Search query: missouri

Supporters of a 2018 ballot initiative to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in California were given the green light by the state attorney general's office earlier this month to circulate petitions and gather signatures. They now have until April 30 to gather and submit 365,880 valid signatures from registered voters in the first state to ever legalize medical marijuana under Proposition 215 in 1996. That ballot proposition, as well as Prop. 64 -- the 2016 voter initiative titled "The Adult Use o

On the surface, it often seems like our existing two-party dominated system is somehow the way our country is “meant to be” and nothing could change that regardless of how dysfunctional things become. But in poll after poll and in countless other ways, the American people are saying loudly and clearly that the major political parties and their leaders are failing the country and the state. That is why more and more people today identify as independents rather than as Republicans or Democrats.

Since President Trump announced the possible end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, it’s left those so-called “DREAMers” currently serving in the military under a special program wondering what would happen to them. And the answer is, no one knows. What complicates the situation is that those with a DACA immigration status can’t simply enlist in the military like natural born citizens. They must be eligible for a program called Military Accessions Vital to the Nation

In my experience speaking to Europeans and Canadians about our political system, they frequently demonstrate a lot of worry for us. Gone are the days of the usual cross-Atlantic holier-than-thou quipping and sniping. They’re just plain worried for us -- and, by extension, them. Europe, no doubt, has its own bag of problems, though they try not to admit it to us Yanks. But the vitriol and mutual partisan hatred that is the new normal in American politics sets us apart. A large majority of Republ

Congress returns Tuesday from their August recess to a packed legislative session. Number one on the agenda for the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill is the ambitious goal of putting together a comprehensive tax reform bill and sending it to President Trump by October. The government will have to move forward on tax reform while managing several other legislative priorities, not the least of which is the federal debt ceiling, which the government will exceed by month's end. Technicall

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump administration would be reversing the ban put in place by the Obama administration that halted the sale of certain surplus military equipment to local police departments. The two-year-old ban was in response to a string of racially motivated riots, the most widely publicized being that in Ferguson, Missouri. Sessions and the administration contend that the ban was a knee-jerk reaction that was overreaching, and the restoration of the prog

COLORADO SECRETARY OF STATE SUED In a story on IVN.us, two of Colorado’s presidential electors, the people who cast Colorado’s votes in the electoral college, filed a lawsuit last week against Secretary of State, Wayne Williams. The suit alleges that Williams “threatened and intimidated” them into voting for Secretary Hillary Clinton in December 2016. Colorado has a law that requires its electors to vote for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates who received the most votes in the

RANKED CHOICE VOTING GETS SHOT IN THE ARM In a story that was first published on FairVote's blog, Rob Richie looks at the latest Primaries and how to Uphold Majority Rule. Richie writes, "Next spring, states will start voting in primaries for the regularly scheduled congressional midterm elections in every state. On August 15, however, two states held primaries to fill vacancies -- for U.S. Senate in Alabama as the permanent replacement to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and for U.S House in Ut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvtLKW77pZw Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal has apologized for her Facebook post last Thursday calling for the assassination of President Trump. Chappelle-Nadal made the comments after the violence in Charlottesville and the presidents comments that were roundly criticized by members of both parties. After apologizing directly to President Trump and his family, Chappelle-Nadal indicated she would not be stepping down. She said, “I will continue to

Time for Missouri to Truly Go Purple In a story on IVN.us, Erik Fogg says it's high time for Missouri to send an independent to Congress. Fogg writres: "Missouri is a classic American Purple state. It is coveted by presidential candidates much as Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Florida: It voted twice for Clinton, but also voted for Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump — all by narrow margins. "Missouri has gone ten years without two senators of the same party, and 133 years since it sent represen