The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released a report on Wednesday, April 30, on its continued investigation into the effects of California's nonpartisan, top-two primary system. The report concludes that while voter turnout was lower during the 2012 primary elections -- much to the chagrin of those hoping it would reverse the trend of gradually decreasing turnout rates -- more independent voters participated in the elections compared to previous years.

Politico's Emily Schultheis reports that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a pro-LGBT group, has endorsed U.S. Representative Mike Honda (D-San Jose) in what could end up being the most competitive and perhaps most expensive U.S. House race in not only California, but the country. Honda's biggest challenge in the 17th Congressional District is from fellow Democrat Ro Khanna.

In a statement, HRC COO Ana Ma praised Honda, saying he is "not only a supporter of LGBT equality, he is a champion in the fight."

May 1 is the National Day of Prayer, created in 1952 by a Joint Resolution from Congress and the signature of President Harry Truman. It is a day, according to the website promoting it, that “represents a Judeo Christian expression of the national observance, based on our understanding that this country was birthed in prayer and in reverence for the God of the Bible.” And it is a bad idea.

On Thursday, during an interview with NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens said that he believes our beloved federal government should legalize marijuana.

The scandal that erupted after California state Senator Leland Yee was indicted on multiple charges of corruption and conspiracy turned the national spotlight on the race for secretary of state in California -- a race Yee is a candidate in. In the irony that is only suited for American politics, Californians had an opportunity to read Yee's pledge to fight corruption in the voter information guide delivered in the mail this week to over 10.6 million voters.

Presidential politics are all about numbers, from campaign spending, third party interest funding, and electoral votes (EV). Battleground states, by definition, shift the winning side every 4 years or so, hence they are where both Democrats and Republicans fight the hardest for each vote.

A local news station in New Mexico, KOB 4, recently aired a story about how independent voters in the state are excluded from the upcoming primaries, which will be held on June 3. The inability of independent voters (and all voters) to have full and meaningful participation in the election process has long been ignored by most media outlets, but as the number of independent voters rise, it is getting harder for traditional media outlets to overlook.

“Irredentism” is the philosophy by which a state advocates the annexation of another state’s territory because of a common ethnicity or because of former possession of that territory. Perhaps its most infamous instance, albeit by no means its most recent, was Adolf Hitler’s use of it to justify his invasion of Poland as a way to reclaim the Baltic seaport of Danzig with its majority German population.

Recently, in the case Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, the United States Supreme Court, by a 6-2 vote, upheld a Michigan ban on affirmative action. The ban stated that universities didn't have to consider race as a requirement for enrollment. Michigan isn't alone with a ban either as states like California, Washington, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and others have done so, as well.

Colorado made history in 2012 when state voters approved Amendment 64, which made it legal for people over 21 to buy small amounts of recreational marijuana. The law went into effect on January 1, 2014, making Colorado the first state to tax legal recreational marijuana.