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Democratic Rep. Charlie Brown of Gary tells the Post-Tribune that all legislators must have been asleep when they passed a law requiring a 70-year-old like himself to show an ID at a liquor store.

Two New York State legislators want to require farmers in the state to vaccinate hens against salmonella, which sickened thousands of Americans and triggered the largest egg recall in U.S. history.

One of the better news agencies in Austin has some choice footage showing state legislators casting votes in the place of colleagues who might not even be in the building. Hypocritically, this happened even as the state legislature itself passed laws criminalizing regular folks who vote on behalf another person in general and primary elections. The best part? While the speaker of the House acknowledges that this practice violates the rules of the legislature, but chooses not to enforce the rule.

A collection of some of California’s best-known chefs, including four-star celebrities like Thomas Keller, began a full-course press on the state’s legislators on Monday, hoping to prevent a long-simmering ban on foie gras from taking effect on July 1.
The group, which calls itself the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards, delivered a charter statement to lawmakers in Sacramento, advocating a wide variety of new animal-friendly commitments, including cage-free birds and hand feeding, to replace the current law, which would effectively bar foie gras from the state’s menus.

California lawmakers have approved billions of dollars in construction financing for the first segment of what would be the nation's first dedicated high-speed rail line, eventually connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. The state Senate voted 21-16 on a party-line vote Friday after intense lobbying by Gov. Jerry Brown, Democratic leaders and labor groups. The bill authorizes the state to begin selling $2.6 billion in voter-approved bonds to build an initial 130-miles stretch in the Central Valley.

The fiscal 2011 funding bill roundly hailed for its "historic" spending cuts actually raised government spending by more than $3 billion, according to a new report.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded Monday evening, "Total discretionary outlays in 2011 will be $3.2 billion higher as a result of the legislation, CBO estimates—an increase of $7.5 billion for defense programs, partially offset by a net reduction of $4.4 billion in other spending."

Check out this somewhat nervous but well-spoken 15 year-old girl as she completely pwns the legislators on proposed new gun legislation.

Title says "Cash for Clunkers under budget with 690,000 sales" but one paragraph says "It proved far more popular than lawmakers originally thought. Congress added another $2 billion to the original $1 billion budget when the first pot of money nearly ran out in a week. The extra money was supposed to last through Labor Day, but the funding only lasted about a month."

In other words, it was over budget before it was under budget after they made the budget larger, and even then, it was canceled just enough earlier than planned to keep it from consuming even the second "budget."

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