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Arizona has the opportunity to place an open primary initiative on their November ballot. The Arizona Open Elections/Open Government Initiative has been collecting signatures as it attempts to uproot the election system in its home state. Prior to the July 5 deadline, the group must collect 259,213 signatures to get the system on the statewide ballot. The system Open Elections/Open Government Initiative is promoting is similar to the open primary system Californians passed in 2010 and Washington

A new poll shows that independent voters in five swing-states, three of which are among the hardest hit by foreclosures and unemployment, disapprove of President Obama's leadership throughout the housing crisis. A Public Policy Polling survey recently conducted on behalf of Campaign for Fair Settlement found that a majority of independents in Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina and a near majority in Pennsylvania and Florida disapprove of the way Obama handled the housing and mortgage crisis. Th

The blogosphere is in a flurry today on the heels of the Ron Paul campaign announcement. Concerning its future in states yet to hold Republican primary elections, it looks like Dr. Paul will not be pouring money into these contests as he has continued to do. Is he done, completely? Or will he continue amassing what have been called "stealth delegates"? Even without an "official" campaign effort in states like Texas and California, can Dr. Paul continue to siphon a sizable chunk of Republican sup

How do power companies transition from dirty energy to renewable energy while keeping the lights as they do it? The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is finding out, as they work towards a clean, renewable energy future. What they are doing makes an instructive case study for other utilities, many of whom are mandated to do the same. The State of California says utilities must provide 33% renewable energy by 2020. This means that LADWP eventually needs to stop using coal. But, y

One of the enduring oddities of the American political landscape remains the electoral college, the antiquated system that makes selective states disproportionately important to the election process of our Commander-in-Chief. Do you live in one of the 12 swing states seen as integral to victory in this year's presidential election cycle? If so, expect a flood of political ads, battling voter registration drives, and campaign visits in the coming months. A new USA Today/Gallup poll out this week

PRESS RELEASE SACRAMENTO, CA – State Senator Tony Strickland (R-Moorpark) said Thursday now that there’s a documented case where a contaminated reusable bag has made people sick, it’s time to start raising public awareness about the potential health hazards. Strickland is the author of SB 1106, a measure that would have required the State of California to conduct a public awareness campaign and further tests of reusable bags.  The measure was defeated two weeks ago by the Senate Environmental Q

Attempts to tackle comprehensive immigration reform at the state level has wounded agriculture and exposed an unavoidable issue for farm-state lawmakers seeking election in 2012. Because U.S. citizens, by and large, will not work in farm fields and because partisan gridlock over amnesty has kept comprehensive immigration reform off Congress' to-do list, agricultural stakeholders are pleading with lawmakers to reform the country's immigration policy to accommodate an ag-centric guest worker progr

According to a new study from the Pew Research Center, Mexican immigration has slowed dramatically over the last decade, and net migration may have even gone negative. That’s right, Mitt Romney’s dream has come true and more Mexicans may be leaving America (both voluntarily and involuntarily) than entering. Whether this is happening because of stricter identification laws and immigration enforcement, as Romney would prefer, is still in question: the Pew Center cannot identify for sure why the l

There’s a virtual trade imbalance affecting California’s vaunted state university system that’s the result of both higher costs for public education in the Golden State and a diminution of quality in its college programs. Students are leaving California for out-of-state universities in droves, reported the Sacramento Bee on Sunday. And while the UC and CSU systems are working hard to attract out-of-state students (who pay higher tuitions), a greater number of in-state students are leaving for c

Arizona has declared its independence from two-party politics as a full third of the state's electorate is now “unaffiliated” with either Republican or Democratic parties. Independents now outnumber Democrats and are closing in on Republicans in the Grand Canyon state. While both major parties in Arizona have lost membership over the past 4 years, the Independent bloc grew by roughly a quarter million voters. Since President Obama's election, the number of Arizonans who've registered Independen