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The 2016 presidential election may be three years away, but Iowa is already abuzz with potential Republican candidates. As soon as the dust settled from Mitt Romney’s failed bid to unseat President Barack Obama, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin all began making regular pilgrimages to the Hawkeye state. Iowa, the first battleground state of the presidential primary, will hold their

Sierra Riddle received an unwanted visit from a human services agent last week after making the decision to use hash oils to treat her son’s aggressive form of leukemia instead of chemotherapy. Last year, after receiving the unfortunate diagnosis, Landon, Sierra’s three-year-old son, had begun to undergo the traditional treatment of radiation and chemotherapy per the doctor’s request, which he in turn experienced the heavy side effects that coincide with this toxic form of treatment. The little

Credit: Aspen Photo / Shutterstock.com Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 484 on October 2, ending California's K-12 standardized testing system and moving toward a new one. STAR testing will no longer be administered, it will be replaced by Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (MAPP) tests aligned with the Common Core curriculum. New tests are computerized and adaptive to student responses, rooted in the nationwide effort Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. According to the b

In 2011, Wisconsin state budget and accounting issues actually got so exciting they brought reminders of protests from the 1960s and 1970s.  The 2011 debate centered on how the state would approach paying retirement benefits for government workers.   Wisconsin’s ‘Budget Repair Bill’ included provisions to limit pay and benefits and to restrict collective bargaining. These provisions sparked widespread protest, including counter-protests in favor of the bill.  After the Wisconsin Supreme Court up

(Credit: Gage Skidmore) With over two years before any candidates begin announcing for the presidency, Kentucky US Senator Rand Paul is making the fundraising rounds and retrieving a sizable sum. To top off his numbers, on Monday the Senator also attended a barbecue fundraiser for Republican US Rep. Jeff Duncan in South Carolina, a key primary state. Paul is also scheduled to attend a fundraiser for Iowa Republican governor Terry Branstad next month, the first voting state. The release of Pau

National trust in the NSA could further deplete in the wake of a 2011 court ruling released Wednesday. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) chief justice Judge John D. Bates declared the methods undertaken by the agency unconstitutional and overreaching in authority. The NSA is purported to have gathered and stored thousands of communications belonging to American citizens, a stark difference to what the secret court had been led to believe in both scope and nature. Bates had not bee

Wisconsin state Senator Glenn Grothman When evidence surfaced last month in New Jersey that one of the most influential engineering firms in the state, Birdsall, had been making questionable campaign contributions through their employees by reimbursing employees for checks made under the public disclosure amount, the state moved to pass a campaign finance law that would decrease the disclosure amount. Most states require citizens to report a donation of $50 or $100, while six already require a

Earlier this week I wrote about the misinformation, and misleading by various law enforcement, media, and bloggers about the Zimmerman Verdict Protesters.  We saw it in LA, with false claims from the LAPD and NBC, claiming $15k in damage to the Hollywood W Hotel. We saw this in the right wing blogosphere false reporting of two white men killed by a group of black men over a "Free Zimmerman" bumper sticker THAT DID NOT EXIST; it was a drug deal gone bad, where two white men were  killed by anoth

The race for California's 17th congressional district seat would have been a slam-dunk only 2 election cycles ago. Following the implementation of Proposition 14, the nonpartisan top two primary system, and redistricting, it may not be the case. Incumbent Mike Honda (D-San Jose) is facing off against an up and coming Democrat, who may have been easily swept under the rug through a Democrat-only primary. Likewise, Representative Honda hasn't had a serious challenger in more than a decade and is c

Silicon Valley // Credit: sjchamber.com The race for California's 17th congressional district seat would have been a slam-dunk only 2 election cycles ago. Following the implementation of Proposition 14, the nonpartisan top two primary system, and redistricting, it may not be the case. Incumbent Mike Honda (D-San Jose) is facing off against an up and coming Democrat, who may have been easily swept under the rug through a Democrat-only primary. Likewise, Representative Honda hasn't had a serious