Charleston, WV, USA. West Virginia’s oddly-timed gubernatorial election has brought out a host of big-name candidates for this Saturday's Democratic primary. But the low-profile incumbent seems likely to end up a winner.

Until recently, Earl Ray Tomblin was not a household name in West Virginia. He had spent 36 years in the state legislature, half of them heading the state Senate, but few people beyond the Capitol grounds in Charleston even knew who the 59-year-old Democrat was.

Columbia, MO, USA. Church attendance in the western democracies has declined, but a new study shows religious beliefs still still influence people and motivate voters at the polls.

Chris Raymond, a graduate instructor of political science in the University of Missouri College of Arts and Science, said that many political experts consider voters around the world as “floating without party loyalties,” and that religion does not influence voters.

East Lansing, MI, USA. Despite the growing scientific consensus that global warming is real, Americans have become increasingly polarized on the environmental issue, according to a first-of-its-kind study.

The gap between Democrats and Republicans who believe global warming is happening increased 30 percent between 2001 and 2010 – a “depressing” trend that’s essentially keeping meaningful national energy policies from being considered.

Washington, DC, USA. A proposal that has long divided Democrats and Republicans — requiring voters to show photo identification when they go to the polls — is gaining momentum after GOP electoral gains.

Fresh off commanding electoral victories in November, Republican majorities in many state legislatures want to require voters to show photo identification at the polls, a move Democrats say is cynically designed to help the GOP during the next election cycle.

Jackson, MS, USA. The always contentious process of seeking racially fair legislative districts in Mississippi is even more contentious this year as Republican power has added a new dimension to the calculation.

When the Mississippi House moved on redistricting this year, state Representative Edward Blackmon cried tears of joy. Blackmon, who took office in 1979 as one of the first black lawmakers to serve in the Mississippi Legislature since Reconstruction, felt the new House district map that