First, props to Tom Petty for lyrics that perfectly sum up the message behind this truly inspiring story. Amr Arafa originally hails from Egypt. A Harvard graduate, the 34 year-old has had his share of heartbreaking experiences throughout his quest to obtain his green card. Arafa first emigrated to the United States in 2005 where
Ryan Lochte has officially joined ABC’s upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars.” But before we get into that, let’s take a walk down memory lane for a quick refresher on why this matters in the first place. I’m sure by now, most people have heard about what’s been termed “Lochtegate.” Olympic gold-medalist Ryan Lochte,
The Chicago Tribune conducted an investigation into allegations into a Chicago City Hall corruption scheme. The allegations involved the city’s red-light program and John Bills, a former Chicago Department of Transportation official. Bills was in charge of the program that was designed to expand Chicago’s camera system, beginning in 2003, with the goal of targeting
Many supporters of the pro-life movement argue the issue is a religious one; that it has to do with God and His intentions and therefore, those who support women’s reproductive rights are wrong without question. God is generally the center of these discussions as being the reason women get pregnant in the first place (though
Just last week, Mylan Inc. decided it was a good idea to raise the price of the life-saving EpiPen, which is used to stop a person from going into anaphylactic shock after experiencing an allergic reaction. Life-threatening allergies are on the rise and millions of people rely on the EpiPen to maintain their quality of
For protesters at the site of the Dakota Access Pipeline, everywhere is downstream. A historic gathering of Native Americans from sixty tribes, including Sioux who haven’t come together since the time of Greasy Grass (Battle of Little Bighorn), has converged near Cannonball, North Dakota where Dakota Access, LLC, is set to build a pipeline to
A few years ago, as the economic crash of 2007 was sliding into our Great Recession, I wrote a satirical piece about an Orwellian government program that introduced virtual slave camps to the U.S. under the guise of easing unemployment, homelessness and debt peonage. The program was called COBRA, the Corporate-Operated Bankruptcy Recovery Act. COBRA
After Dylann Roof gunned down nine parishioners at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, people of conscience all over the United States agitated for the removal of the Confederate flag from public venues like the South Carolina state house. Governor Nikki Haley signed the bill into law, and it looked like we
The Bureau of Land Management, BLM, is a part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Its function is to manage America’s federal public land. According to its website, it manages more than 245 million acres and 700 million acres of subsurface minerals. The BLM was formed in 1946 by merging the federal General Land
In the last couple days, I talked about ways that individuals and collectives can act to reduce the threat of climate change. This is not new information, and a lot of it is rather obvious when you think about it for a couple minutes. And yet, we go about our days changing very little. We