Cloak and Daggers in California In the early 2000s, the CIA succeeded in recruiting the personal valet of one of China’s most powerful Communist Party members. Over the next few years, this source overheard hundreds of conversations that gave the CIA an intimate picture of the inner workings of China’s state security apparatus, Party plans, […]
Author: Nicholas Pingitore
A New River For a Concrete Jungle
The desert river had flooded for the last time. After days of torrential downpour, it had overflowed its banks and wiped out nearly all the houses in its path, causing millions of dollars in damage. Los Angeles was at the mercy of nature, and for the last time. That year, 1938, the Army Corps of […]
No Money Mo Problems
In recent years, Berkeley students have been able to count among their numerous traditions a new and exciting community event: anticipating, protesting, and somehow finding a way to survive tuition hikes. Forget the bonfire and night rallies, the University of California is playing a new game, although it’s decidedly more blue and deals almost exclusively […]
Free Speech is not the Free Speech Movement
I was walking past People’s Park when I heard an elderly resident remarked remarked at my tie-dye shirt I was wearing, “You know, it takes more than a tie dye shirt to be a hippie.” This decidedly Berkeley take on the whole being greater than the sum of its parts is as relevant a political […]
Prop 64: Normalizing, Not Just Legalizing
Customers line up at Harvest in San Francisco, one of the businesses which seeks to change the face of marijuana within California. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File) The fire in Big Sur won’t be the only thing burning this year; The Adult Use of Marijuana Act 2016 (AUMA), also known as California Proposition 64, passed on November […]
Why The Golden State Didn’t Bern
Senator Sanders’ rallies, like this one in Oakland, CA drew thousands of enthusiastic supporters. (Getty) Despite the hype, California didn’t swing for Bernie on June 7, 2016. While national polls predominantly aligned with Clinton, a Sanders victory was still a real possibility leading up to the California primary, especially coming on the heels of a well-won Midwest […]