Latest Answers

Latest Answers http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/latest/%2A/23/%2A/%2A a view of answers sorted by date en Well, first I don’t think it was just that referendum caused the change. I believe the state legislature on the House side or the Speaker of the House proffered a motion that came over to the Senate, and the Democrats in the Senate wanted a paper trail measure added to it with reference to the change of the date. So the change of the date took place inside the legislature with the Governor’s approval and not on a state-wide referendum. But most assuredly the fact of the previous primary, the fact of the optical scan and other machines had a hand it, but the decision was more a political decision than one based on just on the machines.  http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/%2526lt%3Bp%2526gt%3Bwell%2C-first-i-don%2526amp%3Brsquo%3Bt-think-it-was-just-referendum-caused-change.-i-believe Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:40:15 -0500 Jodi Breisler 1429 at http://askyourlawmaker.org They produce a lot of potatoes over there, I know that. There is very little their soil is actually conducive for agriculture. They do have some irrigated ground down in the south around Basra but, you know, most of that was drained or flooded by Saddam Hussein. I don’t know if they’ve ever gotten that infrastructure back yet. Not a whole lot of agriculture takes place in Iraq. There’s a lot of desert there, so they don’t have the water infrastructure either, is the problem. I mean I couldn’t…I’m just not sure. I think they have the starch they have a lot of starch the only thing would be potatoes that I know of at least at this point but they certainly don’t do any corn or soybeans or anything like that or wheat which would be our traditional crops. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/%2526lt%3Bp%2526gt%3Bthey-produce-lot-potatoes-over-there%2C-i-know-.-there-very-little-their-soil-actuall Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:14:58 -0500 Robin Wright 1386 at http://askyourlawmaker.org Inequitable conduct is seldom proved but almost always alleged. Right now in litigation it costs a fortune to prove you didn’t do something wrong when applying for your patent or in the use of your patent. That’s an example where the cost of litigation is simply rising. The other major issue that we’re seeing is the question of apportionment. If there are a thousand patents making up a product, what part is the infringement of one patent supposed to play? And its very important because if you have the Intel microprocessor inside a Pentium product, you have so many different patents, that if one person says you violated one small feature should they get the whole computer or the whole computer industry. Obviously they shouldn’t but the balancing has not been legislated in a way that’s predictable. We need to do that. We sent a bill out of the House based on an agreement with the Senate and the Senate hasn’t picked it up because they haven’t been able to deal with the two remaining issues, apportionment and inequitable conduct. Amazingly, in between, the obviosness standard was changed by the courts, something we were trying to change in legislation. So as we’re not acting, the court is repeatedly coming up, taking cases that are changing the law based on Supreme Court decisions. I’m not objecting to that. It’s only because we failed to act. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/%2526lt%3Bp%2526gt%3Binequitable-conduct-seldom-proved-almost-always-alleged.-right-now-litigation-it-co Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:53:46 -0500 Todd Zwillich 1384 at http://askyourlawmaker.org Our committee has three goals and this is what we have been trying to accomplish: protecting taxpayer’s dollars from waste, fraud and abuse and making sure government works for the people third holding the government of this country accountable for their actions that’s what we have been trying to do in 2007 and 2008 during the time I have been chairman of that committee. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/our-committee-has-three-goals-and-what-we-have-been-trying-accomplish%3A-protecting-taxpayer%E2%80%99s Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:32:38 -0500 Sara Sciammacco 1340 at http://askyourlawmaker.org Salazar: Well I think we made major reforms just this last term in the 109th. And we have certainly made clear, a clear movement towards transparency especially in the earmark reform area. And so I think while Democrats have been trying to do the good things we’ve been constantly blocked by the minority party. Laslo: Do you think there is more that needs to be done on transparency legislation and ethics reform? Salazar: Well, I’m sure I’d look at different options. I don’t know exactly what you’d have in mind but I know that the American public deserves to know the truth. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/%2526lt%3Bp%2526gt%3B%2526lt%3Bb%2526gt%3Bsalazar%3A%2526lt%3B/b%2526gt%3B-well-i-think-we-made-major-reforms-just-last-term-109th Fri, 09 May 2008 13:53:06 -0500 Matt Laslo 1284 at http://askyourlawmaker.org We aren’t doing enough to incent nuclear energy and there’s two major road blocks to nuclear energy. One’s just the high cost. It takes several, I think 5 billion dollars to build a new plant, whereas it’s a third of that to build a coal plant. So the government has to step up and provide some kind of grant or loan fund to be able to offset some of the costs. The second thing is a big thing, and that’s what do we do with the waste. And we can’t get Yucca Mountain through the Senate. So even if we came up with a grant or loan fund they still don’t have anyplace to store it. And being able to recycle the rods, we can do that to some extent now but you still have to deal with the totally spent rod. So until we resolve the waste issue you’re going to have very few people that are going to put up the cash to build a nuclear plant. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/we-aren%E2%80%99t-doing-enough-incent-nuclear-energy-and-there%E2%80%99s-two-major-road-blocks-nuclear-energ Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:13:13 -0500 Todd Zwillich 1251 at http://askyourlawmaker.org The discussion about whether we hit peak oil I think drives some of the discussion about whether or how quickly we move away from oil as the major use of our energy. It’s kind of like global warming was a few years ago. People talk about peak oil, but there’s no evidence that we’ve hit peak oil, some people think it’s right now. So it’s part of their discussions. I think we’re going to hit peak oil soon and I’d rather have our plan in place to move away from fossil fuels to energize our economy and transportation, as opposed to waiting until you hit peak oil and then all the sudden your back’s against the wall. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/discussion-about-whether-we-hit-peak-oil-i-think-drives-some-discussion-about-whether-or-how Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:13:08 -0500 Todd Zwillich 1249 at http://askyourlawmaker.org In the last Congress nuclear energy was one of those parts of the package we had as a part as an energy package. I certainly think it is one that needs to have greater emphasis. When you look at countries like France that have 75 to 80% of their power supplied by nuclear plants, you have to ask why we don’t do that in this country. We do have some that are in the early stages of coming in the planning part of it. We have at least one in my state of George that is planned come on line. But those take a long time so delays in getting them implemented in the beginning means the whole process slows down. We did have language in the last energy bill under Republican leadership that did speed up the process of getting those approved. However it’s one of those real clean energy sources that we all are looking for. http://askyourlawmaker.org/answers/last-congress-nuclear-energy-was-one-those-parts-package-we-had-part-energy-package.-i-certa Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:08:00 -0500 Todd Zwillich 1247 at http://askyourlawmaker.org