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Florida holds the dubious honor of wrongfully convicting the largest number of innocent people put on death row. Since 1973, the Sunshine State wrongfully incarcerated and released twenty-three people set for a state sanctioned killing. And nationwide, 140 people in twenty-six states have been exonerated of the crimes for which they were convicted and sent to death row. If this tells independent voters anything, it’s that the criminal justice system is in desperate need of reform, with capital p

Public pensions across the country generally calculate future liability by assuming an 8% rate of return. "The problem with that is the 8 percent assumption is totally bogus," says Connecticut columnist George Gombossy, noting that that public pension returns there have averaged just 5.7% for the past ten years. Most other states have similar problems with overly rosy projections that do not track reality. When that happens, pension funds have funding shortfalls. Assuming 8% but getting 5.7% mea

Look out California! Legalizing medicinal marijuana is no longer just for "hippies" in states out West. The Connecticut House of Representatives voted 96-51 late Wednesday to legalize medical marijuana. Despite a strongly-worded letter from Connecticut's top federal prosecutor warning that passage of the bill would contradict federal law, legislators in the Constitution State are taking the Tenth Amendment route to reforming drug policy for their residents and openly defying federal law by maki

continued his march this week to the Republican nomination in Tampa. However, as has been noted repeatedly throughout the process, he is a very weak nominee. There also continues to be a substantial amount of questions surrounding the legitimacy of mainstream accounts of delegates. This week, Gov. Romney won all delegates in Connecticut , Delaware , New York  and 12 out of 16 in Rhode Island – Governor RomneyDr. Paul won 4 in Rhode Island and may have led a major “stealth” operation in Pennsylv

With five states holding primary elections today, the Republican race to the White House is not over just yet. While each candidate has had their 15 minutes of fame, Mitt Romney remains in the spotlight, partly due to his accumulation of delegates, and partly due to the media hype around his campaign. A recent report by the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism studies the role of the media on the remaining three candidates, and how it has shaped the future of the 2012 Republi

The Youth Barack Obama will spend next week focusing on the constituency that carried him to the White House back in 2008: the youth. With scheduled stops in North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa, Obama plans to visit college towns in these three swing states to discuss the issue of student loans. To coincide with his campaign stops, a press release from the White House reveals that the Obama Administration will launch a social media campaign centered around Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ to addre

In an article here at IVN yesterday, AJ Segneri asked: where is the next third party? It is a common question, especially among those who feel that a choice between a Democrat and a Republican is no choice at all. As AJ points out, however, whether you're moderate, liberal, conservative, libertarian or progressive, there is very likely a party where you could find yourself at home, and that party is likely running candidates for elected office. Given the ongoing exodus from the major parties an

Senator Santorum suspended his campaign today, leaving Governor Romney as the likely Republican Party nominee with Speaker Gingrich and Dr. Ron Paul trailing, but still in the race. This is a fortuitous development for Gov. Romney, as April and May were not likely to be kind. Politics, after all, abhors a vacuum. This situation is likely to result in an exponential growth in Dr. Paul delegates, which has been the focus of the Paul campaign all along. This prediction is based on where the primari

For the most part, Los Angeles motorists were relieved to see local authorities take down all 32 of the city's red light cameras after it was proven the traffic enforcement systems had no effect on public safety. But nearby, motorists who frequent any one of three Santa Monica Mountains parks are engrossed in a legal battle over the constitutionality of seven similar systems placed on stop signs at intersections overseen by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA). The cameras

The Senate seat vacated by current Maine Senator Olympia Snowe is shaping up to be quite a contest with not one, but two Independent candidates now joining the race. Steve Woods, TideSmart Global CEO and Chairman of the Yarmouth Town Council has announced his run for US Senate. In what's been a reoccurring theme among nonpartisan candidates, he says he is running as an Independent in order to inspire change in the face of a deeply divided political discourse. "With the announcement of Senator