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Dispatch from Seattle: Will $15 Minimum Wage Actually Work?

I was in Seattle recently (great city, fabulous, everyone says so), and while there a very nice and gregarious person was telling us about how excited she was for the upcoming $15 minimum wage (it's currently $13).

I knew almost nothing about it other than brief headlines on the news, so I listened but didn't add much. But it was a good opportunity to then go do some research.

Faced With Multiple Lawsuits, Election Commission Holds First Public Meeting

For the first time since its inception, President Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity met publicly.

The bipartisan commission includes 5 former and current secretaries of state.

The group has come under great scrutiny from the mainstream media for asking states to provide voter data to determine, among other things, how many fraudulent votes were cast in the 2016 election.

WATCH: New Jersey Voters Are Fed Up with Closed Primaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94TTJxOQ_ts

As a born and bred Jersey girl, it’s only natural that I’m stubborn about my politics. My friends and I all have ideas about candidates, issues, and New Jersey government.

Centrist Project: Giving Independent Candidates a Fighting Chance in Colorado

Colorado is home to over 1.3 million independents, yet there is not a single independent legislator in either the State House or State Senate. Independents are the largest and fastest growing group of voters but they remain voiceless in the state legislature. This is, in part, due to the anti-competitive hurdles created by the two-party system.

Legal Marijuana in Massachusetts Finally Gets a Vote in Legislature

After negotiations that have stretched on for three weeks longer than policymakers had hoped, a six-member Massachusetts House and Senate conference committee has finally hashed out a version of the Commonwealth's new marijuana law. It is expected to be approved by a vote on Wednesday and sent to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk by the weekend.

Dems, Independents Make Up Most of CO Voter Withdrawals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ4BvQ5ZXOM

Video Credit: Denver7

Hundreds of Republican and independent voters in Colorado are among the nearly 4,000 people who have canceled their voter registrations in the wake of the Trump administration’s request for voter information.

Trump's Election Commission in Turmoil; Dems Want Kobach Out

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

President Donald Trump's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity has come under heavy fire since its broad request for voter data on every registered voter in the US. The main target: Commission Vice Chair Kris Kobach.

Here is a quick summary of what has happened in the last couple of weeks:

Santa Fe Voters Need (and Deserve) Ranked Choice Voting

For the first time in Santa Fe, New Mexico history, there will be a full-time mayor elected in March of 2018 with additional powers, duties, and a higher salary. It is important that the majority of Santa Fe voters elect the new mayor with ranked choice voting (RCV), an electoral reform that was approved by city voters 9 years ago and has yet to be implemented.

David Walker: The Critical Cures for America’s Fiscal Crisis

IVN podcast host T.J. O’Hara is joined by David Walker. Walker served as the seventh U.S. Comptroller General for the Clinton and Bush administrations, as well as the head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Major Investigation: Wasserman Schultz Turns Focus to Kushner

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz inserted two amendments into a 2018 appropriations bill last week aimed at stripping White House senior adviser Jared Kushner of his security clearance.

The amendments were Wasserman Schultz's response to the controversy over revelations that Kushner was involved in a June 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower. Critics say the meeting was inappropriate and possibly illegal.