As they see it.

• Position: Quotation

"This is just the wrong time to be having any sort of celebration."

--Hawaii House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro on the legislative leaders' decision not to include the regular festivities of food, entertainment, flowers and receptions on opening day of session, in the Honolulu Advertiser.

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"And it was all positive. That never happens."

--Arkansas Senator Randy Laverty on the response he got from the public to his proposal to legalize medical marijuana, in the Arkansas Times.

"We are dancing on very, very scary territory here if you're talking about changing the law."

--Virginia Delegate David Albo about the need for a new state law on sexting. Currently, it's up to the state's attorneys whether to charge teens and young adults who send sexually explicit pictures through text messages or e-mails with possessing or transmitting child pornography, according to the Associated Press in The Washington Post.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."

--Dan Wilhelm, vice president of the Vera Institute of Justice, New York, referring to state fiscal crises and corrections policy options, at the NCSL Fall Forum in San Diego.

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"Our economy is hurting everywhere ... but the idea of moving a detention facility, where 200 of the worst known criminals on Earth live, to our state...