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A bipartisan team of California lawmakers is pushing a bill through California's legislature that would prevent any state-related entity from  disclosing information on citizens to federal agents without a warrant. State Senators Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Joel Anderson (R-San Diego) introduced Senate Bill 828, also called the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, on Monday. Specifically, the bill would prohibit "an employee of the state... a corporation... or a political subdivision of the state fr

Numerous polls have revealed that there is widespread ignorance when it comes to politics. In 2012, a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center found that less than half of those surveyed knew where the upcoming primary would be held, and only 53 percent knew that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney served as the governor of Massachusetts. This past summer, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey revealed that 44 percent of the participants did not realize "Obamacare" was still law, and about

Could the Republican Party be spent as a national electoral force? It will be if it doesn’t learn from its mistakes and return to a more central position in American life which includes talking to independent voters, according to seasoned election strategist Ford O’Connell’s new book, Hail Mary: The 10-Step Playbook for Republican Recovery. O’Connell doesn’t pull any punches in his analyses, which suggests that the GOP will have no chance of taking the White House in the foreseeable future if i

The GOP is trying to redesign its nomination process aiming to rein in the recent rash of extreme nominees who keep losing winnable races. These fringe nominees have secondary effects as well. Many blame the duration of the government shutdown on moderate Republicans fearing tea party primary challengers. So how can the GOP regain its balance and find its center? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db6Syys2fmE Go basic. Look to the voting method itself. Our choose-one method, plurality voting, lim

Last week, both Illinois and Hawaii passed same-sex marriage making them the 15th and 16th states to do so. Overall, 2013 has been quite a year for the LGBT community. These last two states just seem to put the icing on the proverbial cake. It all comes on the heals of the 2012 election where voters in three states (Maine, Maryland, and Washington) approved same-sex marriage and rejected a ban on it in the state of Minnesota. So, what has transpired during the year? Rhode Island, Delaware, Mi

It's no secret that the nation's veterans are facing some serious challenges. A new film, premiering on Veterans Day, takes a look at issues facing the country's returning service members, as well as how veteran organizations and private charities are struggling to bridge the gap between what the VA provides and what veterans really need. Souldier, The Documentary is a raw, unvarnished look at the troubling issues facing today’s veterans. Among them, PTSD, homelessness, and the self medication

Marijuana legalization activists gained considerable momentum this week. On Tuesday, the city of Portland, Maine, passed Question 1: 67 percent to 33 percent. The measure legalized possession of up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana by adults over 21 years of age. Likewise, Colorado passed Proposition AA Tuesday, which added a 15 percent wholesale tax and 10 percent sales tax on marijuana transactions. These two ballot measures follow a national poll by Gallup that found support for outright legalizat

Concerns about rising tuition and how students can afford to finance their major investments in post-secondary education are widespread. Solid insights into these questions require accurate and up-to-date information about prices. reports on the prices charged by colleges and universities in 2013-14, how prices have changed over time, and how they vary within and across types of institutions, states, and regions. We also provide information on the net prices that students and families actually p

The American electoral system is highly dysfunctional. One of its most basic problems is that districts and states often have lopsided partisan preferences, meaning that general elections between the nominees of the two major parties are overwhelmingly formalities. Consequently, representatives may be effectively chosen in low-turnout partisan primaries that are paid for by all taxpayers, but are often limited to only a portion of the electorate. A number of reforms have been proposed to address

Zack Frank / shutterstock.com New Hampshire proves to be one of the more innovative states in its electoral process. In its House of Representatives, districts are allotted a number of representatives to serve based on their population. Some districts have only one representative, but others have as many as eleven. They are elected through a process of multi-member district voting, where the citizenry casts as many votes as there are seats to be filled instead of voting for each seat separatel