On October 21, US billionaire businessman Mark Cuban tweeted that the duopoly he would shut down “in a nanosecond” if he could was the Republican and Democratic Parties, asserting that their anti-competitive collusion was detrimental to the American people every single day:

California is either about to right decades of inequality between rich and poor defendants by eliminating cash bail, or it’s about to turn over its justice system to robots.

The question of what to do about the system that decides whether people should be free while awaiting trial will be determined by Proposition 25. The stakes, as explained by each side, are either ending an unjust system or relinquishing judicial authority to a pretrial assessment tool run on an algorithm.

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us

Most San Diegans think homelessness is getting worse and they say the city is to blame. The coronavirus pandemic makes homelessness even more of a concern for public health. We need solutions now and half-measures have failed us. San Diego should — and can be — a place where everyone has a place to call home.

This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us

California’s 116 community colleges receive a fraction of the per-student spending compared to public universities in California even though they are the largest provider of higher education and workforce training in the nation and serve far greater proportions of low-income students, first-generation students and English learners.  

"The Extra Point with Jeff Marston" is aired weekly on Mightier 1090am from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday. In this episode, Marston talks to Bob Turner, executive director of Presidio Soccer and Mike Micheli, president of the San Diego Adult Baseball League, about COVID's impact on sports. Plus, we hear from Dr. Rodney Hood, president and co-founder of the Multicultural Health Foundation, about the disease's impact on vulnerable communities.

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This is an independent opinion. Have one of your own? Email it to hoa@ivn.us

In a country suffering from pandemic-induced time distortion, try to remember that national elections are held on the first Tuesday in November. You can do it.

If 2020 stays true to script, this will be a head-spinning Election Night. This year has brought us hardship and headscratchers large and small. Wildfires. Racial strife. Economic uncertainty. Deadly pandemic. Quibi. 

Nathan Lockwood, Managing Director of Rank the Vote, joins host T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss how his team is helping grassroots initiatives pursue Ranked Choice Voting across the Nation. Rank the Vote is a national non-partisan organization dedicated to sharing strategies and tactics with activists at the state-level.

Represent San Diego and Independent Voter Project presented a screening of Daniel Falconer’s award-winning anti-corruption documentary, "UnRepresented," to an audience of 120 democracy reform advocates and concerned citizens on Oct. 10. The screening was followed by a lively and in-depth discussion of the challenges raised by the film’s unflinching look at the current state of American democracy.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared on The Fulcrum and has been republished on IVN with permission from the publisher.

All across the country, the consistent theme of this presidential year has been turmoil.

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday discussed the option of filing a lawsuit that would allow the passage of Measure C — a special tax measure that would increase lodging taxes — despite it failing to receive a two-thirds majority vote in the March primary.