A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws.^[1] The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and other money bills. Legislatures are known by many names, the most common being parliament and congress, although these terms also have more specific meanings.

In parliamentary systems of government, the legislature is formally supreme and appoints a member from its house as the prime minister which acts as the executive.^[2] In a presidential system, according to the separation of powers doctrine, the legislature is considered an independent and coequal branch of government along with both the judiciary and the executive.^[3]

The primary components of a legislature are one or more chambers or houses: assemblies that can debate and vote upon bills. A legislature with only one house is called unicameral. A bicameral legislature possesses two separate chambers, usually described as an upper house and a lower house, which often differ in duties, powers, and the methods used for the selection of members. Much rarer have been tricameral legislatures; the Massachusetts Governor's Council still exists, but the most recent national example existed in the waning years of caucasian-minority rule in South Africa.

In most parliamentary systems, the lower house is the more powerful house while the upper house is merely a chamber of advice or review. However, in presidential systems, the powers of the two houses are often similar or equal. In federations, it is typical for the upper house to represent the component states; the same applies to the supranational legislature of the European Union. For this purpose, the upper house may either contain the delegates of state governments, as is the case in the European Union and in Germany and was the case in the United States before 1913, or be elected according to a formula that grants equal representation to states with smaller populations, as is the case in Australia and the modern United States.

Because members of legislatures usually sit together in a specific room to deliberate, seats in that room may be assigned exclusively to members of the legislature. In parliamentary language, the term seat is sometimes used to mean that someone is a member of a legislature. For example, saying that a legislature has 100 "seats" means that there are 100 members of the legislature, and saying that someone is "contesting a seat" means they are trying to get elected as a member of the legislature. By extension, the term seat is often used in less formal contexts to refer to an electoral district itself, as for example in the phrases "safe seat" and "marginal seat".

See also[link]

• Legislative Assembly
• Legislative Council
• List of legislatures by country
• Parliamentary system

References[link]

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Mike Bost (born December 30, 1960) is a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, representing the 115th district where he has served since 1995.

Bost was a firefighter before entering politics and becoming a full-time state legislator and business owner. He graduated from Murphysboro High School, attended the University of Illinois Certified Firefighter II Academy, and served in the United States Marine Corps (1979–82). He and his wife Tracy have three children and six grandchildren.

Bost sponsors many firearm bills in support of the right to bear arms. He was a passionate opponent of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. In May 2012, upset over a bill to overhaul state pensions, Bost screamed and threw papers on the Illinois House floor because the House was only given twenty minutes to review and vote on a two-hundred page bill.^[1][2]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Illinois General Assembly - Representative Mike Bost (R) 115th District Official IL House website
  • Bills Committees
• State Representative Mike Bost
• Project Vote Smart - Representative Mike J. Bost (IL) profile
• Follow the Money - Mike Bost
  • 2006 2004 2002 2000 1998 1996 campaign contributions
• Illinois State Representative Mike Bost Official Campaign Website
• Illinois House Republican Caucus - Mike Bost profile

Wendy Davis
Davis in 2009
Occupation	Television actress
Spouse	Jacobi Wynne (divorced)

Wendy Davis (b. June 30, 1966) is an American actress. She is currently appearing in the hit Lifetime Television series, Army Wives, as Colonel Joan Burton.

Early Years[link]

Wendy grew up in Joppatowne, Maryland a small town outside of Baltimore. She attended Joppatowne High School and graduated with a degree in Theater from Howard University. Davis is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Wendy Davis has one child, a daughter. The father is Jacobi Wynne, whom Ms. Davis recently divorced. She and her daughter now live in Charleston, South Carolina, where her hit series Army Wives is filmed.

Career[link]

Davis was regular on the 1991 series The New WKRP in Cincinnati as receptionist Ronnie Lee, and appeared in the 1996-97 police drama High Incident as Lynette White. She appeared in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, in Season One, Episode 9, as Holly Adams, the pregnant wife of Dr. Preston Burke's best college friend. She has also appeared in Cold Case, Coach, Martin, Smart Guy (as Blake's mother), Angel, and other shows.

Filmography[link]

• 2007-Present: Army Wives (TV series) - Joan Burton
• 2006: Lt. Col. U.S. Army (TV series) - Karen Patton
• 2005: Grey's Anatomy (TV series) - Holly Adams
• 2005: Cold Case (TV series) - Julia Owens
• 2002: Mother Ghost - Stacy
• 2002: Angel (TV series) - Aubrey Jenkins
• 2002: Trapped: Buried Alive (TV movie) - Monique
• 2001: Taking Back Our Town (TV movie) - Janice Dickerson
• 2001: The District (TV series) - Saundra Dayton
• 2001: The Weber Show (TV series) - Alice Fullmer
• 2000: Any Day Now (TV series) - Cheryl
• 1999: Rendezvous (TV movie) - Jade
• 1998: Smart Guy (TV series) - Hillary Jordan
• 1998: Profiler (TV series) - Mrs. Driscoll
• 1998: The Gregory Hines Show (TV series) - Allison
• 1997: Between Brothers (TV series) - Cynthia
• 1996-1997: High Incident (TV series) - Lynette White
• 1997: Brittle Glory - Reporter
• 1996: EZ Streets (TV series) - Joan Priestly
• 1995: Return to Two Moon Junction - Roni
• 1994: Coach (TV series) - Julie
• 1993: The Sinbad Show (TV series) - Sandy
• 1993: Martin (TV series) - Bobbi
• 1991: The New WKRP in Cincinnati (TV series) - Ronnie Lee/Ronnie
• 1989: Running Out of Time (TV short) - Tracy Michelle Gibson
• 1980: Powder Heads - Reborn

Awards and nominations[link]

• Drama-Logue Award - Talking With
• 2008, Image Awards - Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series Army Wives (Nominated)
• 2008, Prism Awards - Performance in a Drama Series Army Wives (Nominated)
• 2008, Prism Awards - Performance in a Drama Series Multi-Episode Storyline Army Wives (Nominated)

Sources[link]

• Wendy Davis at the Internet Movie Database

http://www.ActressWendyDavis.com/

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