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 […]
Tag: California
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 […]
Amid American Gerontocracy, Gonzales CA Provides a Blueprint for Youth Leadership
We are living in an age of American gerontocracy. With an average age of 58.9 years as of the start of the session last year, this Congress is the third-oldest in United States history. Twenty four members of Congress — more than half of whom are running for reelection in 2026 — are 80 or […]
The L.A. Metro is Surrendering to BANANAs
No transportation agency is as self-sabotaging as Los Angeles Metro. On Jan. 22, the Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors voted to oppose SB 677 unless it is radically amended to give Los Angeles County a backdoor out of Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). Their justification was explicit. “Tying increased density to proximity to transit projects is […]
The Bay Area Tech Companies Bowing Down to President Trump
In a picturesque scene of decadent place settings and gold-accented tablecloths, President Donald Trump hosted his cadre of tech powerhouse CEOs and business tycoons at a lavish dinner honoring their donations to his White House ballroom — and among those in attendance, the Bay Area was abundantly represented. Late this summer, the president announced his plan […]
Losing More Than the Game – The Exodus of Oakland’s Teams
Over the past decade, Oakland has suffered a brutal triple blow: the Raiders to Las Vegas, the Warriors across the Bay to San Francisco, and the A’s preparing to leave for Nevada. As a Bay Area native, each departure is more than athletic reshuffling; it’s an unraveling of my home’s identity. Economically, the losses are […]
When They go Low, We Go… Also Low
When the majority of Californians get together to attack democratic safeguards in the name of preserving a balance, we aren’t really getting a compromise. Instead, it’s a loud, blatant signal that the system is eating itself. Proposition 50’s passage signifies that political polarization has gotten to the point that people on both sides of the […]
Solar and Storage, The Answer to California’s Climate Goals
California’s Energy History For decades, California has faced a series of existential challenges related to energy. From rolling blackouts and utility bankruptcies to volatile prices and infrastructure strain, the state’s dependence on an increasingly unstable electrical grid has proven unsustainable. To balance the persistent mismatch between supply and demand, California has sought new energy solutions […]
Soft Secession: California’s Antidote to Trump
Sending ICE to raid workplaces and schools, separating families, and deporting both undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens. Federalizing the National Guard and deploying it to Los Angeles, using military-style force against protesters. Cutting federal funding and withholding aid during the L.A. fires. These are just some of the federal government’s attacks on California over the […]
Living in Fear: The Human Cost of Trump’s Deportation Agenda
“My biggest fear is seeing her one morning and not knowing if she’ll come back.” This fear and daily uncertainty is a sentiment shared by the 5.8 million households in the United States that are home to at least one undocumented immigrant, amidst the second term of President Donald Trump. As of 2023, California had […]
California’s Unlearned Lesson From Germany
In the post-World War II era, German bureaucrats tallied billions in reparations owed to Holocaust survivors. Every Deutsche Mark and carefully handwritten ledger was a confession in numbers, a recognition that words alone could never undo the crimes of the past. Germany sought not only to compensate victims but also to educate a nation and […]
Seizing the Means of Electrification in California
The typical scheme for electric utilities places customers in one of two bins: investor-owned or city-owned. There is a perennial debate over utility ownership. Should we rely on investor-owned utility companies or should cities manage their own utilities? The answer is simple: neither. Both are fundamentally flawed. Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs) are inefficient and today’s Public-Owned […]
Carceral Muscle Memory: How LA Has Failed Its Pursuits of Criminal Justice
The LA County Sheriff’s Department has over a decade of reported “gangs” that physically abuse inmates. In 2011, ACLU Southern California released a report that found deputy gangs “thrive” inside LA County jails. In 2023, the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission released a report making the same allegations, saying: “The Department currently contains several active groups […]
Caught in the Crossfire: UC Berkeley and the Federal War on Higher Education
At the crossroads of politics and pedagogy, the Department of Education has become a focal point of national controversy under the Trump Administration. Since 1867, the Department of Education has widely administered and funded state-run education in the United States. Along with this function, it also operates investigations on the grounds of racial preferences, and […]
AB 260 Protects Reproductive Freedom Amid State Crackdowns
“California stands for a woman’s right to choose,” affirmed Gov. Newsom as he signed Assembly Bill 260, a sweeping California law designed to protect reproductive care in the state. His message to the rest of the nation is unmistakable: when Washington turns its back on women, California will stand in their defense. Just months ago, […]
The Case for a Metrolink Land Trust
The Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), or Metrolink, has been serving Los Angeles and its surrounding counties for decades, moving millions of passengers a year. Founded in 1991, the commuter rail network is one of the largest in the nation at 437 miles of track. Size is not enough to attract riders, though. Over […]
Trump’s Message to California, the Nation
MacArthur Park is a civic treasure of Los Angeles. It stands as a testament to the diversity and resilience of the city and the people that inhabit it. On July 7, these values were challenged. Federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents descended upon the park in trucks and horseback, marching down Wilshire Boulevard […]
What Newsom Doesn’t Get, Mamdani Does
Zohran Mamdani’s recent primary win in New York wasn’t just a triumph of social media savvy and grassroots organizing. It marked something rarer: a progressive campaign built on substantive policy, not on reactive posturing against Republicans. In doing so, Mamdani has charted a path the Left has long struggled to find. Available for purchase at […]
California Calls Foul Play on the NCAA with SB 206
It started with money, as it so often does in a world of college athletics. For decades, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) raked in billions from television contracts, sponsorships, and merchandise built on the backs of student-athletes, who were banned from profiting from their own names, images, and likenesses (NIL). In 2019, California lawmakers […]
The Executive’s Ambush on Multilingualism
On March 6, 2025, the Executive Office of the President released Executive Order no. 14224: Designating English as the Official Language of the United States. The order revokes Executive Order 13166, which was put in place to protect limited English proficiency (LEP) people’s access to federally-funded services like education by providing multilingual access to their […]
Can SB 79 Cure the Housing Crisis?
