Sunday, October 15, 2017 will go down as a historic day, as California Governor, Jerry Brown, signed new legislation that will allow the residents of California to choose a gender other than male or female on official documents. The bill,…
Digital Democracy: government transparency website keeps track of state legislators
BY: ELIJAH BASSETT If the workings of your own government seem distant and obscure to you, you’re not alone. But if you’re living in California or New York, a new accountability platform called Digital Democracy wants to enlighten you about…
There is a dome in the Mojave desert meant for cell rejuvenation, anti-gravity, and time travel (and you can visit)
Nestled on the outskirts of enchanting Landers, California is a large white dome-shaped structure that looks like it popped straight out of a science fiction movie. The dome is called the Integratron and it is part resonant tabernacle, part energy machine,…
Brothels, bars and mines- eerie photos of California’s ghost town show us what life was like in the 1800s
BY: SAMANTHA TAPP Once upon a time, a mining town stood strong on the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The town – Bodie, California – was discovered in 1859, and for the next 50 years it was home…
Inspired by Cosby, California ends the statute of limitations on rape cases
BY: AISHA ILYAD California has officially dropped the statute of limitations on rape cases, effective from January 1st 2017. The law applies to: “rape, sodomy, lewd or lascivious acts, continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation and sexual penetration” committed…
This California desert town is becoming the Silicon Valley of weed
BY: M. TOMOSKI There is nothing particularly special about the city of Desert Hot Springs California—yet. It’s quite easy to miss the town itself for the beautiful scenery surrounding it. On the north side of Interstate 10, this quaint little…
Meet the 69-year-old ordained minister opening America’s first weed dispensary for seniors
BY: JESSICA BEUKER At 69 years old, Sue Taylor is extremely healthy. A former catholic school principal and ordained minister, the mother of three attributes her good health to eating right, lots of exercise and cannabis. Last month, the city…
Hippies, artists and pirates- a peek inside to the oceanside tribe of Sausalito
BY: JESSICA BEUKER For more than half a century Richardson Bay, just north of Sausalito, California, has been inhabited by hippies, artists and self-proclaimed pirates. This unique group of characters lives off-grid in a collection of houseboats – the last…
Drinking almond milk might just make you an asshole
BY: STEFANIE PHILLIPS Whether you’re in a ritzy Starbucks in the nice end of town or at your local fair trade coffee shop, overhearing someone ask the barista for almond milk to douse in their morning coffee has become the…
This 28-year old pro surfer lives out of a 20-foot, self-sustaining yurt with his dog in California
BY: ROB HOFFMAN Chadd Konig is the poster child for a simple, sustainable and incredibly fulfilling lifestyle, which includes catching surf in the cold Northern California Ocean and maintaining his three-acre farm and 20 foot cylindrical yurt. To complete the…
The face of a California farmer staring at gaunt brown grass will haunt me forever
BY: TYLER FYFE It had been a year of broken records. Mostly though, it had been a year of broken families. The state is suffering the worst drought in 500 years and above the burned-over countryside hangs the acrid smell…
LA takes a radical new approach to combating homelessness—actually helping them
BY: SWIKAR OLI While some cities tackle their homeless crisis by removing them from public spaces, Los Angeles is going with a totally novel approach to addressing the rapidly-growing issue—actually helping them. Over the next year, the city has pledged…
The golden era of skateboarding in 1970s California (photos)
BY: CONNOR BRIAN In the mid-1970s an endless summer struck Southern California, evaporating water in drainage ditches and suburban swimming pools, catalyzing what would change the face of counter-cul- ture forever. Maybe it was the dehydration, or maybe it was…
My first time hiding legally purchased weed from a California State Trooper went like this
BY: TYLER FYFE We were somewhere in Southern California speeding down the blacktop in a rental car when we saw the sirens of a State Trooper. We still had a brown paper bag full of the weed we had bought…
California’s burning but suburban lawns are more lush than ever
BY: JOHNATHAN MOSS California has often been seen as a land of wild possibility, whose city streets unravel for the ambitious like the scarlet rug of Hollywood’s Academy Awards. The promise and pull of a coastline peppered with long legs and…
California is about to become the world’s leader on climate change
BY: JESSICA BEUKER California is once again leading the world in climate action. Back in January, California Governor Jerry Brown made a promise to pursue a list of climate goals that were among the most ambitious in the world. He…
California is giving free solar panels to poor households by taxing corporations for GHG emissions
BY: DANIEL KORN California is, by a wide margin, the best state in the US for solar energy. Over a million homes in the state have solar panels installed—compared to the second-best state, Nevada, which only has about 50 thousand…
This California start-up will deliver weed to your door
BY: DANIEL KORN When I was in high school, there was a popular service called Dial-A-Bottle. You’d call up the company, tell them what booze you wanted, and they’d have a guy drive over to your location and drop it…
At this college, students hire their professors, ride horses, and study for free
BY: TYLER FYFE A single scar of asphalt runs the length of the basin of the Inyo-White Mountains in the isolated desert of Eastern California. This is the only road in or out and located thirty miles from the nearest…
This group of Vancouver adults pay $750 per month to live in a five million-dollar dream home
BY: SINEAD MULHERN Maybe there was once a time when living alone was the dream. You get free range of the house. Clean the kitchen and it stays clean. Feel like making dinner at 10 p.m.? No problem. Wear your…