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Will the government shut down again in 2018? IVN readers took our Facebook poll on this exact question and most said yes, they believe it will. Congress allowed the government to shutdown for a couple of days last week as Senate Democrats and many Republicans argued over the future of immigration reform and the fate of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and the nearly 800,000 DACA recipients. Did the shutdown accomplish anything? ALSO READ: Can We Shut Down the Two-Party System

The Gerrymandering Project at 538 has begun an interesting conversation by producing eight sets of national congressional maps, each with a distinct goal.They demonstrate what maps would look like with a GOP or a Democratic lean, and then also zero in on other objectives often sought by mapmakers, such as compactness, competitiveness, maximizing majority-minority seats, or matching the likely statewide outcome to the state’s partisan breakdown.One of the great contributions of this giant effort

Read about what really matters from the news last week. We provide you the least-biased news about current events so you can go about your day informed, not brainwashed. What to avoid: * The texts were found! Avoid the mayhem created by the texts between an FBI agent and his lover. The texts contained some damning information for the agent, which ended up getting him removed from Special Counsel Mueller’s team, but as of now that’s the most that’s come from them. Until something else surfaces

Virginia Independent Voters Association Director Steve Richardson wrote an op-ed in The Virginian-Pilot Thursday in support of a new bill that would reform state primaries to a nonpartisan, top-two open primary similar to California and Washington state. "THANKS TO Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, the Virginia General Assembly has an opportunity to return our commonwealth to its historical role as a leader of democracy. He has introduced a bill, HB1129, that would establish a truly open primary. In

Note: The author of this article is Emily Matthews. Emily has worked in a vast array of jobs in the political arena and strives to find common ground across party lines. As the one year anniversary of the 2016 presidential election passes into history, an election people will continue to analyze, critique, and study for generations to come, I, a responsible voter, reflect on what was one of the most exhausting yet meaningful years of my life. My journey certainly wasn’t an easy one, nor one I

We are seeing new energy in our campaign to elect independent candidates nationwide. The Associated Press on Thursday featured the Centrist Project's efforts to recruit and support independent candidates in 2018: "Washington infighting breeds new independent candidates." * "Following this week’s government shutdown and the 2016 election, in which both parties nominated historically unpopular candidates, there’s new energy in the movement to reclaim the political center." * "In a Denver co-wo

Do you think the government should have a hand in dictating morality by applying the punishment of death to someone who commits a crime? If your answer is no, you might like what is happening in Washington state. In Washington state, lawmakers across both sides of the aisle are optimistic that 2018 will be the year that the death penalty is put to rest in the Evergreen State. In 2014, Washington Governor Jay Inslee placed a moratorium on capital punishment which would last for as long as he wa

On Monday, Donald Trump imposed a 30 percent tariff on imported solar panel technology, mostly targeted at Chinese solar panel manufacturers whose prices have become dramatically more competitive in recent years. This means whatever a foreign company's price is for solar panel parts, the U.S. will make American businesses and households pay 30% more – and it will go right to the U.S. Treasury. The problem with this for conservatives is sevenfold: 1) It's a tax increase. Which is not fiscally

In 2016, Donald Trump ignited the imaginations of a vocal and politically-potent-in-Republican-primaries minority of American voters with a promise to build a big beautiful Wall across our border with Mexico. Publicly and privately, current and former border state officials — like me — scoffed at the idea and dismissed it as a simplistic political ploy. And that part about making Mexico pay for it? Well…that was met with a great deal of amused head-scratching. Why the scoffing, dismissing, and

The Alabama legislature will consider a bill that would change the state's primary election process to a nonpartisan, top-two open primary similar to the systems in California and Washington state. The bill, introduced by Alabama State Rep. Mike Ball (R-Madison), would put all candidates -- regardless of party affiliation -- on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters would move on to the general election. Alabama currently uses a closed partisan system. Voters must re-register as Democrat