserved U.S. foreign policy with stronger limits on military engagement overseas, stronger protection of civil liberties and ending federal enforcement of drug laws.

Justin Campbell, a GOP delegate from St. Louis Park and a Paul backer, said he felt a part of “the most important political movement of our time.” He also said he wouldn’t vote for Romney because the ex-governor supports a level of military spending he finds objectionable.

“I realize that’s not being a good Republican, but you have to draw a line in the sand — and that’s my line in the sand,” Campbell said.

Others were more receptive to voting for Romney. Fred Zellinger, a convention delegate from Bloomington, called Romney “a typical politician” but said he thinks beating Obama is more important. He said the forces Paul unleashed with his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns are bigger than the man himself.

“Ron Paul is a brand name,” Zellinger said. “It’s the values that I support. Ron Paul is just the current vessel for them, but there will be others.”

Corey Sax, who will be a GOP alternate to the national convention, said Romney would have to work at winning over the Paul people.

“He needs to be thinking about what he can be doing to get us behind him,” Sax said.

On Friday, the Paul forces largely united to help state Rep. Kurt Bills win the party’s endorsement for U.S. Senate. They teamed up again Saturday on the delegate election, making themselves the overwhelming majority in the national convention delegation.

Some Minnesota Republicans were angered. One conservative activist, John Gilmore, distributed a flier describing the Paul group as the “convention chaos slate.” He predicted the group would “embarrass Minnesota Republicans and harm our party’s chances of defeating Barack Obama.”

But Jeff Johnson, who represents the state party on the Republican National Committee, defended the Paul backers.

“To the Ron Paul haters, who want to purge the party of the Ron Paul people, my advice to you is get over it,” Johnson said. “If we don’t grow, we die as a party.”

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Organizers of “One Day United” hope to see thousands throughout the state show up to pledge defeat of the ballot measure that would amend the state constitution defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The group believes that the initiative would “limit the freedom to marry,” and has chosen Sunday because it marks the one-year anniversary since members of the Minnesota legislature voted to put the marriage initiative on the ballot.

Gov. Mark Dayton agrees, and will be attending the “house party” in Minneapolis, taking place at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the home of Ken Rafowitz and Dan Porter on Basswood Road.

“One Day United” is hoping to pull off 200-plus informational parties tomorrow, believing they would demonstrate that “Minnesotans are united for all families.”

In addition to the Twin Cities, house parties are scheduled for Duluth, Stillwater, Rochester, New Ulm, Hibbing, Owatonna and more.

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) —Minnesota Republicans on Friday chose a high school economics teacher who said he supports deep cuts to government spending to challenge U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November.

Kurt Bills, a first-term state representative and teacher at Rosemount High School, said his teaching experience would help him connect with voters on economic issues. Bills vowed to make “Econ 101″ the focus of his campaign and warned of the dangers of growing federal debt, though he offered few initial specifics on his economic proposals.

Bills handily clinched the party endorsement to take on Klobuchar, a popular Democratic incumbent who is seeking her second term and is widely viewed as a formidable opponent.

“Politically, the experts say Amy Klobuchar is unbeatable, she’s a nice person, and have you tried her hot dish recipe?” Bills said. “That’s all well and good, but Minnesota isn’t electing Miss Congeniality this November.”

Bills beat out former state Rep. Dan Severson and military veteran and activist Pete Hegseth after just two ballots during the GOP convention at the St. Cloud Civic Center. Bills assembled a coalition that included backers of insurgent Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and support from a big chunk of his colleagues in the state Legislature.

Both Severson and Hegseth had pledged to abide by the party’s endorsement and not run in the August primary without it. That sets a clear path for Bills, who said he would campaign across the state in a dark blue school bus with his name painted on the side.

Bills and his wife, Cindy, have four children and live in Rosemount, a suburb south St. Paul. They own a licensed home day care that she runs.

“It’s pretty obvious I’m the underdog,” Bills wrote in a letter distributed to convention delegates. He promised a “non-traditional” campaign that would recall past Minnesota politicians including Paul Wellstone and Jesse Ventura. He criticized Klobuchar as a “rubber stamp” for President Barack Obama and other Washington Democrats.

“Amy has always put Minnesota first and has a strong record of standing up for our state and getting things done,” Justin Bouen, Klobuchar’s campaign manager, said in a statement. “That’s what she will continue to do.”

As delegates began to prepare for endorsement, Bills’ Republican opponents attempted to raise concerns about his close ties to Ron Paul. The Texas congressman is no longer actively campaigning, but he is mounting a challenge to presumed nominee Mitt Romney at the Republican National Convention in August. Paul’s backers were out in force at the Minnesota convention, but some longtime Republicans are uncomfortable with his libertarian views.

