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Coordinated protests were held in cities around the world over the weekend as the Occupy Wall Street demonstration entered its second full month.   On Saturday, people gathered by the thousands and tens of thousands in cities from California to New York, to Europe and Asia in a day of coordinated protests and demonstrations held in solidarity with the ongoing Occupy Wall Street demonstration that began in downtown Manhattan just over a month ago. Thousands of protesters marched from the Occupy

The average age of farmers and ranchers in America is increasing, and rural populations are in decline. This is why the U.S. Department of Agriculture is acting to plant a new crop of much needed agricultural producers here in California and across the nation. Last week, Ag Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced this year's winners of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) 'Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program' (BFRDP). According to a NIFA news release, a tota

Gary Johnson, the two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, will be included in Thursday night's Fox News presidential debate in Orlando, Florida.  This is the first time he will share the stage with the entire field of contenders for the Republican nomination after being excluded from every debate since after the first one in South Carolina. Howard Kurtz reported Tuesday at The Daily Beast: "The former New Mexico governor won the right to participate, according  to Fox sources, by cracking

With abysmally low voter turnout in the closed primary elections held  earlier this month in Pennsylvania, pressure is mounting to open the  process to Independents. On  May 17th, Pennsylvania voters headed to the polls to cast their ballots  in primary elections for county and municipal offices, school boards  and judges.  Or rather, more precisely, voters didn’t head to the polls  to cast their ballots in the state’s primary elections.  As local Patch  columnist Tom De Martini wrote reflectin

Today, the Assembly Public Safety Committee will take up AB 144, legislation introduced by Anthony Portantino (D-Pasadena) to ban the open carry of a handgun in the state of California. The controversial legislation has reinvigorated the decades-long debate over the effects of gun legislation on public safety. Writing Monday at the California Progress Report, Dr. Dallas Stout, President of the California Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, argued that open carry laws actually make Californi

For eight years following the 9-11 terrorist attacks, the singular narrative and driving issue behind public policy in America was national defense and the Global War on Terrorism. In the final months of the Bush Administration, however, disillusioned from body counts and slow progress in two wars that were supposed to be short and decisive, the American people turned their attention to the fiscal disaster happening in Washington and many of America's state capitols. The advent of the Tea Party

In another sign that the Tea Party is mobilizing into an organized political machine with a broad vision and long-term goals, 2011 will see the debut of Tea Party Students. As the name suggests, the new organization will recruit and organize students from America's high schools and universities to advance the Tea Party's political program and philosophy of government. What is that philosophy? On its new website, Tea Party Students lists three "core values" of the Tea Party movement: constituti

Fueled by a growing demand for locally produced food year-round, the number of farmers' markets extending their operations into winter months is on the rise, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Northern states are leading the charge by pioneering techniques to extend growing seasons with indoor gardening methods. Nationwide, at least 900 farmers' markets run between November and March, a 17 percent increase from 2008. Traditional, weekly farmers' markets typically begin in the spr

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum made waves this week when he told Politico that there are no real Tea Party candidates in the 2012 mix. "There isn't a single candidate running for president who can claim to be a tea party candidate. That's by definition. The people involved in the movement weren't involved in politics, and were only activated by what they saw in Washington." But Santorum made an exception for himself, saying "I qualify. I was out, content to be out, but now I feel co

California's most famous U.S. Representative, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is taking heavy fire from all sides going into the November mid-term election. With an immminent takeover of the House by Republicans (some estimates put as many as 99 Democratic seats in danger of a Republican victory, with a likely swing of 40 - 50 seats), Speaker Pelosi is stuck between hurting her party's chances even more by publicly conceding the likely Republican victory, or appearing naïvely confident by insisting