Suburban life is core to the American identity. Miles of manicured lawns have become our amber waves of grain. Through exclusionary zoning practices, Californians have been funneled into this singular mode of living. All hope is not yet lost, though. With increasing pressure on policymakers in Sacramento, legislation is currently being drafted to reverse decades […]
The Palisades Fires: How Profit and Greed Ignite California’s “Natural” Disasters
California is home to occasional earthquakes, various landslides, longstanding droughts, and most of all, sweeping and devastating wildfires. This past January, the Palisades and Altadena fires, alongside many other smaller flare ups, brought complete destruction and turmoil to L.A. county. Up to 150,000 residents have been displaced, and those who aren’t fortunate enough to have […]
Storm Clouds Over Yosemite: Federal Layoffs Cast Dark Futures on the Park and Its Protectors
My heart stopped as I looked down from my position atop Yosemite’s Half Dome and watched Diana’s grip slip from the metal cables. As lightning illuminated the dark, cloudy sky and rain slashed onto the now ice-slick granite face, I was hanging vertically, 8,830 feet in the air, fearing for my life. Simultaneously, down on […]
The Supreme Court has Empowered Cities to Crack Down on Homeless Camps
City of Grants Pass v. Johnson In June of 2024, the Supreme Court handed down its most important decision concerning homelessness in decades. In City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Court decided that a prohibition on public camping does not violate the Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause of the Eighth Amendment. The case concerned […]
California Ballot Propositions: The Flaws of Direct Democracy
In 1911, California’s government was almost completely controlled by the Southern Pacific Railroad. Through bribery, this railroad company maintained a firm grip on the legislature. And then (at last!), the Progressive Movement swept the nation. The state amended its constitution to allow voters to decide directly on legislation and constitutional amendments. Political power had been […]
Gavin Newsom – America’s Newest Conservative Talk Show Host?
Gavin Newsom, the Democrat Governor of California, has passed the state’s largest reproductive freedom bills and enshrined protections for LGBTQ+ youth in school. Charlie Kirk is a conservative influencer who is staunchly against LGBTQ+ rights and the separation of church and state. The two sat down in early March on Newsom’s podcast, “This Is Gavin […]
Flight to the Right: How Democrats Lost San Francisco Asian Americans
In a historically progressive city, San Francisco’s Asian American community showed up and showed out in support of right-wing candidates and policies down the ballot in the 2024 election. While Trump’s share of Black and Latino voters hardly shifted, Trump captured Asian Americans in tension with the Democratic Party. After President Donald Trump’s onslaught of […]
The Political Fallout of the Los Angeles Fires
In early February, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass officially demoted Fire Chief Kristin Crowley over claims that she improperly managed the Los Angeles fires. In defending Bass, an anonymous advisor told Politico, “sometimes what’s good for the city is not what’s good politically.” As disputes between the two are now overwhelmingly public, the focus of […]
CA’s High-Speed Rail Project and Its Future
California’s High-Speed Rail project seems to be in a state of perpetual limbo. Historically, progress on this project has been very slow, with local politics preventing its route from being efficient. Additionally, budget problems mean it won’t be finished anytime soon. To compound the problems the potential rail line already faces, because of the project’s […]
The Rhetoric of Too Much Testosterone—Transgender Youth in CA Politics
California has long been a leader in the United States when it comes to transgender legislation. Since 2004, the California Gender Non-Discrimination Act has protected transgender people from discrimination within public life, including employment, housing, and education. Until recently, California has served as a haven for transgender people. Republican Assemblymember Kate Sanchez has emerged as […]
Misfit Island: A Familial Lens on Fresno’s Battle Against the Homeless
On a hot summer day, Cindy Jones, her boyfriend Peter, and their two dogs, Hercules and Mudders, were awoken from their sleep to the sound of bulldozers. However, it wasn’t your run-of-the-mill construction. Instead, City of Fresno crews were arriving to remove their tented encampment under the highway where they lived. Given only ten minutes’ […]
Prop. 36 Would Curb Rates of Theft and Drug Addiction
A national drug crisis and a shoplifting epidemic have combined to make California, and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular, a hotbed of petty crime. Now Californians will have the opportunity to undo this trend, at least in part.
Human Rights Issues in California: The Case of Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is a dark shadow looming over California, silently ensnaring thousands each year. It’s a grim reality where people are coerced into forced labor or sexual exploitation, preying on the most vulnerable among us. But this isn’t just a statistic. It is a heartbreaking tale of exploitation that plays out in various forms across […]
Congress, The Lifelong Career
Sitting high on Capitol Hill, the distant and seemingly elitist Congress has struggled to maintain Americans’ trust, with reports showing a measly 26% of the public trusts our legislative branch. Americans feel separated from Congress, and it’s a trend that has persisted over the last 20 years as politics become increasingly polarized among parties. Members […]
Scott Baugh would Serve Himself—not CA-47
In January, Republican congressional candidate Scott Baugh sat down with The Orange County Register’s Kaitlyn Schallhorn in preparation for this year’s primary election. She asked him a set of relatively standard questions—and Baugh gave a set of relatively standard replies: Baugh’s “common sense border policy” is that “we should have a tall fence and a […]
Registry: The Hidden Pathway to Citizenship
Google defines citizenship as “the position or status of being a citizen of a particular country.” However, being a citizen entails so much more. A citizen isn’t labeled as an alien on legal documents, isn’t considered a public charge for seeking basic human services, is represented within the electoral system, has a nine-digit number that […]
Connectivity In The Courtroom: Click for Justice!