“Do the political math. Kurt Bills equals Ron Paul,” read a flier distributed by the Hegseth campaign. The Severson camp passed out a handout critical of Bills’ foreign policy views, which echo Paul’s frequent calls to drastically reduce defense spending and decrease U.S. military entanglements overseas.

“We don’t run against Democrats to make a point. We run against Democrats to win,” Hegseth said in his nomination speech, echoing criticism from other Republicans that swing voters would be put off by Paul’s views. Bills won a Paul endorsement for his Senate campaign, and has largely echoed his political beliefs. Paul spoke at the state convention, and Bills said he would continue to back Paul’s presidential bid until Romney officially seized the nomination.

“I backed Kurt Bills because he’s got a lot of the same values as Ron Paul,” said Don Crews, a convention delegate from Duluth. Crews said he’s new to Republican politics and got involved after becoming interested in Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign.

“I like that Bills is like Ron Paul, because that’s the direction I want the party to go,” Crews said.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

The Texas congressman is no longer actively campaigning for the nomination but is planning to make a last stand at the party’s national convention in August. He didn’t talk about his campaign in his brief convention speech, but shared his message of limited government, personal liberty and a less aggressive U.S. foreign policy.

Minnesota’s state convention has a disproportionately large number of Paul supporters among the delegates, and he got some of the biggest cheers of the day. Paul also supported state Rep. Kurt Bills’ bid for the party’s U.S. Senate endorsement, which was successful.

Four years ago, Paul was barred from speaking at Minnesota’s Republican Convention.

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ST. CLOUD, Minn. (AP) — Minneosta Republicans are gathering in St. Cloud this weekend to endorse a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

The Republican State Convention is Friday and Saturday at the St. Cloud Civic Center. Three candidates are in serious contention for the Senate endorsement. They are state Rep. Kurt Bills; military veteran and activist Pete Hegseth; and former state representative Dan Severson. All three pledged to honor the endorsement, meaning whoever gets it will face Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar in November.

The state Republican Party is coming off a few rocky months thanks to serious financial problems and a state Senate scandal. Supporters of insurgent Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul are expected to demonstrate their growing influence at the convention, and Paul is addressing the group Friday night.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Kim and Jim Patterson, owners of Fantasy’s, claim the city’s zoning code is unconstitutionally vague.

The lawsuit alleges the ordinance gives city officials “unbridled discretion” to grant or deny permission to engage in constitutionally protected activity.

Kim Patterson tells KFGO-AM she hopes for an injunction allowing the store to reopen.

City Administrator Scott Huizenga says the city received the suit Thursday and he had no comment.

Fantasy’s was open for just one day in East Grand Forks before the city shut the business down. The owners previously tried to open in Grand Forks, N.D., but the store was blocked because it was located too close to a school.

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Paul’s campaign is still seeking delegates to the national GOP convention in August. In Minnesota, Paul’s supporters have seized many delegate and alternate slots in hopes of influencing national convention delegate selection.

Paul himself speaks Friday night, but the main order of business for Republicans is endorsing a Senate candidate to challenge incumbent Democrat Amy Klobuchar. Paul’s supporters are likely to influence that decision too.

The convention follows months of instability in the Minnesota GOP, including financial problems and a high-profile sex scandal in the state Senate.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

With a calm, yet windswept Lake Harriet as a backdrop, three former priests faced reporters to say that they believe the amendment and the church’s stand on gay marriage violates the principles of justice and love.

The amendment would legally define marriage as the union between a man and woman.

“The proposed amendment changes nothing in Minnesota law, rather it enshrines exclusion, discrimination and separation,” said former Minneapolis pastor John Estrem.

Estrem and the others recounted their ongoing friendships with gay couples and their united belief that those unions in no way poised a threat to their traditional unions. In fact, Ed Flahavan, a former priest from St. Paul said quite the opposite was true and his associations with this same sex couples “helped him become an ex-homophobe.”

Flahavan is however upset with the church’s priorities.

“I was outraged to learn that the archdiocese spent $650,000 last year in 2011 to promote this divisive initiative, while its own Catholic Charities are being forced to curtail their good and necessary work,” said Flahavan.

St. Paul-Minneapolis Diocese spokesperson Dennis McGrath disputed the claim that Catholic Charities donations had been cut. He said the amount of donations had increased in 2011.

McGrath also said that the $650,000 spent to promote the initiative came from money accrued through interest from the Archdiocese’s holdings, not from donations.

The amendment initiative to define marriage as the traditional bond between a man and a woman will be on the November ballot in Minnesota.