This book introduces young readers to US state governments, exploring their parts, roles, and how people fill their offices. The book also includes a "Closer Look" special feature, several "Did You Know?" facts, a table of contents, quiz questions, a glossary, additional resources, and an index. This Focus Readers title is at the Pioneer level, aligned to reading levels of grades 1-2 and interest levels of grades 1-3.

"Nicholas Seabrook, authority on constitutional and election law, and expert on gerrymandering, begins with the earliest gerrymandering (pronounced with a hard 'g'!) before our nation's founding with the rigging of American elections for partisan and political gain and the election-meddling of the colonial governor of North Carolina (George Burrington) in retaliation against his critics. The author writes of Patrick Henry, who used redistricting to...

This book explores the potential benefits of a government-independent, democratized Social Security system to support dependents suffering from the reduction of other government benefits. It provides essential ammunition against the theft of our golden years by pundits, "free" marketeers, and bureaucrats. Social Security, not for nothing do politicians call it the "third rail of American politics, touch it, and you die." Yet a powerful, well-funded...

Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers? The conventional answer is that a popular uprising against "big government" led to the ascendancy of a broad-based conservative...