Last month, the Veterans Health Administration issued a new policy dictating the way that VA health care providers handle the issue of medical marijuana for the millions of US veterans who would potentially benefit from the drug.

Some say this is progress and hail it as a step in the right direction. However, critics say it’s just more smoke and mirrors, with no substance.

As part of his campaign platform, then-candidate Trump called for a litany of immigration reforms, including his trademark cry for a “beautiful” wall along the US-Mexico border.

Trump’s campaign, however, offered little detail on design, or how the wall would function in the rough border terrain. The administration has since revealed several prototypes, but the final plans remain ambiguous and unfunded by lawmakers.

T.J. O'Hara is joined by Josh Silver.

Josh is a veteran election and media reform executive. He was the campaign manager for the successful 1998 Arizona Clean Elections ballot initiative, and is the co-founder and former CEO of Free Press, a leading media and technology reform advocacy organization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3NQ04a2Yy8

The White House announced Wednesday that President Donald Trump signed an executive order that dissolves his Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. President Trump issued the following statement:

$20,599,336,131,868.

As of the time of this writing, that is the current United States national debt. In the time it took me to write that sentence, that number grew by about $100,000. To many people, this number is an abstract figure, that is of no real value or importance; and while often discussed casually, our nation’s debt is an immensely complicated and opaque subject.

Nothing is less American than political parties. As a country, we fancy ourselves a meritocracy staffed by conscientious and well-informed voters.

But that can’t possibly be true so long as we continue harnessing ourselves to the wheel called partisanship, which turns and turns but goes precisely nowhere.

Just before Thanksgiving, I received a call out of the blue from a friend of Oz Griebel, a well-known and very respected business leader in Connecticut, and a Republican. He began by telling me that Mr. Griebel is exploring a run for governor, and that I was on his short list.

“Short list for what,” I asked. “You know I am a Democrat, right? And, I believe strongly in gun violence prevention, social justice reform, and protecting our most vulnerable” among other issues.

“I didn’t change, the system changed. This system is terribly broken.”

That’s what Colorado State Senator Cheri Jahn wrote in her announcement on Friday, declaring that she’s left the Democratic Party and will serve the remainder of her term as an independent.

“The unaffiliated voters in my district and statewide deserve representation.”

This is a really big deal.

In the wake of the Republican tax reform bill, which has been hailed by supporters as the most significant revision to the federal tax code in 30 years, many Democratic states and city governments are looking for ways to work around the effects of GOP tax reform.

The countdown to 2018 has finished and Washington has snapped its head in the direction of another countdown: the mid-term elections in November.

In just eleven months, the balance of power can be easily swayed in Congress, which means this year is setting up to be two things: dramatic and expensive. Very Expensive.

So, grab some popcorn and your calculator because big money is pouring in to district races from all over the country, and it’s set to make history.