To Harold Metts some words simply sound racist, and "plantation" is one of them. "When I hear the word plantation, my mind is flooded with the negative thoughts associated with slavery: the injustice, the women being raped, families being torn apart," the Rhode Island State Senator told a reporter, as he walked in front of the State House in Providence.

And that's exactly why Metts is supporting a ballot referendum to change the name of Rhode Island, which is actually officially called "The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."

"Rhode Island's official name is on all the stationery on the citations that we give out at the State House," said Metts. "When I give an award to some community person that did an outstanding job I have to read ‘State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.'" 

Some state Republicans call the ballot referendum ridiculous at best and, at worst, politically motivated. (read more)

On Monday, Barbara Schmitz held a shaking 7 year-old Chihuahua in her arms, as she walked through Kaufman Park on the outskirts of St. Louis.
"She doesn't know how to be a dog," said Schmitz as she watched Daisy sit on the grass not moving or playing. "That's from spending most of her life in a cage."

Schmitz heads the Missouri office for the Humane Society of the United States. Daisy is a Puppy Mill dog, who spent the last six years breeding--- churning out Chihuahuas, while enduring what Schmitz calls "horrible conditions" at a Missouri puppy mill. "The cages are tiny and cramped," said Schmitz, who calls Missouri the "Puppy mill capitol of the world." "The dogs live there for years on end, or for their entire lives and they're basically crowded into conditions that dogs shouldn't have to live under."

The Humane Society is now supporting a ballot initiative in Missouri that would outlaw puppy mills, and set strict regulations for breeders.  Proposition B is the first ballot initiative in the country to address how dogs are treated, and would mandate:

• Sufficient food and clean water;

• Necessary veterinary care;

• Sufficient housing, including protection from the elements;

• Sufficient space to turn and stretch freely, lie down, and fully extend their limbs;

• Regular exercise; and

• Adequate rest between breeding cycles. (read more)

John Harrington says residents of Massachusetts need a drink - and not an inexpensive one either.
"People are hurting right now," he said Monday afternoon, as he walked through his 8000 square-foot liquor store, that bears his name in the heart of Chelmsford.

His main concern is the economy: "It's so soft right now," he said. And it's Massachusetts, so no one can ignore the Red Sox in third place, and the Patriots dive from perfection over the last few years. "These are bad times," Harrington agreed.

Making matters worse, last year the Massachusetts state legislature implemented a sales tax on alcohol, going from 0 percent to 6.25 percent. "Is it normal to tax when the economy is the way it is right now?" he asked incredulously.

Harrington is now supporting a ballot initiative that will bring the sales tax back down to zero. He's got the support of a state liquor store association as well as liquor distributors, both of whom have put in over $100,000 to fund the measure.

Others, who work in the field of substance-abuse are vehemently opposed. "Alcohol causes so many problems," said Vic DiGravio, "it needs to be taxed."

DeGrazio works at the Association for Behavioral Healthcare. He points out much of the money from the booze-tax funds treatment and prevention programs. "We need that money to keep people away from alcohol," he said. (read more)

Earlier this month, Wayne Garcia walked across a stalled housing development in Land O' Lakes, Florida just north of Tampa. "It's an outrage," he said as he strolled past dozens of empty home sites. "This should never have been approved. This should never have happened."

Five years ago, architects promised "Connerton" would become the largest city in Pasco County. Today it looks like a graveyard of unfinished and unoccupied homes.

"There were supposed to be 15,000 homes here," Garcia explained as he stepped over the unhooked plumbing of one side street. "Today's there's 233." And Connerton isn't alone. Florida now has hundreds of stalled building sites. It also has a record 300,000 vacant homes.

"This is all because of unchecked development," said Garcia who represents Florida Hometown Democracy, Inc., an environmental group that's trying to control growth in Florida.

In fact, Hometown Democracy now has an initiative on the November ballot that some call the farthest reaching anti-growth measure in the country. "Amendment 4 will finally address the problem," he said. (read more)

On a recent morning, Patricia Stoneking aimed her Glock model 23, .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun at a paper target inside the Bullet Hole shooting range in Overland Park, Kansas.
"That's how you do it," she said as she wound the maimed figure (two holes inches from its center), back into the firing area.

To Stoneking, who runs the Bullet Hole, owning firearms is not just a right but and obligation.
"People need to arm themselves," she told a reporter, and not just for protection against criminals. Stoneking, who also heads the Kansas State Rifle Association (KSRA), believes Americans must bear arms for protections against the government. "We have to put limits on our government, and that's what the [right to bear arms] does."

Stoneking and the KSRA are now supporting a ballot initiative that would give state residents a perpetual right to bear arms in the Kansas Constitution. It's a measure Stoneking says is absolutely necessary. Gun control advocates are calling it absolutely redundant. "The U.S. Supreme Court," said an exasperated Paul Helmke, "in two different decisions over the last two years has determined that the 2nd amendment is applicable to the states." (read more)

As Arizona tries to make illegal immigrants a little more uncomfortable, residents in Portland, Maine are trying to make legal immigrants more comfortable.

“Legal immigrants are an important part of our community,” says Will Everitt as he walks down Congress Street, just a block from City Hall.  “They contribute a lot.”

Everitt is from the Maine League of Young Voters, a group that's sponsoring a ballot initiative to give non-citizen legal immigrants the right to vote in Portland City elections. . “They're sending their kids to our schools,” he says.  “And they should be able to have a right to vote for say the school committee.”

Portland is a city of 65,000 and currently has about 10,000 legal non-citizen immigrants, mostly from African nations like Somalia. .

One of the petition-signers is Alfred Jacob, who came to Maine from the Sudan in the mid-90’s. For eight and a half years he worked jobs and paid taxes but had no say in how Portland city government spent his tax money.  “I had no say whatsoever,” he said earlier this week as he walked past the sites of some of his former jobs including a restaurant and a museum. “I was not part of the process at all.” (read more)

Larry Mann walks out of the Franklin hotel in Deadwood, South Dakota talking about those who would ban smoking here.

"They're ridiculous," he says, calling smoking a "national pastime" in this traditional western town.
"If you look back over the history of Deadwood, smoking would probably be one of the safer things to do."

He points out residents have been smoking in Deadwood bars long before Wild Bill Hickock was murdered here in 1876, and he calls it a "basic civil liberties issue."

"We think it's an intrusion of government to tell business owners how to run their businesses."  Mann is a longtime Deadwood institution and is now a spokesman for Deadwood's gaming industry, which is supporting a referendum that would preserve the right to smoke in Deadwood's bars and Casinos.

Mann says smoking bans always hurt casino businesses. "They go directly to reduce revenue," he says as he walks with a reporter down Main Street. "[They] make operations difficult if not impossible to make a profit."

The ballot proposal would exempt casinos from a law that bans puffing cigarettes in all places of employment in South Dakota. South Dakota actually passed a "no smoking" law 6 years ago, but up until last year Casinos had been exempt.

"Of course, I think we should ban smoking in casinos," says John Banzhaff, "just as we banned smoking in bars and restaurants and for exactly the same reason." Banzhaff is from Action on Smoking and Health, one of the largest anti-smoking groups in the country. (read more)