U.S. District Court Judge John Jarvey dismissed a lawsuit yesterday challenging Governor Terry Branstad's executive order setting aside project labor agreements for two partly state-funded projects.

Hope the Bleeding Heartland community has been enjoying the long holiday weekend. The weather couldn't be more perfect across Iowa. This is an open thread, but I've posted a few links that to get the conversation going after the jump.

Salaries for chief executive officers of major U.S. corporations rose sharply in 2010 despite the weak national economy, and various tax-dodging strategies allowed highly profitable companies to pay little or no corporate income taxes. That's a small taste of the distubring news from the Institute for Policy Studies' report on Executive Excess: CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging.

Four Democratic state legislators and the leader of Iowa's largest public employee union filed a lawsuit yesterday challenging Governor Terry Branstad's line-item veto of a provision barring Iowa Workforce Development from closing 36 of its 55 field offices around the state.

UPDATE: Further details are at the end of this post.

While in pro-forma session for 59 seconds today, Senate Democrats passed a six-week extension of the Federal Aviation Administration’s authorization. Since the bill had already passed the U.S. House, it went straight to President Barack Obama. He signed it right away, ending the partial shutdown of the FAA that began on July 22. Furloughed FAA employees can go back to work, and airport construction projects put on hold can resume.

The short-term extension contains some cuts to the Essential Air Service program subsidizing service to small airports (including three in Iowa). House Republicans want to phase out that program, while most Democrats want to preserve it. The bill passed today does not include Republican-backed language that would make it more difficult for airline workers to join a union.

LATE UPDATE: The FAA shutdown delayed planned upgrades at the Southeast Iowa Regional Airport in Burlington, possibly until after the winter.

The first all-nighter of the 2011 legislative session ended this morning around 6:05 am, as the Iowa House Labor Committee approved a bill restricting public employees' collective bargaining rights on a party-line vote.

Details on the bill, the debate, and the fight to come are after the jump.