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Expert: CA Universal Healthcare May Have a Chance If ACA Flatlines
The Affordable Care Act, never a particularly robust program, now appears headed for the ICU. But that isn’t to say the dream of universal health care is dead. Many advocates say we can still get there from here; we just have to go through the states. Or more accurately, big, blue and economically powerful […]
Q&A: Robert Reich on Saving Capitalism
Robert Reich is one of the country’s most influential and prolific political analysts. While Reich has held a variety of high-profile media and advocacy positions and serves as the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, he remains best known for serving as President Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Labor. Reich recently released a Netflix […]
Great Debates: GOP Bill, Roy Moore and Meghan Markle’s Cali Cred
Having trouble keeping up with this week’s news? Don’t sweat it—here’s California’s summary of hot buttons in the press. Tax the Poor With the Republican tax bill now in the Senate, many students are worried about a provision that would tax tuition waivers as income. Such waivers are regularly granted to graduate students who serve as […]
Revisiting the Ghost Ship: A Cal Grad Recalls the Tragic Fire
Today marks the first anniversary of the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland which claimed the lives of 36 people, including five from the UC Berkeley community: students Jennifer Morris and Vanessa Plotkin, alumni Griffin Madden and David Cline, and KALX DJ Chelsea Dolan. The tragedy had the effect of making some feel like Oakland […]
The Big Suck: Can Atmospheric Carbon Removal Stop Climate Calamity?
Strategies to deal with climate change have focused largely on reducing emissions of CO2 and other planet-warming compounds from industry, transportation and agriculture. The news isn’t particularly heartening on that front. After three years of leveling off, CO2 levels are expected to rise by two percent by the end of 2017, due largely to increased […]
More Than Survival: FreeFrom Helps Domestic Violence Survivors Become Entrepreneurs
When Donna fled her abusive marriage with her two toddlers in tow, she left with nothing but dreams for a better life. Finding refuge at a domestic violence shelter, Donna—who agreed to be interviewed under a pseudonym—learned about FreeFrom, a non-profit startup founded by UC Berkeley School of Law graduate Sonya Passi, that helps domestic […]
War Footing: A Cal Expert’s Take on the North Korea Situation
Of all the potential flash points around the world these days, none are more worrisome than North Korea. The Hermit Kingdom is a black box, and it’s exceedingly difficult to know what’s going on within its borders. A couple of things, however, are clear: its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities are improving, and the mutual […]
All That Glitters: Uncovering Sardis, Ancient City of Gold
Many famous names from the ancient world are mythical figures who probably never lived, like Hercules or Odysseus. Not Croesus (pronounced KREE-sus), King of Lydia, a fabulously wealthy region of Anatolia (now part of western Turkey), who ruled from 561 to 547 BCE. He was the richest man in the world and his wealth was […]
Are Wet Winters or Drought Worse for California Fires?
Disastrous wildfires are popularly associated with drought. But the North Bay fires followed one of the wettest winters in decades. The nightly news tends to make things even more confusing. During drought, newscasters sound the alarm about dead trees and the general flammability of parched forests. After wet winters, dire warnings are issued about the […]
Imago Theater Makes Magic with ‘La Belle’
As co-artistic directors and founders of Portland-based Imago Theater, Carol Triffle and Jerry Mouawad had a motto: If it’s too complex, don’t do it. That motto had to go out of the window when they began creating La Belle: Life in the world of the Automaton. After a 3.5 year development process that involved more […]
Money Talks: What’s a Fair Price for Free Speech?
If the past year has taught us anything about free speech at UC Berkeley, it’s that it comes with a price—and the university has to pay. In February, the damage reaped upon university property by the black bloc protests of Milo Yiannopoulos’ speech cost the university $100,000. In September, $600,000 was spent on Ben Shapiro, […]
WATCH: The Play
Saturday’s Big Game marks the 35th anniversary of the five-lateral kickoff return so legendary that it’s simply known as The Play.
Chewing the Fat: This Is What the Public Dialogue On Obesity Is Missing
We’re still living large. Very large. According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, 39.8 percent of adult Americans and 18.5 percent of American youths were obese in 2016. While these rates aren’t much worse than those from a couple of years ago, they’re not any better either. Obesity, in short, is […]
Soldiering On, Veterans Find a Home at Cal Center
This September, just three weeks into Laurina Sousa’s first semester at Cal, she was in crisis. “I had imposter syndrome,” she says. “I felt like I couldn’t relate to my classmates…I felt lost.” A child of immigrants, Sousa grew up in Hayward, California. Money was scarce, so when she graduated high school, the thought of […]
We Know Russia Used Big Tech to Meddle In the Election. Now What?
Representatives from three of Silicon Valley’s most powerful tech firms—Facebook, Google, and Twitter—trooped up to Capitol Hill last week and told senators they were really, really sorry the Russians hacked their platforms and may even have influenced the recent presidential election. But their contrition wasn’t followed by substantive plans to remedy the situation. Indeed, Colin […]
Should “Harmful Speech” Be Punished in the U.S.?
UC Berkeley played host to myriad free speech controversies this year—including violent Antifa protests of conservative pundit Milo Yiannopoulos and a proposed faculty boycott of classes during Free Speech Week—much of it predicated on the assumption that speech is harmful. There are even Cal faculty members who are in agreement that speech can hurt, with […]
Q&A: CNN’s Brianna Keilar On Covering Trump and Going Viral
As she was covering the 2016 presidential election, CNN correspondent Brianna Keilar didn’t expect to become part of the story. But that August, her exchange with Trump Organization attorney Michael Cohen made headlines. “You guys are down,” Keilar tells him in the segment, referring to Trump campaign. Before she can finish her sentence, Cohen interrupts: […]
Meet the “Pro-Piracy” Professor Who Studies ‘Game of Thrones’ Downloads
It wasn’t long ago that we all watched television on a bulky, cathode-ray TV connected to a pricey cable or satellite service. Now televisions are flat and the pay-TV industry is fading fast as consumers switch to online streaming on a plethora of digital devices. But the companies that pump out the content are still […]
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