A bipartisan team of legislators have passed amendments with a goal of retaining privacy protections presumably lost with the passage of the USA Freedom Act.

On June 3, IVN reported on the Kansas budget woes of the so-called "tea-party experiment," including the almost imminent furlough of non-essential state employees beginning on June 7.

In an interesting twist to an already wild political roller-coaster ride, the Kansas House unanimously passed an emergency measure with a simple aim: reclassifying all state workers as essential employees:

Murder and violent crime have risen dramatically in several major cities in 2015. In New York, the murder rate has gone up 20% compared to the early months of 2014. In Los Angeles, violent crime is up 27%. In Houston, murders are up nearly 50%. In Baltimore, murders are up 37%.

The power of celebrity in America cannot be overstated. When a well-known celebrity (or even a not-so-well-known one) does something like try to run over a paparazzo with an ATV or alters their personal appearance, the American people get to hear about it. The media firestorm this week over Caitlyn Jenner's new 'groove' is no exception.

Professor "Edward Schlosser" (a pseudonym) wrote a thought-provoking article for Vox on Wednesday about the role identity politics plays in the college environment and how that role has changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time.

"The student-teacher dynamic has been reenvisioned along a line that's simultaneously consumerist and hyper-protective, giving each and every student the ability to claim Grievous Harm in nearly any circumstance, after any affront, and a teacher's formal ability to respond to these claims is limited at best," Schlosser writes.

Californians are concerned about the state's abysmal voter turnout and seem ready to try some different solutions to increase participation. The state experienced historically low turnout in California's June primary and the November general election in 2014, and Californians seem to have noticed.

Both CNN/ORC and the Washington Post released polls this week with a strong warning for Democrats: half of Americans don't like Hillary Clinton.

When the so-called bastions of the "liberal press" start spreading doom and gloom, politicos on both sides of the aisle had better start taking notice.

On Thursday, U.S. Representative John Delaney (D-Md.) re-introduced the Open Our Democracy Act. The bill reforms how primary elections are conducted for House and Senate elections, creates a path for the nationwide use of independent redistricting commissions, and makes Election Day a national holiday.

New research on the effects of California's nonpartisan, top-two primary suggests that many California voters are responding positively to the new election system, though opinions still vary greatly. In their book, Nonpartisan Primary Election Reform, authors R. Michael Alvarez and J.

Denver, Colo. -- Across the country, independent/nonpartisan organizations committed to fundamental political reform and equal rights for every voter are hard at work fighting the good fight on a wide variety of ambitious and necessary projects.