Indeed, during debate about the legislation, a Democratic state senator asked why RU-486 should be regulated instead of erectile dysfunction medication. Sen. Paul Gazelka (R), the bill’s sponsor, said Viagra is a “wonderful drug” that “helps create life.” RH Reality Check’s Robin Marty asked Gazelka to clarify his comments about Viagra, and he said in response:

comparing Viagra to RU-486 was comparing apples and oranges or more like comparing life and death. Viagra is a wonderful medical advancement in that can help couples with sexual disfunction issues…it can even help in producing life. RU486 always destroys life by taking the life of the unborn child.

Gazelka did not respond to Marty’s questions about whether he would sponsor a bill to collect information about men who are prescribed Viagra, similar to “databases created in various other states to gather information on women who obtain abortions.”

Gazelka’s bill and his ensuing comments about Viagra highlight the unfair burden placed on women who seek abortions and related health care. State regulations continue to add additional hurdles women must overcome to access abortions and contraception, while no similar measures block the availably of Viagra for men.

“While the President does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples,” said Kristen Sosanie, spokeswoman for the Obama for America – Minnesota campaign. “That’s what the Minnesota ballot initiative would do – it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples – and that’s why the President does not support it.”

The Obama campaign offered the same statement in opposition to North Carolina’s Amendment One, and the Catholic bishops responded that his position was “a grave disappointment.” Though the President’s position on same-sex marriage is still “evolving,” he opposes state-level attempts to discriminate against same-sex couples.

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Gov. Mark Dayton

Now, two Minnesota officials are putting forth a proposal that could break this deadlock by allaying conservative fears over voter fraud while also ensuring that no eligible voters are disenfranchised.

Currently, the Republican-controlled Minnesota legislature is advancing a bill to enact voter ID restrictions in the North Star State. Gov. Mark Dayton (D) and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who oppose the measure, are proposing an alternative that could prevent fraud without denying Minnesotans the right to vote. Here’s how it would work:

With an electronic “poll book,” eligible voters who have lost an ID or no longer carry one could come to the polling place and have their electronic information pulled up from state records, Ritchie said.

He said about 84,000 Minnesota voters don’t carry photo ID, but in many cases, they would have photos in the state drivers’ database. For those who don’t, another ID could be scanned in or a photo could be taken at the polling place.

“We would not be disenfranchising anybody and we would not be breaking the bank,” Ritchie said.

Republican reaction to this proposal will be interesting to watch. If their real concern is, in fact, preventing voter fraud, then expect Minnesota GOPers to jump on board with this plan, which uses the electronic “poll book” to ensure that every voter is indeed who they claim to be. However, if their real concern is disenfranchising voters who lean Democratic, their opposition to this proposal will be no surprise.

State Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer (R) gave a hint about the Republican response on Thursday. Kiffmeyer, who’s sponsoring the state’s voter ID bill, said she did not think Dayton and Ritchie’s proposal goes far enough and would press forward to enact voter ID.

But after a meeting between White’s attorneys, local officials, and Freddie Mac representatives, a hearing on the foreclosure has been moved to Friday, according to a press release from Occupy Our Homes MN.

White, like millions of American homeowners, fell behind on her mortgage and had applied for a loan modification with U.S. Bank, the original servicer of her loan. The modification was denied, however, and Freddie Mac took control of the loan and initiated court proceedings to foreclose on the home. Occupy Homes MN, the attorney general’s office, and White’s attorneys are now investigating the case to see if White’s mortgage and modification applications were mishandled by either U.S. Bank or Freddie Mac, a spokesperson for Occupy Homes MN told ThinkProgress.

“We’re looking to find evidence of mishandling of the foreclosure practices by Freddie Mac or U.S. Bank,” the spokesperson, Anthony Newby, said. “We believe they did not negotiate in good faith. It’s unclear why she was turned down (for the modification), when she was turned down. All of that is up in the air.”

According to Newby, White currently works two retail jobs and lives with a relative who is also willing to make payments toward the mortgage if it gets a modification. White has lived in the house in north Minneapolis since 2003, but sought the modification after losing an earlier job as a counselor helping troubled teens.

Her case has also received support from Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who represents the district in which she lives. Citing privacy reasons, Ellison’s office declined to comment on action he had taken on behalf of White, but he released a statement today, saying, “I encourage US Bank and Freddie Mac to act in good faith and negotiate a solution that works well for all parties and allows Monique and her children to keep their home.”

North Minneapolis is among the worst hit areas in the state for foreclosures. According to Newby, 56 percent of North Minneapolis homes are facing foreclosure, and 40 percent of the Minneapolis’s foreclosures occurred there. White, who is black, is also facing a dilemma many minority homeowners have faced. According to a report by the Center on Responsible Lending, black and Latino homeowners were twice as likely to have been affected by the housing crisis as white borrowers.

Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Dennis Carlson (AP Photo/Dawn Villella)

As recently as three weeks ago, the superintendent of Anoka-Hennepin School District, Dennis Carlson, was still denying that bullying or the school’s anti-LGBT environment had anything to do with the multiple student suicides that took place over the past few years. Now that the district has finally implemented a policy that will  allow teachers to respect and affirm LGBT students, he seems to be singing a different tune. In a letter just published on the district’s webpage, Carlson reverses statements made in a 2010 voicemail, admitting that bullying is a serious problem that has had an impact on Anoka-Hennepin:

Although no one can ever be absolutely certain of the specific event that leads to a student’s suicide, there can be no doubt that in many situations bullying is one of the contributing factors. Gay students are especially vulnerable to anti-gay bullying and so are other students that are unique in some way that leads to verbal attacks by students.[...]

My daily commitment is always to protect and ensure the safety of each of our students, especially those who have felt marginalized in the past. It is a fundamental understanding of educators that students cannot learn if they do not feel safe, welcomed and affirmed in their school. Every Anoka-Hennepin school must provide that kind of safe environment for ALL students who walk through our doors – each and every day.

The concession is refreshing, but perhaps too little too late. Though a better policy is now in place, the district still faces a lawsuit filed by students claiming officials did not appropriately intervene with bullying as well as a federal civil rights investigation. And the new policy isn’t going to instantly transform the district into a welcoming environment for LGBT students. Carlson seems to have figured out how to talk the talk, so now it is time for his leadership as superintendent to walk the walk.

In an egregious example of how professional sports can be little more than a “glorified real estate scam,” the owners of the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings are about to fleece an unwilling Minnesota public for hundreds of millions of dollars, as they push to secure public subsidization of a new stadium. A deal is reportedly “imminent.”

Real estate developer Zygi Wilf and five partners bought the team in 2005 for a reported $600 million. (The franchise is now valued at $796 million.) From the get-go, Wilf and his partners wanted what every owner in the NFL wants: a new stadium.

The Metrodome opened in 1982 and is certainly not the newest and most lavish in the league, but there are eight stadiums that are older. And Minnesota voters clearly do not want to pay for a new stadium using public funds. A February 3 poll sponsored by KSTP-TV in Minneapolis found that a whopping 68 percent of Minnesota voters think the new stadium should be built “entirely with private financing.” Only 22 percent believed that any tax dollars should be used at all.

Even more astounding, these results came after a six-figure ad campaign paid for by the Vikings to try to drum up support for financing the stadium.

So leave it to Minnesota’s politicians to find a way around the public will. Gov. Mark Dayton (D) has been out front on the stadium issue and is doing everything he can to get a new stadium built. “We’re at the five yard line and its first and goal, and I think we’ve got a great opportunity,” Dayton recently said.

But in 1997, Minneapolis voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum stating that voters must approve any plan to spend more than $10 million on a sports facility. Given that a referendum today would obviously fail, how is the governor going to get a stadium built in downtown Minneapolis? By exploiting a loophole, of course.

In the latest stadium proposal, at least $300 million in Minneapolis taxes already devoted to paying off the city’s convention center would be diverted to pay the city’s share of the new stadium. And to circumvent the requirement that voters approve funding for the stadium, Dayton’s top stadium negotiator, Ted Mondale, explained that a newly created “stadium authority” would spend the city’s money, rather than the city itself.

So despite the fact that the Minneapolis public voted to require a public referendum before financing any new stadium, and has made it clear that it doesn’t want a new stadium in this case, Minnesota’s governor and state legislature appear poised to spend $300 million in taxes on one anyway by creating a new entity out of thin air that is not subject to the referendum law.

The NFL is making money hand over fist, but the public is expected to pay the costs of providing a (lavish new) place for NFL teams to play, socializing the costs of the sport while privatizing the profits.

“ALL Our Voices Count. No Voter ID Amendment” their signs read as they stood outside the Committee on Local Government and Elections hearing room, protesting the possible new requirement that citizens present certain forms of photo identification at the polls or be barred from voting.

Senate Republicans did not permit any citizens to testify on the legislation. It passed the committee along a party-line vote, 8-6, and now advances to the full Senate.

Though the Republican-controlled Minnesota legislature passed a voter ID bill last year, it was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton (D). If the both legislative chambers succeed again in passing voter ID this year, it will appear as a constitutional referendum on the November ballot for all Minnesotans to consider.

Workday Minnesota has more on the voter ID bill’s ramifications:

According to the Secretary of State, the proposed constitutional amendment would disenfranchise 215,000 registered voters in Minnesota – mainly elderly, disabled and homeless citizens – who do not have a valid driver’s license or ID card with a current address on it. It would also deny the vote to 500,000 eligible voters who use Election Day registration

Minnesota has a long history of strong voting rights laws and an engaged civic culture. In 1973, it became the first state (along with Maine) to allow citizens to register on Election Day. The Gopher State has had astronomically high voter turnout rates ever since. In the past seven elections, it has lead the nation in voter turnout. The last time a state other than Minnesota led was 1994.

