I have just paid my biggest bill of the year. The invoice was for a cool 9 percent of my entire annual income – or my “Adjusted Gross Income” (AGI) as it appears on my tax returns, which have just been filed. And that invoice was from my accountant who just filed them for me.

I have a pretty modest income -- so modest, in fact, that my AGI is half of the median household income across the United States -- the kind of income that triggers significant subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.

An anonymous official told the AP Monday that a car with at least two men in it tried to ram a checkpoint gate leading into the Fort Meade Army base outside Washington, D.C. According to the official, a gunfight broke out after the men tried to get to the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA), leaving one dead and one severely injured.

The LA Times reported Saturday that potential 2016 presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor

Mike Huckabee (R) advocates term limits for Supreme Court justices. Huckabee said the Founding Fathers "never intended to create lifetime, irrevocable posts."

""Nobody should be in an unelected position for life," the former Arkansas governor said in an interview, expanding upon remarks he made during an hourlong speech at the Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda.

I was impressed to find such a far-reaching conglomerate of individuals at the National Conference of Independents in New York City, which took place during the weekend of March 13-15. Illinois, California, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Virginia, Oregon, Mississippi, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Arizona, and the list could go on and on.

We all know that New York City is not cheap, let alone travelling from the other side of the country, but we were primed and ready for a fine weekend of events. The theme: “Partnerships for Independent Power.”

On Thursday, Republican Indiana Governor Mike Pence signed the "Religious Freedom Restoration Act," giving business owners the legal protection to deny service to someone if providing the service conflicts with their religious beliefs. The law is now the subject of heated controversy nationwide.

Opponents of the bill call it legal discrimination targeted at the LGBT community, while supporters say it prevents the government from forcing people to violate their conscience.