America is waiting for the drama of the 2020 presidential election to play itself out. Votes are still being counted. Lawsuits have and will continue to be filed. The heated divide between the parties is on full display while US voters desperately want politicians to put the needs of the country ahead of the gain-seeking interests of their parties.

Now that Californians have voted to keep ride-hailing drivers classified as contractors with limited job benefits, unions are shoring up their defenses as labor lawyers eye legal challenges and hope that Democrat Joe Biden ekes out a White House victory.

Votes are still being counted in several states across the country. Unlike the year 2000, Florida is not in the spotlight. However, Florida should be highlighted as the state where a proposed state constitutional amendment received 57% of the vote but will not be adopted. 

This is the first in a two-part series on Gompers Preparatory Academy in Southeastern San Diego. Read the second installment here.

Fifteen years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in the boardroom when San Diego Unified School District’s Board of Education authorized the conversion of Gompers Middle School to an independent charter school.

"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 and Hoa Quach, executive editor for IVN San Diego, talk to a handful of voters before and after the elections to find out how they're feeling. Plus, we hear from a San Diego child psychologist Dr. Amy Stark, who tells us how our Election Day anxiety may affect our children.

Ben Sheehan joins host T.J. O’Hara on Deconstructed to discuss his new book, OMG WTF Does the Constitution Actually Say? – A Non-Boring Guide to How Our Democracy is Supposed to Work. You may think you know the origins of the “OMG WTF” acronyms, but you will have to listen to the interview to determine whether your assumptions are correct.

Dave Gatzke vividly remembers the Friday afternoon he and his husband, Tony, drove up from San Diego to Cedars Sinai, walked into the nursery, and held their son, Ethan, for the first time. Three years later, they were in the delivery room when their daughter Evelyn “Evie” was born. 

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

The stress of the 2020 election has filtered down to children and adolescents. Many adults are keyed up and concerned about results in either direction. Since we are already reeling from COVID-19 and ongoing concerns about our health and the health of our families, many people do not have any more coping capacity left. Their bandwidth is full.  

Virginia became the first state in the South to approve a bipartisan redistricting commission to end the practice of partisan gerrymandering Tuesday after 66% of voters approved Amendment 1. The reform comes just in time for 2021 redistricting after the decennial census.

Despite an 11-point advantage in the polls ahead of Election Day, the "Yes on 2" campaign to bring ranked choice voting to Massachusetts fell short Tuesday. By the end of election night, 55% of voters turned down the proposal to change how voters cast the ballots in the Commonwealth.

Ranked choice voting would have allowed state voters to rank political candidates in order of preference rather than choosing only one.