FURTHERMORE. . . .

Pam Hartwell-Herrero was elected to the 5 member Fairfax [CA] Town Council, making Fairfax the only Green majority town council in the United States. In Minnesota, incumbent Minneapolis City Council Cam Gordon was re-elected. Dan Robinson maintained his seat on the Takoma Park, MD council and Christine Nagle won her election to the College Park, MD council. In New Caanan, CT, three Greens ran for Constable and all were elected. Elsewhere in new England, Kevin Donoghue and David Marshall won re-election to the Portland ME City Council. Chuck Turner was re-elected to the Boston City Council. In New York, in a partisan race, Mary Jo Long was re-elected to the Afton Town Council and Jennifer Dotson was re-elected to the Ithaca Common Council. Lynne Serpe put the Green Party on the map in New York City, winning nearly 25% in her race for New York City Council.

Reihan Salam, Daily Beast - Muslims remain a fairly small minority in the United States, with estimates ranging up to 7 million adherents at the high end. This number has increased dramatically since the immigration reforms of the mid-1960s, which led to a sharp increase in the number of Asian and Middle Eastern Muslims entering the country. According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 45 percent of Americans know a Muslim. Of those who have a high level of familiarity with Islam, 57 percent view Muslims favorably while 25 percent view them unfavorably. For those with a low level of familiarity, 21 percent have a favorable view, 35 percent have an unfavorable view, and 44 percent, a significant plurality, have no opinion. The Pew survey also found that 58 percent of Americans believe that Muslims face a high level of discrimination, while 64 percent believe the same is true for gays and lesbians. These numbers suggest that a large majority of Americans are open-minded about Muslims. And though there are pockets of distrust, far more Americans worry that Muslims face discrimination than hold negative views of Muslims.

Fair Vote - Instant runoff voting may face a binding repeal vote next year in Aspen after what for now is a narrow loss by six votes in an advisory referendum -- more votes are still to be counted. The result was tied to several factors. The city's highly competitive IRV election in May brought more voters to the polls than ever before, but the novel "two-seat IRV" system for council was very close and frustrated some backers of losing candidates. In addition, a losing mayoral candidate who had raised the most money in Aspen city history prefers a traditional runoff and has worked hard against IRV. While The Aspen Times supported IRV's retention, its editorial appeared after many people had voted in an all-mail election. Still, IRV will only be repealed if defeated in a separate vote in the future. Ranked voting also suffered a loss in Lowell MA, where a campaign had placed the choice voting form of proportional voting on the ballot by petition. A completely unknown idea to most city voters just a few weeks ago, choice voting earned 43% of the vote despite opposition from the local media.