What does the future of justice look like to you? While we all have grand hopes and expectations of what justice should be, justice can be as simple as accessibility to a courtroom. In California, accessing the justice system is evolving–now it is as simple as turning on your electronic device. Instigated by the pandemic, […]
Driving Towards a Cleaner California
The future of electric vehicles along with climate change is not as far away as we may have thought. In 2020, Gavin Newsom announced, via Executive Order N-79-20, that California car dealerships will no longer be selling gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The California Air and Resource Board (CARB) has been working to implement cleaner practices […]
Undocumented, Unstoppable, Undeniably Unafraid: The Battle for Opportunity For All
On January 23, 2024, three days before the UC Regents would break their promise to thousands of students, UC Berkeley undocumented students and allies marched across campus advocating for all University of California students’ right to work regardless of their immigration status. Representatives from every UC campus, including UCLA, flew and drove out to participate […]
Katie Porter is the progressive choice
The California Senate race is well underway with the March 5th jungle primary less than 6 months out. Multiple big-name candidates have thrown their hat in the ring to replace the late Senator Feinstein, who served California since 1992. Of those big names, Representative Katie Porter is clearly the best progressive choice to represent the […]
A Stain on California’s Progressivism
In a country plagued by a hurricane of partisan politics, California is often seen as the United States’ leader on progressive policy and action, the calm amidst the storm. California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has held office since 2019, is often hailed as the masthead of this movement. His stances on climate change, gun control, […]
California: The Most Over-Hated State
When I first came to Berkeley, I was well aware of the Bay Area and its reputation. Friends and family, both in-state and out, hit me over the head with tales of crime, homelessness, poverty, and stuck-up tech CEOs. Although the last admonishment was warranted, as soon as I arrived Berkeley struck me with its […]
State of Jefferson: Rural California’s Struggle for Representation
The Bay Area isn’t “Norcal.” Moving to Berkeley from my small town just two hours south of the Oregon border, I always found myself mocking the locals here for insisting they lived in Northern California. Containing around 1.7 million California residents in total, the rural counties of California have little in common with those located […]
California’s Educators Pay the Price of School Board Politicization
In March 2022, Florida’s legislature made headlines for enacting the Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the Don’t Say Gay Bill. California Republicans, on the other hand, don’t have the power to pass anti-LGBTQ bills in the democratically-controlled legislature. Instead, they’re attempting to dismantle public education from the bottom up by taking over […]
Criticism Rises as California’s CARE Court Unfolds – And Rightfully So
In September 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom passed CARE Court: a first-in-the-nation scheme to address individuals with severe mental health and substance use disorders, emphasizing how “we’re going to do it without taking away people’s rights.” Now, as of October 1, 2023, it is time for the plan to start coming to fruition. Undoubtedly, the […]
How Modern-Day Capitalism Paralyzed Hollywood
This summer, Hollywood came to a standstill. For the first time in 63 years, writers and actors went on strike together as both the Writers Guild of America (WGA), representing 11,500 writers, and SAG-AFTRA, a 160,000-strong coalition of actors and media professionals, failed to settle contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television […]
16 Questions With “Queen Maker” Laphonza Butler
In light of Laphonza Butler’s recent appointment to the United States Senate, BPR is republishing Lindsey Anstead’s interview with her conducted in the Spring of 2022. This piece highlights her background as an organizer, her values, and her vision for the future of American politics. Since her ascension to the role of President in the […]
Lessons From The Tenderloin
Ascending the Civic Center / UN Plaza BART escalator, I thought I knew what to expect. As I arose, it was as if an eyedropper picked me up out of my bubble and plopped me into what I perceived to be an epicenter of human misery. People walking like zombies, their eyes seemingly lifeless and […]
The Sale of San Francisco’s Institutions
“The school boards are the key that picks the lock,” said former Trump advisor Steve Bannon in August of last year. Bannon, along with other vocal conservatives, has been avidly pushing for takeovers of local political institutions such as school boards—and they’re winning. The recall failure trend ended on February 15th, 2022, when San Francisco […]
What’s Next? People’s Park and CEQA Reform
Housing on the site of People’s Park won’t be coming anytime soon. That’s what campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof seemed to suggest after the First District Court of Appeals handed down its verdict in Make U.C. A Good Neighbor v. Regents of the University of California. The Court held that the University’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) […]
The Fight for Fair Maps Continues in California
The 2022 midterm elections have proven once more how much the California Citizens Redistricting Commission has failed to live up to its mission: drawing fair maps. In 2022, Democratic House candidates in California won 63% of the state’s popular vote but 77% of California’s House seats. The California Citizens Redistricting Commission, approved by voters in […]
What to Make of the Rise in Catalytic Converter Theft in California
In September of last year, my car’s catalytic converter was stolen. As a college student with minimal experience with cars, I was only made aware by my neighbor, who informed me that the “horrible, growling noise” coming from beneath my car was a telltale sign that the catalytic converter was no longer there. The next step, […]
Ten Years Post-Reform, How Are California’s Congressional Maps Still Unfair?
What a success story for California! After decades of Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature rigging Congressional maps through gerrymandering, citizens finally came together in 2008 to pass Prop 11, and in 2010 to pass Prop 20, putting redistricting in the hands of a bipartisan citizen commission. Once and for all, California had fair […]
Prescribed Burns As The Solution To California’s Increasingly Incendiary Forests
The weather has been a running joke for residents of San Francisco. Karl, the name they have given their fog, blankets their sky year-round. There is no snow season (it has snowed six times in the last 150 years.) And, due to California’s historic drought, residents of The City are losing their rainy season. But […]
The Precarious Balance of Closing California Prisons
California: the golden land of opportunity and new beginnings. But for whom? Those idyllic visions of gold and success are out of reach for the around 115,000 inmates currently incarcerated in the California prison system, filling 137.5% of the design capacity for 35 state-operated prisons. This number might seem low, given how many people live […]
Education Is Not The Great Equalizer
We have all been fed a lie: “Education is the great equalizer.” That line dominates the public discourse on K-12 public education. However, it’s certainly not true in the Bay Area nor in California. Piedmont High School and Oakland High School are less than 3 miles apart. Yet the academic performance of their students couldn’t […]
Falling Far Behind: Insufficient Climate Education in the U.S.
