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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 prov

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-t

[February 2021, written for UC Santa Barbara's Beat Reporting course.] 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

[January 2021, written for UC Santa Barbara's Beat Reporting course.] 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, insurrection, racial injus

[April 2020, written for UC Santa Barbara's Journalism Writing course.] 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 requirem