The legislation has already received approval from the state House. It will now move back to the House and then will be sent to the governor for his signature.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It was a day Iowa Republicans had long dreamed of when their Democratic nemesis, Tom Harkin, announced he was retiring from the Senate. But that day was in January, and as the Midwest winter now gives way to spring, Republicans here find themselves in a surprising predicament – still trying to come up with someone to run for the job, and struggling to avoid becoming another example of the party’s disarray after its presidential defeat.

Ever since Harkin, who had held the office since Ronald Reagan was president, provided an opening for the GOP, the party has bounced between two options for the Senate seat:  candidates who could win but won’t run, and candidates who could run but, party officials fear, couldn’t win.

Meanwhile, the state party apparatus has become a reflection of the GOP’s bitterly divided factions.  Now led by followers of libertarian Ron Paul, the organization has quarreled with Iowa’s senior Republican eminence, Gov. Terry Branstad, and disputed his strategy for state government and party affairs.

“The Republican Party in Iowa is in turmoil, with no clear leader for the future and no consistent governing philosophy,” said Doug Gross, a Republican fundraiser and Branstad confidant.

As Democrats line up behind their already-declared candidate for the Senate, Bruce Braley, Republican leaders are hoping they can sort things out before the 2014 campaign heats up and before the 2016 presidential race puts Iowa and its first-in-the-nation caucuses back in the political spotlight. The state party is still trying to get over its experience last year, in which balloting problems at the presidential caucuses left GOP officials unable to declare a winner. National GOP officials plan to discuss the 2016 nominating process, and Iowa’s place in it, at a meeting in California this week.

Overall, the Republican Party needs to pick up six seats to win control of the Senate in 2014, and Harkin’s would seem to be one of its better chances. A Republican, Charles Grassley, holds the other Senate seat and the party controls the governorship and one house of the Legislature.

But any campaign plan quickly went awry when Branstad’s first choice for the race, Rep. Tom Latham, a respected 10-term House member, declined to run.

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BOONE, Iowa (AP) — The husband of a slain Boone woman found in a bathroom last year has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says 39-year-old Alexander Fazzino was arrested Sunday in the parking lot of a sporting goods store in the Kansas City area. He remains at the Lee’s Summit Police Department jail on a $1.5 million bond.

The Boone Police Department found 32-year-old Emily Fazzino unresponsive on a bathroom floor on Jan. 29, 2012. Alexander Fazzino told police his wife killed herself by overdosing on prescription pills.

The Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office says Emily Fazzino’s remains had no sign of drug abuse or a drug overdose. Her autopsy identified several areas of trauma, including the neck, throat, and head.

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IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Hackers gained access to an online database containing personal information of 125,000 people who applied to take credit classes at an Iowa community college during the last eight years, the school said Monday.

Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids announced that “sophisticated hackers” using an international IP address hacked into the student application database on its website on March 13. College officials noticed a spike in activity on the site, and quickly shut it down and contacted the FBI to report the suspected breach, vice president of student services Kristie Fisher said.

The college said the database contained names, social security numbers, dates of birth, race and contact information for those who applied for courses from February 2005 through March 2013. No financial information or grades were stored in the system, and the breach did not affect tens of thousands of students who take continuing education classes.

Fisher said the college sent letters Friday to those who may have been affected by the breach, and announced the breach publicly Monday so that applicants who may have moved could hear about it and seek help. So far, no cases of identity theft or suspicious activity have been reported. The FBI is investigating, Fisher said.

The college is offering assistance from identity theft experts for students who have questions or who may later need help restoring their identities if they are stolen. Kirkwood has also offered to pay for one year’s worth of credit monitoring alerts so students can respond quickly to any unauthorized activity in their accounts.

Kirkwood has hired Kroll Security at an initial cost of $350,000 to respond to the incident, including notifying and offering services to those affected, helping the college investigate the breach and improving security on its website, Fisher said. The cost could rise depending on how many students need assistance.

Kirkwood restored its application database online last week after spending three weeks adding and testing new security features, Fisher said.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday that a state economic development fund has invested millions of dollars to help boost dozens of technology startup firms in Iowa.

An economic impact study into the activities of the Demonstration Fund, which offers funding to help grow manufacturing, science and information technology firms, found that between 2007 and 2012 the fund provided about $13 million to 101 firms still in existence. The 79 firms that responded to surveys for the report said they had added about 600 jobs and grown revenue.

“These are impressive results,” Branstad said. “Iowa must grow its own high-tech information companies to build an economy that can compete.”

The fund is managed by the Iowa Economic Development Authority.

According to the study, the economic activity was in a variety of sectors including medical device manufacturing, animal vaccines, food products manufacturing, computer system designs and software development.

Econsult Solutions, a Philadelphia-based private financial consulting company, conducted the study. The nonprofit Iowa Innovation Group commissioned the study, with input from the state, and paid $10,000 for the work. The Innovation Group works to grow business opportunities in Iowa.

Economic Development Authority Director Debi Durham said she hopes to put another $2 million in the fund for the fiscal year that starts July 1. She said the Fund was part of a variety of incentives the state offers to help grow business in Iowa.