Search query: iowa

California’s Soft Sentencing Freed a Violent Offender -- Then He Walked Into a State Office and Killed a Parole Agent
California’s Soft Sentencing Freed a Violent Offender -- Then He Walked Into a State Office and Killed a Parole Agent
On July 17, a California state parole agent became the first CDCR officer killed in the line of duty since 2018 when he was shot inside a state parole office by a man who had been released just months earlier after serving only four years for randomly stabbing a stranger in the neck.
29 Jul, 2025
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7 min read
Manchin to DC: Independents Are Here, and We’re Not Going Away
Manchin to DC: Independents Are Here, and We’re Not Going Away
The rise of an independent majority has long been dismissed by the press as a myth, which is why few people heard about an event in the nation’s capital on July 23 that gathered prominent and rising independent voices.
29 Jul, 2025
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4 min read
California Is Doing What Congress Can't on Immigration
California Is Doing What Congress Can't on Immigration
In an era when immigration remains one of the most divisive issues in American politics, a bipartisan group of California lawmakers has done something rare: they’ve found unity.
24 Jul, 2025
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5 min read
How It Really Works: The Unfair Fight Between Legal Cannabis and Unregulated 'Gas‑Station' Hemp
How It Really Works: The Unfair Fight Between Legal Cannabis and Unregulated 'Gas‑Station' Hemp
When President Richard Nixon told the nation on June 17, 1971, that drug abuse was “public enemy number one,” he formally launched the War on Drugs and cemented cannabis in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. 
22 Jul, 2025
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10 min read
Don’t Blame Mamdani for Closed Primaries in New York City
Don’t Blame Mamdani for Closed Primaries in New York City
The NYC Charter Revision Commission (CRC) will hold its final meeting on July 21 to decide what reforms to city policy will appear on the November ballot. However, one proposal will not be on the commission’s docket – open primaries.
21 Jul, 2025
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10 min read
Just Say No: The Political Hit Job That Killed Cannabis
Just Say No: The Political Hit Job That Killed Cannabis
As cannabis use became more common in the late 1970s, the backlash grew even stronger. A political and religious conservative resurgence was underway after years of liberal ascendancy. That wave would soon bring former California Governor Ronald Reagan to the White House.
18 Jul, 2025
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8 min read
The Seventies: High Times with Jimmy Carter and Jerry Brown
The Seventies: High Times with Jimmy Carter and Jerry Brown
In the years that followed President Richard Nixon’s crackdown on pot and eventual resignation, state and local governments began to push the envelope to reform cannabis laws.
17 Jul, 2025
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5 min read
Adams and Cuomo Power Players Play Chicken With New York Elections
Adams and Cuomo Power Players Play Chicken With New York Elections
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are currently playing a game of chicken with each other – leveraging the city’s electoral system to pressure the other to quit the race. The question is: Who will blink first? Or… are they headed for a collision?
14 Jul, 2025
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3 min read
Nixon Admitted Weed Wasn’t Dangerous, But Killed It to Crush Political Dissent
Nixon Admitted Weed Wasn’t Dangerous, But Killed It to Crush Political Dissent
This seven-part series chronicles the milestones, backlash, and unintended consequences that have shaped the war on cannabis from the 1960s to the present day.
09 Jul, 2025
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2 min read
Lawsuit Slams Oklahoma Law as ‘Unconstitutional Sabotage’ of Open Primaries
Lawsuit Slams Oklahoma Law as ‘Unconstitutional Sabotage’ of Open Primaries
Two Oklahoma veterans – one a pediatrician, the other a U.S. Coast Guard commander – have filed a legal challenge to SB 1027 in Oklahoma, a law they say unconstitutionally targets their statewide citizen initiative to implement open primaries, State Question 836 (SQ 836).
08 Jul, 2025
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5 min read