By Andy Birkey, Minnesota Independent - Sen. Al Franken was the keynote speaker at the Roe v. Wade 37th Anniversary Luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon. Franken has championed several bills to address reproductive inequalities, including the much talked about “anti-rape amendment.” He’s one of the top recipients of campaign funds from reproductive rights groups.

But his appearance at the event was attacked (predictably) by Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, an anti-abortion group.

“Senator Franken should not be celebrating the deadly Roe v. Wade decision as keynote speaker at a NARAL luncheon,” Scott Fischbach, MCCL executive director, said in a statement on Tuesday. “As Senator Franken rejoices

Politico - Washington, DC, USA - If anyone had doubts about the seriousness of comedian Al Franken's campaign to represent Minnesota in the Senate, his latest fundraising numbers go a long way toward showing his campaign is no laughing matter.

Or, as Franken creation Stuart Smalley might put it: Doggone it, voters seem to like him!

Franken outraised Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in the second quarter by about $300,000, banking $1.9 million to the incumbent's $1.6 million. He raised money from all of the state's 87 counties, and from 27,790 individual contributors. He outdistanced his main Democratic rival, attorney Mike Ciresi, in fundraising by nearly a 3-to-1 margin.

In

North Star Writers Group - Grand Rapids,MI,USA - Sixteen months before voters go to the polls, the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race heated up last week when a local "marijuana activist" named Norm Kent posted a letter on the Web in which he alleged that, when he and Republican Sen. Norm Coleman were undergraduates at Hofstra University, Kent had once seen Coleman light up a joint while standing atop a building during an anti-war protest.

Was this damaging to Coleman? Sort of. But then again, the Democrat-turned-Republican has never made much of a secret of his hippie youth, and besides, his potential opponent, Al Franken, was associated with "Saturday