Hog Country

In 1993, when Elsie Herring returned to the property that her grandfather – a former slave – purchased back in 1891, she discovered she had a rather odorous neighbor. In the 1980s, a hog farmer set up an operation on an adjacent property, complete with two barns, a lagoon (a man-made pond for pig waste), and a spray field.

"I mean, it's evident that I'm irrelevant to society; that's what you're telling me, penitentiary would only hire me, " roars Kendrick Lamar, a rapper from Compton, who was the recipient of the Generational Icon Award in the California State Senate.

The Washington Post recently shared the story of Joseph Rivers, an aspiring businessman with dreams of hitting the big time. He set out for Hollywood with $16,000 in life savings, hoping to start his own music video company -- his shot at the American Dream. However, he never made it.

Painting your opponent as an indecisive flip-flopper has long been a successful strategy in presidential politics. From George H.W. Bush's famous ship-sinking statement, "Read my lips, no new taxes," to Mitt Romney's flip-flops on abortion, gay rights, and socialized medicine -- flip-flopping has never been a desirable trait with voters.

Throughout the United States, there are numerous special elections held to fill vacant seats in local, state, and federal offices. Recently, while discussing the District of Columbia Ward 4 and Ward 8 special election results, a friend remarked that she was unaware there was an election in the district. While most Americans have the second Tuesday after the first Monday in November ingrained in their brains as Election Day, the dates for special elections are set by local/regional boards of elections and can vary greatly.

Immigration. Same-sex marriage. Health care. Gun control. Welfare. Taxation.

Wired reported Monday that normalizing relations with Cuba after 55 years could be good news for cancer patients in the United States. According to the report, the island has a "promising therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer," and has had it for several years.

Gallup recently published a survey that found Millennials are more likely than any other generation to trust retail companies to keep their private information secure, despite the increase in high-visibility data breaches over the years. The generation least likely to trust companies they do business with are "traditionalists," the Silent Generation (aged 70 and older).