The Daily Digest (State leaders react to cell phone ban plan, Iowa heats up, Veto looms on payroll tax cut)
The National Transportation Safety Board recommends states ban cell phone use for drivers but it isn't being fully embraced by state policy leaders. "We need to set rules or laws that we can enforce," Gov. Dayton said on Midday. He didn't commit to the ban. DFL Rep. Frank Hornstein sent out a release saying he supports it. MinnPost says GOP Sen. Warren Limmer opposes it.
Dayton appeared on MPR's Midday on Tuesday. You can listen to the full show here.
Brooklyn Center voted to keep the city's property tax levy at its current rate. Voters defeated the school district backed levy eight times in a row before passing it last night.
Tidbit: The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's Session Priorities Dinner is Jan. 24. Gov. Dayton will keynote the event.
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MPR says Minnesota's frigid climate is a selling point for data farms.
The Pi Press says Republican Tom Emmer, who lost the race for governor in 2010, is complaining that Hamline University rescinded a job offer to him because some staffers objected to his political views.
An outdoors group finalizes its recommendations for Legacy Fund money.
A Twin Cities lawyer gets jail time for Medicaid fraud.
The IRRRB reviews $8 million in public works grants.
Attorney General Lori Swanson is accusing a Texas company of stonewalling her investigation into whether it cheated a vulnerable adult out of thousands of dollars.
Paynesville is pushing the state to speed up the pollution clean up in the city.
Vikings Stadium
Gov. Dayton suggests that he would want to clean up the Arden Hills site even if they don't get the stadium.
Economy
Manpower is predicting hiring may pick up slightly in Minnesota in the 1st Quarter of 2012.
Congress
The House voted for a payroll tax cut extension bill that President Obama threatened to veto.
DFL Rep. Tim Walz broke with Democrats and voted for the bill.
A Minnesota farmer asks MF Global at a hearing: "Where's my money?"
An NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll finds that 75% of those polled rate this Congress as below average or one of the worst. A new low. 69% of those polled disapprove of the job Republicans are doing. 62% disapprove of the job Democrats are doing.
Attorney General Eric Holder is vowing to enforce civil rights protections.
The Senate passed GOP Rep. Chip Cravaack's TSA bill.
DFL Rep. Keith Ellison and House liberals float a jobs bill.
The Postal Service will delay its cutbacks until May.
Race for President
President Obama urges his supporters to stick with him.
Newt Gingrich surged past Mitt Romney in a new NBC News/Wall St. Journal poll.
The same poll says Romney is struggling with primary voters. Gingrich has problems with general election voters.
The NBC poll finds that a majority of Republicans view the presidential field as "average."
A new Public Policy Polling poll says Ron Paul is closing in on Newt Gingrich in Iowa.
Romney tells the Washington Post that Gingrich is an "extremely unreliable" conservative leader.
Gingrich is urging his supporters to stay positive. Politico says Gingrich slings some mud though.
A number of Iowa pastors say GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann is the most biblically qualified to be president.
Tim Pawlenty rips Newt Gingrich on foreign policy.
Roll Call says some GOP strategists are worried that Gingrich will have a negative effect on other GOP candidates on the ballot.
AP says social issues are bubbling up in the presidential race.
Two Iowa pastors also call Gingrich an "empty suit with a broken zipper."
One of Gingrich's staffers in Iowa left the campaign after he called Mormonism "a cult."
Rick Santorum questions Bachmann's experience.
Stu Rothenberg says he regrets being bullish on Tim Pawlenty's presidential prospects.
Donald Trump won't host a presidential debate but may run as an independent.