Gomers -- What's going wrong

ISN'T THERE A BETTER WAY? State legislators have filed nearly 2,000 requests for bills this session, with most doomed to be dropped, with up to 40 percent of them recycled ideas. Those numbers are similar to last year and many previous years. We don't favor squashing legislators' sincere efforts but is there a better process or standard for screening so that lawmakers focus their time on fewer, more pressing issues that might warrant well-crafted legislation that becomes law?

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TURNOVER: It's hard to imagine that a revolving door of principals does much good for a school's students. One local example is Cedar Rapids Johnson Elementary, where Kevin Uhde's recently announced retirement plans will require a third new principal in four years at that school. Are the job expectations or conditions just too unreasonable?

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BACKLOG SYMPTOM: The Iowa court system's backlog, blamed mostly on budget cuts over the past decade, is delaying more litigation cases involving the University of Iowa and UI Hospitals and Clinics. Civil cases such as these are among the most affected statewide.

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