1. Sacramento Bee Editorial Board says top-two primaries are the best hope for politics in California and nationwide.

"The real change is being felt in legislative and congressional races in districts that are reliably red or blue, but have enough voters from the other side that a moderate has a shot at beating an extremist from the same party. That’s what’s happening to Democratic Rep. Mike Honda in San Jose and Republican Rep.

A plume is haunting America -- the plume of legal marijuana. The November ballots of two states, Oregon and Alaska, and the District of Columbia will include initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana. If passed, they will join Washington state and Colorado, who passed their own legalization measures in 2012. Florida voters will decide on a constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, but not its recreational use.

Chronic pain is a serious problem for veterans. Research shows that half of all veterans have some kind of chronic pain problem after returning from combat and managing that pain can be challenging. But those challenges are compounded when the VA lacks many of the options available in a civilian environment -- or fails to offer them to patients -- and are left with NSAIDs and narcotics.

“It’s time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment.”—Sarah Palin, July 8, 2014 "Talk about impeachment is coming from the president's own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. . . . Why?

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IVN contributor Michael Austin is right. So is Fareed Zakaria, the majority of Americans, their government, and the United Nations. The most viable, moral solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a two-state solution.

...measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.  --James Madison, The Federalist #10

Author's note: The purpose of this article is primarily to provide the historical basis for investigating systems of proportional representation, a democratic voting system designed to level the playing field and represent the maximum percentage of voters.

Governor Scott Walker has already run a statewide campaign in Wisconsin for his seat, twice in fact. First, he ran in 2010 against Tom Barrett and won. Then, in 2012, the two candidates had a rematch in a recall election -- Walker, again, triumphed. In both elections, polls showed Walker holding onto steady leads throughout the campaign season.

The media, much like politics, has a spectrum of partisan ideologies that targets consumers of different political persuasions. Fox News is to conservatives what MSNBC is to liberals.

Media is meant to be informative and provide the essentials to a lively debate. It is a disservice to the public when the big story of the day, no matter what it is, becomes politicized to the point that one side portrays the other side as blatantly wrong and begins to question their opponent’s sanity.

1. New Mexico's secretary of state refuses to defend the state's closed primary system.

"This week New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran responded to a lawsuit filed by Albuquerque attorney J.