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President Obama flew out to Colorado at the end of last week “to get a firsthand view of the fires and their toll on residential communities”. The potential political motivations of such a visit are not lost in this election year. Colorado has recently been grappling with the state’s most destructive wildfire in its history. President Obama declared the wildfires a “major disaster” and promised Colorado federal aid to help with the high costs of damages. Colorado, one of nine main swing states

Today's News Tip Sheet. The Independent Breakdown of Today's News. Colbert Gives Fox and CNN a Thorough Shellacking for Yesterday’s Coverage POLITICO – Dems Could Still Blow it on Health CareAlthough the law was upheld yesterday in the Supreme Court, it is not out of the woods yet. There are several ways the Democrats could drop the ball and gut the ACA. Slate – CO Declared a Disaster AreaThe president visited Colorado Springs this morning to survey the damage of a wildfire that has destroyed

Today's News Tips. Your Independent News Tip Sheet. IVN – Prison Population Grows by 700%, How Much Does it Cost? With a startling increase in the national prison population it should be no surprise that the Bureau of Prisons is one of only a few agencies not to have its budget cut. The FY 2013 budget will likely be over $6.8B to house close to 2 million inmates. TIME – Waldo Canyon Fire Rages on in Colorado In Colorado Springs a wildfire that has been burning for 4 days has forced over 32,0

In what is certainly a novel approach, the Department of Justice has sued two polygamist towns for religious discrimination against non-members and expelled members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). This includes "denying non-FLDS individuals housing, police protection, and access to public space and services".  The joint lawsuit is against neighboring Hildale, Arizona and Colorado City, Arizona, which are controlled entirely by FLDS members. The current

Last week, IVN commented on a lawsuit brought by alleged delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Republican National Committee, while stating that suit was frivolous at the same time organized all the named defendants into a united defense against this litigation. There is no indication yet that the complaint in the action was served on any defendant or that the RNC has voluntarily appeared and moved to take any pretrial actions. What is clear: Ron Paul's delegate count continues to

As a result of failed deficit reduction negotiations, more than $500 billion is set to be cut automatically from the defense budget beginning January 2013. Combined, the Pentagon's budget is on a path to $1 trillion in reductions over the next ten years. National attention on diverting from the automatic sequester arrives just in time for November's election, as budgets, livelihoods and political careers remain in limbo. The Bipartisan Policy Center reports, "the full defense and non-defense se

Credit: websterstyle.wordpress.com State primaries are in a sad state. Many voters don’t understand the importance of primaries. Voter turnout is generally far lower than in general elections. Primaries defeat the principle of representative democracy. Primaries give incumbents a big advantage over challengers. Next Tuesday, New York, Colorado, Oklahoma and Utah have primaries. And, the beat goes on. One reason for poor turnout is that voters are often ignorant of the importance of primaries.

In terms of bizarre twists, last week, a lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California – entitled Delegates To The Republican National Convention vs. Republican National Committee [SACV 12- 00927 DOC (JPRx)]. The Paul campaign is keeping its distance for good reason – it is a very flawed suit. The United States District Court Judge in this action is David O. Carter, a no-nonsense judge and a former prosecutor. While the Republican delegate selection pr

In light of former Senator Rick Santorum's recent comments on ABC's This Week, it is clear GOP social conservatives are becoming increasingly worried about the presence, and power, of Dr. Ron Paul at the Republican National Convention. In the case of a divided Republican Party, if Governor Mitt Romney is going to have to choose between Dr. Paul and Sen. Santorum in Tampa, he has to go with Dr. Paul. In an earlier posting by IVN, we pointed out that at some point Gov. Romney was going to have to

This week, upon suspecting a robber to be in an area by an intersection, the Aurora police barricaded the area and stopped every single car to search it. While they were searching it, they held these adults who were driving their vehicle unsuspectingly through the intersection in handcuffs (maybe even at gunpoint-- I am trying to verify this). Let me repeat myself-- the police did not know who exactly they were looking for, so they detained everyone and held them in handcuffs while searching the