In the recent government shutdown, the National Parks were left open to the public while the nearly 20,000 employees and many thousands of volunteers of the National Park Service were sent home. As a result, trash accumulated and toilets overflowed in Yosemite, roads snowed-in at Mt. Rainier, buildings were vandalized in the Great Smoky Mountains, … Continue reading »

Iran: 40 Years after the Revolution Mahmood Monshipouri, PhD San Francisco State University Lecturer, UC-Berkeley   Revolutions inevitably generate complicated and at times polarizing outcomes, both from an ideological and practical standpoint. Any cursory assessment of revolutions is likely to result in a shallow and grossly incomplete picture, while forecasting the current or future status … Continue reading »

This CWED VIDEO SHORT puts trends in teacher pay into perspective. Teacher strikes have brought much-needed attention to public education. Chronic under-funding has resulted in constant teacher shortages, outdated books, a lack of nurses and other staff, and lagging teacher pay in many school districts across the country. In this post I focus on trends … Continue reading »

Ever since the US Supreme Court’s 1978 Bakke vs the UC Board of Regents decision, the appropriate role of race and ethnicity as a factor in admissions to highly selective universities has been the focus of a succession of legal challenges. The list is long. Those that have reached the Supreme Court include Hopwood v … Continue reading »

Last week, I learned that I was awarded the Wolf Prize in Agriculture. I wondered what had enabled a kid that grew up in a low-income neighborhood in Jerusalem to receive this award from the Israeli president. Of course, there are the usual suspects – loving and supportive parents and family, excellent primary and secondary … Continue reading »