Massacre in Mosul Underscores Trump’s ISIS Strategy

BY KATHLEEN MURPHY – STAFF WRITER As Iraqi civilians in Mosul find themselves trapped on the ground between retreating ISIS forces and American-backed coalition forces seeking to regain the city, U.S. coalition strikes threaten them from above. On March 17, an airstrike, if confirmed by the ongoing investigation, may have resulted in the highest death…

Passion Politics: A New Hope for the Democratic Party?

  BY RACHAEL BLANDAU – OPINIONS EDITOR  Deep down in the 6th Congressional District of Georgia, a special election is taking place that could determine the trajectory of the Democratic Party heading into the 2018 midterms. A lone face stands as the picture of a new, younger Democratic Party. At only thirty years old, this protégée…

President Trump Talks Big but Acts Small on Women’s Rights

BY DEVIN BAKER- STAFF WRITER March is National Women’s History Month. It is just a small recognition of the many amazing achievements brought forth by women in the United States’ history. In the ins and outs of everyday life, it may be easy to forget how pivotal of a role Women have played in American…

Kentucky Charter Schools Signed Into Law

BY COLLEEN COYLE – STAFF WRITER Last week saw the passage of the Kentucky Charter Schools Bill, a contentious issue that lawmakers have been considering since 2008. Matt Bevin, Kentucky’s governor signed the bill into law on the March 22, making Kentucky the forty-fourth state to allow charter schools to be established. Proponents argue that…

The Path of the EPA and Environmental Rollback

BY OLIVIA MURRELL – STAFF WRITER   What’s going on with the Environmental Protection Agency recently? The environmental justice chief, Mustafa Ali, resigned in early March in the face of proposed budget cuts coming out of the Trump administration. There could be a 30% or more funding cut for the EPA if Congress approves the…

New CIA Leaks: Lots of Smoke, A Small But Growing Fire

BY KATHLEEN MURPHY – STAFF WRITER Certainly not the only embarrassment the United States’ government has experienced in the last two weeks, but one directed towards the already criticized US intelligence community, Wikileaks released one of the largest collections of classified material on March 7. This trove included 7,818 pages of files and 943 attachments…

Winners Need to Go Home Too

Google Image Fair Use

BY LANEY TAYLOR — STAFF WRITER Fridays at 7:41 A.M. were punctuated by the side eye of my neighbor trying to take out the trash. The twang of Bluegrass Junction apparently warmed all cars but only some hearts. Fridays at 7:44 A.M. were marked by the palpable relief in finding a clear stretch of road…

Unpresidented

Google Image Fair Use

BY KATHLEEN MURPHY — STAFF WRITER Throughout his terms as president, many called Barack Obama a “social media president” with his young, tech-savvy campaign and White House staff. So in the social media era, what does this make Donald Trump? The obvious answer is the Twitter president. Throughout the election, he was known for his tweets–for…

The United States and “Neocolonialism”

BY ZAMIRAH HUSSAIN — STAFF WRITER Colonialism is defined as “the quality or state of being colonial; control by one power over a dependent area or people.” While this definition can easily be argued, it does provide a base for the much larger social concept of colonization. The European colonial period often referred to as the…

Perez Elected DNC Chair, and the Future of the Democratic Party

Google Image Fair Use

BY DEVIN BAKER — STAFF WRITER Tom Perez, the former labor secretary for President Obama, was elected as the newest Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman for the Democratic Party. Perez replaces interim chair Donna Brazile after a long, four-month race and an interesting final day of voting. Given the hotly contested battle between Hillary Clinton and…