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Last week, Congress avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded for another week. Then over the weekend, US lawmakers agreed to a deal that will extend funding through September while Congress and the White House continue to negotiate longer-term fiscal policy priorities. The US House passed the budget deal Wednesday. But amidst Washington's annual kabuki theater dance around fiscal policy and possible government shutdowns, a litt

A recent Gallup poll listed ‘dissatisfaction with the government’ as the highest ranking problem facing Americans. They found that fewer than a third of Americans are happy with the direction the country is going. More concerning, partisanship is more strident than ever -- preventing any kind of pragmatic reform before it even starts. With that type of gridlock, it’s no surprise that nearly 40% of voters now self-identify as political independents. Now imagine if instead we had legislators tha

“It’s not.” “We don’t think it’s worth a hearing. Next question.” With those two short phrases in answer to a reporter’s question, Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Aaron Ford (D-Las Vegas) announced the end of the road for a bill that would have replaced Nevada’s closed primary system with a nonpartisan, top-two open primary. The bill, SB 103, was introduced by Senator James Settelmeyer (R-Minden). It was Settelmeyer’s second attempt to bring top-two to Nevada. In the 2015 session (Nevada’

In the pilot episode of IVN's newest podcast, A Civil Assessment, T.J. O'Hara takes a look at electoral reform around the country. From measures and bills that have successfully passed, Ranked Choice Voting in Maine and Measure K in San Diego, to those just introduced on the floor, like top-two in Nevada, T.J. breaks down how each movement aims to "de-rig" elections. Republican State Senator James Settelmeyer  introduced Nevada's top-two bill on Tuesday, February 7. The bill, SB103, would imple

On February 7, 2017, the second day of the biannual Nevada legislative session, State Senator James Settelmeyer (R-Minden) introduced Senate Bill (SB) 103. This bill, if passed and signed by the governor, would replace the state’s closed primary system with a non-partisan, blanket top-two primary. The bill is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee. Whether it gets one is up to the committee chair. This is the second consecutive session Senator

Over the course of 25 years, women’s incarceration has increased drastically, and has reached a point where females are jailed at a rate of nearly 150 percent when compared to men. According to the ACLU, there are now more than 200,000 women behind bars and more than one million women on probation and parole--many of which have been caught up by the “war on drugs,” with heavy sentences for non-violent offenses. Although women are incarcerated at an alarming rate, they still make up a paltry fra

2016 was an unusual and emotional election year. However, a presidential election should not be what defines how we as Americans connect. We have faced greater years of turmoil, starting with our fight for independence, through world wars, a Great Depression, and 9/11. Through it all, our resiliency is seen across generations. We are strong, and our nation will move forward because of our core values. This past year, Americans voted for thousands of elected representatives at every level of gov

This week, Forbes shocked readers with the observation that legal marijuana sales in the United States for 2016 were larger -- and growing at a faster pace -- than the dot-com boom of the early 2000s. The news is based on findings by Arcview Market Research, the leading industry data researcher for the burgeoning regulated marijuana market in the United States. According to Arcview in a recent report, legal marijuana sales in the U.S. and Canada grew by a meteoric 30% in 2016 to $6.7 billion.

The 2010 implementation of the Affordable Care Act ensured that mental and behavioral health treatment would be an essential benefit covered by all health insurance policies sold on the federal health exchange. While this measure has greatly expanded access to mental health treatment for a number of Americans, people all over the country still struggle to access mental health treatment for a variety of reasons. Some are dissuaded by a lingering stigma that surrounds mental illness, but for many

Editor’s note: This article was co-authored by Chris Micheli and Michael Daft. This article was originally self-published by the authors and has been republished on IVN with their consent. California voters on November 8 approved Prop. 64, which is an initiative statute that legalizes marijuana and hemp under state law, with specified limitations. The ballot measure designates state agencies to license and regulate the recreational marijuana industry and it imposes a state excise tax on retail