The partisan bickering in the Legislature has claimed another victim: Clean Elections.

In 1996, Maine voters decided they’d had enough with how campaigns were funded, and they passed the Maine Clean Election Act. Candidates who choose to run “clean” can accept only a certain number of contributions to start, and only $5 contributions from voters in their district qualify the candidate to receive public funding.

Throughout slavery, Reconstruction and the movement for civil rights, African Americans in the U.S. have faced racism, social disparities, and oppression. While things have advanced for us significantly, black Americans still encounter subtle and blatant social disenfranchisement.
For instance, the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world and the people behind bars in the U.S.

In the latest episode of "Deconstructed," IVN Principal Political Analyst TJ O'Hara talks with Dr. Lenora Fulani, the first African American independent and first female presidential candidate to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states. She is also an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and political activist.

Feel like health care costs are too high? Think drug prices are out of control? You are not alone.

According to Kaiser, 80% of Americans feel the same way. Unfortunately, there is very little information about how drug and health care prices actually work.

As with most of what we encounter in today’s world, things aren’t always as they seem. And in the world of partisan politics, our health care debate most often gets reduced to simple talking points that serve to inflame fear or anger rather than substantive discussion.