Opinion

By JOE GIDDENS William Shatner. One of Canada’s finest exports turns out to have as many careers as he has had wives. You’ve seen him fight men in rubber monster suits, helm the Enterprise and sell you on travel websites. Now it’s time to allow the man to grace your playlists as well.  Shatner released his first spoken word album, “The Transformed Man,” in 1968. Strip away the music of The Beatles and trade John Lennon’s singing for deadpan dramatic reading of the lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” and you get what would be the prototype of Shatner’s album-making career. Shatner’s discography is an exercise in irony. It mirrors the late comedian Andy Kaufman, in that the listener is never sure if Shatner’s spoken word is intentionally done for comedic effect or if he’s completel...

By COSTA B. PAPPAS With the Food and Drug Agencies crackdown on Juus to lower the amount of underage vapers in late 2018, many were shocked to find that their beloved mango-, fruit- and crembrulet-flavored pods were no longer sold in stores. The motive behind this decision was to eliminate young audiences from being attracted to these flavors. “Our intent was never to have youth use Juul products,” Juul CEO Kevin Burns said, taking responsibility for the underage crowd getting hooked on vaping. “But intent is not enough, the numbers are what matters, and the numbers tell us underage use of e-cigarette products is a problem.” But the change doesn’t stop there. With California, Maine, New York and Hawaii among the states that have raised the minimum age to purchasing vape products to 2...

By AMARIS ENCINAS Starting this semester, I was not sure I was going to have the ability to be the editor of the Aztec Press.  But after much thought and consideration, I threw myself into it.  This is mostly due to the support of my amazing friends, including Josh, Erik, Andrea and the support that I have found here in this newsroom by my fellow Co-editor Joseph Giddens, my adviser Valerie Vinyard and the Aztec Press’ business manager, Joshua Manis.  These people stand tall behind my efforts, and I am eternally grateful for everything they have done for me.  To most people, becoming editor of their college newspaper isn’t a big deal, but it is to me. I have never done anything like this before, so I thought it was only appropriate to make my first letter to the editor a list of grati...

By KYLE McDANIEL Sports card collecting is a shrinking market, as fewer kids have an interest in them.  Matt Mortenson, owner of OverTime Sports, a sports collectible shop on Speedway Boulevard weighed in.  “The biggest factor I think is kids have phones, iPads and so many other avenues besides cards, so it’s not as cool as it was when I was a kid,” he said.  With the increased awareness about how some sports will leave you with health issues later on in life, parents are enrolling their children in other activities.  Over the last seven years, children ages 6 to 12 that didn’t participated in team sports was about 44 percent, according to the Aspen Institute, an educational blog. That doesn’t mean they don’t watch it, but when you play the sport, you get more connected to it.  When...

By ERIK MEDINA  I believe that representation allows us to move toward equality, and it is what I feel most minority groups desire.  The year 2018 was great for representation for many minority groups. “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Black Panther” broke boundaries. Both films have most, if not all, actors of minority descent.  “CRA” was the first major theatrical release to have an all-Asian cast since “The Joy Luck Club,” which was released in 1993. “Black Panther” also showed hiring minorities doesn’t jeopardize a film’s success. The film predominately was cast with black actors and had a variety of people of color working behind the scenes such as director Ryan Coogler.  Aside from ethnicity, we also saw more female-led films such as “Oceans Eight” and “A Simple Favor.” Both films portray...

 By JOE GIDDENS Welcome to a New Year and a new semester. The start of a New Year is often viewed as a blank slate of endless possibility, the chance for rebirth and self improvement with New Year’s resolutions.  Or you could decide to forego all of that and double down on your previous choices.   Prior to November’s midterms, Arizona Republicans occupied all statewide elected offices, held both chambers of the Legislature and a majority of the congressional seats. The blue wave hit, eroding away much of these holdings.  Republican Sen. Jeff Flake was replaced at the polls by a Democrat for the first time in 30 years. A similar trend occurred throughout the midterms in Arizona, a state that Trump won in 2016 by 4 points.  Faced with the trend of an increasingly purple state, two opti...