As they see it.

• Position: Quotation

"As a former state legislator, I know how difficult your work can be, and how important it is to have a strong partner in Washington. I want you to know I am committed to being that kind of partner."

--President Barack Obama to participants at NCSL's Leadership meeting in March.

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"People who were on the edge can't hold on anymore."

--Cathy ten Broeke, homelessness project coordinator in Minneapolis and Hennepin County, about the growing number of homeless people, in USA Today.

"We want to do our part to help rebuild our country's economic stability. As a result, we will give each full-time employee a stimulus check of $1,000, less mandatory taxes, to help boost our economy.... Maybe other companies will get the same idea and do it, too."

--John DeBoer, part-owner of Midwest Laboratories Inc. in Omaha, to a surprised group of employees, in the Omaha World-Herald.

"As a school, we've done a lot of work with human rights. But you can't have kids saving Darfur and isolating a peer in the lunchroom. It all has to go together."

--Michael McDermott, New York middle school principal, to The New York Times, on his school's new emphasis on empathy, which nationwide is the...