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The slave patrols of the American South leveraged domestic terror and racist legal tactics to deny the rights of targeted communities in a deeply prejudicial and inhumane system; Trump’s ICE follows an all-too-familiar historical playbook in 2025 Since President Donald Trump retook office in January 2025, raids conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have increased exponentially across the country, with a growing number of encounters appearing blatantly un

By speaking for more than 25 hours on the Senate floor, Cory Booker broke Strom Thurmond’s record for the longest speech delivered in Senate history “These are not normal times in our nation,” began Senator Cory Booker on the evening of March 31, “and they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate.” Booker’s powerful opening remarks set the tone for what would soon become the longest speech in U.S. Senate history. Beginning at 7pm , Booker spoke through the n

Until the late 1960s, fault-based divorce perpetuated harm against American women by making it nearly impossible to legally divorce their husbands. Today, far-right politicians aligned with the goals of Project 2025, including Vice President JD Vance, want to return to that reality with their attacks on no-fault divorce. In 1969, then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan became the first to sign the right to a no-fault divorce into state law. Until that point , one spouse had to pro

Since 2021, a rapidly increasing number of states, schools, and school districts have pulled books off library shelves to censor specific themes, including racial justice and LGBTQ+ issues  Prior to 2020, the phrase, “book banning,” didn’t have much of a place in the day-to-day American lexicon, nor did the battle against censorship come to mind as a hot-button political issue. Over the last few years, though, the U.S. has seen a modern resurgence in book banning as an all-ti

[Written for UCSB's Beat Reporting course in February of 2021.] Dr. Van Do-Reynoso, Director of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department, announced Thursday that the county plans to transition to a new model of COVID-19 vaccine rollout which shifts facilitation off of the county and onto third-party administrator Blue Shield. “Blue Shield is tasked with allocating and distributing vaccines, taking the local health departments out of the coordinator role,” she said. “

[Written as a news writing exercise for UCSB's Beat Reporting course in January of 2021.] Wednesday morning, on the steps of the Capitol, President Joe Biden took the oath of office, swearing to uphold and defend the Constitution as he takes over the executive branch of American democracy as the 46th president of the United States. Calling it, “a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve,” the President took to the podium to address a nation fatigued by pandemic, insurr

[Written for UCSB's Journalism Writing course in April of 2020.] A group of Sacramento high school and college students has found a unique way to adapt to California’s COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate. In Rancho Murieta, a community of 5,500 people in eastern Sacramento County, sisters Jill and Lexi Pland and their next-door neighbors Sophie and Arcadia Jacquez have created a system of “driveway coffee”: a makeshift social hour tailored to state social distancing requirements. B