California lawmakers put aside party labels this week to engage in an informed conversation with representatives from the tech and manufacturing industries on the need for a comprehensive plan for economic development in California during a panel discussion at the Independent Voter Project Conference.

Last week, lawmakers and health care industry leaders representing a variety of interests participated in a roundtable discussion with the Independent Voter Project on the challenges to California's health care system.

This year, the panel topics focused on 5 key issues: Public Safety, Energy, Bioscience and Innovation, Healthcare, and Economic Development.

There is a saying in politics: Nothing ever happens on the weekend, and when it does it has to be major.

The major story broke late Saturday night. It announced a possible deal with Iran over its nuclear capabilities and sanctions that are currently in place. So what are the details behind the Iran nuclear deal?

The talks involved six nations meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The deal is only a temporary 6-month agreement to test the proverbial waters for a bigger deal down the road.

When I read articles about what is happening in Washington DC, I almost always come away thinking that Americans deserve a better government than we have. But when I read the comments under these same articles, I realize that we have exactly the government we deserve. It would be hard to imagine a government more dysfunctional and divided than the comments section of the Washington Post.

What we want now is more important than what we want most.

You’ve probably heard about the famous experiment, or some variation of it, where a young child has to choose between a small reward now or a much larger reward later. When experimenters give four- and five-year old children a choice between a marshmallow right now and two marshmallows in 15 minutes, about two thirds of them choose the marshmallow now. If you increase the time frame to an hour, you can offer an ice-cream sundae to those who wait and most kids will still eat the marshmallow.

26 percent of Americans who were at least 5 years old at the time, the events of that day will forever be seared into their memory.