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It’s no secret that the White House has had their share of problems when it comes to intelligence leaks in the first 200 days of the Trump administration. While some say that the so-called “deep state” is a myth, President Trump isn’t taking any chances. He has pushed back, most recently, by installing retired General John Kelly as White House Chief of Staff, in an effort to bring order and discipline to the West Wing. Kelly is one of a handful of retired Generals appointed to key positions in

Statistics are pointing to a another steep rise in opioid deaths within the next 10 years. To illustrate the point of just how critical the crisis has become, in the state of Massachusetts, 90% of all drug overdoses are attributed to opioids. In Connecticut, the figure stands at 86%. Days after his administration said it wasn't ready to declare it an emergency, President Trump said he’s drafting paperwork to declare the opioid crisis a "national emergency." In an announcement on Thursday, the

IVN podcast host T.J. O’Hara is joined by David Walker. Walker served as the seventh U.S. Comptroller General for the Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Walker is currently running for governor of Connecticut. He and T.J. discuss the nation’s fiscal responsibility, touching on issues like social security, health care, how much public debt we have as a percentage of the economy (78% and rising!), welfare, and the problems he

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who serves as vice-chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity, sent a letter to every secretary of state in the US this week asking them to send publicly-available data on their voter rolls. The information requested includes: full names of every registered voter, addresses, dates of birth, political party (if available), last four digits of social security numbers, voting history dating back to 2006, active/inactive status, cancell

Last week, Congress avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to a continuing resolution to keep the federal government funded for another week. Then over the weekend, US lawmakers agreed to a deal that will extend funding through September while Congress and the White House continue to negotiate longer-term fiscal policy priorities. The US House passed the budget deal Wednesday. But amidst Washington's annual kabuki theater dance around fiscal policy and possible government shutdowns, a litt

On HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver tackled an issue that many consider the most pressing threat to our democracy: gerrymandering. As he often does, Oliver explained the intricacies of this complex policy issue with wit and humor, much to the alarm of voters everywhere. After explaining how politicians help their own party win seats by “packing and cracking” voters into districts, Oliver left viewers with a glimmer of hope by introducing the idea of independent redistricting commissions. T

Five years ago, outside of the public eye, a conflict flared inside the inner circle of Democratic Party power. Simply put, it was this: should the Obama re-election campaign find a way to make an explicit appeal to independent voters? Five years ago, the answer was no. I know this because I was part of the discussion, though an outsider to it, whose counsel was firmly rejected. And though Obama won reelection in 2012 while losing independents to the GOP, the strategic decision to double down w

As the new year gets underway, state legislatures around the country are convening to tackle the issues of the day. In at least nine states, electoral reform is on the agenda. Building on the momentum of historic wins for ranked choice voting in Maine and Benton County, Oregon, lawmakers from Massachusetts to Hawaii have introduced bills that would expand its use in their states. The bills vary in their scope and history. Bills in Virginia and Connecticut would adopt ranked choice voting for al

You may be asking how the Libertarian Party could have won the 2016 election with no seats in Congress and with its presidential candidate finishing in a very, very distant third place behind the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. But in an election year that everyone considers eccentric at the least, it might not be which party technically "won" so much as which party made forward strides, and by that measure it's a great year to be a Libertarian. For each of the main two political parties

Why stick with third party and independent candidates in November, if Clinton and Trump have a combined 80% of the electorate in all major polls? In an election season that is anything but usual, one trend is holding up: outside campaigns are losing support in the last months of the race. The campaigns of Libertarian candidate Gov. Gary Johnson, Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein, independent candidate Dr. Lynn S. Kahn, and Veterans Party candidate Chris Keniston responded to a short question