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For the 46.5 million Americans living below the poverty line, 16 million of which are children, life has become a consistent struggle. This struggle does not simply begin and end with monetary concerns, but in fact surrounds both a physical and mental exertion of the individual.Using the national U.S. census and NCCP, researchers found that in 2013, the poverty line rested at $11,490, a number which equates an individual working full time while only making $5.00 – far below the national minimum

May 1 is the National Day of Prayer, created in 1952 by a Joint Resolution from Congress and the signature of President Harry Truman. It is a day, according to the website promoting it, that “represents a Judeo Christian expression of the national observance, based on our understanding that this country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible.” And it is a bad idea. National Days of Prayer have been around for a long time. George Washington had them. So did John Adams. B

Can the Federal Communications Commission force Internet service providers to treat all data the same? That is the question Verizon Communications presented to the U.S. Court of Appeals and the court said no. As a result, the FCC has dumped net neutrality. The court ruled the FCC had overreached its authority by preventing broadband providers from blocking or slowing certain Internet traffic. The FCC, or its head Tom Wheeler, decided not to appeal, but instead took the opportunity to re-write t

There is considerable news in the press about setting the minimum wage at $10.10 per hour. Recently, Connecticut became the first state to pass this as the minimum wage. Is this the answer? Or is the answer a program that seeks to eliminate unemployment? Anyone who has ever taken an entry level economics class has seen the graph for the labor market with supply and demand meeting an equilibrium point. Under that model, unemployment is solely caused by wages being higher than the equilibrium poi

Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker is no stranger to electoral efforts. Though he is not a career politician and has never run for office himself, the self-described “independent-minded, inclusive Republican” has been involved with a number of successful campaigns; he was one of the national co-founders of No Labels, served on the advisory committee to Americans Elect, and was also the focus of a presidential draft effort in 2012. Now, after years of advocacy on behalf of voters of fi

With the November general election a few months away and several primary and special elections ahead, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration released a report in January outlining several recommendations to shore up voting lines, increase voter participation and registration, and improve the voter experience. The commission specifically called for states to encourage the use of schools as polling places. Yet, some state election boards and school administrations have pushed back

It seems that in every cycle there is debate about which states should hold the first presidential primary elections. Some state always seems to try to jump ahead of Iowa and New Hampshire. Since 1972, the Iowa Caucuses have been first in the nation and New Hampshire has been the first "primary" since 1920. There, of course, have been states that have attempted to circumvent Iowa and New Hampshire, claiming that they don't truly represent America as they are small states with seemingly narrow

America's service men and women have in the past faced some obstacles when it comes to exercising their constitutional right to vote. However, several states have taken steps to remove some of these obstacles and comply with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE). The MOVE act, passed in October 2009, requires states to implement several key changes in order to make voting easier for those who are away from home at election time. According to the Military Voter Protection P

Massachusetts passed the first wage law in 1912, followed soon after by thirteen more states and the District of Columbia. However, the Supreme Court ruling in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States (1935) resulted in the defeat of a major provision of President Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and further efforts would not succeed until Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938. A national minimum wage was established at $0.25 per hour.A few very sobering facts: , a startling perspec

The history of voting rights in the U.S. has been a long battle of disharmony and disenfranchisement since the country’s formation and although freedom and voting are frequently associated with one another in our current culture, restrictions to true freedom in this regard still remain unsettled, contentious, and often unperceived. While democracy was forming in the colonies, the Old World ideology that it was nothing short of mob rule was held strongly by many prominent colonists, thereby limi