Upwards of 80% of people living in the United States are advocates for climate education, with “more than three out of every four Americans [wanting] schools to teach children about global warming.” However, according to the 2021 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) report, Cambodia ranks as the leading country in climate education, with the Dominican Republic […]
Paradise Lost: Agriculture, Water, and the Future of the Golden State
When the first forty-niners began to trickle into California in search of gold, the Central Valley was a fertile expanse of grasslands and marshes home to thousands of deer, tule elk, and grizzly bears — an American Serengeti. Within a century, the region radically transformed into a cornucopia of industrial agriculture to feed the state’s […]
Do Progressives Ruin Cities? Analyzing Michael Shellenberger’s Book, “San Fransicko”
One night in late November, as Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season were right around the corner, I logged onto Twitter to catch up on news and the day’s events, a relatively normal routine I do multiple times a day. But what I saw on my feed, and on Trending, was anything but […]
CA Isn’t Ready to Close Its Last Nuclear Power Plant— But It Can’t Stay Open
On the first of February, 79 top energy experts signed an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, urging him to halt the decommission of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s very last operational source of nuclear power. The group behind this letter includes dozens of prominent energy executives, professors from Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and more, […]
The Final Days of Death Row in California
California has been using a universal and inevitable fact of life as a form of punishment – death. The penalty may be seeing its final days, however, as the state explores other forms of justice. On January 31st, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he plans to dismantle California’s death row by relocating inmates of San […]
Should Democrats Gerrymander in Blue States?
Kevin McCarthy holding the Speaker’s Gavel on January 20, 2023, would be an unprecedented threat to American democracy. If Republicans reclaim control of the House next January, the investigation into the insurrection attempt on the United States Capitol will end and nonsense impeachment proceedings of President Biden could begin. Often, elections can be won and […]
Supervised Injection Sites Save Lives. Let’s Talk About It.
Our discourse on drug policy and addiction is often relegated to hyperbolized images of wayward teens, often racialized and targeted pictures of poor communities of color, dark alleys of anomy, shame, and fear, and the ever-present “Just Say No” platitude. At the heart of the discourse is the increasingly controversial subject of the creation of […]
The California Exodus Myth
The California Exodus Myth If you have lived in California for very long, you have heard the myth. By all accounts, high income and corporate tax rates are causing an economic downturn that is prompting folks to flee California for conservative paradises like Texas and Florida. It’s obvious, right? Liberals are destroying businesses with regulations […]
Newsom Recall: Lessons from the Past
Recall attempts are nothing new to California politics. Since 1913, 55 attempts have been made to remove the governor from office, but only once, in the year 2003, did the recall actually qualify for the ballot. It removed the incumbent, Gray Davis, and replaced him with none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Gavin Newsom, California’s current […]
Weathering the Storm: How California Needs to Adapt to Sea Level Rise
The classic postcard image of beautiful wide, sandy beaches in California is under threat by climate change. Climate change is irrevocably changing the California coastline and will soon have a resounding impact on local economies, housing, and quality of life. Clashes between municipal governments and state governments have led to a stalemate over what beach […]
Cash v. Climate Change: A Dangerous Mix for CA Politics
In recent years, the world has been focusing its collective policy making efforts towards combating climate change. This is largely because scientists tell us that we have until about 2030 to make enormous changes before climate change starts gravely impacting us as a species. Although the United States does not seem to be united in […]
Kevin Faulconer: An Upset in the Making?
Though the 2020 election was just months ago, candidates are already gearing up for the 2022 midterm elections. This is especially true for California, where the top prize in 2022 is the Governor’s Mansion. Accelerating this process is incumbent Governor Newsom’s looming recall, a movement that has gained steam as California attempts to navigate its […]
The Debate Around Reopening K-12 Schools in the Bay Area
Covid-19 has undoubtedly harmed our most vulnerable communities disproportionately. This effect has not just been seen on overall public health— it is also apparent throughout our education system. Due to the structure of public school funding, each school throughout the state differs enormously with varying degrees of resources. Public schools are beginning to face unprecedented […]
Institutional Fragmentation and the Future of American Data Protection
All social media companies operate around the same basic principle. You are not the customer of Facebook — you are the product. When we speak about data, we are referring to bite-sized pieces of information about people. Where you live, how you vote, and what your favorite soda is are all examples of individual data […]
Farmworkers: Victims of COVID-19 and Climate Change
Farmworkers are a crucial sector of the labor force who often go without praise. Despite the harsh working conditions, low wages and the increasing threat of climate change, farmworkers are putting their lives even more at risk during the global pandemic. Farmworkers serve an essential purpose in our society as the backbone of our food […]
A Contentious Congressional Race in One of Southern California’s Last Republican Districts
One of the most contentious and unpredictable congressional races in the 2020 general election is in California’s 25th District. Encompassing the suburban cities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale, Lancaster and Simi Valley, CA-25 is the only Republican district in Los Angeles County, a notoriously Democratic stronghold. Prior to 2018, the district had been represented by a […]
BLM Galvanizes LA Voters in Contentious District Attorney Race
The police have killed 861 people in 2020. Black Americans, despite accounting for 13 percent of the United States’ population, represent 28 percent of those killed by law enforcement. Eric Garner. Tamir Rice. Rayshard Brooks. Elijah McClain. Breonna Taylor. George Floyd. There are countless others, whose names we saw plastered in the news and on […]
On California’s Law and Order Initiative: Proposition 20, Featuring Eric A. Stanley
“This bill is being pushed through at the same time that the people across the United States are demanding the abolition of the prison industrial complex. It’s indicative of a culture war, which is to say a class war, around prisons and policing.” – Eric A. Stanley Walking on the streets of California after consuming […]
Affirmative Action: Back on the Ballot
This November, one line could change California dramatically. Proposition 16 reads simply “That Section 31 of Article 1 [of the California Constitution] thereof is repealed”. And yet on a ballot packed full of controversial issues, Proposition 16 could be the most controversial of them all. In this installment of On the Ballot, we discuss Affirmative […]
