DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - Earlier this year, an investigation by the Associated Press revealed a disturbing sexual assault problem on some of the nation’s military bases around the world. Since the initial story broke, it seems the problem is worse than originally thought and Congress wants answers and changes, something that the Pentagon is fighting against.

In the midst of all the national attention to the immigration crisis, voters in our Nation’s Capital went to the polls on Tuesday to vote on an initiative to eliminate the tipping exemption and raise the minimum wage to $15 over time for all workers.  Regardless of your particular position on Initiative 77, there are lessons to be gleaned from Tuesday’s results that saw it pass overwhelmingly throughout the city.  The ten-percentage point spread was not close – it was a landslide in politics.

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.