As they see it.

• Position: Quotation

"In difficult times, if you're still able to share, that's unbelievable. It sets a tremendous tone for our state."

--West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, who proposed a $500 bonus-type payment to each of the state's 51,000 or so full-time employees because of an unexpected surplus, from the Associated Press.

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"It's the kind of world we're living in right now. I'm really no different than anyone else other than I have two jobs. At least I had two jobs."

--Nebraska Senator Mike Friend, about being laid off from his editing job with First National Bank of Omaha, in the Omaha World Register. He still has his $12,000-a-year position as a state legislator, but it doesn't pay the bills or provide health insurance.

"We've mortgaged the legislative halls. That just tells you how extraordinary the times are. To me, it's something we're going to have to do no matter how much we find it undesirable."

--Arizona Representative Steve Yarbrough about the legislature's plan to sell state properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again, in The Arizona Republic.

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"I call it the Greyhound therapy. You put people in a bus and hope the problem goes somewhere else."

--Sean Cononie, who runs the Homeless Voice shelter in Hollywood, Fla., about the common practice of shipping homeless people to other cities when there's...