After three full days focused on state politics, policy and leadership, Mara Liasson, political correspondent with NPR and Fox News, reminded us that the “most extraordinary, mind-boggling” race for president ever continues to shock and surprise us all.

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With more than 180 exhibitors and 50,000 sq ft. of floor space in Chicago’s McCormick Place, the 2016 Legislative Summit exhibit hall was packed with issues and organizations that spanned the political spectrum and tools intended to help government work more efficiently. 

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Considering the lack of respect, the low pay and the long hours, is it really that surprising there are teacher shortages?

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The changing demographic face of America is a familiar topic. Most people understand the country is seeing a rapidly aging white population, that the growth in our population is increasingly among people of color, and that these trends have profound societal and political ramifications.

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Hard and soft money, dark money, contribution limits, disclosure of donors—we so easily get caught up in the particulars of campaign finance regulation.

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Have you ever tried to explain to someone who does not follow politics how we elect the president? You always get to that uncomfortable moment where you have to say: No, voters don’t actually elect the president, the members of the Electoral College elect the president.

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It was the Gilded Age, 1879, and a not inconsiderable segment of the scientific community was convinced a warm water channel existed past the polar ice and it was possible to navigate a ship to the North Pole.

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President Abraham Lincoln visited the Legislative Summit today, a delightful bonus of holding this meeting in his home state.

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We all have a “buzz.” That was lesson No. 1 for those attending a lively, engaging, humorous—and sometimes emotional--session yesterday on “Feedback—Give it, Get it, and Grow.”

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“We pay more to incarcerate than we do to educate,” Maryland Senator Catherine Pugh told participants in a late-Tuesday session at the Summit in Chicago.

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