Ed Boice
Ed has written stories for six publications over the past seven years, covering a broad range of topics from feature stories of Grammy-winning music artists to bi-weekly coverage of city government meetings.
Rapzilla Freshman Thomas Iannucci Killing Hawaiian Silence
(Rapzilla.com)
If there was one line in 2020 Rapzilla Freshman Thomas Iannucci’s music that described him as an artist best, it would be in his song “Kuleana (Paradise)” featuring seni. at the end of his second verse. “I don’t know if I’ll ever spark a change, I just know the silence is killing us all man.”
The Christian
Formally known as Illtalian, Iannucci grew up on the islands of Hawaii honing his craft of Hip-Hop. A little less than two years ago, Iannucci won the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award for the best Hip-Hop album. Now, he is a Rapzilla Freshmen.
“This has been a goal for me for the last 5-7 years. In college, I used to read Rapzilla. It was all exciting to see the freshmen list and who was coming [up],” Iannucci said. “Especially those first few years, they were just killers. Hits after hits, amazing artists.”
In his state, Iannucci isn’t considered a Christian artist. Iannucci said the Hip-Hop scene on the islands, in general, is relatively small. While there are a few rappers who are believers, a CHH scene in Hawaii does not exist. To his peers, Iannucci is one of them, a Hawaiian rapper. While this acceptance has led him to his platform now, balancing his faith, how he interacts with his peers, and reacts to the social issues complicates how he makes decisions as a socially conscious rapper.
“As far as how my faith informs what social issues I tend to tackle, for me, I try to pray and trust God that he’ll lead me in the right direction,” he said. “It’s tricky.”
The Home
As “Kuleana (Paradise)” displays, there’s a social unrest building in Hawaii, caused overtime by what the native Hawaiians feel are acts against their homeland, Iannucci explained. The most recent...
County unveils plan to expand broadband internet (GreeneScene Magazine)
More Greene County residents can kiss their Wi-Fi woes away this year, as the county and Windstream are now partnered to increase broadband capabilities in the county this year.
In September of 2020, the Greene County Commissioners published their plan in a press release on the Greene County website to invest toward internet broadband capabilities in the county. Now, they have completed their investments and the county’s issue of generally low-quality internet will be improved upon.
According to the commissioners’ press release, which was published Sept. 6, 2020, their plan involved investing $1 million -$1.6 million toward the mission, using a feasibility study to determine where the improvements were needed most. Greene County Commissioner Mike Belding said the county ended up investing $1.2 million from a CARES Act grant and that everything the commissioner’s set out to accomplish in their plan was successful.
“Approximately 40% of our students did not have internet access last March when we sent them all home for COVID-19. That was our target audience, so we could get more individuals, residents, students and businesses access so they could operate during this COVID-19 pandemic,” Belding said.
Residents in Bobtown, Carmichaels, Greensboro, Jefferson, Mount Morris and Waynesburg will see the improvements from the county’s investment, impacting 7,313 homes and businesses.
“[The pandemic] certainly emphasized that broadband is needed in Greene County, as well as all counties,” Betsy McClure, vice chairmen for the Greene County Commissioners, “Because when you go to...
OnWatch Aims To Lower 40% Rise In Sex Trafficking During COVID-19
(Rapzilla.com)
Imagine a six-year-old girl, whose father is a firefighter and mother stays at home. She has trouble paying attention in school, but nothing more than what teachers expect out of a six-year-old. She likes to spend her time outside. There is a park across the street from her house where she swings and plays well into the night. Most nights, the girl is swept out of bed by her uncle, who then takes her to his house and sells her for sex work for $300. Her parents receive compensation for staying silent.
If this was your child, would you turn a blind eye?
These children are experiencing the second largest illegal industry in the United States: sex trafficking. Safe House Project is trying to shrink that statistic with its online training course, OnWatch.
Safe House Project is a nonprofit that builds and funds houses for sex trafficking survivors and aids in their recovery from abuse. Launched in 2018, the organization has funded a safe house in South Africa. In 2019, they have given 32 safe house beds for survivors, given $50,000 worth of physical assets, trained 10,000 people on sex trafficking prevention, and more.
Under Our Noses
OnWatch is an hour-long course that teaches everyday people how to identify sex trafficking victims and debunks the stereotypes and false images of sex trafficking in the United States. According to the website, hundreds of thousands of children are part of the sex trafficking industry each year. The average age of entry into the industry is 12. Only...
Crime and traffic violation numbers change as virus spreads (Greene County Messenger)
As COVID-19 continues to grow within Pennsylvania and Greene County, the Waynesburg Police Department is adapting to changes enforced by the government and reactions people in Waynesburg have to their daily lives changing.
“So far, Waynesburg’s been pretty good. We haven’t had many issues,” said Tom Ankrom, Waynesburg Police Department Chief. “For the most part, I feel like people are doing what is asked of them by the government, and I hope it continues. If it does, we should be in good shape.”
Ankrom said that crime in the borough overall stayed the same, with some increases in certain areas.
“We are seeing a little bit of an uptick in domestic disputes at home which I assume comes from everyone being cooped up in a house together.”
Ankrom said there is has also been a slight increase in thefts, specifically car thefts. Ankrom said, however, that he speculates the increase is not because of the coronavirus increasing in the county.
“I hate to say it with the theft because if you get one person doing it, you’ll have an uptick until you catch them. When you catch them, then it’ll go away again. It’s just a matter of figuring out who did it,” Ankrom said. “I don’t even know if I want to attribute the [recent thefts] to the recent pandemic. It’s just so happened that that person started stealing at the same time.”
Due to less people coming into town, traffic has decreased, said Ankrom.
“The parking issues are fewer,” Ankrom said. “We don’t have people parking up here so much in the way of parking [issues].”
While he could not comment on crime in the county in general, Greene County Sheriff Marcus Simms said traffic has decreased, causing offenses from traffic to lower in number.
“Due to the reduced amount of traffic, our office has had a reduced amount of traffic offensives observed and or cited,” Simms said. “I would expect to continue to see a decreased amount of traffic until the restrictions placed on businesses are lifted.”
Ankrom said the due to the future being an unknown, he has to make “adjustments on the fly” to adapt to what the government dictates and the people react. Overall, Waynesburg has been reacting well the to spreading of the virus.
“It’s all fluid. I don’t know how long this lockdown will last or how tight it is. If it gets to the point where people are being forced to stay in their houses who knows [what will happen],” Ankrom said. “I’ve never experienced it. I basically have to make adjustments on the fly with what the officers are doing based on what’s going on.”