Each year hundreds of thousands of dogs are born in puppy mills for the pet trade. The parents of these pups live horror filled lives full of disease, parasite infestation, mental illness, and depression. Often these dogs must fight for food and water, traits they pass down to their puppies. Many of these dogs live their entire lives without seeing sunshine, touching solid ground (they live in wire cages), or being able to engage in normal canine behavior- absolutely no one loves or pets them and even if rescued from their horror filled existence they seldom recover enough to live normal lives. The pups produced by the dogs living as breeders in these puppy mills are not much better off. They are pulled away from their mothers too soon, packed into crates and shipped all over the country to stores where they are cleaned up and presented as ideal pets to the public, where they are sold for 10 times what their original cost was. As for being better off, nothing could be further from the case as they nearly always have mental and emotional scars that ultimately end in their winding up in a shelter somewhere, sometimes more than once or twice, often with their adding to the number of dogs destroyed each year by shelter staff. As a dog trainer I have seen how much work must be done to fix the various problems and the average pet owner is generally not up to the task. Legislation to prevent the operating of puppy mills has only caused the people running them to hide their operations more carefully, they will continue to do so as long as there is a profit to be made. By removing the largest reason for them to continue operating it will help shut them down forever. Please join me in ending this cycle of horror.

As long as politicians control the districting process, either directly or through committees, it will not be fair and equal. The only way to ensure impartiality is have an automated process that will do the districting and guarantee that voter-determined criteria are uniformly applied. Note that this is completely bipartisan - the same rules that can split up a Democratic district in the Sacramento area can merge two Republican districts in Los Angeles into one.

Late fees on credit cards for seniors are another unfair banking practice. Seniors receive SSI monthly, but not on a particular date each month. If payments are adequate and regular, the senior should not be charged late fees just because his payment schedule cannot always match the bank's schedule. When seniors are charged $300-$400 a month just in late fees, the banks are taking an unfair advantage of the people who can least afford to pay such fees.All seniors should support this elimination of late fees because of inability to pay on the bank's schedule caused by illness, injury or other problems particular to seniors on fixed incomes.

From the woman who tortures turkeys at Butterball Farms to the American soldier on video tape beating a sheep to death with a metal bat, there are countless other crimes against animals. If we do not have laws that deter these crimes against nature, evidence proves that animal abuse is linked to the abuse and death of children. We demand that action be taken to give all animals rights. The right to be treated humanely and with respect. The subject should not be shelved for a later time or ignored in lieu of political agendas. Animal abuse caused by people young and old need to face harsher sentences and consequences. Animals are here to co-exist with us and they should have rights to be treated with respect and in a humane fashion and nothing less.

These two credit card giants are supporting the ill-conceived bill known as SOPA. This bill will be further debated in congress AND THEN LIKELY PASSED after it re-convenes January 17th. To date, only one credit card company that I know of, American Express opposes this bill, and I personally am switching to it.

Last year in Indiana we fought the "Right to Work" for less legislation and defeated it. This year we are in the fight again. Tomorrow the Indiana session begins. The Republicans are being supported with out of state funds to make this happen. Our Repulican Governor Mitch Daniels would love for this to happen, a feather in his hat. Please let your friends and family know in Indiana RTW would bring wages down for all Hoosiers. It is a union busting/defunding tactic plan and simple. It destroys our collective bargaining power and our voice.

We have no problem funding foreign countries while we keep stealing from our own social programs. We need to fund SSI to insure our elderly have a reasonable means to live.

We must remove the physical barriers to commerce enabling our Industries and our Financial sector to grow through activity.

that skunks are just one of the animals that people know less about. most people don't know ANYTHING about animals AT ALL any way. there fore we alienate them and kill them. in this case skunks are alienated from most states in america like Illinois, but there are people who want DOMESTIC skunks for pets and they are playful, curious, loving animals but in Illinois they are just animals that could harm people and give people rabies which is NOT the case with domestic skunks. please help me legalize skunks in Illinois thank you

Force the banks to actually modify the mortgages of the hundreds of thousands of American homeowners that actually qualify for them. Right now the banks string along desperate home owners for up to two years only to reject the modifications. Regulate and enforce laws that require American and Foreign banks to modify mortgages and regulate them. Stop this banking scam. Make the American people know that the banks actually make more money on foreclosures. Instead of short sales; reduce principal and interest to actually make the home affordable. Make it a law! Regulate it and enforce it. Give consumers an actual government agency to report the malfeasance of the banking institutions regarding mortgage modifications and fraudulent foreclosures! HOPE is a complete and total scam!

Many Civil Air Patrol, United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and Young Marine Units have lost facilities and resources when US military bases have closed. Many of these youth have been unable to find comparable facilities for their drills. We're asking the State legislators and governor to put in place guidelines under which Air National Guard and Army National Guard facilities would be encouraged to provide facilities for these youth.

"Crazy Lady among ESPN's Super Fans" Terri Jackson (Utah) There aren't many people who would find the nickname "Crazy Lady" to be flattering. Terri Jackson is one of them who does. Having graduated more than three decades ago from Utah, she still has the energy of a college student, which she demonstrates with her regular pre-fourth-quarter dance routine that involves a lot of shoulder shakes and flying fists. The entire stadium turns to her before the final 15 minutes, with the students chanting, "Cra-zy La-dy." She's been doing it since 2000. Jackson said she and her husband might hit the road for each game in the 2011 season to check out all the new venues in the Utes' next conference. Pac-10 fans, you've been warned.