The San Francisco Experience

Liverpool is located 178 miles North West of London. A port and a city of colorful history, it has produced two Premier League Soccer Teams, The Beatles, countless actors and artists and has always been an immigrant melting pot. A key transportation artery during the Industrial Revolution, it played a role in the American Civil War facilitating the cotton trade, hosting a Confederate consulate and overseeing the building of a Confe...

Measure 2 is on the Minneapolis ballot November 2. It would remove the Police Department and Chief from the city charter. A new Department of Public Safety would be set up driven by public health considerations. Would police officers even be recruited in the future ? And if it passes, will other cities around the country follow suit ? If so, what impact would a national police department revamp have on the 2022 mid-term elections ?

Michael Dobbs was Moscow Bureau Chief for the Washington Post. He has written seven books. King Richard and several others deal with presidential crises. For King Richard he listened to the Nixon tapes at the  presidential library in Yorba Linda for a first hand account of how the coverup that forced the President's resignation unfolded. The book zeroes in on the first 100 days of 1973 after the January 20th second inaugural. T...

The rise of the Mexican American community in California is notable in many fields. But back in the middle of the 20th Century until the 1970s, The future was littered with struggle, poverty and lack of opportunity. Frank Barajas takes us through that period when giants like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta were laying the groundwork for the emergence of Mexican Americans as a political, social and economic force to be reckoned with...

Male College enrolment in 2020 was 40.5% male and 59.5% female. Since the mid-1980s women have earned more bachelors degrees than men. The good news is that women have excelled in higher education. But men have become disillusioned with the college experience and fewer are enrolling. So how will our society change if that trend continues for another 10 or 20 years ?

The second Gubernatorial recall in California's 171 years history as a state failed. Governor Gavin Newsom handily saw off the challenge to oust him, 64% to 36%. Does his victory mean a renewed mandate to solve the state's big problems like homelessness, wildfires and healthcare ?  Or  was it a one off victory ? Veteran political opinion columnist for Cal Matters Dan Walters, joins us to analyze the results

The Evangelical Right has played a prominent role ensuring its agenda is part of the national debate especially during the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020. But is that agenda soundly based in scripture as they would have us believe ? Dr. Obery Hendricks a biblical scholar, social activist and one of the foremost  commentators on the intersection of religion and politics, debunks that agenda as not being based in scripture. ...

Escape to the Stars is a work of science fiction, but with an African American protagonist and hero. All too often the science fiction genre and space travel/adventure stories leave out people of color, and author Mark Sneed rectifies that shortcoming and gives us a unique and new perspective in his sixth novel. Christian Drake the protagonist unlike most space adventurers seems to have a live and let live tolerance for the aliens ...

While the Governor's management of California's response to the Covid pandemic has been an issue in the Recall, he has earned praise and criticism. Angela Hart frames the issues around his handling of Covid and further previews some major MediCal reforms coming in January which will transform the state's healthcare programs especially for the homeless.

With less than two weeks left before the historic Recall Election of Governor Gavin Newsom, the tide of opinion polls seems to be turning in his favor. But are there potential minefield issues like raging wildfires and increasing crime that could ambush his ride to victory ? Alexei Koseff, The Chronicle's Capitol reporter in Sacramento who follows the Governor and the Legislature shares his insights.

Tina Martin joined the Peace Corps in 1969 and served for two years in Tonga, a Polynesian Kingdom in the South Pacific. At times funny and other times moving, she learned the language and lived like a Tongan in a hut teaching English. Her memoir, entitled "Everything I should have learned I could have learned in Tonga",  is based on the 28 notebook/diaries she kept of her adventure 50 years ago.

The Economist Intelligence Unit has recently published The Global Liveability Index which ranks the top cities in the world by five criteria, Stability, Healthcare, Culture and Environment, Education and Infrastructure.  It is the first time that the full brunt of the Covid 19 pandemic was factored into the equation, and just as Covid has upended our lives, so too the global City rankings were significantly changed. Auckland, New Z...