Eden in Crisis: Orange County in Denial
The image that most Californians have of Orange County is a sprawling suburban community, framed by orange groves. That is true to an extent. First of all, OC barely has any original citrus trees anymore. The groves were removed when OC started making space for its iconic suburbs. And since then, it has continued to […]
No More Picket Fences: How SB50 Could Have Solved the California Housing Crisis
For millions upon millions of Californians across the Golden State — most of whom living in sprawling urban metropolises or the suburbs surrounding them — the nature of housing and the experience of living have vastly changed over the course of these past few decades. Between Redding and San Diego, residents have borne witness to […]
Brace for Impact, California
No matter what we do, we’re going to feel the effects of climate change. How bad these effects will be depends heavily on our mitigation efforts. Reducing our carbon emissions and investing in carbon reduction efforts are effective ways to prevent much of the worst effects, but cannot ensure the world will be unaffected. California […]
Striking Out: Why Strikes Weaken Union Positions Politically
The GM strike, beginning in September of 2019, is set to be the largest strike of the past 18 years. In fact, 2018 as a whole saw the largest number of strikes in decades and support for labor unions has polled at a 20 year high with candidates like Bernie Sanders highlighting their importance in […]
Modern Eugenics in California
“Eugenics is the science of improving the human species.” In the late 19th century, British scholar Francis Galton introduced and propagated his theory of eugenics. Galton urged European and American governments to attempt to improve the human race by ‘breeding out’ undesirable traits. Eugenics was carried out in several ways: forced sterilization, legal policy preventing […]
Climate Changes: California’s Emissions Waiver Revoked
The Trump administration is certainly no stranger to environmental policy rollbacks, but the recent September 19th decision to revoke California’s auto emissions regulation waiver amounts to a politically-hypocritical decision. This environmentally-regressive decree arrives as the most recent executive decision in a line of drastically altering or outright cancelling countless Obama and Clinton-era regulations, from policies […]
Tenants over Tents: Why Skid Row is Stuck in the Undertow
The largest concentration of unsheltered people in the country is located on “Skid Row,” a 54-block stretch of eastern downtown Los Angeles. 2,000 people spend each night there. However, Skid Row is simply a more visible component of an underlying dilemma: from 2010 to 2017, there has been a 42 percent rise in the number of homeless people […]
The Death Knell for the Death Penalty: Gavin Newsom’s Execution Moratorium
In March, California governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions, effectively ending any chance of execution for the 737 California prisoners still on death row. While it is obvious that this move is important for the future of the death penalty in California, the significance of Newsom’s declaration lies in its potential ramifications for […]
Floundering California Republicans Search for Answers in a Changing State
Since Washington’s presidency, American politics has functioned according to a two-party system. Although Democrats and Republicans wax and wane, compromise, shift positions, and trade viewpoints, the two parties have been among the longest-standing pillars of American political ideology. However, in California, this time may be coming to an end. California Republicans’ power has dwindled to […]
Rewriting Title IX: A New Chapter in California’s Schools
In 1972 Congress passed Title IX, a sweeping policy of the Education Amendments that protects students from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX was, and still is, monumental legislation for the protection of women on college campuses: it mandates, among other things, the creation and […]
Did the Politicalization of the Supreme Court Start in California?
Where California goes, so goes the nation. We have all heard this statement, but the question is, is it true? In the case of the increasing politicization of the United States Supreme Court, this certainly seems to be the case. This story goes beyond Brett Kavanaugh and his sexual assault allegations and in fact, starts […]
Censor That Sh*t
Is censorship in California school districts an issue that the public’s ignored? Do school districts have the right to ban books from their libraries or restrict student access to literary materials? Are we doing more harm than good by omitting sensitive discussions in the classroom? In 2014, The Fault in Our Stars, a book chronicling […]
Fire Season: California, Climate Change, and Convict Labor
2018 summer fire season is on record as being one of California’s most demanding and devastating. In the 9 month fire season from January to September, over 4,800 wildfires burned 617,00 acres across the state. The effort to combat such extensive emergency is incredibly costly; California spent $431 million in just the two months following […]
A Spotlight on the Red Light District
When most Californians hear the words “human trafficking,” they imagine a faraway, third-world country. Yet the practice is rampant within the United States –– California ranks among the top four domestic destinations for human trafficking. California is home to an extremely profitable human trafficking industry due to its extensive international borders, easy access to the […]
Did California Just Cash Out?
On August 28th, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 10 to eliminate cash bail in in the state. After advocating for the removal of cash bail since the late 1970s, the new legislation will go into effect starting October 2019. Today, cash bail is seen as a predatory institution that has directly targeted and predominantly […]
The Spies Next Door: China’s Espionage Campaign in California
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, […]
Propocalypse: The Governance Crisis Provoked by Direct Democracy
This year, as Californians head to the polls, like every general election, voters will be asked to decide on a slew of questions instrumental to how the state will finance crucial projects and govern pressing issues. Ballot measures may seem like a way for voters to enact laws by popular consent and serve as a […]
Jerry Brown’s Last Hurrah
By Jacob Ganz The following article was written for Berkeley Political Review as part of a monthly collaboration with Davis Political Review. Jerry Brown is California’s indomitable winner. For over five decades, Brown has been an indelible presence in politics. Now, as he enters the last months of his final term as governor, he faces the last […]
Icing Out ICE
As congressional candidates throughout the country campaign this fall, immigration will inevitably be one of the issues most debated and discussed. Over the past decade, immigration has ballooned from a civil debate with some level of bipartisan agreement to a flashpoint in a national culture war, with President Trump as the ideologue fanning the flames […]
“Pics or it Didn’t Happen”: California’s Millennials’ Resistance to Voting
How much would you pay for an avocado? Millennials, even if they refuse to admit it now, will fork up a relatively large amount, such as $12 for avocado toast or $5 for a side of guacamole. Driven largely by millennials, the current 18- to 35-year-olds, avocado consumption has skyrocketed from one pound per person in […]
Avoiding Traffic at All Costs: Is The Bullet Train Worth It?
