The Rain, the Capitol, and Other Things.  It's a rainy Saturday afternoon and the House and Senate reconvened earlier this afternoon (although they are now in recess).  Things will likely be flying around later this afternoon.  The rotunda is filled with Vikings' fans singing "Skol Vikings! Skol!" about every five minutes.  I don't know if that is going to move things along or not, but this is the first organized pro-stadium rally in a few years.  My only impression is that it would be nice if Adrian Peterson, Chad Greenway, and John Sullivan would come over to the Capitol and lobby for K-12 funding.  Ah, I'm just jealous.

There have been some education issues floating around.  After not meeting for almost a week, the conference committee on the online learning bill--SF 1528--finished up its work in short order last evening and that report should hit the legislative floors today.  The primary development in that conference committee is that the House receded from its position requiring that every high school student take at least one online course in order to graduate.

In another development, the House passed the conference committee report on HF 1870--the teacher evaluation bill--and the Senate will likely follow suit as early as today.  The Governor has informed everyone that he intends to veto the bill, making the value of passage somewhat questionable.  However, it's important to remember that teacher evaluation will be a wedge issue in the upcoming campaign and both sides want to get as many votes as they can on the bill's proponents and opponents.

PEIP Bill Vetoed.  I neglected to report earlier in the week that the Governor vetoed SF 247, the bill authored by Senator Gary Dahms (R-Redwood Falls) and Representative Joe Hoppe (R-Chaska) that would have required that teacher locals would need the approval of the local school board before they could opt to join the Public Employees Insurance Program (PEIP).  The bill was strongly opposed by Education Minnesota.

Here is a link to the veto message:  http://mn.gov/governor/images/ch_213-sf_247-veto-attach.pdf

I'll sign off for now, but I'll be back soon.