Los Angeles, CA, USA. A study of blogs using year 2008 data foreshadows the extremes of current political debate, along with the different approaches of blogs both Left and Right.

The analysis found that blogs from the Left are more collaborative and less individualistic than blogs from the right.

Richmond, VA, USA. Abortion, gay marriage, sex education, gun control: 2012 so far the states have seen plenty of partisan clashes over social policy, with more fireworks coming.

The legislative session that Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell wanted this year was very different from the one he wound up getting. "Let's be civil", McDonnell told Virginia legislators at the start of this year's session. They didn't always follow his injunction.

Providence, RI, USA. Research findings indicate that voter identification requirements have a substantially negative impact on the voting of all groups, except for Asians.

Particularly strong negative effects are seen for Blacks and Hispanics (voting decreased by 18% and 22%, respectively). Even Whites show dampened turnout associated with voter ID policies, but it has the opposite effect for Asians (boosting turnout by nearly 30%).

Durham, NC, USA. Despite the claims of previous researchers, one or two genes cannot predict voting behavior.

Evan Charney, a Duke University professor of public policy and political science, and co-author William English of Harvard University call into question the validity of all studies that claim that a common gene variant can predict complex behaviors such as voting.

Washington, DC, USA. If the unemployment rate stays high and voters are still pessimistic about the future of the country two weeks before the November 6 election, Republican governors say, the party has a decent chance of denying President Obama a second term.

But if the economy continues adding jobs each month, as it has for 23 straight months, Democratic governors say Obama can win re-election, especially if his personal popularity remains above 50 percent.