"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." - Declaration of Independence

The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence knew they were committing high treason against the British Crown, and that if caught, they would have been tortured and then killed in one of the gruesomest manners possible. Their assets would have been seized, leaving their widows and families penniless.

Eric Holder will resign his post and will wait until a successor is nominated and confirmed before leaving. Holder previously stated that he would likely leave by the end of the year, but the timing was certainly enough to catch some people by surprise.

On top of being the 82nd attorney general, Holder is also the first African-American to serve in the position.

As the United States approaches the last month before the 2014 midterm elections, many analysts are spending considerable energy trying to figure out whether Democrats or Republicans will be able to control a majority in the U.S. Senate.

Up to half a million people who have signed up for health care under the Affordable Care Act could lose coverage or have to pay more due to problems with their paperwork, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.

About 115,000 people haven't verified their citizenship or immigration status, and 363,000 people haven't verified their income, the report said.

In an interview for IVN, Bill Dodd (D), candidate for California's Assembly District 4, discussed his experience running in the state's new nonpartisan, top-two open primary.

The new California voter registration numbers are in and No Party Preference (NPP) registration has once again hit an all-time high. According to the 60 Day Report of Registration ahead of the general election, the number of independents has increased to 23.08 percent of the population -- up 321,225 voters from the last report.

Kris Kobach, the Republican secretary of state in Kansas, has spent a good portion of his political career defending the "purity" of the election process. Kobach has been involved in numerous voting reform schemes, defending his ideas as making it “easy to vote but hard to cheat."

This past week's events in the U.S. Senate race in Kansas call into question Kobach's commitment to eliminating "cheating" from the electoral process.

Like most Americans, I'm pretty selfish. I want to have my cake and I want to eat it too, but I also want it to be free, come with 4G coverage, and have all my friends on Facebook tell me how tasty it looks.

Shockingly, only about 58 percent of the public vote in judicial elections. It turns out that voters simply don’t turn to the back of the ballot (the judicial elections section) because they don’t know how the state judicial system works or where to find neutral information about the judges.

You see it everywhere — band aid solutions for gaping wounds, and temporary patches for shredded cloth. It’s as if decision-makers suddenly became aware of problems, and in their tireless and hurried vie for public approval, money, or power, submit graffiti solutions when the American people deserve a Van Gogh.