It’s finally winter for real here in the upper Midwest, with snow piling up, salt trucks and plows on patrol, and that delightful “wintry mix” of sleet, freezing rain, snow, and ice that makes the coldest season such an adventure. Just as the locals have to remember how to drive on the white stuff every
In recent weeks, whistleblowers revealed that “sharing economy” giant and somehow-not-a-taxi taxi service Uber may have been less than honorable concerning their pledge to stop tracking their customers when there wasn’t a valid business reason to do so. The story begins two years ago, when Uber executives allegedly abused the company’s God View feature, which
The classic definition of the tragedy of the commons involves the mismanagement of a shared resource. Individuals are said to act in pure self-interest by grabbing as much of the shared resource as they can, in order to privately profit at the expense of the collective wealth. The tragedy is that this resource, if properly managed
Fake news is a scourge upon the media landscape. While it’s certainly not a new phenomenon, the partisan divide in modern day America is certainly ramping it up to obnoxious levels. Satire based publications such as The Onion write fake news in a more or less obvious attempt at social commentary (“The play’s the thing
While the world was watching the standoff between the local authorities and water protectors at Standing Rock, the Navajo nation was preparing a lawsuit over the fouling of their water. The Gold King mine spill in August of 2015 turned the river a deep yellow and sent toxic pollutants like arsenic and lead coursing through
At approximately 6:15 PM on June 12, 2014, Oklahoma police officer David Jehle shot Marquis Pegues in a laundromat after the two engaged in a physical confrontation, rendering the victim paraplegic. Pegues, who is schizophrenic, was in the middle of a psychotic break when he was shot. In response to the series of unfortunate events,
The recent tragic fire that engulfed Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse / artist space / underground residence, killing at least 36 people, is sparking a conversation about why so many people were living there in the first place. One obvious answer is that young artists that are struggling to get by can’t afford the exorbitant rents
In any society, there are people who break the rules. What the people of that society choose to do about that not only says something about that society, it also determines how well that society is going to re-assimilate the rulebreakers. If the crime is egregious and the victims hurt beyond repair, there is a
Shawnnon Hale was just 24-years-old on the December morning in 2014 when he received a phone call from Denver police at his grandmother’s house, where he lives, telling him he needed to come to the station for questioning. Hale agreed to be at the station by 10:00 AM, but because he was running late, police
In what is becoming an all-too familiar scenario for countless people who either need to see their primary care physician or receive treatment in a hospital, whether for a scheduled procedure or an emergency condition, countless doctors and hospitals are now requiring payment for service before providing necessary care to patients. For the few who