Angus King, former independent governor of Maine in 1994 and 1998 is running for senate as an independent in November. King has gotten a lot of media atention so far, what other independent governors are we overlooking?

Illinois Maine Minnesota Oregon Rhode Island and Texas have all had formally elected independent governors.

In 1974, Illinois elected its first two governors, Shadrach Bond and Edward Coles, both independents.

Besides Angus King, Maine elected independent James B Longley in 1974.

A Tea Party win sent shockwaves to Texans yesterday as Lt Gov. David Dewhurst lost to Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz in the republican primary runoff.  In Texas, to win the primary a candidate must win 50% plus one percent of the vote.

August 1^st marks a big day for women under the Affordable Care Act as multiple provisions go into effect, including free birth control. Eight new preventative services go into effect for new health insurance plans at no additional cost.

The eight services are:

It is commonplace in our politics today to view the decision between a Democrat and a Republican is nothing more than a forced choice between competing evils. It can be difficult, however, to find data that might provide us with greater insight into the prevalence of the lesser of two evils mentality among the American voting public.

As we posted on our Tumblr, The Washington Post has provided some great resources for tracking the 2012 Presidential Election. Here are a few of our favorites at IVN.us:

Tracking TV ads in the Presidential Campaign

The flames that rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah could not compare to the firestorm Chick-fil-A is under after President and COO, Dan Cathy, publicly voiced his stance on the issue of same-sex marriage and said that his company, which is privately owned and family operated, endorses the biblical definition of the family unit.