Thursday Halftime Report.  Things continue slowly at the Capitol.  The House, like the Senate earlier in the session, failed to pass its bonding bill on the first time through.  Two DFLers voted for the House bonding bill and four Republicans voted against it in an otherwise party-line vote on the final 69-64 tally.  "What?" you say.  "The bill got 69 votes.  Doesn't that mean it passed?"  On an ordinary bill, you would be correct, but the bonding bill requires 60% of the body to vote in favor of it, which translates to 41 votes in the Senate and 81 votes in the House.

There are rumors that leadership is closing in on a target for the tax conference committee, which would break the logjam somewhat, but it's always difficult to discern whether there will be quid pro quos when targets are discussed.  One side may not pass a tax bill unless there is a bonding bill (or something like that).  Stay tuned.

In the fun word department, the dictionary app on my phone provides me with a word of the day every morning, and today's word was "furphy," which is a word most commonly used in Australia whose definition is "rumor."  Kind of appropriate word for the last week of the session.

I'll do double duty with my "waiting" song for this afternoon.  Texas songwriter extraordinaire Guy Clark passed away earlier this week at the age of 74.  Seems like "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train" describes the situation at the Capitol to a tee as we desperate lobbyists are waiting on the legislative train.