Author: Grace Thompson

One of life's great pleasures is being able to watch a sporting event live instead of through a television screen. I wrote a while back about how expensive it is to attend any professional sport. It still holds true today as it did back then. So what should the typical sports fan do? Consider a lesser scale. My family and I recently went to a Winthrop men's basketball game. For those who are unaware, Winthrop athletics is classified as a mid-major. Compared to larger state colleges like Clemson or South Carolina, they are Division I, but they are less expensive and have a lesser overall athletic profile. There are thousands of minor colleges and universities in the US, and Winthrop is only one. Regardless of size, the majority of schools feature an athletic department. The department frequ...

According to the White House on Saturday, President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on goods entering the United States from Canada, Mexico, and China. This could lead to a trade war with America's closest trading partners and increase the cost of everything from avocados to cars. When the tariffs will go into effect is unknown. The 10% tariff rate would be reduced for energy items from Canada. Trump stated that the countries were allowing fentanyl to enter the United States, which is why he was enacting the tariffs. Nearly 70% of the roughly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2023 were caused by opioids, especially fentanyl. Additionally, Trump said that the duties were a reaction to a trade imbalance between the United States and the three nations, as the United States imports more goods f...

According to several current and former FBI officials who spoke to NBC News, Acting FBI Director Brian Driscoll resisted a Justice Department request on Friday to help fire agents implicated in riot cases from January 6th with such vigor that several FBI officials believed he would be fired. In the end, the Justice Department decided not to fire Driscoll. In a message distributed to the staff on Friday evening, he stated that he had been directed to dismiss eight top FBI officials and provide the names of all FBI personnel who had been involved in cases involving the Capitol riots. The eight executives have been evicted, but Driscoll did not specify in the document if he would provide the larger list of people connected to January 6th, which he stated includes him and thousands of other FB...

The show must continue in the entertainment sector. This is why Sunday's Grammys, the first awards show since the January wildfires in Los Angeles, are going according to schedule at the Crypto.com Arena. The awards show's sponsor, the Recording Academy, announced in a news release that this year's presentation "will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles." Here are some additional details on the 67th Grammy Awards. Trevor Noah hosts (again) Even though hosting award shows is one of the most unappreciated positions in Hollywood, comedian Trevor Noah seems unfazed. The awards presentation will be hosted by the former host of "The Daily Show" for the fifth year in a row. On X, he posted a beh...

The Teamsters union announced on Saturday that it and Costco had struck a provisional agreement on a new contract, preventing a walkout. The agreement must be approved by members, according to Teamsters spokesperson Matthew McQuaid. The agreement's specifics were not immediately accessible. The Associated Press messaged Costco to request comment. 18,000 Costco employees throughout six states—California, Washington, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, and New York—are represented by the Teamsters union. In total, Costco employs 219,000 people in the US and operates 617 shops. Less than 10% of the stores are covered by the company's labor agreement with the Teamsters. In the event that a new three-year contract deal was not negotiated by midnight Friday, when the current contract ended, Costco T...

After winning Saturday's election, Ken Martin, the veteran head of Minnesota's state Democratic Party organization, will take over as chair of the Democratic National Committee as his party attempts to turn the page and bounce back from a disappointing 2024. Using his connections with the more than 400 DNC voting members that he developed over his more than ten years of service within the official Democratic Party, Martin had been the front-runner from the start of the contest. And such connections were crucial since he secured a majority of the first ballot's voters, surpassing the second-place finisher, Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler, by more than 100 votes. As in 2017, following President Donald Trump's previous election victory, the race depended more on the candidates' fu...

After winning Saturday's election, Ken Martin, the veteran head of Minnesota's state Democratic Party organization, will take over as chair of the Democratic National Committee as his party attempts to turn the page and bounce back from a disappointing 2024. Using the connections he had built during more than ten years of work within the institutional Democratic Party with the more than 400 voting members of the DNC, Martin had been the front-runner from the start of the contest. And he secured a majority of the voting members on the first ballot, demonstrating the importance of such relationships. Unlike in 2017, following President Donald Trump's prior election victory, the race was more about the candidates' money and organizing skills than it was about the party's ideology. Former Mary...

Selena Gomez was recently targeted by the White House over a now-deleted video that she uploaded of herself sobbing during recent immigration crackdowns. The mothers of two women and a 12-year-old child who were allegedly murdered by undocumented migrants were featured in a film released by the White House. The mother of Kathy Hamilton, who was murdered and sexually assaulted by El Salvadorian national Walter Javier Martinez in a Maryland mobile home, Tammy Nobles, told Gomez, "You don't know who you're crying for." "What about our children who were brutally murdered, and raped and beat to death and left on the floor by these illegal immigrants?" Nobles inquired. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted the video on X, tagging Gomez. It included snippets of her video, in which she sobbed a...

After winning Saturday's election, Ken Martin, the veteran head of Minnesota's state Democratic Party organization, will take over as chair of the Democratic National Committee as his party attempts to turn the page and bounce back from a disappointing 2024. Using the connections he had built during more than ten years of work within the institutional Democratic Party with the more than 400 voting members of the DNC, Martin had been the front-runner from the start of the contest. Unlike in 2017, following President Donald Trump's prior election victory, the race was more about the candidates' money and organizing skills than it was about the party's ideology. Former Maryland Governor Martin O. Malley had special electoral and governmental expertise, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben ...

Washington NBC News and other major news organizations will no longer be housed in Pentagon offices after the Department of Defense announced Friday night that it will implement a new annual media rotation program for its in-house press corps. Politico, National Public Radio, The New York Times, and NBC News are also required to leave their designated workspaces. Without being contacted directly, the news organizations were informed of the new direction in a letter emailed to the press corps. The email that accompanied the memo stated, in part, that no further information will be supplied at this time. According to a message given to the Pentagon Press Association by Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot, the Pentagon Press Corps has benefited for more than 50 years from operating out of sep...