In August, the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) held its annual National Geothermal Summit in Reno, Nevada. The event brought together energy companies, policymakers, and industry leaders to discuss the energy challenges facing the nation and the trade.

Among those in attendance was California State Senator Ben Hueso (D-Logan Heights), author of Senate Bill 1139, a major focal point of the summit's debates.

Media attention moves at crazy speeds in today's world. One moment, the focus is on Ebola scares around the world; the next, a new Nicki Minaj video.

However, America's policies don't move that fast, and many issues are becoming yesterday's news before they've reached anything approaching a resolution, according to Stephen Farnsworth, professor of Political Science and International Affairs at the University of Mary Washington.

In July, an appeals court upheld an earlier ruling from a lower court that said military commanders ultimately were not responsible for the actions of their subordinates in regards to sexual assaults, even if those actions directly rob a service member of their basic civil rights.

This is just one more example of service members being denied the same court protections as civilians. In the future, this could affect retention and morale within the services.

California's state government is changing. Since voters approved the top-two primary system in 2010, a new type of representative has a chance to make it to Sacramento.

At least, that's what Democrat Bill Dodd says. He's running in California's 4th Assembly District.

When I first heard about the top-two primary system, I thought "Yeah, it's alright but not all that helpful." In fact, there might be an IVN article where I endorse it, but don't exactly shout it from the rooftops. I had some of my own ideas and this one didn't exactly seem impactful.

I was wrong.

On Monday, August 25, Gallup published a report on why a historic-low congressional approval rating could result in an increase in voter turnout in November. According to Gallup, there is a correlation between lower congressional approval and higher voter turnout, looking at midterm elections dating back to 1994.

By my informal count, about 60% of the news articles forwarded to social media sites are prefaced with an exclamation like, “Finally, the truth!” As I understand it, the phrase means something like this: “ignorant people and biased media sites have been getting this story all wrong, but here is the argument-ending set of facts that proves that what I have always believed about it is, in fact true.”

Once we have this final truth, we can cling to it and reject other versions of the truth, as lies and propaganda.

The fight over control of the Senate is heating up. Although Nate Silver’s website, fivethirtyeight.com, predicts that the Republicans remain slightly favored to take over the Senate, he cautions that “it is still early, and we should not rule out the possibility that one party could win most or all of the competitive races.”

When major party candidates are faced with the prospect of running against an independent candidate, they are often faced with a dilemma they are not prepared to deal with. Our political system has evolved (or devolved) to the point where it encourages the two-party system, and campaigning is generalized by popular battleground issues.

Independent candidates challenge this paradigm, as many have political views that do not fall within the traditional "left-right" scale.

Recently, the Illinois State Board of Elections issued important rulings concerning third-party ballot access and electoral reform in the November elections.