What do you first think of when I say I’m Colombian? Coffee? Sofia Vergara? James Rodríguez? Maybe. But I would be surprised if most of you didn’t first think about cocaine, Pablo Escobar, or Netflix’s Narcos. Truth be told, that image is not entirely unreasonable. There was a time during the 1980s and 1990s when […]
Prescription opioids and heroin (from this point on summarily referred to as opioids; despite differences in legality, they both have opiate bases and fall under a shared political umbrella) have created the latest substance-related epidemic in America.[1] In a rare frenzy of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed 18 opioid-related bills during one week in […]
The New York Times recently published a “Room for Debate” on the topic of felon disenfranchisement with Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, arguing for felon disenfranchisement, and Janai S. Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, arguing against it. The debate centered on the […]
As the war in Syria continues, many fear that we are experiencing a “lost generation” of Syrian youth who will be uneducated and unable to rebuild the country, even after the war ceases. If a large-scale intervention occurs, in which Assad is deposed and the Syrian civil war ends, Syria will be left with a […]
The 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place from November 30 to December 11, 2015 in Paris, France.[1] More than 150 nations submitted Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) outlining plans for decreased carbon emissions and increased energy efficiency.[2] The goal of this conference was to […]
The 2016 election cycle is shaping up to be the most interesting in years. This is the result of a “revolution” brewing among both Democratic and Republican bases alike — where “outsider” candidates garner major support and their party establishments try to tear them down. The Democratic Party has had some success keeping Bernie Sanders […]
February 13, 2016: Antonin Scalia is dead. The brilliant conservative jurist, beloved on the right and often demonized on the left, had for decades stood as a conservative titan and stalwart on the Supreme Court. Scalia, 79, was discovered dead in his room at a luxury resort, where he had been visiting for the weekend, […]
The HBO series Girls — and its creator, writer, director, and star Lena Dunham — have attracted overwhelming media attention since the show first aired in 2012. Girls has received mixed reviews; some applaud the show and Lena Dunham, a self-proclaimed feminist, for bringing women’s issues to the forefront of social and political discourse, while […]
International lawyer Amal Clooney has taken on the case of imprisoned investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, signaling hope for media freedom in Azerbaijan and striking fear in the hearts of repressive regimes everywhere. Khadija Ismayilova, 37, is an investigative journalist from the former-Soviet state of Azerbaijan. She dug into the regime of President Ilham Aliyev, whose […]
LGBT rights have expanded exponentially in the past year. The Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) legalized same-sex marriage across all 50 states, briefly putting an end to state-imposed discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.[1] The majority of political backlash following the Obergefell decision, primarily from conservative states and politicians, consisted mostly of […]
