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In  the last month, federal district courts in Idaho and South Carolina  have handed down rulings on Republican party lawsuits challenging the  constitutionality of each state’s open primary system.  Idaho’s open  primary system was struck down, but South Carolina’s was upheld. On  March 2, Chief Judge for the District of Idaho, B. Lynn Winmill, issued a ruling that  declared the state’s nearly forty year-old open primary system  unconstitutional.  The Idaho Republican Party had argued in its s

Perhaps the most damning evidence of a false economic recovery is the sustained rise in food stamp usage across the country. Unemployment numbers can be groomed and refined, the Consumer Price Index can be manipulated, but there's no sugar coating the fact that a record 42 million Americans used food stamps in August, this according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The number represents a 17 percent rise from the same period last year. It gets worse. A Gallup survey has revealed that a st

It  may seem like the current uproar and ongoing revolt against the Transportation  Security Administration’s newest security protocols came out of nowhere,  but opposition to full-body scanners has been building for some time.   The breadth of the opposition is perhaps most clearly apparent in the  unified position of third party and Independent activists from across  the political spectrum. Just  under a year ago, the advanced imaging technology could be found in use  at fewer than two doze

On July 1, the federal government and dozens of states set up temporary “high-risk” health insurance pools for people denied health insurance due to so-called pre-existing conditions. These pools were one of the major provisions included in federal health care reform signed into law early this year. However, this is only a temporary fix intended to provide health insurance to individuals without coverage until the law goes fully into effect in 2014, when insurance companies will no longer be ab

With less than three weeks until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveils his revised budget plan for the fiscal year starting July 1, he and the Democratic majority Legislature have done little to reduce the state’s projected $18.8 billion budget shortfall. Almost the only thing they have accomplished is agree that increasing taxes won’t be part of whatever solution they stitch together over the next 10 weeks.  “In this budget I refuse to raise taxes because there are so many other areas where Sacr

The California Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) passed in 2002 and was accelerated in 2006. It mandates that electricity providers get at least 20% of their retail sales from renewable sources by the end of this year and 33% by 2020. However, three major utilities have not reached that goal and are scrambling to meet it by buying renewable energy from out of state, something which seems contradictory and self-defeating. Why buy energy out of state and have it travel hundreds, sometimes a thou

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s quest to convince the federal government to put-up-or-shut-up by paying California an additional $6.9 billion he says the state needs to carry out Washington D.C. imposed mandates is just one high-profile example of states increasingly asserting their rights. The battle over when states rights trump federal government edicts is as old as the constitution, waxing and waning in favor of each camp for nearly 225 years.  But recently, an increasing number of states are

If enacted, California could be disproportionately affected by a proposed annual tax in the national health overhaul legislation.  A fine-print provision in the Senate bill would tax health insurers, such as Kaiser Permanente, while exempting plans offered by large employers who pay their employees' medical claims.  Don Crane, chief executive of the California Association of Physician Groups, stated, "It's a real killer for California.  Why should California pay more for healthcare reform than,