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The Senate Appropriations Committee took a 16-14 vote Thursday to approve a measure that would make it easier for marijuana businesses to obtain basic banking services with financial institutions. The amendment, proposed for the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act of 2015, was authored by U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The amendment would prevent federal funds from being used to prohibit or penalize financial institutions that provide services to marijuan

While a majority of Americans - 52 percent - now favor weed legalization, the federal government has done very little to act on the changing views of the nation. Many states, however, have taken matters into their own hands, passing legislation to better represent the changing attitudes of their residents. Today, 4 states - Oregon, Colorado, Washington, and Alaska - plus our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, 24 states have legalized medical ma

When it comes time to vote in the 2016 congressional primary elections, will you be allowed to vote in the primary of your choice? We’ve updated our analysis on every state’s rules for its primary elections: open primaries, closed primaries, “semi-closed” primaries, and the handful of states that do something else entirely. Click here to see the updated page. The use of publicly funded primary elections to nominate candidates who then appear on the general election ballot is common in the U.S.

There's a Fourth of July celebration that hasn't happened during my lifetime. In fact, it was 55 years ago the last time it was celebrated -- the addition of the 49th and 50th stars to the American flag. By law, the new flag is designed by executive order, and then first hoisted on the July 4 immediately following the date of statehood. Puerto Rico statehood has long been a topic of contention. With the new debt crisis they are facing, it's time to accept a reality: statehood or total independ

As discussed in the first part of this story, Hillary Clinton has spent the last few years repairing her image for the 2016 presidential election. An important aspect of this image-repair involves combatting the perception that she is a member of the corporation-backed, establishment wing of the Democratic Party. Read More: This is What Inevitability Looks Like: How Hillary Clinton Won the Invisible Primary (Part 1) While Mrs. Clinton has not severed her ties to big business (she has received

A Quinnipiac University poll taken in March released Monday. It found that more than 80 percent of adults in key swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida supported legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Likewise, a majority in all three states also supported legalizing small amounts for recreational use. When compared to the likely 2016 presidential candidates, a peculiar picture emerges. The Washington Post turned the data into the following graphs: Marijuana was once

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) introduced a bill Tuesday that would end the federal prohibition on medical marijuana. The bipartisan "Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States Act" will be the first bill to be considered by the Senate that would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes. “This is a significant step forward when it comes to reforming marijuana laws at the federal level," said Dan Riffle,

On March 4, 2015, the General Social Study published its latest report examining the public's opinion on marijuana legalization. The study documents both the shift in popular consensus on marijuana over the past 40 years as well as the monumental growth that has occurred in the last decade. This is the first time that a comprehensive study has found over 50 percent of respondents in favor of marijuana legalization. According to the study, 52 percent of respondents favor legalizing marijuana. Th

New measures aimed at improving the safety and legitimacy of medical marijuana might be hitting California in the future as state lawmakers consider a bill that would provide a regulatory structure for the state’s medical marijuana industry. “We want to ensure that patients who need medical marijuana treatment not only have access, but are receiving quality medical marijuana that is safe for consumption,” said State Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), the author of AB 34, in an interview for

On Monday, the Senate failed to reach cloture on the Keystone XL measure, signaling a long, bitter fight to come. With a 53-39 vote, cloture failed by 7 votes. The bitter fight was cut short on Thursday, however, when nine Democrats joined with every Republican to approve construction of the $8 billion project in a 62-36 vote. It is widely expected that once the measure is vetoed by President Obama, Senate Republicans would still need 4 votes to override the veto. Energy Committee Chair Lisa M