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Lately, I’ve been glued to my laptop watching CNN news clips from 1999, when Donald Trump was weighing a possible presidential run in the Reform Party. “Everybody wants me to run for President …” he told the media at the time.  The media smirked, “What vanity!” as they turned their attention to more serious matters. But the tragedy-to-farce (or is it farce-to-tragedy?) story gets even more byzantine. At the time, Trump’s possible candidacy was being promoted by some leaders of the Reform Party

San Diego, CA. - As reported by IVN San Diego, the political games and drama surrounding the Fair Voter Participation Act and the efforts to get the measure onto the November ballot would make the best Telenovelas blush. Now, County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar is making sure the community is aware of her feelings on those efforts. Last Friday, Superior Court Judge Ronald Styn, appointed to the bench in 2000 by Governor Gray Davis, ordered County Registrar Michael Vu “take all actions necessary to

At DefCon, a hacker conference in Las Vegas, savvy computer programmers as young as 8 participated in a contest organized by R00tz Asylum, a non-profit organisation that promotes white hat hacking to improve cybersecurity. Of the thirty-nine participants aged 8 - 17, thirty-five were able to exploit vulnerabilities in an exact replica of the state of Florida's voting machines, as well as replicas of the election websites of 13 battleground states. Eleven-year-old Aubrey Jones was the first par

The 2018 Farm Bill is a weapon aimed at family-owned dairy farms. For decades, especially since 2000, the federal government has set the price of milk BELOW the cost of production, guaranteeing farm debt and assaulting rural America. Along with this unreasonably low price, fees and assessments are levied on dairy farmers after their milk leaves their farm. Confused farm agencies then allow predatory banking to exploit vulnerable farm owners, and international investors move in and buy out local

Governor Paul LePage has asked Maine Attorney General Janet Mills and state Treasurer Terry Hayes to leave office either by resignation or a leave of absence. Both Mills, a Democrat, and Hayes, an independent, are running to replace LePage when he leaves office. Via separate letters delivered on Monday, LePage cited campaigning as the reason they should step down, to "avoid any potential conflict of interest.” LePage and Mills have openly clashed in recent years. https://twitter.com/Governor_

The Boston Globe published an editorial Tuesday, saying the Massachusetts Legislature "would be wise to adopt ranked-choice voting, coupled with a robust voter education campaign, for statewide elections." The Globe writes: "Ranked-choice voting comes with many advantages. It invites the electorate to weigh pluses and minuses of a broader slate of candidates. It eliminates the split among like-minded constituencies, which can in turn help to elect more diverse candidates. At a time when Massac

Millions of voters are not just choosing to self-identify as independent of the two major parties, they are dumping their party registrations in droves. In about half the states that register voters by party, independent voters outnumber at least one of the two major political parties. But here are 9 states where independents not only outnumber registered Republicans AND Democrats, they are also having a significant impact on political developments within the state. Note: All registration numb

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Facebook has asked large US banks to allow it access to detailed customer data. The social media giant claims the talks were aimed at offering new features with the information. Facebook's stock price may have popped 3% on the news, with investors impressed by new developments in its business model, but it has not been well received by data privacy advocates or by lawmakers, and it is sure to increase chatter over the company on Capitol Hill. Congressional

Abraham Lincoln once famously said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” In October of last year, Pew Research released a study revealing what many of us already know: the partisan divide has grown dramatically. Even more disconcerting is that even though people have been leaving the Democratic and Republican parties in droves, “fewer Americans hold a mix of views. Instead, “the shares of Americans holding liberal or conservative views across a wider range of issues – is increasingly

UPDATE: The court refused to issue a permanent injunction, meaning defendants can appeal the ruling to an appeals court. Stay tuned for more on this story. AUBURN, Maine - The Kennebec County Superior Court ruled in favor of Clean Elections candidates Thursday, ordering the state to pay out to candidates who already qualified for these public funds. Independent State Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Terry Hayes is one of nearly 200 candidates running a Clean Elections campaign. Hayes call