More than a dozen cities around the state are lining up in opposition to the proposed marriage amendment on the November ballot, but don't expect Rochester to join them. Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede, who has come out publicly opposing the marriage amendment, said he has thought of bringing the issue before the council, but ultimately decided not to, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports. "I know part of the council would be against (the amendment), but I'm certain we wouldn't get 100 percent. And that would make a statement that could give credence to those working in favor of the amendment," Brede told the paper. So far city councils in the Twin Cities and eight of its suburbs have joined Duluth and Mankato in opposing the amendment, which would define marriage in the state constitution as between a man and a woman. Mountain Iron, which bills itself as the taconite capital of the world, also took a stand against the amendment in July. The full list of cities can be found here. ________________________ Cities around the state are gearing up for the annual taste test to see who has the best water in the state. Rochester, which has the best tap water in Southeast Minnesota has high hopes. St. Cloud Public Utilities took home the Best in Glass trophy last year. Moorhead won the two years before that. The contest takes place at the annual convention of the Minnesota chapter of the American Water Works Association, which begins today in Duluth. ________________________ Are Nerf guns illegal too? North Mankato is dealing with repercussions of a 2009 expansion of its firearm ordinance that prohibited air soft guns after police there ticketed a 12 year old boy and two friends for shooting colorful plastic balls out of an air soft gun. The August ticket has started a heated debate in the city. The toy guns are widely available in stores. "We have never gotten in trouble for it," Dyllon Johnston told FOX 9 News. "We didn't know it was wrong at all." The prohibition on soft guns includes paintball guns and any other device that involves the propulsion of an object by compressed gas or a mechanical spring. ________________________ The St. Cloud Times has an interesting story on prosecutors moving up the chain to take on dealers who supply drugs used in overdoses. What used to be a buyer-beware world, is changing as more people die from overdoses. "An overdose death, more often than not, was seen as a hazard of being a drug user. Rarely was it feasible to build a case against the dealer who supplied the drugs that caused the death. But a spike in the number of overdoses, particularly from heroin, has changed the way those deaths are investigated. And that has led to an increase in prosecutions of the people who supply drugs that cause overdoses. From 2001 to 2008, the state averaged 3.3 murder or manslaughter charges filed per year in overdose cases. From 2009-2011, the state averaged 6.6 such charges per year. And through the first eight months of this year, six such charges have been filed statewide, according to statistics from the state court information office." Here's the full story. ________________________ Email the Star Tribune's state team: DatelineMN@startribune.com Follow us on Twitter: @DatelineMN