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.


Judgment Against the NCAA Entitles Athletes to a Payday

A judgment against the NCAA entitles athletes to a payday to potentially worth thousands of dollars each. The award is part of a larger antitrust lawsuit which claims the organization had shorted its student athletes on scholarships. Before making changes to cost-of-attendance scholarships, the NCAA had only given its athletes money to cover tuition, books,


Donald Trump to Followers: ‘Negative Polls Are Fake News’

Donald Trump took to social media on Monday with a message for his millions of followers: all negative polls are fake news. He was reacting specifically to a series of polls run by CNN and pushed out across cyberspace. Results have come back from a variety of sources which all show that a majority of


Republican Lawmakers Crack Down on Protesters

Civil liberties watchdogs are raising an uproar as Republican lawmakers crack down on protesters. Right-wing legislators in North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, and several other states have introduced bills which punish activists and sideswipe workers on strike. The sudden hostility towards sign-touting and slogan-bearing Americans is born of a tumultuous year and anticipated unrest. Movements like


Trump Begins Disemboweling the EPA

Say what you’d like about Donald Trump – he’s stuck a hard line to his campaign promises. Over the weekend, the newly appointed president started to lay the foundation for an all-out assault on the environment. Workers at federal offices were showing up to the job in tears since the inauguration, as Trump begins disemboweling


Nebraska Lawmakers to Take on Debt Collectors

After years of being allowed to run rampant, a bill was proposed which would Nebraska lawmakers to take on debt collectors and put a hold on their practically punitive powers. In a small state with a population just under two-million, nearly 79,000 lawsuits were filed in 2013 against individuals struggling not to let their bank


No Additional Penalties for Wal-Mart in Trucking Suit

A federal judge announced there would be no additional penalties for Wal-Mart in a long-lasting lawsuit. In November of 2016, a jury had awarded hundreds of truck drivers $54 million in back pay. The plaintiffs had contested that the Arkansas-based retailer hadn’t fairly compensated its over-the-road employees for doing certain tasks. A California jury found


States Intervene in For-Profit Education Lawsuit

Attorneys general from several states filed a motion to intervene in a for-profit education lawsuit against the federal government. The Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, or ACICS, made a decision to take the Department of Education to court after having its accreditation authority revoked last month. Worries over the priorities of the Trump administration


Comcast Consumer Lawsuit Isn’t Going Away

Everybody loves to hate on Comcast. The telecom giant saw an unwelcome addition to its club of naysayers in early August. Bob Ferguson, the attorney general of Washington State, filed a lawsuit which has refused to shrink. He claims the company deceived a half-million customers in the Pacific Northwest, refusing to change its ways until


Drug Bidding Practices Challenged By Trump

“Aggressive” is probably a mild term to describe the president-elect’s rhetoric in the days preceding his inauguration. Offensive and damning tweets have been fired off at critics all across social media, with most mainstream news networks focusing on innumerable faux pas and controversial cabinet appointments. Missed on the ides of January is a critically important


Pyrrhic Victory for Johnson & Johnson

A Dallas judge’s ruling resulted in a pyrrhic victory for Johnson & Johnson. The latest and possibly last chapter in a long-lasting court case came to a close at the beginning of January. For two years, Johnson & Johnson had been fighting six plaintiffs’ accusations of negligence. At the forefront of the drama was a