Imagine this — you arrive in Los Angeles from San Francisco in a mere three-hour train ride to hang out on the beach with your friends. No painful six-hour drive or delayed flights, but rather, a trip that gets you to your destination as painless and quick as possible. The thought of having a train […]
Room to Live: Helping Homelessness with Housing First
It’s springtime in Berkeley, which means that around 15,000 high school seniors are considering attending Berkeley. For many, what stands out is Berkeley’s large and visible homeless population. Homelessness in Berkeley is omnipresent, as it has been throughout California since the 1960s. Treatment of homeless populations has not been consistent over the past 50 years, […]
The Decrease of Psychiatrists in California: Another Battle for Mental Health
On average, 1 in 20 adults in California suffers from a serious mental illness that severely affects the way they go about their daily activities. That staggering statistic, although shocking, should not be surprising. College campuses are constantly reminding students of the importance in seeking medical attention in high-stress environments, and as early as elementary […]
Secret Police: California’s Law Enforcement Transparency Problem
On March 18th, Stephon Clark was shot and killed by police in his grandmother’s home. Two officers responding to a vandalism report chased Clark down into grandmother’s backyard and shot him twenty times, reportedly after mistaking his cell phone for a pistol. Several tenuous claims and accusations surround the incident, mostly regarding the extent of […]
Racial Inequalities Permeate the Legal Marijuana Market
The date April 20th seems to be a holiday at the University of California, Berkeley and various other college campuses throughout the state. Walking through campus on this unofficial holiday will lead to encounters with dozens of food trucks and tables occupied by eager students trying to sell their snacks for those suffering from “munchies,” […]
To Segregate or Not to Segregate, that is (the Bay Area’s) Question
Children born in East Oakland, California have a life expectancy 12 years lower than those born in Piedmont, California. Oakland Unified School District reports about 1,600 homeless students, whereas Piedmont High reports zero. Residents of Oakland have a median household income of $51,000. In Piedmont, it is over $130,000. Yet less than two miles […]
Fresno’s Future Fulton
The large open space scattered with couches and tapestries, filled with lush green plants hanging from the ceilings, would almost make you forget that you were on Fulton Street in downtown Fresno. You walk throughout this new store and admire the vintage clothing, the handmade crafts, and the organic coffee and think to yourself, “Hey, […]
The Power of Top-Two: How an Emerging Primary System is Changing the Game
For the past 150 years, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have been competing with one another in general elections across the country. They have competed against each other for donor dollars, fought for control over districts and states, and battled for the presidency. But with the top-two primary system, implemented in California, Washington, […]
Prison Valley: Why Rural Californians Want Correctional Facilities
To many of California’s economically struggling and politically isolated rural residents, prisons are welcome additions to their communities. Former New York Corrections Commissioner Thomas Coughlin claimed, “Prisons are… the anchor of development,” in a 1990 Newsweek interview. “People [in the Valley] for a very long time have felt a sense that we don’t matter,” argued James Gallagher, […]
This One’s For the Boys (and their Sexual Transgressions)
A woman known by the public as Grace went out with Aziz Ansari last September on what is now the most controversial date of the 21st century. Ansari repeatedly pushed sex on her and failed to recognize, or chose to ignore, her attempts to express her discomfort. She ended up walking out. No, he did […]
Democrats Join the Mad Tea Party: The Contest Begins between Feinstein and De León
The December midnight was drenched in silence. A large crowd stared on from the harbor as the Sons of Liberty crept along the docks in Mohawk Native American costumes. They swept through the streets of Boston with one pursuit in mind: dump the coercive British tea. With the quiet punctuated only by the sound of […]
Redefining Homelessness: The Struggle for Recognition
The sudden rush of people cramming onto BART is Brittany Jones’s alarm clock every morning. Since the age of 19, Brittany has been uncertain of where she will sleep each night, bouncing between BART, relatives’ and friends’ houses, group homes, and shelters. She is merely one of California’s thousands of homeless people trying to find […]
Dear California, We Said Enough: Sexual Abuse in California’s Capitol
Nancy Kathleen Finnigan opened the door to her boss’ apartment and discovered him with pants open, exposed. Shortly after, she was fired from her job. Unfortunately, Finnigan is not alone. Her experience reflects a broader trend in California’s Capitol. Over 140 female legislators, legislative aides, lobbyists, and staff signed an open letter in October of […]
M, F, or X: The New Third Gender Option in California
Male or Female. Check one. A perfunctory flick of the wrist, and onto the next question. For many, filling out government forms constitutes a mechanical, mind-numbing experience, about as intellectually stimulating as watching paint dry. Yet the empty boxes awaiting their desired check mark are not so innocuous as many assume. They compose a restrictive […]
Sanctuary Showdown: Jerry Brown versus Donald Trump
On October 5, 2017, Governor Jerry Brown openly defied the federal government. With the passage of State Senate Bill 54, California became a sanctuary state in direct defiance of President Donald Trump’s stringent immigration policies. However, while this seemingly appears to be a bold and unprecedented action on the part of California, the idea of sanctuary […]
Presidential Election Primaries: The Struggle for Influence
