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Credit: carl ballou / Shutterstock.com This week, California and Alabama joined the growing number of states advancing towards greater government transparency by adopting new online disclosure systems. In California, Secretary of State Debra Bowen reversed her initial opposition to providing a unified campaign finance database entirely online. Pressure from groups like MapLight and California Common Cause -- nonpartisan government accountability organizations -- had been mounting on the state

Ricardo Garza / Shutterstock.com In 2012, the United States experienced the worst drought in the last 50 years. Sixty-one percent of the country was affected by it, leading states to increase their water supply. This, in turn, resulted in a dispute over water rights with neighboring states. Texas water wars with its neighbors are the embodiment of a phenomenon that could become nationwide in the near future. Tweet stat: Tweet After three years of drought, Texas is currently finding itself at t

Another year has passed and a handful of notable media misreports along with it. One of the most prestigious journalists was caught plagiarizing another journalist’s work this year as well as one reporter's serious lack of fact-checking regarding the Aurora shooting. Perhaps the most heinous of media misreports this year was not a single event at all but the consistently uncritical examination of the 2012 election process. This list of 5 media fails of 2012 reviews the more memorable media miss

The Aviation Subcommittee held a hearing on Thursday, November 29. Acting Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, Charles Edwards, and Government Accountability Office Director of Homeland Security, Steve Lord, offered their findings regarding multiple TSA-related investigations and complaints. However, one glaring absence was clearly evident. The government-owned and operated Transportation Security Agency, or TSA, was not in attendance. In a release issued earlier this week,

Citizens in nearly thirty states have signed online petitions propagating secession from the United States. These states have filed their petitions with the We the People Program, a facet of the Obama Administration which attempts to facilitate citizen participation in government. Though the ability to petition a presidential administration is not a new concept, the online petition program is. Petitions bear little to no legislative power, but the implications of online petitions for secession a

Since Obama won reelection a week ago, the White House website has been flooded with petitions from citizens in various states wanting their states to secede from the union.  It is important to note that these are not official petitions by the state governments but rather petitions started by individual citizens. The threat of secession is nothing new in the United States.  It seems that after any election, people want their states to secede so that they don't have to live under a leader they d

Credit: Talking Points Memo The Supreme Court has granted cert. in the case of Shelby County v. Holder, a suit filed regarding an Alabama county and its relation to the Voting Rights Act. The challenge points to a provision in the law that requires states with a history of racial bias to seek permission before changing their voting laws from either the US Attorney General or a three-judge panel of the District Court of the District of Columbia. The Voting Rights Act was initially passed in 196

Every two years approximately one-third of the US Senate is up for re-election. The following 13 Republican US senators face re-election in 2014. Click here to read about the 20 Democratic US Senators who also face re-election in 2014. 1. Lamar Alexander (Tennessee) Before election to the Senate in 2002, Alexander was governor of Tennessee, US Secretary of Education, and a two-time presidential candidate. Alexander resigned from his position as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference in

Photo: www.cit.uscourts.gov Contrary to popular belief, the right to vote was not guaranteed by the Constitution. The Constitution implies a voting process but neither describes it nor identifies who the voters will be. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, during the post-Civil War reconstruction period, prohibited individuals from being allowed to vote on the basis of race, even if the person was a former slave. However, this amendment was meaningless in the former confederacy, as voting laws

[Update 8:18 PM PST] IVN.us announces Barack Obama has been re-elected to a second term. [Update 8:17 PM PST] CNN projects President Barack Obama will win re-election by taking the state of Ohio. [Update 8:15 PM PST] With the projection of Oregon going to Obama, statistically speaking it is very unlikely Romney will be able to pull off a victory because one more state will put the president over the top. CNN also projects Missouri to be carried by Mitt Romney. -- [Update 8:10 PM PST] Th