• One thousand dollars for eating a Twinkie in a funeral parlor? That’s ridiculous.
• Source: Stateline.org   |   Pennsylvania   |   June 8, 2012
• Ernie Heffner, a Pennsylvania funeral director who sued the state over its funeral regulations. The court ruled against the state, calling its regulations antiquated and possibly unconstitutional.

• In all of the 50 years that we've lived here, we've never seen this many people voting.
• Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   |   Wisconsin   |   June 7, 2012
• Susan Gouvion, Wisconsin resident, talking about Tuesday's historic recall elections of Gov. Scott Walker, his lieutenant governor, and four state senators.

• Mental illness is the last illness that people talk about in whispers.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   June 6, 2012
• Linda Rosenberg, CEO of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, which helped bring the concept of Mental Health First Aid from Australia to America. State and local governments are grabbing onto the idea -- some even requiring the training for public employees.

• If you go by the police reports, all around New York City, there are people standing around with their palms outstretched with a bit of marijuana in them.
• Source: New York Times   |   New York   |   June 5, 2012
• Harry Levine, a sociology professor at Queens College in New York, where Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked lawmakers to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana -- something more than a dozen states have done. According to Levine's analysis of state data, New York City made more arrests (50,684) for low-level pot possession than for any other offense last year.

• Where do we draw the line? Are we going to regulate how many cookies people can buy at the cookie shop?
• Source: The Hill   |   New York   |   June 4, 2012
• U.S. Rep. Yvette Clarke, on New York City Mayor Bloomberg's proposed ban on the sale of sweetened beverages larger than 16 fluid ounces.
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• Scary thought: Many of the same pols that messed up 140 characters on #politwoops also wrote and voted for the 2,300-page Obamacare law.
• Source: Politwoops   |   Nation   |   June 1, 2012
• U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, in a deleted tweet, referring to the new website, Politwoops, which shares tweets that politicians posted and then deleted from Twitter.

• These are cheap laws that can be passed to make people feel good.
• Source: New York Times   |   Nation   |   May 31, 2012
• Charles Ewing, author of “Justice Perverted: Sex Offense Law, Psychology, and Public Policy," referring to the increasing number of local laws banning sex offenders from certain public places, such as libraries, pools, beaches, parks and school bus stops.

• Don't you have an expectation when you pay $30 to find true love that it won't turn out to be a sex offender?
• Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch   |   Illinois   |   May 30, 2012
• Illinois state Rep. John Bradley, on the topic of regulating Internet dating services. A bill in the Legislature would require Internet dating services to either conduct criminal background checks on all their members, or post online warnings specifying that they don’t conduct such screenings.

• If someone wants to stop us, then let them try to stop us.
• Source: AP/ESPN   |   New Jersey   |   May 29, 2012
• New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, after announcing that the state will defy a federal ban and let people begin betting on sports this fall.

• We’re in jeopardy of losing an entire generation of our youth to addiction if we don’t get a grip on this.
• Source: AP/Tennessean   |   Tennessee   |   May 25, 2012
• Tommy Farmer, an assistant special agent in charge of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, referring to the state's increasing rates of prescription drug abuse, which are some of highest in the nation.

• The game has changed. We no longer have to just work to balance the next state budget, but to rebalance this one, as well.
• Source: Philadelphia Inquirer   |   New Jersey   |   May 24, 2012
• New Jersey Senate Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo, who said he would only support a tax cut, which Gov. Chris Christie promised, if state revenues look strong enough. Lawmakers are currently sparring with the administration over revenue projections.

• We may know about individual governors in our own states, but we know relatively little about the species.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Nation   |   May 23, 2012
• Political scientist Alan Rosenthal, in his new book, The Best Job in Politics, in which he professes that no one gets what they want more than governors.

• You've got to somehow make a suburban dweller realize that the quality of life in the suburbs is directly related to the intensity of the core of the city.
• Source: GOVERNING   |   Oklahoma   |   May 22, 2012
• Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett.

• Sodomy is not a civil right. ... It is a pattern of behavior.
• Source: Politico   |   Virginia   |   May 21, 2012
• Virginia delegate Robert Marshall, who led the effort to block an openly gay man from becoming a district judge.

• This water is going to Orange County lawns and swimming pools. The desert is being asked to shoulder the burden.
• Source: Los Angeles Times   |   California   |   May 18, 2012
• Seth Shteir of the National Parks Conservation Association, which is challenging a company's plan to sell public groundwater from the Mojave Desert to urban Southern California for a private profit.