Before going home for Christmas, Congress passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through Friday, March 14, 2025. This was essentially a stop-gap measure to buy Congress more time to negotiate a full-year funding bill. Those discussions between leading House and Senate appropriators are underway as Congress looks to avoid a government shutdown.

In his first three weeks back in office, President Trump has already floated taking control of Gaza, authorized Elon Musk to overhaul the Treasury with college interns, and signed more executive orders than most presidents do in a year. While critics argue he's trampling constitutional limits on presidential power, is Trump really breaking new ground - or just building on a century of executive overreach?

From 2013 to 2016, I authored over 40 articles published by the Independent Voter Network (IVN). I wrote to overcome the partisan divisiveness which had paralyzed our federal government. I wrote about organizations, candidates, individuals and efforts that emphasized non-partisan solutions to the issues we face in America. Hope and positivity were my mantra.

The nonprofit reform group Open Primaries hosted its first Primary Buzz Discussion of 2025 last week. But this conversation worked differently as Open Primaries President John Opdycke was the one being interviewed.

Over the last week, The Independent Center released the second and third installments to its 2025 State of the Union Poll, one of which compared and contrasted the views of independent voters and Republicans and the other compared independents and Democrats.

An Election Reformers Network (ERN) report covering a 13-year period has found that state lawmakers and elected officials are increasingly manipulating the ballot initiative process to block or impede citizen-led efforts. 

Last week, the Trump Administration sparked confusion across government agencies with a memo freezing federal funding. The confusion deepened when they rescinded the memo 45 hours later.

Though we come from opposite coasts, we share a painful reality that many Americans know all too well: our communities have been devastated by disaster. One of us lives in California, where historic wildfires have ravaged coastal cities - destroying thousands of homes and businesses, displacing tens of thousands of people, and claiming more than two dozen lives.

Ballotpedia reports this week that in 2026, Alaska’s independent voters will have the chance to solidify their role as election reform pioneers by voting on two initiatives.

Whether or not you like the filibuster probably depends on whether your “team” has control of the Senate. If your team has control of the upper chamber, you’re likely frustrated by this procedural motion. If you’re in the minority, you’re happy that the filibuster exists because it stops what you view as bad policy from advancing.