As a concerned North Carolina citizen, I would like to express the importance of legislative support to amend the current Cruelty to Animals Statute (GS 14-360) through Chamberlin’s Law (S-2). Chamberlin’s Law will close additional loopholes in GS 14-360 that are desperately needed.

Almost every day in N.C. we hear about animals being abandoned, tortured, and abused. Chamberlin’s Law came about from the dog that was abandoned, left without food, water and shelter in the backyard of home in High Point, N.C. for at least two months.

As soon as the federal budget was delivered to Congress, members like Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders trotted out the age-old whine that conservatives want to harm women and children. The fact is that without deep spending cuts all of us but especially our children and grandchildren will be saddled for years to come with high taxes and a lowered quality of life to pay for the our generation’s government debt. The federal government and many states are bankrupt thanks to irresponsible spending by Congress and legislatures.

Now all sides are weighing in with ideas to rein in the debt and future spending. In almost every case citizens will be asked to sacrifice with higher taxes and a myriad of taxes on numerous products and services. How about beginning with the sacrifice of those who brought us to this point, our elected officials. Let’s cut deeply into their perks, staffs and expenses including the cadillac healthcare and pension programs enjoyed by members of Congress and the executive branch of the federal government.

Nearly two weeks ago, the N.C. Education Lottery distributed to the video gaming industry across the state a “Request for Information” on video lottery terminals. The process will allow the governor and state officials an opportunity to learn about how the video gaming industry operates in our state and how they could look at various models to regulate and tax video gaming.

Let’s face it, people like playing internet-based sweepstakes and “Pot of Gold” machines. It’s entertaining and as long as there is a demand from customers, the market and technology will supply the demand.

Some Republican members of Congress are pushing for a vote in the House on Thursday to slash all funding for NPR, PBS and other public media. This is the closest they have ever come to pulling the plug on the news and cultural programming that many Americans say they support.

A few members of Congress have spoken out against this assault on media. With your help, we can get more members to take a stand.