Jefferson City, Missouri - The Clean Missouri campaign released a new report 5 weeks from the election on the lobbyist gift culture in Jefferson City -- Missouri's capital -- and the campaign says that what they found were shocking statistics:

• "Lobbyists have reported giving an average of $885,020 in gifts to the Missouri General Assembly every year, for years 2004-2017."

• "The reported gift total for 2017—$1,070,667—is the highest on record at the Missouri Ethics Commission. The second highest reported total was $1,006,050 in 2006."

The Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board says 2019 is the year New Mexico needs to adopt open primaries. The two candidates for governor have not closed the door on opening the state's primaries, and the Albuquerque Journal says that's a good thing.

"As our elected officials are deciding whether they want to go out on a limb on this issue, they should take into consideration the fact that there are more than 273,300 independent voters in our state right now locked out of voting in New Mexico primary elections. That’s simply unacceptable.

Here’s the final list of propositions that made the cut for the November election. On the list are proposals to slash the gas tax, re-introduce rent control, absolve major corporations of their legal debt, and borrow billions to fund houses, hospitals, and water canals.

Propositions on the November 2018 California ballot

Reported by Ben Christopher. Interactive by John Osborn D'Agostino.

Writing in a letter to the editor of The Star Democrat, Warren Davis says  "Independent voters should elect Jesse Colvin," the Democrat running to unseat Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) in the state's 1st District 2018 congressional race. Harris had held the seat since 2010 after narrowly losing in his first run for it in 2008.

San Diego, CA.- Central to the Democrats desire to take back the house in November is a strong showing in California.

California is home to seven GOP-held seats that Hillary Clinton carried in 2016.

The 49th District, which includes parts of San Diego County and Orange counties, is one of them. Voters here backed Clinton by 7 points while re-electing GOP Rep. Darrell Issa by less than 1 point. Issa is retiring and going to work in the Trump administration.

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla released the latest voter registration numbers Tuesday. The report shows that the number of No Party Preference (independent) voters -- the second largest voting bloc in the state -- continues to climb, and has surpassed 5 million voters.

As Brett Kavanaugh proceeds through an FBI investigation, a partisan war, and a scathing court of public opinion, the world seems to have forgotten the institution he is headed toward - the Supreme Court.

Shorthanded by one, with a bench of eight, the court started its 2018-’19 session Monday. Its current roster of cases may not sound very exciting to some (the fate of an endangered frog vs landowners), but three major partisan gerrymandering cases hit the Supreme Court during its last session and they may be back again for this one.

https://soundcloud.com/independent-voter-podcast/a-conversation-with-state-superintendent-candidate-marshall-tuck

San Diego, CA.- While it certainly doesn't have the political fervor associated with partisan politics, make no mistake, the race for Superintendent of California is hotly contested.

Next week, IVN will launch its California-focused election coverage. In preparation, we conducted a survey of California voters on key races and issues to give our writers and readers a baseline look at where things stand to go into the final month of the election season.

Readers can also access information about the responses from various subgroups in the sample (known as crosstabs).

The California election gets our attention because California’s “top two” nonpartisan primary reform has produced some interesting matchups that could produce historic results.

It'd be hard to believe how quickly artificial intelligence found its footing in the mainstream — if we weren't already reaping the benefits in industry as well as our personal lives.

If anything, though, the progress we've already made in adapting AI to our existing industries, lifestyles, and workflows only betrays how much more work there is to do. In health care, particularly, we're only beginning to explore AI's potential in making our lives better and healthier.