However, that point of pride would likely be a relic of the past if Minnesota Republican legislators successfully get the new voter ID bill enacted.

The Southern Poverty Law Center praised the change, but said it plans to proceed with the suits it has filed on behalf of students who were subject to harassment under the policy:

Today is the first day in nearly 18 years that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District no longer has a harmful policy that singles out lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Although we would have preferred for the District to have repealed this stigmatizing policy without replacing it, we are pleased that the new policy expressly requires district staff to affirm the dignity and self-worth of all students, including LGBT students.

The repeal of this policy is an important first step, but the District must do much more to create a safe, welcoming, and respectful learning environment for all students, including LGBT and gender non-conforming students, and those perceived as such.

Rolling Stone magazine recently profiled the district and the trauma students have experienced, particularly losing friends to suicide. School officials called the portrayal “grossly distorted” and attempted to downplay the negative environment, refusing to take any responsibility for the impact of the “neutrality” policy. The Parents Action League, a radical group of conservative parents that promotes ex-gay therapy and calls AIDS a gay disease, continues to object to the school “caving” to the “demands of the homosexual activists.”

But there is even more troubling news for Romney. As ThinkProgress has noted, Republican turnout has been down in virtually every primary so far, suggesting a lack of enthusiasm for Romney and the rest of the GOP field. But last night’s results are far more severe. Turnout was not just down but down tremendously, and in many places, Romney was unable to capture anywhere close to as many votes as he won in 2008.

Romney won Colorado with 60 percent of the vote four years ago, and its demographics favored the candidate, but this year, Romney won just 34.9 percent of the vote, coming 6 points shy of Santorum. In Minnesota, which Romney won with 41 percent of the vote in 2008, he won just 16.9 percent last night — coming in third behind Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). And in Missouri, Romney was down slightly, from 29 percent in 2008 to 25.3 percent last night.

Looking at the vote totals, instead of percentages, which takes into account voter turnout, the numbers are even worse for Romney, as this graphic produced by ThinkProgress’ Adam Peck shows:

In some places, Romney’s collapse was even more stunning. As the New York Times’ Nate Silver noted, “Romney’s stronger areas in [Colorado] were associated with turnout declines of about 20 percent. But turnout was steady or slightly up in places where Rick Santorum did well.” For instance, in Pueblo County, where turnout was actually up, Romney took just 27 percent of the vote — a huge drop from the 62 percent he won in 2008. And in the Denver suburbs, which Romney won, he was still way down from 2008. In Douglas County, Romney went from 72 percent in 2008 to 46 percent; in Arapaho County, he went from 66 percent to 45 percent; and in Jeffferson County, he went from 65 percent to 39 percent.

Romney won comfortably in earlier primaries in Florida and Nevada, but only after drowning his competitors in millions of dollars of negative advertising. Romney’s campaign did not invest heavily in last night’s primaries, suggesting the candidate may have hard time winning on his own, without spending huge amounts to destory his competition in every state.

The results also seem to confirm the findings of a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll, which showed that the more people learn about Mitt Romney, the less they like him.

We tracked down the phony stock images of families that they used in their video, and we think you deserve to see the proof. Check them out:

1. Children Having Fun in Playground Together
2. Loving and Playful Family
3. Happy Bride and Groom Smiling Together
4. Happy, Smiling Family
5. A house, also found on a securities website
6. And last but not least, this couple, who are also prominently featured on a website for a hospital in India!

Watch the video:

Relying on stock images is a fairly common practice in political campaigns, but anti-gay groups who argue that the public supports their view of “traditional marriage” seem particularly drawn to fake representations of families.

“I think it underscores that sanctity of marriage is important to most Minnesotans and people who are in same-sex relationships believe in that sanctity also and want a chance to participate in the sanctity in the same way as heterosexual couples,” Dayton told MPR’s All Things Considered, before suggesting that Republicans would be hypocritical in pursuing the measure:

DAYTON: I will say, before you take out the speck in your neighbor’s eye, take the log out of your own eye. Somebody whose conduct doesn’t measure up to what they’re professing to believe in or prescribing for others, then they should be called on that.

Listen:

Yesterday, the gay community in Minnesota sent Koch a mock letter apologizing “for ruining the institution of marriage and causing her to stray from her husband and engage in an ‘inappropriate relationship.’” “On behalf of all gays and lesbians living in Minnesota, I would like to wholeheartedly apologize for our community’s successful efforts to threaten your traditional marriage,” reads the letter from John Medeiros. “We apologize that our selfish requests to marry those we love has cheapened and degraded traditional marriage so much that we caused you to stray from your own holy union for something more cheap and tawdry.”