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On December 30, 2011 the Supreme Court of the State of Montana effectively flipped the Supreme Court of the United States and their Citizens United decision the bird. In Western Tradition Partnership v. Attorney General of MT, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock defended the state’s 1912 Corrupt Practices Act against the Western Tradition Partnership (WTP), Champion Painting, and the Montana Shooting Sports Foundation. The lead plaintiff, WTP, only divulged to the court that it wishes to “spe

Barack Obama took the presidential oath of office January 20, 2009. The challenges he inherited on that historic occasion were as great as any president has faced – including Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt; any assessment of Mr. Obama’s presidency not accounting for those challenges would be incomplete – and, more telling, dishonest. With that as preface let me note I have written before about our president and have done so absent undue praise – but I yield to no one in my personal r

Despite the influence of small government advocates like those in the Tea Party movement, the size, role, and influence of government on a federal, state, and local level is set to grow significantly in 2012. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), about 40,000 new laws will go into effect in 2012, and that doesn't include laws and provisions within laws that will also take effect this year on a federal level. Though in some ways, some of the new laws to take effect mi

Ralph Nader has put out a call for a "grand series" of twenty-one nationwide presidential debates in 2012, arguing that control over topics and format should be wrested from the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates and placed in the hands of local communities all over the country. "True debates, rather than parallel interviews of the CPD  model, would offer depth, variety, and unpredictability to counter the scripted nature of the candidates' political consultants," writes the long-tim

The Arizona Meth Project is trying hard, and succeeding at, reducing first-time meth usage by young people "through public service messaging, public policy, and community outreach."  It does so primarily by using modern advertising techniques to create extremely hard-hitting 30 second TV ads with a core message of "Not Even Once." In an ad titled Just Once, three teenage girls are giggling, snorting meth for the first time in a bedroom. The voiceover from one girl says "I'll going to try meth j

California is so geographically huge with such a large population, that problems which are sometimes more evident elsewhere are also problems here too, even if they may not get as much attention. One such problem is methamphetamine usage. Meth usage is more prevalent in rural areas than cities. Abandoned buildings in remote areas can be used for meth labs, plus one of the main precursors for cooking meth is anhydrous ammonia, a common fertilizer often stored in large quantities in tanks. But of

The average age of farmers and ranchers in America is increasing, and rural populations are in decline. This is why the U.S. Department of Agriculture is acting to plant a new crop of much needed agricultural producers here in California and across the nation. Last week, Ag Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced this year's winners of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) 'Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program' (BFRDP). According to a NIFA news release, a tota

A new report from the Energy Biosciences Institute in Berkeley says biofuel from algae may be commercially viable within ten years. While some say this assessment is discouraging, I find it optimistic. A thriving industry creating billions of gallons of renewable fuel annually may be here in ten years. This is good news indeed. Why import fuel if we can create it here instead? Creating biofuel by growing algae can be done indoors in tanks, but is generally done outdoors. The primary requirement

Next week the Senate will vote on a measure that could potentially extinguish California's local food movement. Lobbied for by multinational agribusiness giants such as Cargill and Monsanto, as well as supported by the pharmaceutical industry, The Food Safety Modernization Act would impose financially crippling and practically useless regulations on family farms and small-scale food processors according to opponents. The bill will require all food growers, regardless of size to keep accessibl

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