The Daily Digest: TGIF

Good morning!

In Minnesota

Competing ideas for taxes, transportation funding and a $1.9 billion surplus are just some of the challenges facing DFL Gov. Mark Dayton and legislative leaders during their end-of-session budget negotiations. They also need to figure out where to negotiate. (MPR News)

The owner of the new Major League Soccer franchise says it will be "very difficult" to build a stadium for the team without government support. (Pioneer Press)

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The Senate Commerce Committee voted 8-3 Thursday to recommend Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman be confirmed by the Senate for a second term. (MPR News)

An autopsy into the death of a bill to restore felons' voting rights. (MinnPost)

Thirteen DFL senators sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk requesting that several controversial policy provisions be taken out of the environment budget bill the Senate passed last week. (MPR News)

Minnesota firefighters are not having much success yet pushing lawmakers to support a bill to ban flame retardant chemicals the could cause cancer. (Star Tribune)

The state will let five rural Minnesota districts keep their four-day school weeks next school year. (MPR News)

"State lawmakers use a taconite production tax to distribute millions in one-time grants to Iron Range communities, a system so lax that there is no application process, the Minnesota Legislative Auditor reported." (Star Tribune)

National Politics

Kicking off his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders says he wants to end the influence of billionaires on politics. (USA Today)

Minnesota’s wealthiest campaign donors gave at least $11 million to federal candidates and political organizations in the 2014 election cycle, with the giving concentrated on Republicans despite the Gopher State’s Democratic-tilt, according to a new analysis. (MPR News)

The U.S. House passed a budget negotiated with the Senate, setting up a spending confrontation with President Obama this summer. (Politico)

Chicago will reportedly be home to President Obama's presidential library. (New York Times)

"Elected officials routinely tap their campaign accounts to pay for things that appear to have little to do with seeking another term in Congress" (Politico)