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Controversy over Indiana's " Religious Freedom Restoration Act" is being heralded as a bellwether for national opinion by some LGBT advocates. The bill gave businesses the right to deny service to someone if providing that service conflicted with the owner's religious beliefs. After national backlash, Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed a revision to the law specifying that private business owners cannot use it to justify discrimination based on sexual orientation. "I think everyone on both si

Last week, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced his candidacy for President of the United States to over 10,000 students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. His announcement makes him the first of a plethora of possible GOP candidates to do so. WATCH: Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks to Liberty University Several concerns have arisen regarding the venue by which Cruz decided to make his announcement, and now Americans United for Separation of Church and State has sent a complai

I was impressed to find such a far-reaching conglomerate of individuals at the National Conference of Independents in New York City, which took place during the weekend of March 13-15. Illinois, California, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Virginia, Oregon, Mississippi, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Arizona, and the list could go on and on. We all know that New York City is not cheap, let alone travelling from the other side of the country, but we were primed and ready for a fine weekend of events.

There is an old axiom that history repeats itself. Some may dispute this claim, but it is hard to argue with what a person can witness happening right in front of them. One just has to pay attention and know history to know what the outcome of certain things will be. After the Reconstruction period ended following the Civil War, southern states (the old Confederacy) began enacting Jim Crow laws. These laws mandated that all public facilities be segregated. They were also used in an attempt to k

On Monday, March 23, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) became the first candidate from either major party to announce his candidacy for president in the 2016 election. His announcement, in which he promised to stand for liberty and asked his audience at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia to imagine a president who acted on a purely conservative agenda, has become the subject of much controversy. As soon as news broke Sunday that Ted Cruz was going to be the first high-profile candidate to

In Athens of antiquity, the inventors of democracy set up a law that required every person to vote. Anyone found not voting would be publicly marked and labeled an idiot; someone who thought their own personal needs trumped those of the society around them, wrote Isaac DeVille. I begin here by asserting that the one certain measure of any democratic society is the measurement of those who vote and those who don't. That said, looking at the general elections in San Diego and California last yea

There is an ongoing lawsuit attempting to close Montana’s open primary system. This lawsuit is being joined by the Montana Republican Party. State Republicans support closing their primaries because they argue Democrats and other nonmembers have been influencing their elections for years. "One example given during the state GOP’s meeting to make the case for joining the lawsuit was a vote in the state House of Representatives ... in which some Republicans supported an amendment to House procedu

On Friday, February 6, the Cook Political Report published an article on the impact the nonpartisan, top-two primary and independent redistricting have had on voter turnout. The author, Amy Walter, points out that with both reforms in place, voter turnout has not increased, and has in fact been on the decline. An article by Mark Barabak of the LA Times draws the same conclusion. These articles, however, assess California's primary without reference to the much bleaker situation occurring nation

Earlier this month, the White House released a statement outlining "the America’s College Promise proposal to make two years of community college free for responsible students,". The free community college proposal, which would see "students earn the first half of a bachelor’s degree," brings up an important question: will college students who would normally go straight into 4-year colleges start attending community college for their first two years if President Obama's plan is put into action

Vote Hemp, a major grassroots hemp advocacy group, on Thursday announced the introduction of complementary bills in the U.S. House and Senate, S. 134 and H.R. 525, titled the " Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015," with support on both sides of the political aisle. The Act would remove federal restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis. “With bi-partisan support in the Senate and House, we are eager to see 2015 be the year Congress