For nearly a century, a well-established political institution within the United States, the presidential primaries, has convinced many in its influential power to decide the nominee for each political party’s presidential candidate. The deeply-rooted drive for a greater influence on the outcome of the presidential election recently drove California to pass new legislation that would […]
California’s Other Water Problem
Carolina Garcia and her family live in a vibrant, close-knit community about a mile outside of Sanger, California. She has fresh fruit trees flourishing in her backyard, chickens and sheep frolicking outside her house, and four beautiful children with another on the way. She seems just like you or any other Californian; except for the […]
A House Divided: What Must Be Done to Achieve Campus Détente
Note: The views in this article are those of the author alone, and do not represent the views of any organization in any official capacity. A favorite talking point of the Right is that students at liberal universities, Berkeley especially, live in a bubble. Whenever the students of UC Berkeley embarrass themselves in front of […]
Stealing Our Jobs: The Future of the H-1B
Srinivas Kuchibhotla and his colleague Alok Madasani were regular patrons of the Austins Bar in Olathe, Kansas. They were called the “Jameson guys” after their regular drink of choice – Jameson whiskeys. Both men were from Hyderabad, India, and were working as software engineers at the tech firm Garmin. Kuchibhotla had come to the US […]
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 […]
Remembering Moonbeam: The Legacy of Jerry Brown
In 1975, a strange and eccentric character ascended to the Capitol building in Sacramento. Nicknamed “Governor Moonbeam”, this young upstart of a politician was a new type of executive: he didn’t live in the Governor’s Mansion, he drove an economy-class car, and he walked to work. Yet Jerry Brown’s unorthodox habits […]
Housingcare: How to Solve California’s Affordable Housing Crisis
As a mother of two children and wife to a steadily employed husband, Brianne Reynolds considered herself to be a typical, hard-working American. In addition to taking care of her kids during the day, she worked the night shifts at a local grocery store as a custodian in order to pay the bills. In what […]
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 […]
California’s Drought: Reviewing the Past, Critiquing the Present, and Preparing for the Future
Written November 21, 2016. As Governor Jerry Brown trekked on a dry, brown meadow nearly 7,000 feet above sea level, something was wrong. The date, April 1st, 2015, seemed appropriate: it was almost like a joke gone wrong; where there had once been a copious amount of snow covering the ground, there was not one […]
Proposition 63 – Gun Control in the Golden State
After years of watching mass shootings happen in nearly every other state within the relative safety of their own, Californians were shocked last year when gunners opened fire on the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, killing 14 people in minutes and remaining on the loose for hours afterward, resulting in what is now the […]
The New Progressive Frontier: Tough on [Sex] Crimes
Can legislation address one of the most pervasive crimes in our society? On March 30, 2016, Judge Aaron Persky of the Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County ruled on the case of People v. Turner, sentencing Brock Allen Turner to six months in prison for a rape he committed on the Stanford University campus […]
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 […]
Pollution, Plastic, and Profit: California’s Conflicting Propositions
In California, a high-profile war for the future of plastic bags is underway; however, underneath the surface lies a much more sinister battle between private interests, with both sides having significant financial stakes in the situation. Just over two years ago, California became the first state in the nation to pass legislation (SB 270) banning […]
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 […]
Don’t Cap Cap and Trade
California’s signature environmental program is in jeopardy, creating a ripple effect that places the state’s entire climate plan at risk Since the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32), California has implemented a number of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the most ambitious being cap and trade. Heavily influenced by a similar […]
Dirty Water Politics: Could Politics Jeopardize Public Access to the Coast?
California, as a state, is definitively the balance between environmentalism and economic growth. While it has some of the most beautiful real estate and coastlines in the nation, it also boasts one of the most profitable economies in the world in the Silicon Valley. The California Coastal Commission (CCC), likened to New York City planner Robert Moses […]
India, South Asia, and Hindutva: What’s Going On With California Textbooks?
A decade after the notorious 2005 California controversy over representation of Hinduism in state textbooks, it looks like a similar issue has come back to bite the California Department of Education. Previously, the Vedic Foundation and the American Hindu Education Foundation (HEF) complained to the California’s Curriculum Commission about an alleged misrepresentation of Indian Hinduism, […]
Innate, Not Immoral
The facts are in about gay conversion therapy, it is now time for action “Similar to Pavlov’s experience with dogs, I was supposed to associate the touch of a man with pain. By the end, even hugging my father brought on flashbacks.” This is one small part of the story of Sam Brinton, who was […]
In Defense of the Firearm
This is one part of the larger debate on gun control in the U.S. The opposing article can be found here. When discussing an issue that carries the gravity of loss of human life, it is critical not to mince words. Guns are tools with a very specific utility. They are machines designed to kill […]
California Equal Pay Bill: Groundbreaking, or Hollow Hope?
