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Longtime Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub is the force behind new rules aimed at making online political advertising more transparent. After Russian state agents used social media platforms to blast out misinformation from bot farms meant to foment domestic discord during the 2016 presidential election, it changed what we thought to expect from online communities. Twitter, Facebook, and Google seemed caught off guard as well and received a sound spanking by congressional committe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLBklg_fE18 Video Credit: CBS News US Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) announced his retirement from Congress Wednesday, making him yet another Republican lawmaker who will not seek re-election in the 2018 midterms. Gowdy is returning home to practice law, and is reportedly leaving because he isn't happy with the divisive political environment in Washington. “Whatever skills I may have are better utilized in a courtroom than in Congress, and I enjoy our justice system mo

"I think Kevin Towers is THE most significant figure in the health of Major League Baseball." ~ FMR. State Senator Steve Peace For those lucky enough to call Kevin Towers a friend and colleague, they all say he was much more than a notably successful MLB General Manager. Rare in professional sports, the 56-year-old Towers, whose life ended after a battle with Thyroid Cancer, was a man who rarely veered from his principles despite enormous political and business pressures brought by Major Leagu

Note: The author of this article is Emily Matthews. Emily has worked in a vast array of jobs in the political arena and strives to find common ground across party lines. As the one year anniversary of the 2016 presidential election passes into history, an election people will continue to analyze, critique, and study for generations to come, I, a responsible voter, reflect on what was one of the most exhausting yet meaningful years of my life. My journey certainly wasn’t an easy one, nor one I

On Monday, Donald Trump imposed a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panel technology, mostly targeted at Chinese solar panel manufacturers whose prices have become dramatically more competitive in recent years. This means whatever a foreign company's price is for solar panel parts, the U.S. will make American businesses and households pay 30% more – and it will go right to the U.S. Treasury. The problem with this for conservatives is sevenfold: 1) It's a tax increase. Which is not fiscally

In 2016, Donald Trump ignited the imaginations of a vocal and politically-potent-in-Republican-primaries minority of American voters with a promise to build a big beautiful Wall across our border with Mexico. Publicly and privately, current and former border state officials — like me — scoffed at the idea and dismissed it as a simplistic political ploy. And that part about making Mexico pay for it? Well…that was met with a great deal of amused head-scratching. Why the scoffing, dismissing, and

Vermont is the first state to legalize adults’ possession and limited cultivation of marijuana legislatively Marijuana will be legal in nine states and the nation’s capital when Vermont law takes effect MONTPELIER, Vt. — On Monday, Gov. Phil Scott officially signed a bill into law that makes marijuana legal for adults in Vermont. H. 511 eliminates Vermont’s civil penalty for possessing one ounce or less of marijuana and removes penalties for possession of up to two mature marijuana plants and

UPDATE, January 16, 2018: The Local Options Bill now has a number—HB 2746—and 15 co-sponsors in the Washington legislature. The path to fixing giant problems like gerrymandering, money-soaked elections, and parties’ and officials’ accountability to voters leads through electoral reform, I’ve been arguing (here, here, here, here, here). The path to electoral reform in Washington, DC, leads through the states—the laboratories of democracy. And the clearest path to reform in the states likely lead

Update: It's being reported that Congressman Issa could fill the void left by Congressman Duncan Hunter Jr. in the 50th Congressional District, should a grand jury file criminal charges against Hunter. Issa serves the 49th district, which neighbors the 50th. A Congressman can switch districts as long as they live in the state where that district resides. "I worked hard and never lost sight of the people our government is supposed to serve. Yet with the support of my family, I have decided that

The newspaper headline caught my eye. For 15 years, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA) illegally hired physicians and surgeons with revoked licenses and malpractice convictions. As an organizational psychologist and former political candidate, I often described the need to transform the VA and how veteran suicide reflects national questions about war and peace-building. With Steve Sanson, president of Veterans in Politics, International, I co-wrote an article about vets in prison