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Everything seemed to be finally right after blowing out Panama in Orlando, 4-0. Team USA only needed a tie on the road against a weak Trinidad and Tobago team that had won one of nine qualifying games in the final six-team tournament to secure at least a wild card spot for Russia 2018. In fact, even a loss could get the Americans in the World Cup if either Panama or Honduras did not win…

Puerto Ricans are Americans.

However, a recent survey by The Morning Consult, a research company, found that only 54 percent of Americans know that people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens.

Seeing the devastating effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and of wildfires out West, one cannot help but think about the crucial role that government plays in our lives. But while we accept, even celebrate, the role of government in the wake of such disasters, we are largely blind to the need for government to mitigate these kinds of crises in the first place.

There is surely no greater sign of the bankruptcy of American foreign policy than its Afghanistan policy. After 15 years of war and the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops, a new president entered the Oval Office poised to fundamentally change that policy. Within months he presented, with great fanfare, a continuation of the same. The result: The United States is now firmly locked into its forever war in Afghanistan.

The motto of the United States is no longer “e pluribus unum.” Sadly, it’s become: “Hey! I was wronged. Get my lawyer on the phone!”

Or, recently, south of the Mason-Dixon line: “Let’s grab clubs and tiki torches and go make trouble.”

How did we get here? Why does it appear that we’re on the brink of a war in Asia, one that could involve nuclear weapons? North Korea has had nuclear-weapons capacity for at least 10 years now. Have its recent advances been so dramatic and significant to force the United States to wage a preventive war? No. The crisis we now find ourselves in has been exaggerated and mishandled by the Trump administration to a degree that is deeply worrying and dangerous.

Youngstown again? As an avid spectator of politics, I’ve been hearing about that city in the Mahoning Valley of northeast Ohio for decades. Although it’s home to just 64,000 people, Youngstown gets more than its share of attention from politicians, media, filmmakers, and even a poetic singer/songwriter from Freehold, New Jersey.

Community and religious groups today urged Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to sign "as soon as possible" the Trust Act that will turn the state into a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

At the risk of setting off more fireworks, I’ve spent the days surrounding the Fourth of July trying to answer a question that has perplexed U.S. Latinos for generations. Whether the yardstick is starting businesses, creating jobs, spreading opportunity, serving in uniform or displaying optimism in hard times, America’s largest minority has shown time and again that we love this country. 

But does the country love us back?

Picture this: Taco fixins in a tortilla cone. A flour tortilla cone, no less. 

It comes to you courtesy of a new Food Network explainer video titled “Taco Cones are the New Tacos” in which a young Asian-American woman demonstrates how to “eat two tacos at the same time” by baking tortillas into an ice cream cone shape, filling them with ground beef and adding toppings.