Category: Uncategorized

Two strong Democrats are seeking the California U.S. Senate open seat in 2016. They are Attorney General Kamala Harris and U.S. House Member Lorettz Sanchez. According to this story, both of them have been endorsed by a substantial number of California Democratic U.S. House members. The story mentions a recent poll of the entire electorate that shows Harris at 26% and Sanchez at 17%. Three fairly prominent Republicans have also announced for the seat, but none of them has as much voter support as 10%.
If the current California system is not changed before the 2016 election, …read more

According to this story, Mark McKinnon, former chief media strategist to President George W. Bush, said on National Public Radio on September 17 that if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, Republican leaders who oppose Trump should consider qualifying an independent ticket. McKinnon suggested Mitt Romney might be such a candidate. …read more

Dickson, TN — While conducting a welfare check on a 47-year-old man on Friday, deputies killed the unarmed father in front of his family. Although police claim that the man was reaching for a shotgun, witnesses assert that the man was not going for a weapon when a deputy suddenly shot him to death.
According to the Dickson County Sheriff’s Office, Gregory Herrell’s family called police asking deputies to conduct a welfare check on Herrell. Reportedly addicted to painkillers, Herrell appeared at his mother’s house on Friday morning looking for money when he ended up arguing with his mom and daughter. …read more

According to this story, North Carolina Republican legislators are expected to pass the bill moving the May primary (for office other than President0 to March. …read more

Whitney, TX – A man who accused Black Lives Matter activists of vandalizing and spray-painting his car was recently arrested because police believe that he vandalized the car himself to stage a hoax and to scam his insurance company. Scott Lattin, a self-described supporter of police, reported earlier this month that his truck was torn apart and tagged with the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” Lattin alleged that his vehicle was targeted because he had a number of pro-police stickers and symbols displayed.
Lattin’s story received national press, and he even appeared on a number of news programs where he showed the …read more

The story of 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed proudly bringing his homemade clock to school, only to be punished and arrested by paranoid, possibly bigoted school and police authorities, has captured the hearts of many Americans.
Much can be said about the attitude of police and the xenophobia in Texas, but the invitation by President Obama for Ahmed to visit the White House provides many layers of interest. It will undoubtedly fire up the political class that feeds on hatred of foreigners and the illusion of American exceptionalism. It will score Obama and Democrats points with the Muslim community.
It will also …read more

Texas does not have the statewide initiative. But it does have an obscure procedure in its election code for a group to petition for a statewide measure in a party primary. The procedure has existed since 1907, but apparently has never been used.
The Texas Nationalist Movement hopes to use the procedure, and to put a question on the March 2016 Texas Republican primary ballot asking if the party should endorse independence for Texas. See this story. The law requires a petition signed by 10% of the last primary turnout. The Texas Republican primary turnout was …read more

Los Angeles, Ca — Last week, local politicians in Los Angeles voted unanimously to create a new police task force that will be entirely focused on electronic dance music events. Earlier this summer, Los Angeles County council members proposed banning these types of events entirely. While that option is still on the table for them, they are now moving to crack down on these events until they are able to initiate a complete ban.
The recent proposal to create a police task force was put forward by county supervisors Hilda Solis and Michael Antonovich. The motion reads “Ultimately, in the interest …read more

Duluth, Minnesota voters will be deciding on November 3, 2015 if they want to begin using instant runoff voting for city elections. Here is a news story about the ballot question. …read more

What’s the magic number for today? $50. That’s the price of Amazon‘s newest Fire tablet that is aptly called: Fire. That’s it. No special numbers or anything of the sort. Just Fire. And, in fact, if you buy six of them, you get one of them free (as it only costs $250 for a 6-pack of Fire tablets)! Why exactly, Amazon ever chose the name “Fire” for its hardware line and the name of its Android-based OS–Fire OS–I’ve never really been sure (“fire of the mind”, or the result of “kindling”/Kindles?), but regardless, Amazon did some potential game-changing today in …read more