Life throws me chances to practice being independent every day. Yesterday, I landed in the middle of a political conversation when I sat down to get my hair cut. The customer in the next chair was condemning big companies for causing obesity. Her haircutter agreed that businesses have malicious ways of getting us to overeat. The young lady with her hands in my hair chimed in exuberantly.

California's perpetual budget deficit will be a topic for voters to consider again this November. Proposition 30 at the center of Governor Jerry Brown's budget plans.

Presidential candidate Rocky Anderson has gained support across party lines in several states across the country. He is currently on the November ballot in several states.

In Minnesota, a state that hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1972, state representative and US Senate candidate Kurt Bills is challenging incumbent Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar.

Talks to avert Chicago's first teachers' strike in twenty-five years will continue throughout the weekend between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the Chicago Teachers Union. The union has set the strike date for Monday, September 10th.

Republicans and Democrats just wrapped up their big conventions, but Independents and non-affiliated voters might be wondering where alternative solutions were being discussed. For the past two weeks, the Gary Johnson campaign schedule included multiple stops and events in the neighboring areas surrounding each party's convention.

What do the Democratic and Republican parties think about the Constitution? The table below offers a side-by-side comparison of the two party platforms on the Constitution. Many of the platform positions on constitutional issues will come as no surprise. But there are some less predictable provisions in the platforms.