The Daily Digest

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Around Minnesota

Governor Mark Dayton has called special elections for two open Minnesota Senate seats.

Pop quiz: How big is Minnesota's new budget?

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Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak to the Economic Club of Minnesota in September.

Police have arrested a suspect in connection with an arson at a Minneapolis home previously occupied by Gov. Mark Dayton.

Dayton has been assigned to the National Governors Association Executive Committee.

Congress

House Speaker John Boehner has postponed a vote on his debt ceiling plan after the number crunchers said the proposal wouldn't save as much cash as Boehner hoped.

That's not the end of Boehner's woes; he also needs to win over conservatives in his party who want deeper spending cuts.

Minnesota's GOP delegation is split over how to deal with the debt ceiling.

Rep. Collin Peterson has endorsed the Gang of Six debt ceiling plan. He's asked his staff to start researching a new Farm Bill that will fit within the plan's spending cuts.

A New Jersey law firm says Rep. Chip Cravaack owes them money.

The Washington Post predicts that, because of redistricting, 2012 will be a tough election for House Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of moderates that formed in 1995 after the party lost big in the previous year. The Post says 16 are vulnerable or potentially vulnerable. Seventh district Rep. Collin Peterson is among six who appear safe.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar and her Republican colleague from South Dakota, John Thune, penned an op-ed about biofuels.

The Race for President

New Hampshire state Rep. Shaun Doherty has resigned from Gov. Tim Pawlenty's New Hampshire steering committee. He's backing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney instead.

The Washington Post reports that public records show Rep. Michele Bachmann secured a $417,000 home loan backed by either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Bachmann and her husband signed for the loan just a few weeks before Bachmann said the programs should be axed, according to the story.

Bachmann says that neither party has it right on the debt ceiling.

The Don may not be running for president, but he's still offering opinion on former Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Conservative Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin ponders whether there's trouble in the Pawlenty camp.

Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King gave CNN his assessment of the Republican field. He mentions the tension building between the Pawlenty and Bachmann camps, saying, "we don't need a Minnesota Hatfield & McCoy thing going on in here."

PolitiFact says that Bachmann's claim that Pawlenty said the "end of small government is over" is Mostly True.

A Pawlenty supporter thinks Pawlenty is being too hard on Bachmann.

And for your Ipod, a tune for the times.

Say it with me: "I ain't got no quantitative statutory budget restraints."