The Iowa Supreme Court on March 16 said Iowa Governor Terry Branstad's item-veto of a bill intended to keep Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) field offices open was unconstitutional.

"Simply stated, the legislature appropriated funds to IWD with strings attached, and our constitution does not permit the governor to cut the strings and spend the money differently," said the opinion authored by Justice Thomas Waterman, who was appointed by Branstad in February 2011.

However, it does not appear that the ruling would lead to the re-opening of the 36 field offices, which helped unemployed Iowans find jobs, write résumés, and prepare for interviews.

Iowa's influence in choosing presidential nominees generally diminishes after its first-in-the-nation caucuses. But this year could be different because of the lack of finality in choosing who the Republican nominee will be.

"I think we're in a different election cycle than we've ever seen before," said Republican National Committee member Kim Lehman of Johnston. "Historically, the nominee has already been chosen [by this stage in the process]. Clearly, we don't have a chosen nominee yet. That goes back to a trend that's happening where people are not allowing the political gurus to make the decision for the grassroots voters."

People in 10 states are casting their votes today - Super Tuesday, with 419 delegates up for grabs. But with the perceived GOP front-runner changing multiple times so far, political analysts don't expect Super Tuesday to clarify the GOP-nominee contest much.

"The race is far from over nationwide," said Steve Roberts, a former chair of the Republican Party of Iowa and a member of the Republican National Committee.

Four days after Super Tuesday, Iowa Republicans will gather for county conventions. They will vote Saturday on platforms and choose delegates who will go on to the April 21 district conventions and the June 16 state convention.

A six-year battle in the legislature to create an Iowa Public Information Board has renewed life because of a new floor manager for the bill with a "strong desire" to move it forward.

"I think the time's come for this bill to move forward. Six years is long enough," state Representative Walt Rogers (R-Cedar Falls) said February 22. "Iowans that I've talked to talk about transparency in their government. ... I think the common, everyday Iowan needs one place to go to find out some of their answers."

The board would add teeth to the state's open-records law.

Under Senate File 430, the state would create a seven-member board that would address people's questions and problems about access to government records and meetings, and seek enforcement of the state's open-records and public-meetings laws.

??The gap between the promises Iowa has made for public employees' retirement benefits and the money set aside to pay for them has grown to $5.7 billion - a 1,643-percent increase over 11 years, State Auditor David Vaudt said Monday.

"We had just a $327-million liability at the end of 2000. That has now grown to $5.7 billion, and that's equal almost to one year's general-fund budget," Vaudt said. "We're going to need substantial resources in the future to improve the funded status of this particular plan."

A report last year by State Budget Solutions, a national not-for-profit advocating for fundamental reform of state budgets, pegs Iowa's unfunded liability as even larger - $21.3 billion as of last March.