Newtown Connecticut, Aurora Colorado, Tucson Arizona, when a mass shooting happens, like we've seen in the those cities, the issue of gun control often comes up. President Obama has said he wants to take action on this, he's put Vice president Joe Biden in charge of coming up with ideas on how to reduce gun violence.

Vice president Biden's task force is getting input from people with many different view points. Yesterday, that were gun safety organizations, and victims from some of these shootings. Now they're pushing for stricter gun control, today, the task force is set to meet with representatives from groups that support gun rights, like the National Rifle Association, that organization says it's committed to protecting people, but it thinks stricter gun laws aren't the best way to do that. Retail stores that sell guns are also going to be involved in these meetings. President Obama said he wants some concrete proposals from the task force by the end of this month.

2012 is in the books and its in the record books, too. Last year is officially the hottest year ever for the United States. It was also the second worst for extreme weather, things like hurricanes, droughts or floods. The average temperatures across the lower 48 states was 55.3 degrees. That beat the old record by a full degree. Scientists say when things get warmer, it raises the chances for extreme weather. All 48 of those states had above average temperatures last year, but some set their own superlatives.

The warmest year on record for the United States, every here, every spot here in the red, a new record for the hottest event for any year ever recorded. In July, 2012 was the hottest year on record of any month we've ever recorded since we've been here.

In many U.S states, state legislatures are back in session this week and next. They've got different names in different states. They maybe called the State House in Senate, the Legislative Assembly, the General Assembly. But basically, they are meeting of people elected by their states citizens to make laws.

Alright, cool, so what. Well, a lot of things that affect you everyday are determined by State Legislatures. They make laws about your school and the requirements for graduation. They decide who can drive and when, they ensure roads are taken care of and safe. They opreate states courts and they decide how much tax you pay when you go out to eat or you buy clothes. These are all responsibilities of the state. So, well, we spend a lot of time talking about the U.S Congress on CNN Student New. We want you to keep it in mind that your state lawmakers pass laws that affect you as well. It's part of what's called federalism, it's a system of goverment where the same place is controlled by two different authorities. So in this case, that'd be your state government and U.S federal government. Each of the 50 states has a governor, he or she representes the state's executive brach. Your state courts are the state's judicial branch, and the state legislatures we just talked about make up your state's legislative branch.