MORNING EDITION

The vote was, you guessed it, straight party lines. The GOP majority’s major jobs legislation anti-gay marriage bill slid out of a House Committee Monday after passing through a Senate committee Friday. Andy Birkey of The Minnesota Independent writes, “[T]he House Civil Law Committee passed a bill Monday to put a constitutional amendment that would restrict marriage in Minnesota to one man and one woman before voters. In a hearing in which religious leaders far outnumbered legal testifiers, emotions ran high as the father of a gay soldier killed in Afghanistan appealed to veterans to oppose the amendment. The committee heard several hours of testimony, including that of Bishop Bob Battle of the Berean Church of God in Christ. Battle said, ‘I don’t consider gay marriages as the same as whites not being allowed to marry blacks.’ ‘Gay marriage advocates have attempted to hijack the civil rights movement,’ he said. ‘I know what civil rights are, and gays in America have all the civil rights as anyone else.’ ... Battle added, ‘God gave marriage as a gift to Adam and Eve.’ ” And that, we can prove, is a scientific fact.

Elsewhere at the Capitol, you really have to love this one. Don Davis of the Forum Papers writes that the bill introduced by GOP Rep. Keith Downey of Edina, the one that would require the elimination of 15 percent of state government jobs … ? That one? Davis says: “Democrats complain that the bill could affect Minnesotans’ safety. Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, said food safety inspections could be hurt if the 15-percent cut is enacted. However, Lanning and Downey said that the bill should not be too specific about what jobs would be eliminated. ‘There is some flexibility for the governor to do this the way he sees fit,’ Downey said. Rep. Gene Pelowski, DFL-Winona, could not get Republicans to tell him how many jobs their spending bills would create and if that would be more than they propose eliminating.”

Not sure this qualifies as “news,” as in something we didn’t already know. But Christopher Snowbeck of the PiPress writes: “In a study being published this month, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., conclude that patients with both coronary artery disease and "central obesity" — a weight measurement that focuses on stomach fat — had up to twice the risk of dying than heart disease patients with more petite paunches. Central obesity is measured by comparing the circumference of a patient's stomach to the circumference of the hips. When the stomach measurement is 90 percent or more of the hip measurement in men — and 85 percent or more of the hip measurement in women — a patient generally is thought to have a worrisome distribution of fat according to the central obesity score, said Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, director of the cardiometabolic program at the Mayo Clinic. It's the second study in less than a year from the Mayo Clinic to suggest that wide guts can be worse for health than thundering thighs.” Uh huh, and what about ... you know ... cankles?

Three percent. That’s all of Minnesota’s farm acreage that has been planted. Mike Hughlett’s Strib story says: “As of Sunday, only 3 percent of the state's spring wheat crop had been planted, compared with 96 percent at the same time last year and 41 percent on average by that date, according to a report Monday from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Minnesota field office. Only 1 percent of the corn crop had been planted. By May 1, 2010, 84 percent of the state's corn was in the ground, and the crop's five-year planting average by that date is 46 percent.” Put another way, the horse[bleep] weather is NOT your imagination.

It’s our All-American Target vs. the Canuckistanis’ faux Target, and I know whom I’m betting on. David Phelps of the Strib reports: “It's the battle of the Target bull's-eye vs. the Target maple leaf over who gets to use the Target name in Canada. The dispute so far has generated a lawsuit and a countersuit between Minneapolis-based Target and the parent of Canadian retailer Target Apparel. On Monday, Target was in Canadian Federal Court seeking an injunction to bar Target Apparel, a 15-store division of Fairweather Ltd., from using the Target name until a trial can be conducted later this year to determine which party has the proper trademark credentials. A ruling was not expected immediately. The stakes are high. Fairweather has a $250 million claim against Target in the countersuit, alleging trademark infringement. Target, on the other hand, is poised to open 100 to 150 big-box stores in Canada beginning in 2013 — its first expansion outside of the United States.”

The Block E Casino will be getting some attention this week. MPR’s Tim Nelson writes: “ Asked about a Senate bill, GOP deputy majority leader Geoff Michel said he wasn't ready to talk about it yet, but could have more to say within 48 hours. At least three people familiar with talks about the project say they believe supporters will have a public announcement about the project on Wednesday — neatly dovetailing with Michel's comments. GOP Representative Bob Gunther, of Fairmont and chair of the Jobs and Economic Development committee, said he hasn't seen anything on it yet, although his panel would be a likely early stop for any Block E casino bill.”

Proud Ranger Aaron Brown, of the Minnesota Brown blog, talks about the effect of losing LGA to cities up north: “The cold reality here is that the Range region has come to depend on Local Government Aid, a cherished invention of locally-beloved DFL governors Wendell Anderson and Rudy Perpich to balance quality of life across the state. LGA will never return to its past glory. Range towns need to adopt sleeker, more efficient service delivery methods, the kinds of things Republicans are generally good at touting. But to fully embrace Republican positions on state budget issues will quite likely suck our Range towns dry — of funds, for one, but eventually of young professionals, families and a long term tax base. Our mining tax structure provides many advantages, but in the post-1982 world I always talk about, the structure only works with robust LGA. We need a non-mining tax base before the loss of LGA will ever be fully reconciled.”

It is very inside-party ball, but John Hugh Gilmore’s breakdown of the intra-GOP scuffle over RNC committee member Pat Anderson “violating” the party platform by promoting an expansion of gambling as a lobbyist for the racino folks is, well, amusing: “The chief scold against Anderson has been RPM deputy chair Michael Brodkorb. In his view, Anderson must choose between her client and her RNC position. Apparently this is because of the perceived conflict with the party platform: ‘She is a party officer, she sits on the executive committee. There is an expectation she will support the party platform. Plus the timing of this and how she handled this, it's going to be difficult for her.’ These comments strike MC [Minnesota Conservatives, the name of Gilmore’s blog] less as reasons than conclusions. To each of them one may respond sprightly: so what? It's not that Anderson can't be criticized or that a good discussion about gambling should be had; it's that Brodkorb's arguments are not on their face persuasive and fail as such. Other, improved arguments may well be forthcoming in the next few weeks from him and others and they will deserve attention and reflection.” You can practically smell Gilmore, tapping faint embers from his Meerschaum pipe.