MPR’s Tom Sheck reports that after more than seven hours of debate, the Minnesota House gave the go-ahead to a controversial plan for a new outdoor stadium for the Minnesota Twins. By a comfortable 76 to 55 margin the House approved a measure that would allow a Hennepin County to impose a sales tax without voter approval.

The tax would finance most of the cost of the downtown Minneapolis ballpark. Efforts to give Hennepin County voters a say over the sales tax failed. So did several other attempts to change the stadium plan.