We are launching a new blog feature, which I hope you will enjoy. As you may recall, last summer we dubbed “The Summer of Controversy” and picked various hot-button topics to examine. From Gay Marriage and Sex Offender Lists, to Stand Your Ground and Genetically Modified Food, we covered a wide range of topics, and hopefully helped you understand the national landscape on these contentious issues. Or at least made it clear that the states often take radically different approaches to a given problem.
This summer, instead of looking at one topic widely across the states, we will be taking a deep look at one bill of interest. Each week we’ll choose from the most read bills on BillTrack50 that week, and offer you an analysis of the issues at hand. Instead of doing so neutrally, we’ll offer you both sides of the argument, via our Contrarians: Derek will generally be presenting a progressive viewpoint, and Greg will generally take a more conservative stance.
We hope you’ll join us for a fun and informative weekly foray into state politics.
Derek Smith grew up in Illinois and attended University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, earning his B.A. in political science. He then attended University of Colorado School of Law, graduating in 2009. Derek has worked in political campaigning, writing & editing, criminal defense law, and as an educator. In his free time, Derek enjoys playing music, hiking, snowboarding, and chess. His summer of controversy posts can be found here.
Gregory Conterio is a business technology expert and writer with a keen interest in history, politics and current events. Born in a small Illinois farming community, he realized immediately there must have been some terrible mistake, and became intent on leaving his life in the sticks for the Big City at the earliest opportunity. During the intervening years, he did however have a classic, farm-community upbringing, the like of which has mostly disappeared from America today. This included hunting & fishing, milking the family’s dairy cows by hand twice a day, operating tractors & combines, baling hay, showing cattle at the county fair, raising & training hunting dogs, as well as a heavy schedule of 4H and Boy Scout meetings. Immediately after finishing school at Eastern Illinois University, Mr. Conterio moved as far as he could reasonably get from farm country, relocating to the mythical city of Los Angeles, which like the lost city of Atlantis, nobody from his home town had ever actually seen or been-to. In the years that followed, Mr. Conterio put his education in zoology and English literature to staggeringly good use in the growing business technology industry, working for a number of different organizations, eventually gravitating toward consulting work. Ironically, Mr. Conterio has returned to his “roots,” and presently resides in the Homestead area of Florida where in between writing, cooking, parenting and chasing dogs off the sofa, he schemes to raise all the necessary birds, vegetables and herbs necessary for Christmas Turducken in his own back-yard.
About BillTrack50 – BillTrack50 offers free tools for citizens to easily research legislators and bills across all 50 states and Congress. BillTrack50 also offers professional tools to help organizations with ongoing legislative and regulatory tracking, as well as easy ways to share information both internally and with the public.