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For the past six years, a faction within the Democratic Party of Hawaii has been angling to close the primaries to independent voters. Senator Daniel Inouye strongly argued against such a move, and his opposition kept the close-the-primaries faction at bay.  But last month, six months after Inouye’s death, party activists filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force the State of Hawaii to change the state’s constitution which currently reads:  “No person shall be required to declare a party preferen

After years of discussion, the Democratic Party of Hawaii (DPH) filed a federal lawsuit in June seeking to invalidate the state's open primary laws, claiming they violate the party's First Amendment right to free association. The lawsuit alleges that allowing every registered voter, regardless of political affiliation, to participate in primaries unconstitutionally compels the party to associate with people who influence the outcome of nominations, even though they “may not be members of the pa

Credit: Wikimedia Commons The United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act (Windsor v. United States) and California's Proposition 8 (Hollingsworth v. Perry) in the next few days. There is a good possibility the decision on these two cases will be reserved for last. The Washington Post offers an easy to follow graphic on the potential rulings and what the implications would be for each decision. It also provides status for marriage rights in each state. Check

An IVN article revealed the top five states with the highest number of registered independent voters. Surprisingly, a majority of these states still have primary elections that disenfranchise this growing segment of the population. Massachusetts, Alaska, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Connecticut lead the nation with the highest percentages of independent or no party preference voters, hovering between 43 and 52 percent. However, despite the fact that in each of these states independents are mor

According to recent research mapping sentiment on Twitter, Napa - located in the heart of California's Wine Country region - is home to the happiest tweeters in the nation. California as a whole, however, did not even rank in the top five in a measure of happiness on Twitter. Figure 1. Average word happiness for geotagged tweets in all US states collected during calendar year 2011, from PLoS ONE In Figure 1, the redder the state, the happier the tweets. Using geotagged tweets, researchers at t

I'd like to be discussing global warming. Scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in Hawaii recently reported that global levels of atmosperic CO2 are at the highest levels in 2-4 million years (but who's counting?) I'd enjoy talking about the Republicans in Congress who ignore the empirical evidence and the research of thousands of climatologists who all agree on global warming, while they take their walking orders and bullet points from the Koch brothers and the oil lobby. Someone

California District 19 Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson / PHOTO: Sen. Jackson's Facebook A proposed California initiative would lower the voter preregistration age to 15. Under the bill put forward by Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-CA), 15-year-olds could preregister when they get their learner's permit at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Pre-registrants would remain ineligible to vote until they turn 18. "I see this as an opportunity to encourage teens to make sure they register to vote," Jac

Credit: www.inouye.senate.gov Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye (D) passed away on Monday from respiratory complications, according to his office. He was the most senior member of the US Senate and the chamber’s president pro tempore. Out of the fifty-three years Hawaii has been a part of the United States, Daniel Inouye ((in-NOH’-way) has served its constituents in the Senate for fifty of them. He has answered the call to service his entire adult life. He enlisted in the military after Pearl Harbo

Photo credit: Jonathan Tarr Foundation Back in 1998, Jonathan Tarr was only seventeen years old when he died in a car accident.  In direct response, the Jonathan Tarr Memorial Scholarship Fund was established in Jonathan's memory, and is helping under-served students throughout the community in San Diego.  The fund was set up originally for a four year period, but with the generous donations it enabled the foundation to continue. In 2001, The Jonathan Tarr Foundation was established as a fully

Photo: The Office of Senator Akaka The Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012 passed the Senate with unanimous consent on November 30th. The Hatch Act, passed in 1939, bars civil servants from running for partisan elective office and from engaging in biased, partisan-promoting activities. The Hatch Act reform abridges the original legislation. If signed into law, the update would allow federal employees to run for partisan elective office, create other applicable punishments aside from automatic r