113th Congress

"To compete in the global market, we need to have the most highly skilled workforce in the world. And to develop that workforce, we have to start at the beginning, with early childhood education." '

"Some government bodies, too, are adopting bird-safe building regulations. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democratic congressman representing northern Chicago, got the ball rolling during his time as a county commissioner, pushing through local bird-safety rules that have since been emulated in New York, Toronto and San Francisco."

"Intending to confront Congress with information from the Climate Tour, Quigley said he hopes to raise consciousness on the issue and work toward a nationwide energy policy that is 'sustainable on every level.'"

"Lake Michigan is at record low levels. We've been told that it'd take up to 9 years of higher than normal precipitation just to get back to normal. Although, the number one factor there is just how warm things are. The fact that we don't have ice cover anymore. And oh, by the way we've had the third, hundred year storm in the last six years. We're going to have to re-define our terms."

"Its a fact that stronger, more destructive storms are pounding our region with distressing regularity and resulting in huge costs."

"We talked about the game we have this Saturday where we play the Lobbyists in a charity game to raise money for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Commissioner Bettman was there, our friend the owner of the Washington Capitals, actually getting last years winners there to go to a college of their choice. So it was a great day."