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Responding to a recent spate of trigger-happy cops blowing away the family pet under questionable circumstances, the Colorado Senate passed a bill on Tuesday requiring law enforcement officers be trained to recognize when they’re truly being threatened by an aggressive dog and not simply one that’s frightened or playful. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/09/colorado-cops-to-be-trained-to-be-less-trigger-happy-around-dogs/#ixzz2Q4ahJ3is

With tighter and more restrictive gun laws going into effect, as many as a dozen legislators contacted the State Capitol Police because they were concerned for their safety.

State Rep Jessica Upshaw, 53, is found dead in home of former Rep Clint Rotenberry of a single gunshot wound to the head She is believed to have killed herself Upshaw is the fifth Mississippi lawmaker to die in the last few months Authorities in Mississippi are investigating after a state lawmaker was found dead in a suspected suicide at the home of a former colleague, according to local officials. Republican Rep. Jessica Upshaw, 53, of the 95th District in Diamondhead, was found dead of an apparent gunshot wound to the head in the home of former Rep. Clinton Rotenberry....

RALEIGH — When Rep. Dale Folwell worked on controversial topics such as workers’ compensation reform and immigration policy last year, he aggravated more than a few constituents. “It was a very volatile year for me as an elected official,” Folwell said. “My family and myself were threatened by name.” That prompted him to obtain a concealed weapon permit, which allows him to carry a handgun in most places throughout the state under a sport coat or in a pocket. And the Winston-Salem Republican is far from alone among state lawmakers, who are much more likely than the average person to...

Brother testifies in favor of “Terri Schiavo Day” by Matt Lacy – Bobby Schindler, the brother of Terri Schiavo testified on Tuesday in support of a New Hampshire bill proclaiming March 31 of each year as a day to remember Terri Schiavo. Schiavo, who spent 15 years on a feeding tube, became a focal point over the right to die issue and highlighted the need for individuals to have a living will specifying their wishes.. On February 25, 1990 Schiavo collapsed while at home. After being admitted to the hospital, doctors were unable to determine an exact cause of...

Newt Gingrich racked up between $1.6 and $1.8 million in payments from Freddie Mac through the years for, the former speaker maintains, essentially doing nothing. It’s not inconceivable that he’s right. Such was the incredible largesse available to the government-sponsored mortgage giant that one or two million dollars over the course of a decade was practically chump change. Gingrich says he didn’t lobby for Freddie, and, in response to a question about his payments at one of the Republican debates, said he only offered advice to Freddie “as a historian” that its lending practices were insane. Surely, though, there must...

Stop the presses! (Yeah, no one’s said that in any newsroom I’ve worked in four decades in the business.) A major surprise. (Yeah, more sarcasm.) The Los Angeles Times reports that “California lawmakers kill measure banning gifts to themselves” And the sun rose in the east . . .

HSLDA is conducting a survey on the impact of homeschooling on politics at the state level. We are seeking information regarding the number of state legislators who are homeschooled. Ultimately we’d like to send them a short survey. First we have to find them. If you know a state legislator, please take 10 seconds to click the link below and provide just four pieces of information to help us take the next step. Thank you for your help! Fill out the survey >>

Florida's privatization of child welfare services was supposed to be good for kids and taxpayers. But in the decade since the state began making private agencies responsible for the care of abused and neglected children, one cost has soared — the salaries of top employees. Child welfare executives throughout Florida are now making six-figure salaries, with some topping $200,000 — double what state employees used to be paid to do the same work. "They should not under any circumstances be paid these sorts of outrageous salaries,'' said state Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico and chairwoman of the Committee on Children, Families...

PARIS (AP) — The French Senate, pushed into an early vote, approved on Friday a hotly contested bill raising the retirement age to 62, hours after riot police forced the reopening of a strategic refinery to help halt growing fuel shortages amid nationwide strikes and protests. In tense balloting after 140 hours of debate, the Senate voted 177-153 for the pension reform. The measure is expected to win final formal approval by both houses of parliament next week. President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government, keen to get the measure passed and quell increasingly radicalized protests, cut short the debate and voting...

