Search query: idaho

Last week, the General Assembly in North Carolina sent a bill (HB 405) to the desk of Governor Pat McCrory that is directed at thwarting undercover investigations that expose businesses' wrongdoing. The bill is the latest episode in a perennial back-and-forth dispute between the legislature and investigators documenting animal abuse at farms across the state. In recent years, North Carolina has failed several times to pass a bill criminalizing such investigations.The so-called "Property Protect

Americans for Prosperity (AFP), the network of small-government advocacy groups steered by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch, is expanding into new states and attracting new donors in its efforts leading into 2016. A leaked document details plans to enhance the network's data system and bring on hundreds of staff in communities across the nation.  These preparations indicate a massive get-out-the-vote effort that has never been seen from a group that isn't the Democratic or Repu

Update: After reconsidering the legislation, a committee in the Idaho House approved the cannabidiol oil bill in a 12-4 vote. Idaho is not a place one would expect to see bipartisanship. Regardless of whether you use the term “Republican” or “conservative,” Idaho consistently shows up in the top 5 states for that affiliation. The political news coming out of the state has been a long litany of arch-conservatism that has raised several eyebrows on the national stage. Recent examples have includ

If a lawyer wants to practice law in a state, he or she must first pass the state's bar exam. If a teacher wants to work in a school, they are tested to be credentialed. Before entering the police force, applicants go through a rigorous training and screening process. Before becoming a doctor, medical school graduates must pass a licensing exam. And yet, aside from needing a proper image and campaigning, there is not a formal test for those seeking public office. Perhaps there should be, consid

NATIONAL -- There is no doubt that there are some IVN readers who support some form of proportional representation, often seen as a voting scheme that maximizes representation and makes every vote count. But the real question is, what would be the avenue to implement proportional representation nationwide? What are the roadblocks and potential legal challenges? To answer these questions, we have to examine the history of how we got to our current two-party voting system. History of Current V

There is an ongoing lawsuit attempting to close Montana’s open primary system. This lawsuit is being joined by the Montana Republican Party. State Republicans support closing their primaries because they argue Democrats and other nonmembers have been influencing their elections for years. "One example given during the state GOP’s meeting to make the case for joining the lawsuit was a vote in the state House of Representatives ... in which some Republicans supported an amendment to House procedu

Taxpayer-funded party primaries may soon be a thing of the past in Mississippi, if a recent report from a state-sponsored study group means anything. Convened by Mississippi’s secretary of state, the 50-member panel endorsed the top-two model for primary elections in mid-January, but stopped short of backing any immediate change for fear that it could confuse election workers. As a group, the panel didn’t have any formal legislative or policymaking authority, so any change in how Mississippia

Vote Hemp, a major grassroots hemp advocacy group, on Thursday announced the introduction of complementary bills in the U.S. House and Senate, S. 134 and H.R. 525, titled the " Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015," with support on both sides of the political aisle. The Act would remove federal restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis. “With bi-partisan support in the Senate and House, we are eager to see 2015 be the year Congress

Independent voters are the fastest growing voting bloc in the U.S. The number of people who self-identify as neither Republican nor Democrat has been on a steady incline since 2008. In the last two years alone, the number of voters registered without a party preference has increased by hundreds of thousands of voters, increasing the number of states where independent voters exceed party registration. There are several states that do not require voters to declare their political affiliation whe

On Thursday, January 15, oral arguments were made before the California State Appeals Court in San Francisco in the case Rubin v. Bowen. Third parties continue to challenge the nonpartisan, top-two open primary in the state, claiming that the system violates the association rights of political parties and disenfranchises third-party voters in the general election. Richard Winger, who runs the site Ballot-Access.org, wrote a post on the oral arguments, implying that third parties were poorly re