A car with tinted windows pulls up to a house with a caved-in roof and chipped paint. A person gets out of the car, goes up to the mailbox and retrieves a bag of weed from the mailbox. The person puts an envelope with money into the mailbox. Another day,...

On Nov. 9 at a Board of Trustees Meeting, NIU requested $116.4 million in state funding.  While this number may seem shocking, it’s actually an appropriate amount considering NIU’s $32 million deficit and the rising cost of operating expenses...

Live-action remakes have taken over theaters in recent years with movies such as “The Lion King,” “The Little Mermaid” and “Aladdin.” Although live-action films can be fun to watch, the overabundance of them needs to end.  Filmmakers should...

You just turned 21, and you wanted to share your birthday dinner online with some of your followers. Perhaps you made a new account and decided to share your full name. This seems harmless enough, but it’s not. We live in a generation where social...

The 1990s and early 2000s saw the rise of some of the most iconic and game-changing female R&B voices in music history, inspiring some of the newer artists loved today.  With powerhouse vocals and unique lyrical skills, these women changed the...

Freedom of speech should extend to social media, so individuals can express their ideas freely on various platforms. Facebook, X – formerly known as Twitter – and Instagram have connected people over continents. Today, social media isn’t a place...

The health and addiction risks of vaping are dangerous enough that vapes and e-cigarettes should be illegal.  Some flavorings of vape include diacetyl, a chemical that leads to bronchiolitis obliterans, or popcorn lung, according to Illinois Department...

NIU’s mascot Mission II has retired.  The NIU community is saddened by the announcement made Nov. 14 during the NIU football game against Western Michigan University. After three years of service, the Huskie is stepping down due to skin allergies,...

Mike Johnson, the recently elected House Speaker, is yet again another example of failure in politics.  Johnson’s conservative stances on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion are concerning and detrimental to true progress. Elected officials...

Albums are getting too long. Some of the top albums of 2023 from artists such as Drake, Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen all total well over an hour long. There is no need for an album to have that many songs. Too many songs on an album can make it feel...

The iconic ‘90s sitcom “Friends” had one Thanksgiving episode in each of its 10 seasons; but unfortunately, all of them could not be included in this poll.  Which of these five “Friends” Thanksgiving episodes is the best?  “The One...

Everyone can attest to the lessons we learned about safety when we were little kids. We were told to look both ways and not to take candy from strangers. But about half of the population remembers a second set of rules that shouldn’t only apply to them. As...