By JOEL MATHIS and BEN BOYCHUK, Scripps Howard News Service

Do e-books threaten democracy? Best-selling novelist (and former Time Magazine cover subject) Jonathan Franzen made waves when he declared that electronic books -- like those available on readers such as the Kindle, the Nook and the iPad -- don't have the value and staying power of good old-fashioned printed paper tomes.

GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney has come under attack for his business dealings. Romney led Bain Capital during the 1990s, investing in underperforming businesses. Romney claims his efforts helped create 100,000 jobs at the companies he bought, but his opponents -- especially Newt Gingrich -- say he actually oversaw layoffs and bankruptcies.

Should American workers continue to get a payroll tax break? President Barack Obama has been pressing Congress to extend this year's payroll tax break -- a two-point reduction from the usual 6.2 percent tax that workers usually pay to support the Social Security program.

Do American police too easily resort to violence?

The Penn State campus was roiled with riots and recriminations last week after a longtime assistant football coach was arrested on child molestation charges -- and revered head coach Joe Paterno was fired in the aftermath.

With the United States economy growing slowly, and the unemployment rate stuck at over 9 percent, Republicans have frequently charged that President Barack Obama's move to enact and enforce a variety of regulations is stifling the economy -- heaping scorn on everything from the new Dodd-Frank law regulating the financial sector to the administration's expanded hiring of inspectors for the Occup

Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., this week confessed to sending naughty pictures of himself to young women via the Twitter social network. Republican and Democratic leaders alike called on him to resign, but he refused.

When he left office nearly two years ago, George W. Bush was one of the most-reviled presidents in U.S. history: His approval rating had been stuck at or below 30 percent for years, and the country was mired in two wars and the beginning of a painful recession.

Should the American-born children of illegal immigrants be granted automatic citizenship here? Fifty-eight percent of Americans are against that practice, according to one recent poll.

And a growing segment of Congress is backing an effort to challenge the federal government's interpretation of the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which appears to grant citizenship to such children.

Do Americans know enough about Elena Kagan to be comfortable with her Supreme Court nomination?