Women in California have achieved a momentous victory in the workplace. This summer, the state senate passed Senate Bill 358, a landmark equal pay bill that carries strong measures aimed at closing the long-standing wage gap in employment and increasing wage transparency. The bill supports and upholds pre-existing provisions of the California Labor Code that […]
The Legacy of American Eugenics
Recently the American eugenics movement was brought back into the news by Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who claimed that Planned Parenthood’s founder Margaret Sanger had created her organization in an effort to control the black population. While this claim is not entirely true, Carson does bring attention to a rarely-discussed American injustice. Throughout the […]
Harris’ Senate Race is Now a Woman’s Race
Could Gavin Newsom be afraid of Kamala Harris? Just before California Attorney General Harris formally announced her bid to run for the United States Senate on Tuesday, January 13, Newsom dropped his potential candidacy for the senate position. He instead announced his three year campaign in his bid for the 2018 gubernatorial race. According to […]
Courting Controversy
The California State Legislature took its interim study recess on September 11 and will reconvene on January 4. The first year of this session was full of drama, much of which will play out in the next couple of weeks, as the deadline for Governor Jerry Brown to sign or veto bills on his desk […]
A Beefed Up Industry
Petaluma, California once boasted the title of Egg Capital of the World, and every spring the residents flock into downtown to celebrate the main event of the year: the Butter and Eggs parade. While I do appreciate tractor processions and cow-pie tossing contests, the festivities were never for me. But being a Sonoma County resident […]
California’s Drought: A Trickling Time Bomb
In early March senior NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory water scientist Jay Famiglietti reported that the state of California has approximately a single year’s supply of water in its reservoirs, with backup groundwater supply having rapidly decrease. His LA Times editorial urges an immediate call to action following its startling announcement. “California has about one year of […]
Internal Politics Color Gerrymandering Fight in Berkeley
After a yearlong, virulent, and expensive fight, Measure S passed in Berkeley, California–establishing a student-age supermajority city council district. Measure S was a taboo political word; it was, quite frankly, a gerrymander. It designed the City Council maps to give an electoral advantage to a specific group–students. But the story was not that simple. The […]
Murder in Lockup
In recent years, it has become abundantly clear that security does not always come hand-in-hand with safety. Although they house the most closely guarded of California residents, state prisons have become dangerous for prisoners and, as a recent report by the Associated Press suggests, prison assaults have increased by an approximated 40% from 2011 to […]
Kamala Harris: A Bid For Boxer’s Seat
On Thursday, January 8, 2015, California Senator Barbara Boxer announced she will be retiring following the end of her term, leaving the first open California Senate seat since 1992, The Year of the Woman. Boxer’s leave has nothing to do with her age, she informed viewers of that she is leaving the Senate to return […]
A Possible Return of Partisan Gerrymandering
As the Arizona State Legislature resumes its fight to reinstate gerrymandering for congressional districts, California may also witness the rebirth of gerrymandering in future elections. The case, Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission, is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has decided to hear oral arguments from Arizona attorneys on March 2 and […]
A Not So Innocuous Crisis
The horrific nationwide outbreak in measles has caused a renewed interest and discussion regarding vaccinations of such diseases. While in 2013 there were just under 200 reported cases in the United States, there were around 650 cases in 2014, and in the first two months of the 2015 calendar year, there have already been 173 cases across […]
To Vax or Not to Vax: This is Not the Question
As the lights of University of Phoenix Stadium darken at the end of Super Bowl 49, health officials are waiting for fallout. Thousands of football enthusiasts traveled to Phoenix, Arizona the weekend of Super Bowl Sunday to share in the festivities. However, before their arrival, Arizona health officials were tracking over 1000 people who may […]
Governor Brown’s New Budget Outlines His Vision for the Future
Last week, California governor Jerry Brown unveiled his budget for the new fiscal year. As specified by the passage of Proposition 2 on the November ballot, Brown put $1.2 billion into a rainy day fund while paying down the same amount of the state debt and addressing other obligations that Brown says the state needs […]
The Gun Violence Restraining Order: Necessity or Over-Prevention?
On September 30th, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill titled “Gun Violence Restraining Order” (AB 1014), making California the first state to permit such a law. This bill allows Californians to petition to revoke firearms temporarily from relatives whom they fear might be mentally unstable or a threat to the public. Assemblywoman Barbara Skinner […]
The Not-So-Common Cold: Enterovirus D68
Cold-and-flu season is well under way in California, but this fall, young children in Southern California are being exposed to a different kind of runny nose. Enterovirus D68, also known as EV-D68, was first identified in the state of California in the winter of 1962, when four children were hospitalized with respiratory symptoms that imitated the […]
Why America’s Call for LGBTQ Rights is Insincere
Recently, a couple walking on the street was brutally beaten up for being gay. Under the region’s laws, their attackers were charged with temperate laws as opposed to harsh ones because LGBTQ discrimination is not punishable by law. It might be surprising to find out that this incident took place in the United States and […]
These Are Not The Drones You Expected
The conflict between liberty and security has once again reared its ugly head in Sacramento as privacy rights have come under heavy fire. On September 28, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed AB 1327, a bill that would have created stricter guidelines regarding the use of drones in law enforcement. The bill, which passed in both […]
The Fuss About Fracking
If you enjoy drinking clean water and breathing clean air, you should know about fracking. Fracking, formally known as hydraulic fracturing, is the process of pumping water, sand, and chemicals deep underground to break open reservoir rock and allow the oil and natural gas within to escape. Toxic waste, air pollution, public health issues, increased […]
Cap-and-Trade in the Golden State
California’s cap-and-trade system is a policy that prevents the escalation of global warming and reduces health risks related to pollution by setting a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases emissions. The cap-and-trade policy has two components. The “cap” refers to the legal amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted in one region, lowering […]
From “No Means No” to “Yes Means Yes”
If you’re a college student, you’ve most likely heard that “no means no”. Universities around the United States have taken multiple approaches to the sexual assault epidemic affecting our campuses, offering mandatory orientations, campus advocates and social media campaigns, all under the premise that if you’re uncomfortable with something, speak up. But many fail […]
Tenure on Trial
In 2012, a study of fifteen year-olds from 34 developed countries ranked U.S. students 17th, scoring 25th in math, 17th in science, and 14th in reading. Yet the U.S. ranked 5th in spending for students. As a student from Los Angeles Unified School District, these dismal scores make complete sense to me. Amid the constant […]
Free Speech and the Right to Curse at a Police Officer
Most pedestrians of Sproul Plaza have probably noticed that the University of California Police Department (UCPD) has been cracking down on bicyclists in recent weeks, handing out dozens of tickets to students in violation of the university’s ”Dismount Zone” policy. A relatively unknown and ignored rule, the Dismount Zone is a designated area on south campus where bicyclists are required […]
The Young and the Homeless
Written by Marine Chalons As the busiest street in Berkeley, Telegraph Avenue is a window into two worlds. Everyday thousands of students march up the street until it dead-ends in Sproul Plaza, where the nation’s finest public university awaits them. But to others of the similar age, Telegraph is not part of the daily commute. […]