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Earlier this month, we reported on the uncertain fate of a ballot access reform bill in North Carolina. That bill has now passed, liberalizing ballot access laws in North Carolina, but also carrying with it controversial elements related to judicial elections. The bill began as a bipartisan effort to ease North Carolina's excessively harsh ballot access laws. However, it was amended to make other changes to election law, most notably the elimination of judicial primary elections in 2018. This d

Five government officials were fired and 13 criminal cases were filed against local and state officials in Flint, Michigan, resulting from the 2014 Flint water crisis that put 100,000 residents at risk. An investigation found that the drinking water source for the city was switched to the Flint river in 2014, and, compounding the problem, officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water. The investigation also found elected officials knowingly "dismissed and belittled attempts" to co

Crazy times in America these days.  The wrathful hurricanes pounding the South and the East Coast and the wildfires devouring the Northwest echo our storm-tossed politics. Everything is turned upside down, everything is fevered, everything is being washed away. And yet (and this is the craziest thing of all) nothing seems to change. Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan once observed, you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. True that. If you’re an independent, you can lick your fi

419-3. Three Republicans voted against a bill that, in part, provides $7.85 billion in emergency financial assistance to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, and Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs said no to the aid package. Minutes before the vote, Amash tweeted that funding for the disaster relief should be offset instead of being added to the deficit. https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/905465795416862720 Trump Sides with Democrats It’s alre

"Just to make sure you know what you just said, you're a Republican advocating for the Republican Party to fall apart." That's from the teaser intro to a half-hour interview by Reason Magazine's Matt Welch, of US Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.). Amash is a Republican congressman from Michigan with a very independent streak, a libertarian understanding of government, and a social media savvy approach to legislating and representing his voting constituents. Amash's answer? "Well, I think, over time

The focus of the Russia investigation this week is on Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort. However, another name has been thrown into the ever-expanding Russia narrative: Dr. Jill Stein, former Green Party presidential candidate. https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/888461093718429699 MSNBC Producer Kyle Griffin tweeted out a letter sent by the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 19 requesting all communications between Trump Jr. and a number of other people, including Russia of

Congress is debating whether to repeal the Affordable Care Act or improve it, but there is a third option that has gained serious momentum. Americans are more supportive now of a single-payer type health care system than ever before. According to a recent Pew poll, 60% of Americans believe it is the government’s responsibility to provide health coverage to all Americans. Similarly, 60% of Americans now support expanding Medicare to cover all Americans, according to a June Quinnipiac poll. That

After each presidential election in which the popular vote winner and the Electoral College winner differ, the country revisits the question, “Why do we still have the Electoral College?” Opponents of the Electoral College argue that basing the winner on the college leads candidates to focus only on swing states, which leaves out most of the country. For example, 94% of the 2016 presidential campaign events (375 of the 399) took place in only twelve states. Two-thirds (273 of 399) of the gener

The internet is often referred to as the “wild west” because everything can be found, everyone can be connected, and there are very few rules. We can open our minds up to anything we want, good, bad, and otherwise. The internet could be a great tool to unite us, right? Sadly, that has not been the case. Facebook is unintentionally helping to keep us divided by only showing us posts from groups and advertisements it thinks we might agree with. This is called filter bubbling, and it has stifled h

Former DNC Data Director Andrew Therriault is upset at Hillary Clinton. He believes the former Democratic presidential candidate went too far when she said the party's data was "mediocre to poor, nonexistent, wrong," calling the DNC out for being partly responsible for her loss. https://twitter.com/JimmyPrinceton/status/870135874947866624 Hillary Clinton made her comments onstage at Recode's Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She started her remarks by saying she was "very pro