They say you always remember your first time.

The first time I was sexually assaulted, I was sixteen years old.

I had not long started a job working as a kitchen porter at a third-rate pub-restaurant and had been moved from the kitchen to the restaurant floor to wait tables, in which role I had a new manager.

My manager liked the shape of my ass in the tight black pants I had to wear and let me know it with a spank as I went about my work and an explicit comment as if her behavior needed any explanation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbNGiuUZVII&t=1m50s

Gary Johnson spoke with Fox Business' Neil Cavuto Wednesday, October 25, where he announced that he has no plans to run in 2020. He says he had his shot, but ultimately the system boils down to two political parties.

Further, Johnson laughed at the idea that the largest voting bloc in America -- independent voters -- was being represented by President Donald Trump and said he does not think Trump will win re-election.

Americans everywhere are fed up with the state of politics. At the federal level, political paralysis and polarization prevent Congress from solving pressing issues every day.  At the state level, it can be just as frustrating.

Yet, while polarization and paralysis impede the progress of many state legislatures, one in particular seems to be heading in the right direction and actually getting things done -- California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YuReziwss0

Sen. Bernie Sanders is currently fighting to transition the US to a single-payer health care system – a system whereby the government provides one plan for insurance coverage to every single American. While it may struggle to gain traction at the national level, California may offer Sanders an ideal starting point.

A Gallup poll published Wednesday shows record support for marijuana legalization in the US. According to Gallup, support is at 64 percent, up 4 points from last year and 14 points compared to 2011.

This follows a mostly consistent trend as more states consider their own policy on recreational and medical marijuana. Eight states, plus the District of Columbia, have laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

Gary Johnson and Jill Stein plan to file a cert petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on October 26 in Johnson v. Commission on Presidential Debates. On the same day, Johnson will hold a rally on the steps of the Court.

This case should not be confused with Level the Playing Field v FEC, which is still in U.S. District Court. Both cases challenge the presidential debate exclusion, but the two cases depend on different legal theories.

As we do each election cycle, FairVote has projected the partisan results of the next elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, and the results show a shocking lack of competition or fair representation. Since our first edition in 1997, we have called this biennial report Monopoly Politics - with good reason.

Independent gubernatorial candidate and Maine State Treasurer Terry Hayes released a statement Tuesday condemning the delay and potential repeal of ranked choice voting (RCV) by state lawmakers.

“Maine voters deserve more voice and more choice in our democracy,” said Hayes.

The first official debate between the top four Democrats running for California governor took place in Anaheim over the weekend.

The event was hosted by the National Union of Healthcare Workers and fittingly, the only issue the candidates had significant disagreements on, was healthcare.

John Chiang, Anthonio Villaraigosa, Delaine Eastin and Gavin Newsom debated affordable housing, immigration and Washington D.C., among other issues.

VILLARAIGOSA "NO PIE IN THE SKY"

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.