Like many young people who grew up in California, I view my state as a bastion of liberal progress and a place where democracy is truly at work. In many ways, this is true. California has been a leader in climate adaptation strategies, campaign finance reform, and many other issues I am passionate about. However, recent history has shown that rather than an obstructionist opposition party, an obstructionist governor has wreaked havoc on the California progressive agenda.
Read MoreOn January 26th, 2024, the University of California suspended its plan to allow undocumented students to get campus jobs, halting initiatives to ensure financial equity for this substantial student population.
In May, urged by UCLA law professors and students, the UC regents unanimously pledged to explore a hiring plan for undocumented students in the UC system to earn legal paychecks. This collective effort was championed by the Opportunity For All Campaign, which includes the Undocumented Student-led Network, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, and the UCLA Labor Center.
Read MoreWhen I went to vote for the first time in the fall of 2022, I received a ballot I wasn’t quite expecting. As I looked forward to, I had the opportunity to vote for my representative, state legislative assemblymember, and local city council members. However, as I kept going down the ballot, I encountered something that surprised me. After voting for federal, state, and local candidates, I was faced with seven ballot initiatives on a wide range of issues.
Read MoreIn the current political landscape in the United States, California is considered one of the bluest of blue states you can get. Every statewide office is held by a Democrat, the state legislature boasts a Democratic supermajority, and Democratic candidates in nationwide elections usually enjoy a 15-20% advantage. Republicans in the state struggle to even have a chance of winning statewide offices. For example, in the 2024 race for the US Senate seat in California, it seems that the two candidates running against each other in the general election will be two Democrats.
Read MoreOn March 12, 2000, a man named Gary Ewick concealed three golf clubs worth $399 each by placing them up his pants leg and walked out of a Los Angeles-area golf course. Upon discovery, an employee phoned the police, leading to Ewick’s subsequent conviction and a required 25 years to life in prison. How did stealing $1200 worth of golf clubs warrant a potential life sentence in prison?
Read MoreAs a student, finding housing is one of my biggest priorities, but I was able to rely on my parents to show credit history and proof of income. For refugees arriving in the US finding housing is one of the first challenges to rebuilding their lives. They must do so often before they learn English and with none of the proof of income, credit, or rental history I was able to use when getting my first apartment. This problem is not unique to refugees or the city of Sacramento but one non-profit, the Refugee Enrichment and Development Association (REDA) is helping clients rebuild their lives.
Read MoreSkyrocketing housing prices, exorbitant monthly rents, and tent cities popping up throughout California cities. We’ve all heard the statistics - California is in a severe housing crisis. In response to this, our leaders have set aggressive housing production goals, with Governor Newsom notably promising to develop a whopping 3.5 million new homes by 2025. Yet we are continually disappointed. In the four years since Newsom took office, less than half a million homes have been built within the state.
Read MoreFollowing the leak of the draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in May 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom tweeted that, “California will not sit back. We are going to fight like hell.” The decision, officially released later that year in June, overturned the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade and removed federal protection of abortion services in the United States. This decision turned abortion rights over to the states, which has resulted in 13 states banning abortion.
Read MoreOn March 14, Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) visited UC Davis on behalf of the organization's branch on campus. I went to the event with some friends to watch the crowd protest and to be a part of something contentious at Davis. As we watched the crowd of protestors outside the U Center, an apolitical friend of mine commented, "This is scary." "What is?" I asked as we watched a group of police in riot gear rush toward the back of the U Center, where the protest had moved.
California has not executed a death row inmate since January 2006, yet still has 690 inmates living in fear of execution. In 2012 and 2016, propositions to abolish the death penalty failed. In 2012, the proposition was defeated with 51.95% of the vote, and in 2016, the proposition was defeated with 53.15% of the vote. In comparison, President Obama received 59.3% of the vote in California in 2012 and Hilary Clinton received 61.5% in 2016. The stark contrast between the two results can be explained by the American fear of crime and its importance in elections.
