News & Views

Rand Paul’s rare 13-hour “talking” filibuster last Wednesday on the Senate floor protesting the nomination of John Brennan for CIA director reinvigorated the the debate over US drone policy internationally — and now domestically—for policy makers and informed citizens alike.

Buzzsaw takes a sip of Ithaca’s margaritas

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina to Italian (Florentine) parents, presents himself as a humble servant of God, refusing pleasantries and extravagance. He cooks for himself, rides the bus, lives in a regular apartment, and has announced his dedication to social justice and human rights, implying that he intends to focus the Church’s efforts toward this end.

Monday, April 1 through Sunday, April 7, Ithaca College’s Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival 2013 (FLEFF) will offer forums, music, art, films and multimedia events focused on the theme of “Mobilities.” Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, FLEFF 2013 will take place both on the IC campus and downtown at Cinemapolis.

In the wake of last semester’s season of change, it is absolutely imperative that we as a campus community continue conversations of power, voice and our right to an honest education. In recent years, we witnessed unparalleled student solidarity on campus for a half-dozen social justice movements.

The job world is especially cutthroat for millennials, people born between 1980 and 1996. As of January this year, the national unemployment rate stood at about 8 percent. Unemployment peaked in late 2009 at 10 percent, and has declined on the whole since then.

Last month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced that he would be lifting the ban on women in combat roles, a rule first recognized by the Pentagon in 1994. The decision doesn’t change much, since women have been in combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan

In early January of this year, while facing numerous federal piracy charges, Internet activist Aaron Swartz took his own life. He was 26. This event strengthened the newfound debate on transparency and freedom of information sparked by Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Finally, an equal split.

Eight out of the 16 directors in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category of the Sundance Festival this year were women. This is a rare occurrence in any industry in our country (or world) today, especially when it is in film: women only fill 29.8 percent of all jobs in the film industry, according to a recently released report by the Sundance Institute and Women in Film.

“Barack Obama, yes we can! Stop this dirty pipeline plan!” The voices of over 40,000 others as passionate and purposeful as myself fed into the positive energy that flowed down Constitution Avenue to the President’s front door. On Sunday, Feb. 17, I joined tens of thousands in Washington, D.C. at the Forward on Climate Rally — the largest of its kind in U.S. history — to tell President Obama to stop the building of the Keystone XL Pipeline.