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The countdown to 2018 has finished and Washington has snapped its head in the direction of another countdown: the mid-term elections in November. In just eleven months, the balance of power can be easily swayed in Congress, which means this year is setting up to be two things: dramatic and expensive. Very Expensive. So, grab some popcorn and your calculator because big money is pouring in to district races from all over the country, and it’s set to make history. In order to flip the Republica

A largely ignored development at year-end 2017 was the story that the Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein’s campaign is under senate investigation for collusion with Russia.   Dr. Stein was the Green Party’s presidential nominee in 2016 and was on the general election ballot in 47 states.  She received more votes than Donald Trump’s margin of victory in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.  Those states accounted for a combined 46 electoral votes and together would have swung t

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

During a time of deep political dysfunction in the United States, it is easy to assume that American democracy has gone off the rails, perhaps for good. But if Americans can look past the slow-motion travesty unfolding in Washington, DC, they will find that it is still within their power to effect meaningful change. BERKELEY – It has been one year since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, and America’s democratic institutions are clearly under strain. A mere 20% of American

On November 3, Justice Samuel Alito refused a request by Pennsylvania state officials to delay a trial in League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania v Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That case, filed in Commonwealth Court, seeks a ruling that Pennsylvania’s U.S. House district boundaries are an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The state government wanted to suspend the trial that is set for December. The state government said in case the U.S. Supreme Court later rules in the Wisconsin case that

Where do we even begin after Las Vegas? The shooting was so calculatingly evil, so tragic for the victims, and so sad for our nation. And yet we have been here before: after Sandy Hook, after the Orlando night club shooting, after Louisiana GOP Rep. Steve Scalise was shot in the capital this summer. Our reaction is always shock and sorrow – followed almost immediately by the same predictable partisan debate on guns. I fervently believe that electing more centrist independents can help break thr

The statement "all politicians are corrupt" has as much truth to it as "all Muslims are terrorists" and "all Christians are ignorant bigots." But here’s the trap in American politics: there’s one political party that makes nearly no attempt to disguise its duplicity. Many of them lie so badly and so often most of us are numb to it. The other political party does only a slightly better job representing the people. The trouble is, the average voter can no longer tell which is which. As a result

Voting in America is not easy. You first have to register. You have to find your polling place. In most states, you have to take time before, during, or after work to get to your polling place. You have to wait in line, sometimes for hours. In some states, you even have to prove you are who you say you are. And then, after all that, in the vote for president at least, if you don’t happen to vote for the candidate who happens to win in your state, your vote is worth nothing. It counts for nothi

Crazy times in America these days.  The wrathful hurricanes pounding the South and the East Coast and the wildfires devouring the Northwest echo our storm-tossed politics. Everything is turned upside down, everything is fevered, everything is being washed away. And yet (and this is the craziest thing of all) nothing seems to change. Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan once observed, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. True that. If you’re an independent, you can lick your fi

Over the past few weeks, headlines regarding the legislative efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Effort have been abundant, with some experts indicating that there may still be an opportunity for Senate Republicans to revive the debate sometime later this week. “When the cameras so dramatically showed Senator John McCain (R-AZ) voting “no,” he was actually just providing the deciding vote against the so-called ‘skinny’ repeal amendment offered by McConnell,” Forbes contributor Sta