Ryan Farrick is a freelance writer and small business advertising consultant based out of mid-Michigan. Passionate about international politics and world affairs, he’s an avid traveler with a keen interest in the connections between South Asia and the United States. Ryan studied neuroscience and has spent the last several years working as an operations manager in transportation logistics.


A Grand Crusade Against Consumers and Class-Action Lawsuits

A vote is due next week on an interesting bill proposed by Representative Bob Goodlatte. The Virginia Republican is bringing back an idea he failed to push through Congress last year which would tighten the controls on class-action lawsuits. Detractors inside government and from without are deriding H.R. 985, the Fairness in Class Action Litigation


Tennessee Confirms Local Outbreak of Bird Flu

Tennessee health officials confirmed on Sunday that a farm in the southern part of the state had been hit with an outbreak of bird flu. Highly pathogenic avian influenza, popularly called the “bird flu,” was the basis for a widely publicized health scare in 2013 and 2014. Contagious for chickens and turkey alike, the bird


CFPB Reveals Credit Reporting Abuses and Corrections

On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (or CFPB, for short) released a report detailing numerous problems which it had uncovered and corrected within the credit reporting industry. Since the beginning of the year, the CFPB has been taking on credit reporting agencies such as TransUnion and Equifax. The Bureau found numerous instances wherein credit


Interest Groups Asks Congress to Remove Internet Privacy Rules

Conservative interest groups and industry lobbyists are begging Congress to roll back Obama-era internet privacy rules. The groups sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday, laying out an argument for why the regulations should be reversed. Signed by 18 groups – including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, US Telecom, and the Consumer


Settlement After NYPD Illegally Targeted Muslims for Surveillance

The New York City Police Department has agreed to settle in a lawsuit which alleged the NYPD illegally targeted Muslims for surveillance. The litigation was originally filed in 2013 following numerous complaints that the Department was stalking Muslims and infiltrating mosques. Ever since September 11th, 2001, the police had been actively monitoring the greater Islamic


Donald Trump Signs New Travel Ban

Donald Trump is giving the travel ban another go. On Monday, he signed an executive order restricting travel to the United States from six Muslim-majority nations. Noticeably absent from the list is Iraq, which the administration removed at the prompting of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The new executive order is a response to the original’s


Family of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez Seeks to Stop Deportation

Last week, a 13-year old girl from Los Angeles had to watch as her father, Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, was handcuffed and taken away in a black car. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had pulled over the family on Tuesday. Avelica was driving his daughter to school in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles when


Big Settlement for Children of Immigrant Killed by Border Patrol

A judge in California tentatively approved a $1 million settlement for the children of an illegal immigrant killed by Border Patrol agents in 2010. Six years ago, Anastasio Hernandez Rojas and his brother were caught by Border Patrol agents trying to cross into the United States near Otay Mesa, California. According to the lawsuit, Rojas was


Trump Proposes an Axing of the EPA’s Budget

The Environmental Protection Agency was in panic-mode the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. Memos from administration officials had poured into the office, ordering information about climate change to be taken off the agency’s website. Employees were reportedly clocking in to their shifts overcome with anxiety; some workers were in tears, wondering if they’d have a


Sandy Hook Parents Try Reinstating Lawsuit Against Remington

The parents of some of the Sandy Hook Massacre’s victims are asking the State Supreme Court to reinstate a lawsuit against Remington, a large firearms manufacturer. The attorney for the families participating in the litigation, Josh Koskoff, filed a 62-page document outlining their argument. Koskoff and his clients believe Remington knowingly marketed its AR-15 Bushmaster