Long Day's Journey into Night.  It took about ten hours and seemed a lot longer, but the House concurred with the Senate amendments to HF 826--the Safe and Supportive Schools Act--by a straight partisan line vote of 69-63 late Tuesday evening (or maybe it was Wednesday morning).  There wasn't much new territory covered in Tuesday's debate.  It's hard to embellish the debate, which was very serious and bordered on contentious at some junctures.  There were a number cultural references from those who opposed the bill, and if you are interested, I would suggest you listen to the archived audio of the floor session.  There is no way that I can do the debate justice by trying to recount it here.

The bill will now go to the Governor and he is expected to sign the bill.  This will certainly be a centerpiece issue in the 2014 election House election cycle, so stay tuned.

Here is a link to the House floor session from Tuesday, April 8:  http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/archivesHFS.asp?ls_year=88

The roll call vote:  http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/votes/votes.asp?ls_year=88&billnum=HF0826&session_number=0&year=2013&id=817