For someone who ardently believed in witches and sea monsters, the puritan firebrand Cotton Mather was a surprising advocate for advanced medical science.

When some sailors brought smallpox to Boston in 1721, Mather forcefully promoted a new and dubious-sounding preventative, called “inoculation.”

He had first heard about the procedure from one of his African slaves.

The process involved smearing puss from the corpuscles of infected people into wounds deliberately cut into healthy people. Understandably, lots of 18th Century Bostonians thought this idea was nuts.

Washington is a mess. Our politics doesn’t work. Politicians are pointing at the voters as the problem -- that somehow we’ve become less civil, more polarized and less able to come together across partisan divisions.

But we know that’s not the case.

I love baseball. I really love baseball. I love that when I turn on a game I see the same players every day and the images of thousands of people in the stands whom I will never see again.

I love bearing witness to the joy on a young girl’s face as she catches a foul ball unexpectedly in a life changing ‘dream come true’ instant. I love the role weather plays in a game, the umpires who often frustrate me, and the fact that the players hit a ball in the hope to get “home.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gdHpoRV6S4&t=3m50s

The mainstream press continues to fuel controversy over a phone call President Donald Trump made to the widow of one of the four U.S. soldiers who were killed on October 4 when they were ambushed by I.S. soldiers in Niger.

Maine became the first state in the nation to adopt ranked choice voting when Maine voters approved Question 5 in November 2016. Yet, lawmakers Monday voted to delay the system until December 2021, and then repeal it if a constitutional amendment is not approved to address a non-binding opinion from the Maine Supreme Court.

Last week, I officially launched my independent, clean elections bid to become Maine's next governor.

As Maine's first independent state treasurer and a Clean Elections candidate for governor, I am accountable to all Mainers. I am not beholden to any political party, wealthy donors, or special interest lobbyists.

According to an article written by Our American Initiative, and published on The Jack News, the web page of the Commission on Presidential Debates no longer lists the sponsors of the debates.

After 10 years of no salary increases and a police force at its lowest level since 1989, Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced a plan this week to boost San Diego Police Department salaries by up to 30%.

The salary freeze has decimated morale and the ranks. There are fewer than 1,800 police officers  remaining in the City of San Diego.

The cost cutting has also led to slower 9-1-1 response times, among other concerns.

The electoral earthquake that resulted in the election of President Trump is not limited to the United States. And it’s far from running its course.

The Brexit referendum of June 2016 was an early indicator. Against general expectation, the British people overrode elite opinion, voting to exit the European Union.

UPDATE: We first wrote about the Make It Fair initiative back in October. It's the effort to repeal a business portion of Prop. 13. Now, Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced the signature gathering portion of the effort. Here is his statement: