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Senate Democrats Take Center Stage in Political Drama over DHS Funding

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats successfully filibustered an appropriations bill that would fund the U.S. Department of Homeland Security until September. The bill, passed by the U.S. House on

January 14, includes provisions that threaten President Barack Obama's executive actions on deferred deportations for certain immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Why Cutting Congressional Pay Will Not Solve Any Problems

Facebook seems to be constantly inundated with memes that have similar themes to this one:

There are several variations of this meme, from stating that Congress should make what our soldiers make to not paying Congress if they can't do their job.

Calif. Privacy Laws Complicate DEA License Plate Tracking

Privacy has been a major concern for the American public in the last several years, primarily because of leaked or released information about government projects involving collecting information about civilian activity.

Limited Bandwidth Is Holding Back Digital Learning in Calif. Schools

Digital learning is becoming more prominent in classrooms as schools prepare students for the digital world. However, only 61 percent of California schools and 56 percent of the state's school districts have Internet connections faster than 100 megabits per second (mbps), according to the

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

Independent Party of Oregon Qualifies for Major Party Status

The Independent Party of Oregon claims that it has qualified as a major party in Oregon.

IPO Secretary Sal Peralta reports that he contacted the secretary of state's office on Monday to get a check on the party's registration numbers in preparation for testimony on the Motor Voter bill. The secretary of state's staff informed him that the IPO has 108,744 members as of February 2, 2015. That is 6 members over the 5 percent threshhold for major party status.

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.