This week, the House of Representatives will vote on a series of anti-regulatory proposals during a campaign targeting important public health and environmental safeguards. While House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) has dubbed the campaign #StopGovtAbuse Week, the proposed legislation is in fact designed to delay or halt the rulemaking process by adding time-consuming and redundant procedural hurdles, by providing regulated industries additional opportunities to delay the process, and by stripping away the public's right to petition agencies when they fail to act.

President Obama has issued 168 executive orders since taking office in January 2009, fewer than any president in office during the past 100 years besides George H. W. Bush. Yet conservative commentators continue to complain that this president has exceeded his executive power. Challenges to the president's executive power are on the rise following his State of the Union address on Jan. 28 when he vowed to take whatever unilateral action he can to ensure our government operates in the best interests of our citizens. "Wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do," the president declared.

During the week of Jan. 20, the air quality in Utah's Salt Lake City region and parts of California hit red-alert status – meaning that the air was unhealthy for everyone and was especially harmful to sensitive groups like children, the elderly, and those with chronic respiratory conditions like asthma. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) forecasts and posts air quality levels in an easy, color-coded format on a website called AIRNow.