Lori Falce stories, Page 2

The Meta Quest 3S virtual headset is prominently featured on the front of the Target Black Friday flyer. At Walmart, kids may be clamoring for the Hot Wheels hot deal. Kohl’s is cutting the price on Beats by Dr. Dre headphones in half and kicking in some Kohl’s Cash to...

“Holy s—-! I didn’t see that coming!” That was the reaction of U.S. Sen. John Fetterman to Matt Gaetz withdrawing his name from consideration to become U.S Attorney General. It was also the reaction of many people when President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz — who resigned from the House of...

It’s party time. From November to January, we jump through a lot of entertaining hoops. There’s Thanksgiving, of course. But maybe you also indulge in a Friendsgiving where you gather around a less traditional table. Do you have people over for tree trimming or St. Nicholas Day? Have your ladies’...

Thanksgiving is a holiday defined by its signature food in a way that is different from really any other American celebration. We might eat cookies at Christmas but we don’t call it Cookie Day. We might indulge in an Easter ham and dye eggs, but we don’t celebrate Ham and...

Sometimes justice isn’t something that can be delivered by the courts. A guilty verdict, for example, does not bring back a loved one. It doesn’t restore a reputation or rebuild a home. What it does is get as close to justice as the law can do after the fact. In...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...