Vikings stadium twists in the wind of hot air at the Capitol

Ground Level released a series of reports that dive into new approaches to meeting transportation needs in Greater Minnesota on lean budgets. 

Members of the Public Insight Network chimed in with observations on how they get around and what transportation challenges their communities face.

The Ground Level series culminated in an online chat with transit folks from around the state. 

Stormy weather on Tuesday included a tornado touchdown in central Minnesota. 

We also saw another reminder that the 8th Congressional District will be competitive, or that outside interests believe they can influence the outcome. Liberal SuperPAC CREDO set up offices in Duluth this week. Incumbent Rep. Chip Cravaack is one of 10 Republicans the group wants to help defeat in November. The fact that they actually set up an office is the district is unique among SuperPAC approaches. Monique Teal told Capitol View the CREDO SuperPAC has no plans to spend money on ads in the 8th district. Rather, the group will focus on organizing voters. "We're very much invested in having a ground game, so we will be doing public rallies, we will be confronting and questioning Cravaack at public events, and then finally, we'll be turning out thousands of voters," Teal said. "The biggest thing is making sure that people on the ground are more important than money coming in from all over the country."

8th District Democrats are gathering Saturday and Sunday at Spirit Mountain to offer the DFL endorsement. Minimal news coverage or social media updates emerged leading up to the convention which Rick Nolan was expected to win. This article from Business Week read as if the primary was a done deal. "Democrats have high hopes for challenger Tarryl Clark, a former state lawmaker running against Rep. Chip Cravaack. Clark raised about $75,000 more in the quarter. But Cravaack still had more than $628,000 on hand compared to about $418,000 for Clark."
 

Nolan's pre-convention campaign is getting attention from the GOP. The Nolan campaign posted this photo of a fixture of the campaign trail, a GOP "tracker" is recording as much material as possible to hopefully capture a gaffe by the candidate as he interacts with voters. See also Virginia Sen. George Allen's macaca moment. In Nolan's case, this kind of image might prove to be a good fundraising opportunity.

Daniel Fanning dropped out of the MN-08 race early and is now campaigning for Nolan. In a race with few issue differences between the candidates, Fanning stood out among the field as a skeptic on new mining in the district. 

Candidate Jeff Anderson continues his methodic endorsement-focused campaign. 

The Ely native has distinguished himself as the most pro-mining candidate in the DFL race.