Human rights groups across the United States have increased their criticisms of the U.S. prison system over the years. While the United States boasts just 5 percent of the world’s population, the country has a quarter of the world’s prison population.

When Emma Lazarus wrote The New Colossus in 1883, she had no idea that her work would become immortalized by being engraved at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Her words captured the very essence of the American Dream, to come as the downtrodden to be lifted up by Liberty:

In 2011, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman lamented that the proliferation of half-true statements and fallacious accusations during the 2012 presidential campaign had inaugurated an era of "post-truth politics."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEnTDCop-XA

Entrepreneur Greg Orman, an independent candidate running for U.S. Senate in Kansas, on Thursday launched a statewide broadcast, cable, and radio ad campaign in every media market in the state.

The Centrist Project Voice, a political action committee the Centrist Project says is the first to support candidates ready to set partisanship aside and "focus on the core issues of critical importance to all Americans," on Wednesday announced 5 U.S.

California's Democratic Party will pay close attention to this November's election in Ventura County for Assembly District 44. City Councilmember Jacqui Irwin (D) will face Pastor Rob McCoy (R) for control of the seat, a critical race in the Democratic Party’s strategy to regain a super-majority in the legislature.

1. The editorial board of Wyoming's Casper Star-Tribune supports a lawsuit challenging the state's heavy restrictions on third party fundraising.

"In Wyoming, the time period for fundraising is tied to the date of the party primary. Campaign contributions are not allowed before that time.

During Clinton’s uphill re-election campaign in 1996, the president relied heavily on the aid of pollsters. With the help of strategists such as Doug Schoen, Dick Morris, and Mark Penn, the president identified the concerns and personalities of swing voters (such as whether they preferred the TV shows Friends or Home Improvement) and sampled slogans -- even entire paragraphs of speeches -- in order to discover how to appeal to them.

Since October 2013, 52,000 children from Central America have been apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. They are coming here by themselves, many searching for their parents. It's just one more piece in the larger immigration debate that seems to have quieted down until after the November election.

1. An opinion piece in the News Leader argues that Virginia should not indulge partisan calls to close the state's primaries after Eric Cantor lost his seat.

Interestingly enough, one of the biggest names leading the charge to change state law to allow closed primaries is former Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bolling.