An entrepreneurship major and graduate of Belmont University, Wes believes that small business, innovation, and creative thinking are required to solve problems and improve our world.
News
According to a letter from state Controller John Chiang, if California can’t scrape together $3.3 billion through borrowing and delayed payments by March, the state will run out of cash even though lawmakers thought the state had enough money to last through June. The problem, Chiang notes, is
News
It has nearly become a journalistic convention to editorialize alongside any reference to Texas congressman Ron Paul that the 2012 presidential candidate is considered by many to be unelectable. Or, that other than some interesting points of view and a curiously energized following, Ron Paul's presidential candidacy is
News
Newt Gingrich is definitely regretting the commercial he once made with Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi. It was 2008 and Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project cut the commercial, which featured former House Speaker Newt Gingrich sitting on a couch with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "We don’t always see eye-to-eye,
News
Americans say they're tired of the partisanship and bickering in Washington, and political leaders are always promising-- though never seeming to deliver-- a new level of discourse with each new White House administration or party majority in Congress. But when it comes to bridging partisan divisions, what if
News
In a major milestone for advocates of marijuana legalization, The Journal of the American Medical Association has published the results of a study which found that casual marijuana use does not harm lung function. It was just a few months ago in October that the California Medical Association adopted a
News
In 2010, Proposition 19, the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act, received enough valid petition signatures (nearly 700,000) to qualify for the November ballot, but failed to become law with 53% of Californians voting "No" and 46% voting "Yes." This election cycle, there have been
News
It's a much different electoral landscape in 2012 for the Republican Party. It's a landscape in which California plays a central role in the presidential nominating process, not because its primary comes early like New Hampshire or South Carolina, but because its primary comes so late
News
Counting votes late into the night, a close tie for first place emerged from the Republican Party of Iowa in its first-in-the-nation presidential nominating caucus. Mitt Romney emerged with the most votes at 30,015, but just barely, with Rick Santorum trailing by a mere eight votes at 30,007.
News
Despite the influence of small government advocates like those in the Tea Party movement, the size, role, and influence of government on a federal, state, and local level is set to grow significantly in 2012. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), about 40,000 new laws will
News
As a full-time managing editor for the Independent Voter Network (IVN.us), 2010 YAL media intern Wes Messamore is recruiting young writers for a part -time journalism internship writing weekly articles now through November with relevant and critical analysis of news and politics. Should be a self-starter, motivated, and excited
News
Looking back on 2010, we'll all remember what a strange year it was. But while replete with iPads, vuvuzelas, Lady Gaga outfits, earthquakes, treacherous winter storms, Old Spice commercials, Taylor Swift, and YouTube videos of that 2-year-old Indonesian baby chain smoking, the single most significant event of 2010
News
To the shock of commentators across the political and religious spectrum, conservative Christian televangelist, Pat Robertson actually told his television viewers earlier this week that "criminalizing marijuana... not a good thing." Robertson cited reasons that you would expect to hear from a twenty-something-year-old supporter of Proposition 19. The