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Rand Paul, Marijuana Legalization, and Winning The Youth Vote

Last week, the Boston Globe

reported that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush smoked marijuana as a teenager at prep school. The report resulted in Sen.

Asm. Shirley Weber Introduces Body Camera Bill to Help Mend Police-Civilian Relations in Calif.

The call for body-worn video cameras on police officers is growing across the United States. Laws to require the use of these cameras were introduced in almost a dozen states in January, including California.

While many associate the spark of the discussion around body-worn police cameras with Ferguson, Missouri, Los Angeles was the center of another August incident, where an unarmed black man was fatally shot in an altercation with police.

Report: Cost of Global 'War on Terror' Surpasses $1.7 Trillion

The United States' tradition for expensive warfare continues. According to a

report published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University on January 21, funding commitments for the global "war on terror" have cost the United States about $1.7 trillion since September 11, 2001.

Koch Bros. and George Soros: How America's High-Profile Political Donors Compare

Recently, IVN published an article about the

Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a political action network headed by Charles and David Koch, and its decision to budget nearly $900 million leading into the 2016 election cycle. The amount represents an unprecedented amount of money from a single group.

Calif. Court: Top-Two Primary Protects Individual Voters AND Third-Party Rights

On Thursday, January 29, the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the case,

Rubin v. Padilla (formally Rubin v. Bowen). Third parties in the state are challenging the constitutionality of the nonpartisan, top-two primary, claiming it places a severe burden on associational and voting rights guaranteed by the state and federal Constitutions.

Will Fight over Keystone Lead to More Pork-Barrel Spending?

On Monday, the Senate failed to reach cloture on the Keystone XL measure, signaling a long, bitter fight to come. With a 53-39 vote, cloture failed by 7 votes.

The bitter fight was cut short on Thursday, however, when nine Democrats joined with every Republican to approve construction of the $8 billion project in a 62-36 vote. It is widely expected that once the measure is vetoed by President Obama, Senate Republicans would still need 4 votes to override the veto.

Open Primaries Urges Miss. Legislature to Adopt Nonpartisan Elections

On January 16, the Mississippi secretary of state’s 2014 Committee to Review Election Laws (CREL) issued a formal recommendation for the adoption of a nonpartisan, top-two primary election system. Should the legislature follow the advice, all Mississippi elections — including for Congress — would be conducted along nonpartisan lines.

Daily Kos, the Independent Voter Project, and Substantiating Sources

It may seem curious that a website could be accused of being a front for the Republican Party and conservative ideology in one article and then being Democrats and liberals hiding behind the “independent” label in another. For the IVN (Independent Voter Network) editorial team, it is not only a common occurrence, it is a daily occurrence.

IVN is simply an open platform for independent authors to discuss the issues and topics they believe are important or should be important to voters in a civil and productive manner.

For Students, There Are More Factors in College Decisions than Money

Earlier this month, the

White House released a statement outlining "the America’s College Promise proposal to make two years of community college free for responsible students,".

Congress, White House Continue to Waste Time on Keystone XL

The Keystone XL pipeline is officially the first legislative victory for the Republican Party in the 114th Congress. The Senate

voted on Thursday to build the pipeline despite a veto threat from President Obama. Nine Democrats joined their Republican colleagues in a 62-36 vote.