MONROE CORRECTIONAL COMPLEX, Washington state — Brooks Laughlin lives in a six-by-nine-foot steel and concrete cage located within the confines of the Monroe Correctional Complex (MCC) in Washington state. He enjoys weightlifting, playing his guitar, and planning how to best join the fight for criminal justice reform once he’s finished serving his 96-month prison sentence. […]Read More
This has been one of the most difficult and divisive years in our nation’s recent history, but one issue has united Americans across geography and political ideology: CANNABIS. This year’s election saw a clean sweep of cannabis policy reform initiatives at the state level, which only added to the already growing momentum for federal action […]Read More
Among the few pieces of worthwhile campaign glam to come out of this year’s tortuous election is a poster from a Bernie Sanders rally in New Hampshire. It features a silhouette of Sanders against a starry background with his name spelled out in the iconic font used by The Strokes; a band and font so […]Read More
COLUMBUS, OHIO — As Ohioans confronted coronavirus and many sheltered-in-place this past spring, the state recorded more than 500 drug overdose deaths in the month of May – the deadliest month Ohio has ever seen. In the next three months, President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden went on to spend nearly $5 million in […]Read More
Big Tech’s cosmetic changes ahead of the 2020 election are mere smokescreens. These Silicon Valley firms remain supersized and divisive actors in contemporary political discourse (if we can even call it ‘discourse’ anymore). These social media firms basically admitted the disservices they’ve knowingly peddled to us through our devices when they overhauled their advertising policies […]Read More
While the nightlife industry awaits its fate in a state of uncertainty; the entrepreneurs, artists, and workforce – from bouncers to bartenders – that fuel the night economy can’t help but wrestle with the thoughts of an existential threat to their careers and livelihoods. The inability of the federal government to provide continued stimulus for […]Read More
It’s Halloween season, which means it is also time for your local news to roll out the annual scaremongering story about how there are large groups of insidious people just waiting out there to give your trick-or-treating children free marijuana edibles. This is one of those marijuana myths that simply keeps coming back from the […]Read More
New York, NY — Do you trust the government to do what is right most of the time? If you said no, you’re in good company, and these misgivings span political parties, races, genders, ethnicities and generations. So what went wrong? “Much of this dissatisfaction comes from our government’s failure to address the challenges people […]Read More
A brilliant but frightening history book appeared in 2016. It’s called Hitler: Ascent 1889-1939 by German historian Volker Ullrich. I started to read it but had to stop. The obvious parallels with our contemporary America were too upsetting. After two years with Trump in office, bombarding us with daily horrors, I saw he was provoking others to see […]Read More
BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – When my new boss at a law firm encouraged me to become a notary, I didn’t really know what they actually do. But who says no to a boss? Not me. I was in for a lesson in southern living. Turns out, in addition to administering oaths of office and verifying identities […]Read More











