We have a community where almost 50 percent of the people in the city of Cleveland alone have some type of record. I represent one of the poorest districts in America - out of 435, I'm 422.
School districts in the US don't adopt technology very quickly.
American voting districts are, across a lot of the country, deeply messed up by having been gerrymandered by right-wing politicians.
In these difficult financial times for so many of our districts, as our local leaders strive to balance their budgets by cutting services, we would be irresponsible not to invest in the arts.
Conservatives sometimes catch a tremendous about of flak from inside the Beltway - and those groups can exert extreme pressure on those conservative members to try to get them to vote in ways that are opposite of their core fundamental beliefs and the promises that they made to their constituents back in their districts.
Most politicians keep close tabs on what's happening back home and work assiduously to keep lines of communications open with the political players in their states or districts.