California started off the New Year by turning its streets into rivers. At least 22 people were killed.
As 2022 ended, an atmospheric river washed over California causing a mega-storm that lasted almost three weeks. As rivers overflowed and levees failed, cities began to flood and thousands were forced to evacuate their homes. However, this “once in a lifetime” event was just one of many climate disasters that have occurred in this season alone. In December, most of the US and part of Canada experienced a winter storm that swept from coast to coast, and in January a series of off-season tornadoes traveled through the southern states.
Read MoreGavin Newsom has alluded to running for president multiple times in the last few years following a successful recall avoidance and a steamroll reelection win in 2022, but when would he run? And if he runs…could he win?
According to Berkeley professor of politics Dan Schnur, “Yeah, he’s definitely running for president, the only question is where he’s running in 2024 or 2028.”
California has experienced eight of the state’s largest wildfires in the last five years. To combat these fires, California has enlisted firefighters from out-of-state and sometimes other countries to fight these deadly wildfires. Another significant and often overlooked source of manpower against wildfires is the prison population. Since World War Two, California prisons and Cal Fire have run the Conservation Camp Program. The Conservation Camp Program trains eligible prisoners to become firefighters as a source of rehabilitation. The inmates undergo one week of classroom instruction and one week of field training and exercises.
Read MoreWithin the last week of Fall Quarter, professors have been rolling out updates about the final exams and end-of-quarter assignments in consideration of the UC-wide academic worker strike that has persisted since Nov. 14. In acknowledgment of unfair labor practices and low wages in relation to high cost of living, members of the academic union swept the California campuses, administrators’ homes, and Sacramento streets in the past month. A mass strike halts grading, discussion sections, and all regular functions that allow undergraduate students to receive grades and move on to the next quarter without financial or academic conflict.
Read MoreOn Sept. 28th, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 2011, greenlighting the conversion of derelict commercial spaces into housing, regardless of local government objections. The bill is the latest in a series of moves meant to tackle California’s ballooning cost of housing, limiting the power of cities and counties to micromanage or block new construction. That same day, Newsom gave his signature to AB 2097, eliminating parking mandates for developments near mass transit, and AB 2221, which specifies legal ambiguities surrounding what constitutes a ‘granny flat’, ending the ability of localities to deny their erection on arbitrary grounds.
As of today, nearly 25%, or 500 million, of women around the world do not have access to menstrual health products and education. Despite affecting such a large population of women across the world, this issue known as period poverty is rarely talked about in the context of global health. The U.S. is not exempt from this issue. The Pink Tax, a price discrepancy between products marketed to women despite the nearly identical, cheaper versions marketed to men, is a huge reason for this.
Read MoreWhile there has been increasing awareness more than ever about unethical Big Pharma, many people are unaware about the role of universities in the drug delivery pipeline. They are crucial in the discovery process and are often the root of unfair licensing and patenting practices. A study conducted to assess the contribution universities have to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies showed that of the 252 drugs approved by the FDA between 1998 and 2007, 24% of the drugs were discovered at a university.
Read MoreBased on the results of the 2020 US Census, California will be losing a seat in the House of Representatives, going down from 53 to 52 seats, for the first time in the state’s history. This loss of a House seat is another sign of what red state conservatives have called the California exodus, or the mass migration of Californians out of the state.
Read MoreNewsom and his allies have cast the recall as a blatant partisan power grab by California Republicans, while the recall’s proponents claim their campaign is simply a reaction against Newsom’s failures as governor amid the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis. While some voters may have legitimate criticisms of the Newsom administration, the origins and conduct of the recall campaign thus far indicate that the effort is more a partisan ploy than a legitimate use of recall power.
Read MoreWhile California’s soaring housing prices, state's high income, and state taxes are major reasons for moving away, hundreds of dissatisfied Californians are leaving the state in search of places with more right-wing policies. This trend falls in line with the lack of bipartisanship across the nation fueled primarily by former President Trump’s presidency.
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