Five women graduated from New York City’s Fire Academy on April 18, bringing the number of women serving in the Fire Department of New York to 72 – the highest in its history. The FDNY’s 2018 graduating class also includes the first son to follow his mother into the profession. She was one of...
Local
Why Are Sinclair’s Scripted News Segments Such a Big Deal?
On March 31, Deadspin produced a video showing a chorus of local news anchors delivering the exact same scripted speech to viewers. The message – denouncing media bias and fake news, calling it a problem that is “neither politically ‘left nor right’” – might seem innocuous enough. But I study the media industry, and it...
Chicago Sports Teams to Fund Violence Reduction Programs
Last month, the Chicago Bears, Blackhawks, Bulls, Cubs, and White Sox formed an alliance to support solutions to reduce violent crime in Chicago. Operating as the Chicago Sports Alliance, the group, in its first year, will donate $1 million in one-time grants to support three programs in the city: Choose 2 Change (C2C), a mentoring...
Craft Beer Is Becoming the Wine of New England by Redefining ‘Terroir’
The U.S. craft beer industry is exploding. Although two companies – Anheuser-Busch InBev and MillerCoors – have produced more than 75 percent of all beer consumed in the United States for decades, America now has more craft breweries than at any time in recorded history. Private investment firms are pouring money into small breweries as...
High-Speed Broadband Brings Healthcare to Rural Residents
Rural areas across the United States are increasingly offering telehealth services to improve access to quality healthcare for residents who are unable to visit a hospital due to cost or accessibility. In St. Robert, a town of 5,000 in southern Missouri, the telehealth network has been connecting patients to healthcare providers since the 1990s. Improved...
Volunteer Tourism: What’s Wrong with It and How It Can Be Changed
Volunteer tourism, or voluntourism, is an emerging trend of travel linked to “doing good”. Yet these efforts to help people and the environment have come under heavy criticism – I believe for good reason. Voluntourists’ ability to change systems, alleviate poverty or provide support for vulnerable children is limited. They simply don’t have the skills....