A Year After the Lights Went Out & the Electricity Rates Went Up

Has anything really changed besides the price since the outage in April 2025? “Duquesne Light did a great job.” I’ll never forget sitting in a room with Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) a month after helping people without electricity for almost a week, and hearing those words strung together in that order frustrated me to…

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Once Upon a Black Woman: The Millennials Ruined the Economy

44 Percent of Millennials Don’t Have or Want Kids, and How They Killed an Entire Economy The millennials were always being blamed for killing industries, but they did their big one with the economy. 44 percent of millennials don’t have children and/or don’t want any. This is my Roman Empire. Millennials are the largest generation…

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Once Upon a Black Woman: Are You Human

Is Being *Unhinged and Authentic the New Captcha for the Anti-AI Movement *A little less hinged. “Showing up online a little unhinged proves that you aren’t using AI, and it’ll set you apart.” A post on LinkedIn read, and it got me thinking. They’re not wrong! Being a little unhinged or quirky, leaning into your…

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Confessions of a Millennial Mayor: The Pandemic, PA, and the Big Bad Wolf

The pandemic, the response, the local government academy classes canceled, and the mayor’s first lawsuit “We’ll flatten the curve,” those words still haunt me. The hair on my arms still raises when those words are arranged in that order. I had just gotten back from a New Orleans Mardi Gras Trip for my birthday when…

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Because of the Internet: Social Media Innovated Groupthink

The internet right now feels very much like, “If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?” Algorithms give way to groupthink, which is dangerous on so many levels. When your feed is heavily curated to feed you what you want to hear (and monetized for doing so), it’s creating a bubble…

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Once Upon a Black Woman: There’s Something About April & Change

April always tests what I’m made of… In April 2013, I joined AmeriCorps after being laid off for the first time. In April 2014, I became an American Airlines flight attendant. In April 2023, I was laid off for a second time. This time from my third career as a healthcare IT Business Analyst. I…

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Confessions of an Ex-Millennial Mayor: The Weak in a Weak Mayor System

Why I Didn’t Run for Mayor Again and Instead Ran for Braddock Council “Can we do… shouldn’t we build… can y’all vote on?” In most weak mayor systems, mayors can break ties, cut ribbons, declare emergencies, and oversee police departments. Most mayors in weak mayor systems spend their time convincing council members to vote for…

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