American motion picture studios have a bipolar reputation. There is the glamorized but satisfying notion of Hollywood as being a delightfully messy mixture of high-powered fast-talkers, gonzo auteurs who will do anything for their art, sleazy agents, stylish stars, and the distinct possibility to dreams may very well come true. However, there is also the doleful realization that movie studios are almost all merely one branch of multinational corporations, those unappealing guys who combine all the worst qualities of bureaucracy, economics, and salesmanship. Movie studios are big businesses, and while making movies often involves art, entertainment, and attractive distillations of cool, they also have to keep an eye on profit margins and bottom lines.

Written by:  Adam Gottlieb
Researched by:  Daniel Kwak
Edited by:  Eric Blaine
Managing Editor:  Mary Anne Nash
America is losing the war on drugs.  Over the past 40 years, the United States Government

has spent more than $2.5 trillion dollars fighting the “war on drugs” yet the number of drug users in the United States has risen to a [...]

Written by: Daniel Kwak
Researched by: Adam Gottlieb
Edited by: Kirk Strohman
Managing Editor: Lauren E. Trent
The threat of piracy has been around as long as ships have been carrying goods across water. Recent events on the high seas show that the days of dramatic attacks and heroic rescues live on today, sans eye-patches and wooden legs. Earlier [...]

Only one state has officially codified net neutrality and the FCC has only recently weighed in on the issue. Inherent to this argument is a discussion on whether the internet can be regulated at all-by telecom companies or the government. The battle over net neutrality raises other fundamental questions, such as: Has equal access to the internet become a fundamental right? Do telecom companies have a duty to provide equal access over an infrastructure massively invested in and from which a profit should be expected?

Written by: Tracy Frazier
Researched by: Casey King
Edited by: Adam Gottlieb
Managing Editor: Mary Anne Nash
In the midst of the excitement and revelry surrounding the election of our 44th president, the success of California’s Proposition 8 was easily lost in the commotion. However, for many, the passage of Proposition 8 damped their [...]

Written by: Matthew A. Schroettnig
Researched by: Adam Gottlieb
Edited by: Eric Blaine and Tom Borton
Managing Editor: Brady Iandiorio
Music is like, crazy, man.
It seems every time you check the news, the music industry is once again going broke as a result of some epic catastrophe. In the 1980s that catastrophe was the blank cassette tape; in [...]

Written by: John Deininger
Researched by: Darci G. Van Duzer
Edited by: Steve Glista and Adam Gottlieb
Managing Editor: Amy E. Seely
This just in: “Patriots Lose Brady….” That’s it. “Aaron Rodgers added a….” Nope, sorry. “X-rays on Young’s knee….” Seeing a pattern to the quotes?  Anything more and the Associated Press (AP) may demand payment for quoting [...]