According to Politico.com a federal appeals court met Wednesday August 31 in San Francisco, California to discuss a ban on the sale of guns to marijuana card holders. It was ruled by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and applies to the nine western states under its jurisdiction. This issue first came up when a woman in Nevada filed a lawsuit after being told she could not buy a gun while obtaining a medical marijuana card. The court, with a 3-0 unanimous vote, decided that marijuana and other drug use "raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated."raises the risk of irrational or unpredictable behavior with which gun use should not be associated." 
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/gun-ban-medical-marijuana-court-227603#ixzz4IyG9VN2P 

Sources tell CBS news that the FBI is planning to release some of the information that was provided to Congress regarding Hillary Clinton's private email that she used as secretary of state. These emails include portions of interview notes, although we are unsure which interviews and they might be abridged versions. The campaign has asked that the interviews between Clinton and the FBI made this past summer be released to the public. The interview lasted three and a half hours and shortly after, FBI director James Comey recommended to the Justice Department that no charges be filed against Clinton. Comey announces, "Our judgement is that no reasonable prosecute would bring such a case."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fbi-hillary-clinton-interview-notes-email-investigation/

According to usanewstoday.com the United States will be accepting its 10,000th refugee from Syria as part of Obama's policy to increase the number of humanitarian admissions from the country. Officials suggest that this number will increase even more next year. Congress remains concerned that the administration does not have the capacity to aid the refugees. It is also a controversial topic among both presidential candidates with Trump saying the refugee program is a "Trojan horse" for terrorist groups to enter the country, whereas Clinton argues that the ceiling for Syrian refugees should be pushed to 65,000. The U.S accepted fewer than 1,700 Syrian refugees in the 2015 fiscal year.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/08/29/us-has-reached-10000th-syrian-refugee-white-house-says/89541072/

According to CNN.com Maine Governor Paul LePage readdresses an issue in his state that "90 plus percent" of drug dealers arrested in Maine are either black or Hispanic and from states such as New York and Connecticut. The governor initially made these remarks at an event in January, but addressed the issue again on Wednesday's town hall meeting, claiming to have evidence this time. The Maine Department of Public Safety does not publish statistics on drug arrests so CNN was not able to find evidence that LePage is correct about the race and percentage of those races of drug dealers in Maine.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/25/politics/lepage-controversy-drug-dealer-remarks/index.html

According to abcnews.com, Donald Trump mentions a "softening" of his controversial immigration policies during a fox news interview. Trump emphasized the fact that his immigration policies would follow the laws of the country. Trump states: "If we follow the laws of the country, we can do what we need to do. What people don't realize, we have very, very strong laws. Both Trump and Pence mention an "openness" to changing their strict stance on immigration laws at a round table meeting with Hispanic leaders.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-suggests-softening-immigration-policies/story?id=41602349

News blog: http://www.oann.com/obama-biden-meet-costa-ricas-president-discuss-steps-to-protect-migrants-white-house/

According to oann.com, President Obama and Vice President Biden met with Costa Rica president, Luis Guillermo Solis on monday to consider new steps to improve security in Central America and how to protect migrants. Both Obama and Biden applauded Costa Rica for providing a "protective transfer arrangement" in partnership with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization to provide temporary safe houses for up to 200 immigrants at a time.

News blog:

According to CNN news, Friday in New Delhi, 40 knives were surgically removed from a man's stomach. The head doctor on the surgery said it took him and his team two days to diagnose and come up with a surgical plan and that he had never seen anything like it. The man who swallowed both folded and non-folded knives said he had an overwhelming urge to ingest metal. The knives were removed and the patient is now out of danger, but is being evaluated for his mental state. The doctors told the man if he ever got the urge to ingest metal again, that he should try spinach to receive the iron from that.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/22/health/india-man-with-knives-stomach/index.html

News  blog:

According to BBC news, a suicide bomber in Turkey targeted a wedding in a very populated city today, killing 51 people and injuring 69. The bomber is believed to be between the ages of 12 and 14 and is also believed to be a part of Iraq or the "Islamic state". There are theories that the bombing was an act of revenge due to the jihadist's loss of territory in Syria.  The couple responsible for the wedding were not killed, but were sent to the hospital due to injuries.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37147717

The article on religiosity in all 50 states on talks about the ways that the researchers determined how religious these states are. First, they analyzed worship attendance, prayer frequency, belief in God, and importance of religion in one's life. Alabama, Mississippi, and other southern states rank highest on the list 77% of adults saying they are very religious. Vermont, Maine, and other north-eastern states rank lowest on the list with around 33% of the state saying they are highly religious. This kind of data would be very useful and interesting for political scientists especially during presidential elections to possibly help predict which states would vote for a certain Democratic or Republican candidate based on their religious standpoint.

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/the-news-iq-quiz/
http://www.people-press.org/quiz/political-typology/group/bd324384/

So far, we have taken two quizzes on the PewResearchCenter website. One we took to determine how much we know about common news, which I got 8/12 on. The second quiz was to determine our political standpoint, which I got next-generation left on. Next, we answered questions and addressed trends on different graphs having to do with government and political issues.