It is probably no different than a labor union meeting where your support is expected in favor of the political party that primarily supports labor issues.

However, a large problem with this is political pundits and academic researchers have focused mostly on the state's delegation in the U.S. Congress, while ignoring what has happened in Sacramento.

published on Tuesday shows that the number of police deaths increased by 56 percent in 2014 and included 15 ambush deaths.

National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015 may have been forgotten by the mainstream media, but some of the details of the bill remain troubling for military families. Military members will receive a one percent pay raise and lower housing allowances in addition to paying higher prices for medications.

Millennials are often characterized as narcissistic, lazy, and entitled. A generation that came of age at one of the worst economic times in U.S. history, were mostly coddled by their Baby Boomer parents, and are the most indebted (due to massive student loan debt) generation in U.S. history is often looked down on by older generations -- perhaps unfairly, too.

Correct predictions are as random as human behavior itself — which isn’t surprising, considering that predicting human behavior (more precisely, particular results following from human behavior) is exactly what economists attempt to do. There is, however, one hugely important, completely definite, very practical lesson that we can learn from economics.

"Peace is hard, but we know that it is possible. So, together, let us be resolved to see that it is defined by our hopes and not by our fears. Together, let us make peace, but a peace, most importantly, that will last." - Barack Obama, September 21, 2011 at the United Nations

announcement that the United States is going to move toward more normalized relations with Cuba. The reactions to the policy shift have varied as speculation continues over what all it will mean for the U.S.

Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree, Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes -- Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic. The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt, And the children got ready for school.

This article was originally published on BenSwann.com on Dec. 25 2014 and has been edited for publication on IVN.

I arrived in England yesterday from my home in the States and the jet-lag had the better of me this morning by 4:45 am.

Dad, whom I have traveled across the Atlantic to spend Christmas with, is still in bed as I write this, and I am sitting alone on his couch in a silent house.