Iowa independent voters are watching the nation's politics as closely as the nation watches Iowa to understand political trends.

As goes Iowa, so goes the nation. So they've been saying since at latest 2000, and probably even before that.

One letter to the editor of the New York Times, dated January 28, 2000, noted how remarkably close national presidential vote tallies tracked Iowa's votes in 1992 and 1996:

Dr. Saya Nagori works hard and is dedicated to her work.

I know this because I first spoke with Dr. Nagori a few hours after her boyfriend surprised her with a ring and asked her to marry him.

Between calls to aunts, uncles and old friends from college, Dr. Nagori talked to me for forty-five minutes about her innovative telemedicine business, SimpleContacts.

The Supreme Court refused to weigh in on the issue of partisan gerrymandering in two cases out of Wisconsin (Gill v. Whitford) and Maryland (Benisek v. Lamone). The justices sent Gill v. Whitford back down to a lower court, while Maryland was dismissed unanimously.

“Look Around the Poker Table; If You Can’t See the Sucker, You’re It”

In the year and a half that Donald Trump has served as president, one of his most consistent punching bags (save for Robert Mueller’s investigation) has been US trade relations with China. Almost all of us have seen his tweets criticizing previous administrations for being “dumb,” “stupid,” and “weak” in their negotiating tactics.

The League of Women Voters of Maine announced results of an on-line survey asking how voters liked using ranked choice voting in the June 12 primary.

The informal survey does not purport to represent the views of the population as a whole but provides a useful snapshot of voter attitude coming out of the primary. The results and robust response rate -- over 650 participants -- reveal broad satisfaction with the use of RCV. Findings include:

ARIZONA - Republicans in Arizona are trying to rob Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Kevin McCormick of a spot on the ballot. This is in spite of the fact that he has submitted the second-most signatures of any candidate to meet qualifications for the November ballot.

Jonathan Lines, chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, has filed a lawsuit claiming that over 90 percent of the signatures McCormick collected are illegitimate -- meaning they are not real Arizona voters.

Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil denied FS Investors request to remove the SDSU West initiative from the ballot, confirming his tentative ruling.

Judge Wohlfeil noted he was, "not persuaded that Plaintiffs have standing to enforce Education Code section 89005.5. Even if they did have 'beneficial interest' or 'taxpayer' standing, this would not necessarily permit for an action directing election officials to invalidate an initiative petition."

City Councilman Mark Kersey joined the IVN Podcast and had much to say on a number of important issues facing voters, workers and our beach communities.

Kersey spoke at length on the efforts he and Councilman Chris Cate have made to change the City of San Diego's voting system to Ranked Choice.

In my latest interview, I spoke with Nick Braña, who served as the National Outreach Coordinator for Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and is the founder of the Movement for a People's Party, a group of former Bernie supporters, progressive independents, and disenchanted Democrats who believe a new party is needed.

Primary season is upon us again. With each passing Tuesday, the major parties across the country are selecting more combatants for November’s electoral battle. By mid-August, thousands of Republicans and Democrats will have been anointed to oppose the other team in the general election.