Lori Falce stories, Page 8

When talking about Russia’s politics, espionage, criminal activities and, of course, the war in Ukraine, one word pops up with regularity. Oligarchs. The way in which it is used, and the authority that it conveys, makes it sound like oligarchs are an official position within the country. They might well...

Where are the parents? Since Sunday, when Jaiden Za’mar Brown of North Braddock and Mathew Steffy-Ross of Pitcairn were shot and killed at a party on Pittsburgh’s North Side, I have heard that phrase repeated several times. I feel it each time like a punch I see coming and have...

When I was a kid, we didn’t have Good Friday off. We spent it as we spent the Friday afternoons of Lent leading up to it — in church, following along as the Stations of the Cross walked us through the milestones of the Easter story. There was no question...

Who wants to be a billionaire? It’s an aspirational number that most people can’t truly fathom. Oh, they’d like to, but it’s hard to truly appreciate. The median household income in Pennsylvania is around $50,000. If you were able to hold on to every penny — spending nothing on food...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is opening an investigation into Will Smith and the The Slap Heard ’Round the World. Except, wait a minute. No, they’re really not. From the moment Smith charged the stage during the live Oscars broadcast and slapped comedian Chris Rock for a...

“Can you provide a definition for the word ‘woman?’” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., asked Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson this question Tuesday during the Senate judiciary committee confirmation hearings. There have been less obvious traps in Scooby Doo cartoons. Blackburn clearly wanted to coax Jackson to the edge...

It’s the kind question that has been around forever. It’s the college coffeehouse brainstorming or the debate you have at the bar after a few drinks. It is the plot of movies and television shows and the books we read at the beach. It jump starts philosophy essays and thought...

The most miraculous invention in the history of the world is not something with a plug or gas tank. It is not a medicine or surgical technique. It doesn’t fly you to the moon or explore the inner workings of the Earth. But without it, none of that would have...

I am somehow confident that if I decided to make repeated veiled and not-so-veiled threats against an ex’s new love interest, I would receive a visit from law enforcement. This would be especially likely if those threats were on my social media accounts with just a thousand or so followers...

Sisters have a special kind of relationship. They share a bond that is hard to compare to anything else. They share more than just DNA and a bathroom and Grandma’s eyes. They are the only ones who will understand the highs and lows, the good and bad, the in-jokes and...

The rules never seem to be the rules in Russia. Not when it comes to politics or borders or even sports. It might seem ironic that the Russia-Ukraine situation is escalating in tensions at the same time the world’s athletes are gathered in China in what is supposed to be...

I was in second grade the first time I heard it. The N-word. It was used casually, without thought or explanation, like hundreds of other words a 7-year-old hears every day, leaving me to puzzle it out with context clues. It was said matter- of-factly, the same way someone would call...

Happy vaxiversary to me. It popped up on my Facebook reminders — the post I shared a year ago to note my first dose of the covid-19 vaccine. Me, my face covered in my pink-and-purple tie-dyed mask that matched my kind of pinkish quarantine hair, holding up the card that...

We pay a lot of attention to the shortages of employees at work. The questions arise about what causes the shortages and what exacerbates them during the pandemic. Is it laziness? Is it burnout? Is it the rise and ebb of covid-19 numbers with various variants taking their turn as...

I talked to Bob on Tuesday. It was the day after snow fell for almost 24 hours, piling up around the area to the delight of kids who got to build snowmen and go sledding. The problem for Bob was that he isn’t a kid anymore. He’s a senior who...

Should middle school kids be watching CNN in school? It’s a discussion a board member at Norwin School District wants to consider. CNN 10 isn’t the same round-the-clock programming that runs on your cable stations. It is a 10-minute program offering students bite-sized chunks of stories for kid consumption. Four...

In early December, I got an early surprise. It wasn’t a holiday card or a Christmas present or a plate of cookies. It was a lease renewal — with a 20% rent increase. Was this because I got a 200-pound Mastiff or decided to keep exotic snakes in my spare...

“I can’t wait to say goodbye to this dumpster fire of a year.” “I just want this year to be over.” “I want to pretend this year never happened.” This attitude is one I have become accustomed to hearing as December winds to a close each year. I have heard...

I am very sorry that you didn’t get a Christmas card from me. Whether you are my closest family members or my best friends, coworkers or acquaintances, you didn’t go to the mailbox and get a thin slice of cardboard with smiling pictures of my son over the course of...

I will never be rich. Much as I might enjoy a private island and a chalet in Switzerland, I know that is not in my future unless I hit the Powerball jackpot. Journalism is not really the kind of career you pick with visions of wealth planning dancing in your...

On Nov. 30, Oxford High School near Detroit was the latest scene of a wholly avoidable tragedy when, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy brought a gun to school, opened fire in a hallway and shot 10 students and a teacher. Three students died that day. Another was gone by morning....

It seems like anyone who has ever thought of running for office in Pennsylvania will be running in 2022. Want to be governor? This is your shot. Lieutenant governor? Give it a whirl. Sure, all of the U.S. House seats will be on the table with their spanking new districts...

There are six simple words that can leave me speechless. “What do you want for Christmas?” I am honestly baffled, floundering like Ralphie in “A Christmas Story” when he sits on Santa’s lap and blanks on his beloved Red Ryder BB gun. A football? OK, a football, sure. My friends...

Keeping kids safe from medicine is something that is taken pretty seriously. Anyone who has tried to unscrew a childproof prescription bottle with arthritic hands or hack their way into the hermetically sealed bubble pack of some over-the-counter cold pills can testify to that. When my husband was taking nitroglycerin...

From the TribLIVE archive, this story was first published on Nov. 12, 2021. The Thanksgiving table is a celebration of not just togetherness but abundance — and abundance isn’t cheap. A 2019 American Farm Bureau Federation study put the cost of Thanksgiving dinner at $48.91 for 10 people. Aside from...