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Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Author: Christopher Seliga There has been a lot of talk about cities in California defaulting and going into bankruptcy, but this problem is happening all over the country. One city in Pennsylvania is heading toward a similar financial cliff. Things in Scranton have gotten so bad that the mayor has broken contracts with city employees and declared their new pay scale will be minimum wage. How did Scranton get here? What lessons can we learn from this failure in budget

Credit: texastribune.org The United States has some of the lowest voter turnout and voter participation rates of any industrialized country in the world. Low voter turnout is typically ascribed to voter ignorance and apathy or to the lack of choice in our two-party dominated political system. Another factor is what we might call the “busy work” burden imposed on voters by government regulations. In order to vote, individuals must register to vote with their state's board of elections according

The Green Party of the United States held its Presidential Nominating Convention in Baltimore, Maryland last weekend. The first two days of the conventions had workshops ranging from "Youth Outreach" to "Building Community". Along with the workshops, the Green National Committee held a meeting to hear standing committee reports. The Green Party had international guests from Canada, Germany, and New Zealand, in order to strengthen the international relationship. Saturday was nomination day. Thro

unPAC the 2012 Olympics fights to restore American unity by asking NBC not to run special interest political ads, including those from super PACs, during the 2012 Olympic Broadcast. http://www.unpac.org/olympics/ Libertarian Gary Johnson made national headlines yesterday after supporters took to Twitter to protest CNN for excluding him from polling practices. Because of his exclusion, they argue, Johnson has been shut out of the Republican presidential debates, greatly reducing his visibility.

Credit: Purple Strategies Purple Poll July 2012 In a new Purple Poll released today, voters in 12 swing states diverge dramatically on their views of the country's economic trajectory. This overwhelmingly affects who they plan on casting their ballot for in November. "Among those who believe the economy is getting better, 93% support Obama, 4% favor Romney. And among those who say it is getting worse, Romney leads Obama 84% to 7%," says the Purple Strategies findings. This economic question i

Gearing up for the 2012 election, the Columbia Journalism Review has launched a project monitoring key swing states, covering the presidential candidates and media coverage of the election. Focusing on campaign finance, political spending, and misinformation, CJR has identified their target swing states as Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Iowa. Their recent coverage includes tracking campaign cash in the commonwealth, answering question

As the 2012 election nears, a new wave of restrictive voting laws takes center stage, drawing into question the power of these laws in suppressing voter turnout among minority groups. This year alone, 24 laws and 2 executive actions have been passed making it harder to vote, 47 bills are pending, and 180 bills have been introduced in 41 states. These laws would require voters to show government-issued photo identification or proof of citizenship, restrict voter registration drives, reduce early

The Keystone state was clearly nicknamed for its importance in the creation of our fine country, and swing state Pennsylvania will continue to play an imperative role in the upcoming election. According to the latest polls, President Obama has a near 10 percent lead over Mitt Romney in the state which played an integral role in revolutionary America. An average of all polls put President Obama at 47.5% and Gov. Romney at 39.5%. In 2008, the President won Pennsylvania by ten percent, leading to

Lawmakers in California are racing against the clock to finalize legislative matters before taking off for a month of summer recess starting this Friday. Here are some highlights: Pension reform deal falls apart: Earlier in the year, Governor Jerry Brown put out a 12-point pension reform proposal and urged the Legislature to act on solving California’s looming pension crisis. Brown’s proposal would’ve put a stop to some of the more questionable public employee pension practices (such as pensio

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never – in  nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in, except  to convictions of honour and good sense.-Winston Churchill To the students at Harrow, 1941 I had breakfast recently with Padres president Tom Garfinkel and former state finance director Steve Peace. Normally the talk is baseball talk, not the state of the universe. But this time baseball was a footnote and the state of our country and world were the objects of our atte