Re: "Posted by jasonmi7 (My Page) on Sat, Apr 11, 09 at 22:55 My question is; if many of you feel there should be much more strict standards on GC licensing; what are you doing to make it happen? How many of you have contacted your state legislatures, your congresspeople, run petitions? What have you done?" Good point and one I hope every reader takes to heart. I personally have become quite involved in local politics over this exact issue. I've also been involved w/consumer organizations that deal w/the issue, signed petitions, written countless letters, etc. Many people quickly become discouraged and give up, when they find out the legislators are more interested in getting campaign donations from the local buiders association. But I think in time, if people stick to it, they often have some success. I've kind of concluded that licensing is not in itself a good solution--there needs to be a licensing board that is not just run by builders as that's just more self-regulation and it never works. A bond is a good idea, but also there needs to be a public complaint database that isn't censored by the govt or builders or anyone. Criminalizing certain construction frauds is also needed. Educating consumers is also needed and that's something anyone can do, to share what they know about their construction mishaps, what they learned about the state's licensing or lack of it, etc. I was, and still am, determined to make my bad experience be worth something, so I continue to work in these issues and encourage others to do the same. If you want things to improve you have to work on it. It doesn't work if people just sit there and assume a handful of consumer advocates like hadd.com and hobb.org will do all the work. They need numbers of people to help. Citizen apathy is a very bad thing, whether it's about homebuilding, taxes, health care or any issue.

Here, they are trying to pass for Homeland Security reasons to reduce tampering with our food stock. They've tucked this restriction into the bill and it's going to be a detriment. It's probably a shoe-in because of the Homeland Security factor. The photographing restrictions need to be removed from the bill. Don't get me wrong, I'm really not for trampling people's rights. A photograph can only help an animal in need. The farmers make a choice to farm. I make a choice to drive a car. The car is my personal property. However, I need to take care of my car (inspections, etc) and that is a responsibility I accept when I take it on. There are even restrictions on my car while it's parked on my land. The same should hold true for farmers. I dealt with Ag & Markets for over a year about a pet mill in my area. They tell me they are restricted by the limited laws that are in place. They have documented neglect, felony and misdemeanor crimes yet the facility still is allowed to operate. The stories coming from consumers turn your stomach inside out. If people like the woman in the above story were not able to take photographs, I'm not so sure help would ever come to these animals. These photos outrage the public and increase their awareness of the actual animal cruelty taking place. Someone linked the path to the news article in that story. They initially gave the owner three days to clean up the farm. Three more days of suffering... That's how Ag&Markets operates for pets, too. They give the owner a warning and come back out to make sure the offense is taken care of. Each and every year they repeat the same procedure for the same issues of neglect. You'll have to let us know how Iowa makes out. Really, making it illegal to report a crime? We are working backwards.

I'm sure it's some kind of minimum security prison but I'm not so sure I want them to be a prisoner per se, with all the tax dollars going to support them while they are there. Instead, maybe they should have community service to help endangered plants and animals.

This kid (well, adult, as he had just turned 18) made a stupid, stupid, stupid mistake in a fit of anger and is now on the sex offender registry. Sexting Lands Teen on Sex Offender Registry I don't know if this is the same teen as in the article, but many years ago, I was watching a story on GMA where they had a panel of high schoolers talking about social media, sexting, etc. One of the kids in the group explained what happened to him when he sent a nude photo of his girlfriend out to a bunch of people. He talked about how this was going to follow him for the rest of his life as he was required to be on the sex offender registry as a result because it was considered distribution of child pornography (incidentally, the girlfriend had taken the photo herself and sent it to him, but she was not charged with anything). However, not knowing the backstory on this particular case, one might see the boy in this story, who is now in his late 20s, on the sex offender registry for child pornography and make assumptions that he is some sick individual. This thread remained me that I have not looked at the sex offender registry recently to see who is living or working around me. I was absolutely HORRIFIED to see that there is a woman living in my area who was convicted of raping an 11 y/o blind boy while she was a teacher's aide on Long Island. She was 42 at the time, married with two kids. On the registry, it just says 2nd Degree Rape - Person 18 y/o or older has intercourse with Under 15. She has an uncommon name so when I googled her, I quickly found the story. Amazingly b/c she plead guilty she only served 6 months in jail and 10 years on probation. She is no longer on probation (happened more than 10 yrs ago) but she is on the registry. What a sick, sick woman.