With primary midterm elections fast approaching, Republicans are gearing up to challenge Californians’ voting rights at both the local and federal levels. Since February 9, Riverside County sheriff and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco has seized ballots from the November 2025 special election in which Proposition 50 passed, initiated a recount, and opened a criminal […]
Tag: California
How School Closures Wreck California Communities of Color
In school districts across California, the threat of public school closures has left families distraught, caught between the urgency of addressing budget shortfalls and the fight for educational equity. In 2021, California’s economy received billions of dollars in federal relief funds following the COVID-19 pandemic. This enormous amount of cash flow into the state led […]
Newsom’s Big Bet on Behavioral Health and Shelter Beds
California has seen a recent nine percent drop in unsheltered homelessness. This statistic may not seem exceptionally significant, but it is nonetheless a massive accomplishment for the state with the highest population of unsheltered homeless individuals in the country. Yet, for the first time in fifteen years, the homeless population has significantly dropped in the […]
The “Billionaire Tax”: California’s Knight in Shining Armor or Trojan Horse?
While walking to Doe Library under a steady April drizzle, I stumbled upon a booth set up a block from the back entrance. A group of students and advocates was asking onlookers to sign a ballot measure that would put the Billionaire Tax on the public voting stage. I had become accustomed to the lively […]
What Eric Swalwell’s Case Reveals About California Politics
News shakes you differently when scandal touches your own representative — the sincere man who shook your hand at youth council meetings and welcomed you with a hug at a rally. It’s no longer just another political story scrolling past; it becomes personal. Rep. Eric Swalwell, my former congressman, illustrates this tension. According to the […]
Fast Food Workers Push for Workplace Protections Amid Rising ICE Raids
For thousands of fast food workers in California, going to work isn’t just long hours and low wages, but also the constant fear of ICE raids ambushing their workplace. Fast food workers are standing in solidarity with their undocumented coworkers for their employers to sign a pledge reaffirming workers’ rights amid ICE raids at workplaces […]
California’s West, and The Rest
From the mighty weight of progressive climate legislation to sweeping housing reforms, California is justly reputed for passing policies that have set the standard for the rest of the world. Yet there is a difference between the promise of a policy and its actual implementation. Growing up in the rural desert of southeast California, I […]
In an Era of Wildfire, California Faces a New Crisis at Home
The conversations taking place at my family’s dinner table have undergone a rapid divergence from daily recaps to discussion of an issue that has become inescapable in California. My family lives in Santa Barbara, so we are no strangers to fire. We were evacuated for two consecutive months during the Thomas Fire in 2018, and […]
The California Language Archive and Indigenous Language Revitalization
In an office on the first floor of Dwinelle Hall, the California Language Archive keeps history alive. As the largest archive of Indigenous language research in North America, the program serves as a resting place for decades of research and field notes conducted on California’s numerous Indigenous languages, many of which are critically endangered or […]
San Francisco, Make Way for Young People
San Francisco prides itself on setting up a system for opening up doors for fresh leaders — yet buried within its city charter is a quiet loophole that has allowed some politicians to remain in power, leaving no room for young people. Is this intentional or incidental? District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has proposed a […]