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Santa Barbara, CA. - The City of Santa Barbara has passed an ordinance that allows restaurant employees to be punished with up to six months of jail time or a $1,000 fine for giving plastic straws to their customers. Santa Barbara’s ordinance is certainly the most severe straw ban in the country. Although Seattle banned plastic straws earlier this month, mandating a $250 fine for violators, Santa Barbara has taken it further than Seattle. The city has banned not only plastic straws, but also co

It started with a speech on Sunday, in which Iranian president Hassan Rouhani sent a warning to the United States about pursuing a foreign policy hostile toward his government in Tehran, but to Donald Trump, Iranian president Rouhani was the one in need of a warning, and of course America's 21st century television game show host president had to make his implicit threat far more dramatic. While addressing a gathering of Iranian diplomats Sunday, Rouhani issued this warning for the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwyVJ_-q0mE&feature=youtu.be Video Source: Rebel HQ When it comes to electoral reform right now, there is no hotter topic -- arguably -- than ranked choice voting (RCV). I have covered its use and its growth in popularity extensively on IVN, and momentum for the reform continues to grow. The biggest news came in June when Maine became the first state in the US to use RCV for state and non-presidential federal elections. The numbers indicate that independent vot

Nearing the two year mark since the shocking 2016 presidential election result devastated both the Democratic and Republican Party power structures, liberal mainstream media journalists are still stuck in the denial stage of the Kübler-Ross model of grief. They were so certain Hillary Clinton would win, the election result they expected was so cemented into their minds as an immutable reality before the election had even taken place, that they could not let go of the perfect world they had crea

I miss Anthony Kennedy already. Other people have written eloquently about Kennedy’s contributions to the Supreme Court. After the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor (whom I miss, too), Kennedy became the swing vote in case after case. When a seminal case was argued before the high court, Kennedy was the justice who had to be persuaded. When a 5-4 decision came down, Kennedy was usually that crucial fifth vote. Sometimes he voted with the more liberal wing of the court; sometimes he voted with t

Democracy advocates recently celebrated a victory in Maine, where voters used ranked-choice voting in their statewide primaries — the first state ever to do so. In that election, voters also approved a referendum to keep the ranked-choice system for future elections. They will use it this November in the elections for U.S. Senate and U.S. House.ALSO READ: Independents Made the Difference in Maine’s Ranked Choice VotingAdvocates say this method of voting opens up the system to third parties and i

RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIF. – While small town parades, backyard barbecues and fireworks displays may be what many people associate with the 4th of July, Independence Day deserves far greater respect. Fifty-six men signed a single piece of parchment on this day in 1776 that contained 1,338 words that changed the history of the world for the better. That hallowed document claimed independence not only for a Nation but for a People. Unfortunately, 242 years later, we are in danger of surrendering to

Being born in America is like winning the lottery of life. Being able-bodied and able-minded on top of that, in good health and of average or better intelligence, is just a big 'ole cherry right on top of the biggest, best bowl of pure ice cream there ever was. Where to even begin? 1. I'm lucky to be an American because when we change governments it isn't violent. The peaceful transfer of power from one government to the next, the quadrennial bloodless revolutions has kept the most powerful c

Americans deserve a fair voting system If you’re like many Americans, you’ve never heard of vote splitting, yet it exerts an underlying force on American elections that has the potential to change the outcome of an entire race. Think back to the 2016 Republican Primaries. Towards the end, many moderate Republican strategists were urging struggling candidates such as Governor Kasich to drop out. They argued that Kasich was “splitting” off votes from Senator Rubio, the result being that neither

Family separations at our southwest border reveal the pain when children are forcibly seized by state or federal government agencies. We see the fear and anger, and expect frustration, loss of trust, helplessness and likely lifelong trauma for children, parents and other relatives. In American’s foster care system, an invisible epidemic of taken children delivers the same pain and fear. In 2016, about 687,000 children were forcibly taken from their families and placed with strangers or in group