Opinions / Columns

It’s a sweltering Friday evening in Oakland as I sit on my porch. I’m craving something sweet, creamy and icy. I pull up Google and dig into my recent searches — yes, this is a weekly occurrence — for “ice cream near me.” The options abound. I could pay $8 for a fancy, not-so-fantastic double […]

Since the Spanish claimed Puerto Rico for their own in 1493, the land saw independent rule from July 17 to July 25 1898. Eight days. The American invasion of Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898, changed the land, politics and people forever. And today, it’s for the worse. Puerto Rico is in serious economic distress, […]

At Penn State’s fraternity Beta Theta Pi’s Bid Night, on a cold February night in State College, Timothy Piazza fractured his skull and ruptured his spleen when he fell down a flight of stairs. His fraternity brothers called an ambulance nearly 12 hours later after slapping him, sitting on him and repeatedly punching him in […]

“I mean, I voted, but why does it matter? London will never listen.” When I asked my new Scottish friend about the United Kingdom’s recent election, he responded with pure ambivalence. He truly cares about the issues at hand, but he, like many other Scots, has long struggled with misrepresentation in government. And this feeling […]

Dear Ben Shapiro, You have been completely wrong since May 10, the day after Trump fired Comey. In the June 8 episode of The Ben Shapiro Podcast, one of the most popular conservative podcasts in the nation, you declared you were “exactly correct” in your wildest theory to date — that Donald Trump fired James […]

It’s halftime during the Pitt vs Duke game at Heinz Field. The photo room is warm and abuzz with chatter — most Pittsburgh-based photographers know one another and are sharing inside jokes and quips as they upload their first half shots to their respective publications. I felt remarkably out of place for no discernible reason. […]

When Tamesha Means entered labor with her first child in 2016, she was only 18 weeks pregnant — not even halfway through her pregnancy. So she did the logical thing and rushed to the nearest hospital. When she arrived at the Mercy Health Partners hospital, doctors diagnosed her with preterm premature rupture of membranes, meaning […]

Two months ago a couple from Lower Burrell mourned the loss of their son who didn’t live to see his 25th birthday. David Makara’s refusal to get treatment drove him to move out of his parents home as he could not pass a drug test to get a job. Without any notice he moved out […]

Its thunderous footsteps can be heard the instant it decides to return from the kitchen. Approaching the worn leather couch, it loses its balance. Flailing for a moment, then collecting itself, it manages to plop down onto the cracked sofa cover, slowing sinking into the cushion with a mumbled chuckle and a quick flash of […]

There’s the roommate that has super loud FaceTime conversations with their significant other, the one who never showers and spews an unfavorable odor wherever they go, the one who is too clingy and over-involved in your life and the one that snores like a chainsaw or talks in their sleep through the night. Nobody thinks […]