News & Features

All About Me: How Memoirs Became the Literature of Choice

Veronica Giannotta

Memoirs are the great equalizer of writing. In a genre utterly non-denominational, there is room for any story in any pattern of prose. The Christian Science Monitor reports that memoirs have seen sales increase from $170 million to $270 million since 1999. Most nonfiction MFA writing programs are geared substantially towards the genre; Hunter College even requires prospective students to submit a memoir proposal as part of their application. 

Why Lance Armstrong Will Remain a Champion to Those Who ‘Live Strong’

Sandip Roy

Lance Armstrong has thrown in the towel with all the abhimaan (self-absolution) of a martyr. He has announced that he will not fight the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on doping charges, not because he is admitting guilt, but because “enough is enough" and he is just the victim of an “unconstitutional witch-hunt." Armstrong might lose his seven titles, but he seems confident that he is in little danger of losing anything else. In his book he is still No. 1, and he is still Lance Armstrong, the great white hope of cancer survivors everywhere. 

The Bush Tax Cuts: Bad Yesterday, Bad Today, and Bad Tomorrow

Matthew Rudow

While it’s difficult to calculate the overall impact of the Bush tax cuts, the Great Recession might actually have made them less detrimental to America’s finances. Because the economic slowdown drastically reduced government revenues, gross domestic product was well below projections, and the loss of revenue was actually somewhat lower than the Congressional Budget Office initially projected. Nevertheless, the Bush tax cuts left America in a much weaker position to cope with the 2008 crash.

The American Spirit, Lost and Found

Thomas Adcock

The spirit of John Hancock and his gang of aristocrats——optimists all who risked their lives and property as signatories to revolution——is rare. Regrettably, that optimistic spirit——that spirit that drives all American progress——has been at historic odds with an uncharitable impulse among the American people: a selfishness that paradoxically afflicts both the afflicters and the afflicted, as we see in this election season.

More States Seek to Abolish Capital Punishment, Citing Hefty Costs, Wrongful Convictions

Rene Ciria-Cruz

The report revealed that the state had spent $4 billion on the death penalty while carrying out 13 executions since 1978, when the punishment was revived. The study further projected that by 2030, death penalty expenditure will balloon to $9 billion for death-row housing, health care, legal appeals and the actual executions. In addition, today’s California death-row population of 724 inmates—already the largest in the nation--would grow to more than a thousand.

 

PepsiCo.’s Donation to Media Organization Raises Questions About Ethics

Fernando Quintero

I don't know whether anyone on the NAHJ board or staff pointed out the parallels between the generous Philip Morris and PepsiCo gifts. Or whether there was even any debate about accepting the money. These are tough times, especially for the journalism industry. Yet, just like taking money from tobacco, accepting funding from the soda industry can put organizations like NAHJ on a slippery slope, with the potential to risk their values, integrity and public trust.

How the Assange Case Catapulted Ecuador to the Limelight

Roger Burbach and Marc Becker

Rafael Correa, the president of one of South America's smallest countries with almost 15 million inhabitants is taking a dramatic stand against Great Britain, Sweden and the United States by granting political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Correa in an address to the Ecuadorian people on Saturday said, “I don't know who they think I am or what they think our government is. But how could they expect us to yield to their threats or cower before them? My friends, they don't know who they are dealing with.”

Reddit: An Instrument for Social Change?

Tyler Huggins

In the digital universe, social communities actualize through the grouping of users with similar interests or affiliations, forming Facebook groups, Twitter groups (often referred to as Twibes) and subreddits. While Twitter's and Facebook's traffic unquestionably eclipse Reddit's, Reddit fosters critical thinking, informed decision-making and concerted action (as opposed to sharing issues on Facebook or trending awareness on Twitter, redditors often take action). 

Romney, Like His Republican Predecessors, Focuses on the ‘Southern Strategy’

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Romney and Ryan, like Reagan before them, rip a page directly from the time-tested Southern Strategy playbook of Richard Nixon for GOP presidential candidates. The strategy has always had two prongs. One is to attack the liberals and bloated and tax-and-spend big government. The second is to firmly lock down the majority popular and electoral vote in the 11 old Confederate and Border states. 

Political, Economic, and now ‘Environmental’ Refugees Seek Shelter Around the World

Andrew Lam

The modern world has long thought of refugees in strictly political terms, victims in a world driven by competing ideologies. But as climate change continues unabated, there is a growing population of displaced people whose homes have been rendered unlivable thanks to a wide spectrum of environmental disasters. Despite their numbers, and their need, most nations refuse to recognize their status.

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