Equality has finally been acheived and we will not allow individual government officials to refuse this equality for any reason.

We have watched decades of death and destruction in the middle-east. This initiative can be the start of an alternative process and can lead to civilized resolution processes for other conflicts in the region. It must be encouraged.

All throughout our country industrial agriculture using CAFOs has been housing dairy cows, pigs, chickens and other livestock in small confined areas. The volume of urine and manure produced is beyond what a sustainable environment can handle. This results in nitrate contaminated water supplies and significant air pollution. A recent federal court case in Yakima County, Washington presented EPA and other scientific data to the federal judge and he determined that the industrial dairies were polluting the ground water with nitrates through leaking manure lagoons, long term storage or composting of acres of unused manure, and over-application of manure on fields. He determined that manure is an environmental hazard when produced in great quantity and inappropriately managed. He determined that manure should be regulated as a solid waste. Almost immediately a U.S. Congressman from the Yakima Valley, Dan Newhouse, attached amendment 613 to H.R. 2822 that would reverse the court’s decision and prevent the EPA from regulating manure as a solid waste. For the sake of our land, water, air and the innocent neighbors of CAFOs, this amendment needs to be withdrawn or defeated.

I believe in negotiations instead of war. Our brave military people have suffered enough..... For nothing !

Make no mistake, this is a good deal. It will block Iran’s pathways to nuclear weapons, provide for rigorous and unprecedented inspections, and eliminate a major security threat without resorting to war. Congress will now have two months to review this deal, and already some hawks are declaring they will do everything they can to kill the deal. We have already seen some of Washington’s most powerful special interests unleash multimillion dollar campaigns to join anti-diplomacy Members of Congress in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

To reinitialize the investigation into Scott Walker and to stop cronyism from undermining the democratic process in the state of Wisconsin.

In a recent decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court stopped the John Doe investigation into Gov. Scott Walker for Campaign Finance Law violations. However, it has been reported that the majority opinion was written by and supported by Supreme Court Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser, Patience Roggensack and Annette Ziegler--each of whom have received donations from the very campaign organizations that Scott Walker is accused of colluding with in the John Doe investigation. It is thus clear that these four justices failed to disqualify themselves due to conflict of interest under Federal Law 28 U.S.C. § 455. There is reasonable cause to believe their ability to remain impartial is substantially hindered by their vested financial interest in those being investigated.

For those who are struggling to pay for college, offering to pay for community college would be a start. The amount of debt incurred for today's student is shameless. My own daughter, who recently graduated with a master's degree, incurred $100,000 in debt! If free college is offered in other countries, the U.S. can also offer free college.

Due to a tragic accident in a neighboring County there is a movement afoot to ban the adoption of pit bulls and pit bull mixes in McDowell County, NC and to legislate ownership of the breed.

Erica, have a great birthday and a wonderful weekend!

Two elderly dogs, who were rescued by Love of Paws from a neglectful and horrible situation while L0P tried to place them, were taken to our animal shelter and the shelter given three phone numbers to call should the situation become desperate. Instead of calling those numbers, the animal shelter destroyed them. We're not living in the dark ages, are we? This needs to be a no-kill shelter.

We're standing with Sen. McCaskill and the majority of Americans who support a nuclear deal by a 2-1 margin.