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In a paper published by The Economic Journal last month, a study by the Norwegian School of Economics in partnership with the Pennsylvania State University Department of Sociology and Criminology, found that marijuana legalization has led to a decrease in violent crime in U.S. states that border Mexico. Over the past several years, sweeping reforms to marijuana policies have reached a tipping point with legal medical marijuana now in more states (currently 29) than those that continue to prohib

The United States of America's Founding Fathers were spurred to declare independence by a long litany of abuses by the King's government in England. In many cases, if you read through the text of Jefferson's Declaration, you'll find these abuses are procedural in nature. It wasn't precisely what the government did, but how the government did it that mattered. Simply the processes of government themselves, the form of the rules for engaging in the act of governing, can be the most powerful way

The Fourth of July is here and Americans across the country will celebrate the nation's birthday with fireworks, picnics, trips out of town or to the beach, barbecue, concerts and countless other ways. So, to celebrate our nation’s birthday, we wanted to give you four facts on the Fourth that you might not have known. The Fourth of July commemorates the adoption and print recognition of the Declaration of Independence. But the resolution for independence was actually approved by the Second Con

DC politics has gone mad. Americans are now treated to a 24/7 freak show of government dysfunction, charges and countercharges, midnight tweets, and a myriad of other forms of dystopian political theatre. Politics has become toxic. The professional pundits and their assembled panelists profess their disgust at the toxicity — and then gleefully throw another log on the fire. Is there any way for the American people to intervene? Across the country, in inner cities, suburbs, and in rural area

The fight against gerrymandering nationwide is taking a new turn. Courts are no longer just looking at discrimination based on race, sex, or class, but political discrimination and partisan motives to consolidate power and weaken the voice of voters outside the party in power. First it was Wisconsin. Then it was Pennsylvania. Now, more states are open to legal challenges against partisan gerrymandering thanks to the "efficiency gap," the statistical method used in Whitford v. Gill to determine

T.J. O’Hara, IVN’s podcast host, is joined by Tim Canova. Last year Tim Canova ran against then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in South Florida’s 23rd Congressional District. The two discuss how he was inspired to run and the race against Wasserman Schultz. They look at the class action lawsuit filed in Florida against Wasserman Schultz, and the numerous faux pas she’s made that have alienated a myriad of voters. Tim Canova announced on the evening of Thursday, June 15, that he intends to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXD9mN4EI8 Update 6/19/17: The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to issue a stay in Gill v. Whitford. This means until the justices rule on the case itself, the current electoral maps will stay in place. The Supreme Court will decide if a lower federal court was right to find that Wisconsin's state Assembly maps violated the constitution on the basis of a partisan gerrymander. The high court's decision to hear the case is a big deal. Up until November, federal courts la

You know you’ve made it when you become the subject of a Twitter war. Over the weekend, DNC establishment figures took to the Twittersphere to duke it out with progressive activists over the Party’s use of closed primaries. The three-day debate was provoked by Young Turks reporter Nomiki Konst, after she tweeted a series of statements in support of open primaries. You can see part of the exchange here. https://twitter.com/NomikiKonst/status/874320664018268161 https://twitter.com/NomikiKonst/s

Pennsylvania is the latest battleground over the issue of partisan gerrymandering. Several plaintiffs filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging congressional maps drawn by the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania General Assembly that are "so bizarrely engineered that the only fair inference is that the Republican mapmakers made them so for partisan advantage." What is unique about this lawsuit is that the plaintiffs are not making a constitutional challenge based on race, sex, or any other class. Th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxCpfrFWcGk Loyalty: Devotion and faithfulness to a cause, country, group, or person. Much will be made of James Comey's testimony Thursday, but one word has been the focus of the former FBI director's comments: Loyalty. Comey claims in a statement that the president prompted him to drop a federal investigation into Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Flynn was dismissed over his failure to disclose Russian communications. Comey also claim