The Daily Digest (Marriage bill signed, budget deal still not done)
In Minnesota
Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday signed a bill making same-sex marriage legal in Minnesota, the 12th state to take the step. The state will begin same-sex marriages on Aug. 1.
MPR News has a tick-tock of how legislative leaders decided to push the marriage issue and how they built support among lawmakers.
Gov. Mark Dayton and DFL legislative leaders announced a tax and spending framework Sunday. But many details of that agreement have yet to be worked out before the session ends on Monday, reports MPR.
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A significantly scaled-back plan to revise Minnesota's gun laws advanced toward a final Senate vote after receiving the blessing Tuesday of a vocal gun-rights group.
The lawmaker who has pushed this year for tougher state regulation of the frac sand mining industry says a compromise on the legislation has been reached.
A bill that would allow in-home child care providers to unionize made it to the Senate floor Tuesday.
The Minnesota House and Senate have agreed to an energy bill that includes a 1.5 percent solar energy standard for investor-owned utilities.
In Washington/National Politics
Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation of whether Internal Revenue Service employees broke the law when they targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status. Attorney General Eric Holder recused himself from the investigation but finds himself on the defensive, reports the Washington Post.
A Minnesota tea party organization says it was caught-up in the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, reports MPR News.
Attorney General Holder also defended the Justice Department's sweeping seizure of telephone records of Associated Press journalists.
Leaked emails that reflected poorly on the Obama Administration's handling of the terror attack on a Benghazi, Libya diplomatic compound were selectively edited to make the administration look worse, reports CNN.
The Senate Agriculture Committee approved this year's farm bill, though MPR News reports that food stamps and crop insurance remain the most controversial parts of the legislation. The House Ag Committee will mark up its bill today.
This is perhaps the biggest non-scandal story in Washington: budget deficits are shrinking far faster than anyone anticipated though the New York Times says many economists are concerned deficits are falling too fast.