A judge has rejected efforts by lawmakers to help balance the budget by forcing more than 200,000 state, university and school employees to pay larger pension contributions. Last year, lawmakers unilaterally altered the system to have workers contribute 53 percent of the cost, reducing the state's burden to 47 percent in an effort to save the state more than $41 million this year.

As Facebook’s IPO approaches, one venture capital firm—Accel Partners—is poised to land what’s likely the biggest payoff in history. Gary Rivlin on their record-setting bonanza.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard and South Dakota legislative leaders Thursday celebrated Bel Brands USA’s decision to build a new $100 million cheese manufacturing plant in Brookings that could ultimately employ 400 people. But the governor also had this warning: South Dakota’s ability to lure new companies could be hurt, and the state might be on the hook for millions of dollars in incentives to Bel Brands.

Not everyone on Wall Street is giddy over Facebook’s initial public offering of stock. A group of private exchanges has popped up in recent years to accommodate a fast-growing trading market in the private shares of the Internet companies like Twitter and LinkedIn. Facebook has driven much of this growth, emerging as the most actively traded private company by a wide margin.

Tax breaks for angel investors have cropped up in recent years in about two dozen states as a means of stimulating job growth. But the effectiveness of the incentives—which range from 15% of funding in Colorado to 100% in Hawaii are coming under greater scrutiny, particularly as states face budget pressure. Many states' programs expired at the end of 2011, were stripped of funding or were placed under a moratorium.

Every venture capital firm comes at startup seed investing in its own way (if it does seed at all). Last night in Cambridge, four VC firms opened up about their different seed approaches.