Lori Falce stories, Page 4
Lori Falce: What makes America work is difference and unity
America has always relied heavily on the concept of union. It is literally what holds us together. The colonies would not have defeated the British if it was just Pennsylvania and Massachusetts and Virginia facing off individually. We would have been swarmed under the red-coated army of the 18th century...
Lori Falce: What did Jeff Bezos do wrong with lack of endorsement?
Buckle up. I’m about to castigate the third richest man in the world — for doing something I did, too. A week ago, the Washington Post released its endorsement for the U.S. presidential race. It picked neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump. “We recognize that this will be...
Lori Falce: Lessons for Elon Musk from the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes
When I was a kid, I loved seeing the Publishers Clearing House envelope show up in the mailbox. I would open it and spread out the contents on the dining room table — stickers in this pile, cards in another, forms in a third. I would read the rules like...
Lori Falce: Make up your minds, undecided voters
Who do we have to thank for the constant drumbeat of the presidential campaigns in Pennsylvania right now? You might say the Democrats. You might blame the Republicans. They are a symptom, not the disease. What about the Electoral College? You’re not wrong. The unusual institution that acts as a...
Lori Falce: The dangerous spread of misinformation
The American Psychological Association has an entire section of its website dedicated to the dangers of misinformation and disinformation and how the not-so-slow creep into our daily lives is hurting us all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also concerned. So is the Department of Health and Human...
Lori Falce: It’s exhausting being a swing state voter
I’m a little tired of being this important. That’s an understatement. I’m downright exhausted. I’m wrung out. I’m at my wit’s end. And I know that I am not alone. You’re tired, too, right? In Pennsylvania, we are accustomed to our perennial place in the landscape of presidential elections. We...
Spice up the season with pumpkin treats from your kitchen
Can you smell it? That spicy- sweetness is hovering in the air right now. Pumpkin spice season is here. Even before it’s cool enough to feel like fall, the warmth of pie spices starts to appear in coffee shops and on store shelves. Pumpkin spice lattes have given way to pumpkin...
Lori Falce: Words hurt people every day
Rhetoric is all over the news right now. No, not the rhetoric itself, but the word “rhetoric” as people use rhetoric to discuss the concept of rhetoric. And if that seems confusing, that’s kind of the point. If you listen to politicians and pundits, the term rhetoric might be interpreted...
Lori Falce: America is a buffet. Don’t dish up racism
There is no cat in your fried rice. Despite decades of distrust and jokes, the chicken in your chicken lo mein is just chicken. When Bill Murray’s character in “Scrooged” warned his girlfriend about stray animals going into the chop suey, it was just another example of the fictional Frank...
Lori Falce: Too young for dangerous tools but old enough for gun violence
The back-to-school season always puts me in my feelings about what my son is old enough to do. I am well aware my baby is not my baby anymore. He looms over me by several inches, and I need him to get things off high shelves, which really drives that...
Lori Falce: What is the darkest corner of social media?
People are concerned about the creeping scourge of social media ruining society. They fear the walls of Facebook news. They fear the ugliness of X. They fear the unattainably curated beauty of Instagram. And then there’s the “is it spyware?” suspicion of a Chinese-owned TikTok. There are valid reasons to...
Lori Falce: Gus Walz was the real star of the Democratic National Convention
I was moved to tears Wednesday night as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed the Democratic National Convention, accepting his place as the party’s vice-presidential nominee. It wasn’t by Walz’s words — though the Midwestern cadence and rhythm were as familiar as a lullaby to my own native Minnesotan ears. It...
Lori Falce: The American prisoner in Russia who desperately wants to be freed
On Wednesday, The New Yorker published a story about Ilya Yashin. “The Russian Prisoner Who Didn’t Want to be Freed,” it was titled. Yashin was part of the complex, multinational prisoner exchange that moved 26 people on Aug. 1, including Americans Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva. He is...
Sen. Casey: Marc Fogel is wrongfully detained; leaving him in Russia is ‘heartbreaking’
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey called the Russian imprisonment of Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel “an outrage” and said he is worried about Fogel’s health, especially since he was left behind after a multinational prisoner exchange. “The only way to describe it is heartbreaking,” Casey, D-Scranton, told TribLive this week. The deal...
Distraught Marc Fogel speaks from Russian prison after being left out of prisoner swap dealVideo
Marc Fogel is in a dark place after a multinational deal left him in a Russian prison while other Americans being held there came home. “It’s like I’m in a bottomless pit and it keeps getting worse,” Fogel said in a phone call with family and friends Saturday. TribLive was...
‘I’m asking you as president’: Marc Fogel’s mother appeals to Biden to bring her son home
A hint of despair has turned into a wave of determination. Malphine Fogel is on a crusade to get her son home. And arguably for the first time since Marc Fogel was detained in Russia three years ago, the federal government is taking notice, at least publicly. Malphine Fogel, at...
Lori Falce: ‘You won’t have to vote again.’ Really?
Every year — at least twice a year — I do something that newspapers, editors, pundits, nonprofit organizations and government officials have been doing for generations. I encourage people to vote. I do it before the Pennsylvania primary, generally in April or May, depending on whether it’s a presidential year...
Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel remains in Russia as Gershkovich, others are freed
Marc Fogel was left behind. The Oakmont teacher was not part of a historic prisoner swap completed Thursday among the United States, Russia and other countries. Instead, Fogel was seemingly abandoned, left in a Russian prison while Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, ex-Marine Paul Whelan, Radio Free Europe journalist...
Lori Falce: Do we call her Kamala or Harris?
Since President Joe Biden stepped out of the presidential race, first opening the door and then endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, there has been a segment of the population debating one critical question. Not the way the convention will work. Not who the running mate will be. What do we...
Casey: State Dept., Biden silence on Marc Fogel’s Russian imprisonment is intolerable
WASHINGTON — The State Department isn’t doing enough to bring Oakmont teacher Marc Fogel home, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, told TribLive. “I believe the administration’s outreach to and communication with the family has been unacceptable. They simply haven’t done enough of it,” Casey said. Fogel, 62, was sentenced to...
Lori Falce: Butler victims deserve better than conspiracy theories
The conspiracy theories come faster these days. There was a time that it took months or years for a good skeptical narrative to develop around major events. The apocrypha surrounding the Freemasons, for example, have been 400 years in the making. Flat Earth theories in the modern era can date...
Before shots rang out, Trump promised help for Russian-held Marc Fogel
Malphine Fogel had former President Donald Trump’s full attention, and then everything exploded into chaos. The 95-year-old Butler woman met Saturday with Trump, the GOP presidential candidate, to discuss her son’s imprisonment in Russia. It was the most recent appeal to a powerful political figure to intercede on Marc Fogel’s...
Lori Falce: Why can UK and France move faster toward political change than U.S.?
America is a relatively young country. At just 248 years since announcing our debut as an independent nation with the Declaration of Independence, we are relative children on the world stage. Let’s look at the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — a good starting point for...
Lori Falce: You can lead a county to Pride Month but you can’t make them proclaim it
We have often been told about the perils of leading horses to water. You might be able to push, pull, ride or haul your steed where you want it to go. You cannot ensure it will do what you want when you get there. Life has no guarantees, no matter...
Lori Falce: Louisiana and the lessons of the Ten Commandments
I went to a Catholic school. We prayed in class at the start of the day, before each class, before lunch, after lunch and at the end of the day. And that was just your random Monday. On a holy day of obligation or the first Friday of each month,...
