Daily Digest: 12-31-08

Democrat Al Franken is now 49 votes ahead in the recount with wrongly-rejected absentee ballots still to be counted. MPR, AP, NY Times, CNN, Star Tribune and PiPress have stories.

Republican Norm Coleman's lawyers call the lead "artificial."

An election judge in Duluth is surprised to learn her absentee ballot was rejected.

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State Government

Some at the Legislature see the nearly $6 billion budget deficit as an opportunity for reform.

Rochester schools and the University worry about their budgets.

Two reports argue for more education funding.

All of this snow has been financially taxing.

But the Minnesota Zoo and Austin Public Schools are doing just fine.

Congress

Critics urge Sen. Amy Klobuchar to condemn the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Rep. Keith Ellison appeals to credit card companies to not raise rates in his role as co-chair of the Consumer Justice Caucus.

MN's 3rd District Congressional race is picked as one of this year's top five races by WaPo's The Fix.

And Congressional Democrats say they will block Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to replace President-elect Obama in the Senate. But they may not be able to.

And...

Happy New Year! See you in 2009...