Twittergate at the Capitol?
A Minnesota Senate committee will take up the question this week: Did GOP Sen. Gretchen Hoffman violate Senate ethics rules with a tweet?
On May 18, Hoffman tweeted that DFL Sen. Barb Goodwin called people with mental illnesses "idiots and imbeciles." In fact, Goodwin had spoken those words disparagingly on the Senate floor, which were historically used to describe people with mental illnesses.
A May 20 complaint from DFL Sen. Ann Rest said Hoffman's tweet did not display the "highest standard of ethical conduct" that senators are supposed to hold.
The Senate Subcommittee on Ethical Conduct will take up the issue at 1:30 p.m. on Monday.
RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
Walz ducks Weinergate
Rep. Tim Walz donated $3,000 -- the amount New York Rep. Anthony Weiner had contributed to Walz's campaigns -- to a local veterans charity last week.
Weiner, who admitted that he exchanged texts and photos with six women he met on the Internet, has caused political headaches for Democrats as Republicans call for his resignation.
Walz was the second Democrat to return contributions from Weiner, following Ohio Democrat Rep. Betty Sutton. Walz received $1,000 from Weiner on March 27, 2007, and $2,000 on Nov. 16, 2009, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Republicans jabbed at Walz last week in the wake of Weiner's teary news conference, as the Republican National Congressional Committee sent a press release with the subject: "Will Walz Return Embattled Congressman Weiner's Tainted Cash?"
Walz spokesman Trevor Vaubel said the Minnesota Democrat donated the $3,000 to a Minnesota chapter of the Disabled American Veterans.
JEREMY HERB
What's a budget 'freeze?'
As Republicans and the governor seek agreement on the largest segment of the budget, K-12 education, even their common ground appears rocky.
Case in point: In his veto of the K-12 budget, Gov. Mark Dayton criticized the bill's "freezing of compensatory revenue," the aid the state gives out based on the number of poor students in each school district. The problem: Dayton and the Republicans both want to spend the same amount on compensatory revenue over the next two years.
Senate Republicans once proposed freezing compensatory revenue, but that provision was later eliminated. What Republicans did instead was separate compensatory revenue from the basic per-pupil formula allowance, so future legislatures would have to specifically increase the compensatory revenue formula.
Is that a freeze?
"How on God's green earth do you argue that it's a freeze?" said Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, the bill's Republican sponsor.
At first, Department of Education spokeswoman Charlene Briner agreed the letter got it wrong.
"It is incorrect to say that compensatory was frozen in the conference report," Briner said in an interview. Soon after, Briner sent Hot Dish e-mails backtracking that statement.
Dayton spokeswoman Katie Tinucci said they stand by the veto letter.
ERIC ROPER
