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Opinion

Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: Arizona plans to use cyanide on death row. Nazis killed millions with the same gas

High school history class taught me — and almost certainly you — that the Nazis murdered millions of Jews and other persecuted individuals during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945. At extermination camps like Auschwitz, victims were stripped naked and herded into gas chambers disguised as crude bathhouses, supposedly to take showers before entering camp. Instead, they were poisoned to death by the lethal gas Zyklon B.

When I think of the horrors of the Holocaust, it’s details like those that
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: Microplastics are getting into our bodies. We need to understand what that means

Nobody wants to snack on plastic bags or soda rings, but according to a 2019 from the University of Newcastle, we could be consuming roughly a credit card’s worth of every week.

Microplastics, which are less than a quarter-inch in size and come in various shapes and textures, have contaminated the natural world and infiltrated our bodies. These particles are just about everywhere on Earth, including in drinking water and the air we breathe, but until recently we didn’t know how ubiquitous they
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: Texas wants its citizens to enforce a new abortion ban, and we should all be concerned

In Texas, a dangerous future looms on the horizon for anyone who values privacy or individual autonomy. Come September, ordinary citizens could be granted the power to monitor and sue their neighbors for violating a new abortion law.

This spring the Texas Legislature passed which prohibits abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, typically around six weeks into pregnancy. An abortion ban that early is completely unconstitutional; Roe vs. Wade and Casey vs. Planned Parenthood establish
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: The most refreshing sport at the Tokyo Olympics: skateboarding

Skateboarding made its Olympic at the Tokyo Games this year, bringing a refreshing change of pace to the world’s biggest competition. Unlike most other Olympic events, the culture of skateboarding is based not in winning but in joy and individuality.

Since its inception, skateboarding has defied conformity. in the 1950s, skateboarding became synonymous with the counterculture of the ’60s and served as a safe haven for society’s outcasts. Considered more of a lifestyle than a sport, skateboardin
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: Vaccination incentives might be effective, but they send the wrong message

As we claw our way out of the pandemic, state governments across the country are offering all kinds of rewards for getting vaccinated against COVID-19. In return for getting your , you could take a thrilling lap around the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama, win a free fishing and hunting license in Maine, or get your own custom shotgun in West Virginia. In California, residents who get vaccinated have a chance at $1.5 million as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s vaccination lottery program, .

There’
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: On minimum wage, does Larry Elder not know or not care?

Media personality Larry Elder might be the most controversial candidate in the upcoming election to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Elder has no shortage of right-wing and often inflammatory views on topics such as coronavirus vaccines and climate change. His ideas about California’s minimum wage, however, have gained extra attention as he races to replace Newsom.

Elder doesn’t believe in a minimum wage. In an interview with McClatchy’s California-based editorial boards earlier this month
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: Teachers have to put the welfare of transgender students before their own beliefs

In Virginia, a battle is raging over a new transgender rights policy passed by the this month.

The policy, which abides by a to support transgender youth in schools, requires teachers and administrators to address students by their preferred names and pronouns according to their gender identity. It also allows transgender students to participate in athletics and use bathrooms and locker rooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.

The policy’s sole purpose is to creat
Los Angeles Times •

Opinion: To confront the reality of domestic terrorism, we need a federal law

A House to investigate the events of Jan. 6 held its first hearing this week, aiming to unravel the details of the Capitol riot that left five dead. The riot was an attack on our democracy, a startling insurrection that many have called an act of domestic terrorism, including FBI Director .

Over 500 participants in the violent mob have been charged with crimes, but not one of them will be prosecuted for terrorism. Unlike our stringent laws against foreign terrorists and sympathizers, the U.S. d
INDY Week •

Op Ed: Duke Missed the Mark on Greek Life Reform. It’s Time to Ban Fraternities for Good.

The laundry list of reasons to dismantle Greek life at Duke University now includes a COVID-19 outbreak and campus-wide lockdown.

That’s in addition to other pervasive, deeply rooted issues like hazing, gender violence, racism, and heteronormativity. But despite this, Greek life has proven to be very difficult to manage.

I dropped out of my sorority last August, as a student-driven movement to abolish Greek life at Duke gained traction. Stories of sexual assault, racial discrimination, and dis