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Americans continue to be more likely to identify as politically independent than with the Republican and Democratic parties. Gallup has continued to track this trend, with independents hovering over 40% of the voting population "Since 2011, the percentage of independents has exceeded the percentage identifying with the Democratic Party by 11 points on average, and the percentage identifying as Republicans by 14 points," writes Jeffrey M. Jones for Gallup. The problem though gets into polling o

In Gallup's first review since the midterm elections of public opinion regarding the most important problem facing America, government was the number one answer given by respondents, with 19% or 1 in 5 respondents saying some aspect of the federal government is the top problem facing the U.S. today: Unsurprisingly in the Trump era, immigration was a close second, but interestingly, uniting the country came in third, which may provide some insight into why Americans consider the government so pr

Shortly after the U.S. midterm elections last month, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of U.S. adults from November 7th - 13th to find out what voters would say about why they voted for one party's candidate over another. The interesting thing about this survey is that the question was completely open-ended. You might think this would lead to a wide variety of answers, but the Pew Research Center got mostly the same answers back from a substantial percentage of voters. The question Pe

San Diego, Calif.- The City of San Diego is cashing in with its first year of taxing and collecting fees for cannabis. Businesses are taxed at a rate of 5 percent of monthly gross receipts, which will increase to 8 percent on July 1, 2019. The rate is not to exceed 15 percent of gross receipts. According to a city spokesman, tax receipts for the 2018 calendar year total $4,745,332.81.  The spokesman noted, "The tax revenue goes directly into the General fund to be used for Mayoral and City Cou

It can be argued that Michael Zucchet, a former councilman, current Port commissioner and leader of the city’s Municipal Employees Association, is one of the most powerful voices in San Diego. In 2009 Zucchet began leading the San Diego Municipal Employees Association and last year was appointed to serve as a Port Commissioner. There were a number of issues Zucchet and I discussed on IVN San Diego's latest edition of Beyond The Headlines. Including the local labor scene and the job Keith Maddo

Reason Magazine is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The first issue of this well-known libertarian monthly publication was printed in 1968. It was the brainchild of a 20-year-old Boston University Student named Lanny Friedlander. As you may guess, the young man was a fan of Ayn Rand and objectivism. It was his way of commenting on things from a non-conventional left/right perspective. I sat down with Nick Gillespie, Editor-At-Large for Reason Magazine, to talk about how the audience and the j

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is leaning strongly toward running for president in 2020 as a third-party candidate -- the wisest course for him. But if he does, he should make systemic political reform part of his agenda. That’s because, out of sight of most of the media, there’s a growing movement around the country actively working to “unrig” a system that now works for the Republican and Democratic Parties, their donors and affiliated special interests, rather than the American people. The movement

SAN DIEGO, CALIF - One of the most prominent arguments against ranked choice voting, outside its complexity, is that voters end up getting multiple votes, so it must violate the constitutional precedent of "one person, one vote." The problem with this argument is a fundamental misunderstanding of ranked choice voting and how it works. Voters don't get multiple votes. They only get a single vote that counts toward the results. First, Some Background The legal precedent of "one person, one vot

“Bringing manufacturing back to America, creating high wage jobs, was one of our campaign promises and themes” Donald Trump proclaimed to a room full of reporters in early 2017, less than one month after being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Trump’s focus on manufacturing jobs dates back to some of the earliest days of his campaign, and served as the rationale for pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and renegotiating NAFTA. It also was the reason he lobbied Foxconn

HARRISBURG, PENN. - Dr. Jill Stein won a major legal victory in Pennsylvania as state officials agreed to a settlement in her post-2016 election lawsuit. Gov. Tom Wolf's administration guaranteed voting machines with verifiable paper trails, and agreed to an automatic, robust audit in 2022. "This is a critical victory for everyone concerned with the integrity of our elections. We congratulate the state of Pennsylvania for raising the bar not only for Pennsylvanians, but for voters everywhere,"