Lawmakers in at least 14 states are collaborating on proposed legislation to deny U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants, according to lawmakers, including the sponsor of Arizona's 2010 law targeting illegal immigration. "We're taking a leadership role on things that need to be fixed in America. We can't get Congress to do it," Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce, of Mesa, said Tuesday. "It's a national work group so that we have model legislation that we know will be successful, that meets the constitutional criteria." The efforts by the state legislators come amid calls to change the U.S. Constitution's 14th...

RALEIGH – Those who seek election to political office deserve our thanks for their willingness to serve. Those who win election to political office deserve a chance to demonstrate their work ethic and wisdom. But no one who wins election and then makes demonstrably foolish decisions deserves our respect. I’m rapidly losing whatever respect I had for politicians who continue to vote to fund low-priority projects in the midst of a fiscal crisis. The problem exists at the federal, state, and local levels of government. Consider two recent decisions that involve senseless decisions at every level: • Out of $10...

BOISE, Idaho – Arizona's sweeping new immigration law doesn't even take effect until next month, but lawmakers in nearly 20 other states are already clamoring to follow in its footsteps. Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Minnesota are singing the law's praises, as are some lawmakers in other states far from the Mexico border such as Idaho and Nebraska. But states also are watching legal challenges to the new law, and whether boycotts over it will harm Arizona's economy. The law, set to take effect July 29, requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they think is in the...

One of the arguments I often read opposing the repeal of the 17th Amendment, strangely enough comes by a variety of people from different ideologies, is that our state legislators are more corrupt than our elected federal legislators. To me this sounds completely absurd. Yet time and time again I read in almost every comment portion of an article discussing the repeal of the 17th Amendment this very statement. I have done a search through a couple of different scholarly search engines and I have not found any research to support this opinion. So where does this idea or opinion...

PHOENIX -- A freshman Southern Arizona lawmaker is leading the effort to strip Arizona voters of the right to nominate U.S. senators. The proposal by Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, would give that right to the elected legislators from each party. Only after that process is complete would voters get a say, in the general election, who they actually want to send to Washington. Stevens said his measure, if approved by Arizona voters in November, would be a partial return to the way things were before the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted. Until then, each state legislature...

As we reported in last week's Grassroots Alert, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon hear the landmark Second Amendment case of McDonald v. Chicago. The case will address the application of the Second Amendment to the states through either the Due Process clause or the Privileges or Immunities clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case has major implications for the legality of restrictive gun laws not only in Chicago, but also in other cities and the states across the nation. The decision to hear the case gives hope to Second Amendment advocates across America, that this fundamental freedom will be...

A photo of two Democratic legislators playing solitaire has ignited controversy at the state Capitol and in the blogosphere. The Associated Press picture has appeared in any number of venues, and it shows two lawmakers sitting in the back row of the historic Hall of the House in Hartford during the lengthy debate over the two-year, $37 billion state budget. On the left is Rep. Barbara Lambert, a freshman Democrat from Milford who won her first legislative election in November 2008. She replaced longtime Milford Democrat James Amann, who ended his legislative career as the House Speaker and is now...

It’s not funny anymore. Another confused 84-year-old behind the wheel. Another child - a 23-month-old in a stroller - sent to the hospital. And that pathetic bunch on Beacon Hill we jokingly call “leaders” are still sitting on their aspirations. I’m sick of it. For awhile, I was yukkin’ it up over our elderly driver problem and Massachusetts’ refusal to regulate them in any way. I had fun mocking them with sound bites from Grandpa Simpson on my radio show (“The metric system is a tool of the devil!”) and writing song parodies like “Wal-Mart Got Run Over By My...

We might have just arrived at the tipping point -- the critical mass to get Obama to release his birth certificate. Four Tennessee legislators have signed on as plaintiffs in a lawsuit forcing Obama to prove his US citizenship. Two more legislators have publicly announced they will also join the suit, one from Arizona, the other from New Hampshire. Tonight, we talk to two of the Tennessee legislators, and the attorney bringing the suit forward. Don't miss it -- we hit the ground running at 9 p.m. ET. Link to here to hear. Obama - natural born citizen?

During the first week of February, the official homepages of Michigan State Reps. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester, and Justin Amash, R-Grand Rapids, acquired a prominently displayed "Government Transparency" hyperlink that allowed everyone with a Web browser to learn the names and salaries of these legislators' staff. In office for just over a month, this simple decision likely meant that the new lawmakers had become the only state officials to be so open with Michigan taxpayers regarding who is working for them and how much they are paid.