The Eastern Echo

Column

Sequester harms hospital funds, cancer patients

By Chris Hoitash | June 17

Who needs death panels when you can just cut medical funding? Thanks to the sequester, or budget cuts, continually butchering various government-funded operations, that option is now available. Along with cuts to air traffic control and other operations, subsidized medical research and treatments are also getting majorly cut back thanks to our government’s continued inability to balance a budget. According to an April 3 Washington Post article, “Cancer clinics across the country have begun turning away thousands of Medicare patients, blaming the sequester budget cuts.

Column

Detroit may have to sell the DIA’s art collection

By Chris Hoitash | June 3

Detroit may have to sell one of the few things that still lures people to the city: its art collection. A May 24 Detroit Free Press article states, “Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt.” As Detroit continues to resemble a post-apocalyptic wasteland from the Fallout video game series, (but with less valuable salvage, because it was already taken) the idea to sell off the collection sounds like a desperate bid by a disgruntled city to once again eliminate the DIA from existence. There is also some question if the collection is worth the needed amount, but with several pieces valued at around $100 million, it’s certainly possible.

Column

Modern journalism rarely hits the target

By Chris Hoitash | May 20

Welcome to Bizarro World, where Fox News is doing the job of real journalists. Journalism was once a vital component of American politics and capitalism.

Column

Virgin Airlines looks to reclaim lost style, class

By Chris Hoitash | May 6

Good news, folks: 1950’s style is coming back, whether you like it or not.

Column

Student loan rates set to double over summer

By Chris Hoitash | April 21

College: spending tens of thousands of dollars to get a job to pay off those tens of thousands of dollars.

Column

For-profit prison fails, is disgrace to humans

By Chris Hoitash | April 14

Private enterprise has fully entered the criminal justice system, and in the process, undermined and ruined it in the name of profit and at the expense of human rights. In 2011, Ohio, facing the usual problem of being Ohio, sold one of its state prisons to the private prison corporation Corrections Corporation of America. Within the year that prison, Lake Erie Correctional Institute, has gone down the tubes.

Column

States’ rights up for debate

By Chris Hoitash | April 7

The battle for states’ rights is alive and well, and once again, the South is at the center of the debate.

Column

Bad credit history lingers

By Chris Hoitash | March 29

If you have bad credit history and are unemployed, you might be staying that way for a while.

Column

Trapped in the friend zone: It’s more than just a term

By Chris Hoitash | March 24

Let’s talk about relationships, because an introverted nerd with no social skills is naturally an expert on such matters.

Kilpatrick was a symbol of larger issues.

Column

Kilpatrick was city scapegoat

By Chris Hoitash | March 17

There are a lot of words to describe Kwame Kilpatrick. Corrupt and infuriating are two that come to mind. Then there are a few words that can’t be placed in a newspaper. Still, as disdainful as the man and his actions may be, it seems to me he may have been made into a scapegoat.