Category: California

California was controlled by Mexico before the gold rush (1849-1855) radically transformed it. It provoked one of the largest migrations in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of people coming from all states and across the globe to find gold in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This led to the formation of rapid economic growth and prosperity, railroads, banks, and churches. ‘They who came to California were not the self-satisfied, happy and content people, but the adventurous, the restless’ (Didion, 2004). The technologies had a key role in the development of the state, it changed it from an isolated territory to one of the fastest-growing and advanced states in the country. The cities were growing fast, San Francisco was ‘the closest thing to a metropolis on the west coast’. Even though the gold rush had some positive consequences, ‘The environment was impacted negatively and significantly’ At the beginning the gold was found throughout placer operations first and lode mining after. ‘ Placer mining typically was concentrated in these valleys and resulted in the alteration of relatively small areas’, (Rohe, 1998) but with the invention of other invasive practices, such as hydraulic mining, entire areas had been destroyed to provide the necessary space for mining, roads, railroads, buildings or even entire cities. Lumber became the main material for mining operations, both the hydraulic and the lode mining required it for building purposes and as fuel for the machinery. ‘Hydraulic mining left a noticeable impact wherever it took place. However, the hydraulic process reached its apogee in California, and there exerted its greatest impact” (Rohe, 1998). Forests, rivers, and vegetation are in many areas unrecognizable because extremely different from their original form.

Isaiah 11:9 says: “They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea’. God created the world, he is everywhere and He uses nature to teach us, that we must preserve and take care of his creation and learn from it. ‘Each one of these camps is a world of itself. History, romance, tragedy, and poetry, in every one of them (Miller, 1998), and I believe that this story is more of a tragedy because it tells us how the place we live in could be even more beautiful than it is now, moreover, it narrates once more the effect of greed, power, and ignorance on people.

However, all these events (good and bad) are the reasons why California became a state on September 9th, 1850. A year prior delegates met in Monterey in the famous “Constitutional Convention of 1849”, out of the forty-eight delegates, only six were born in California and nineteen of them had lived in the state less than three years. To form the constitution the delegates decided to copy many Constitutional concepts from Iowa, and a few from New York. Moreover, since the Mexican influence was still important for the first 40 years California was a bilingual state which was stated in Section 21, Article XI of the 1849 Constitution which decreed that all laws must be published in Spanish and English. This Constitution was amended only 3 times. On May 7, 1879, a new constitution was written

The government that controlled the area created new regulations and enforced the law but, at the time corruption was extremely high and bribery was common. For these reasons, and as a consequence of the public criticism and outrage of the negative effects that the railroads created on California’s economy and politics, a new constitution was made on May 7, 1879, trying to remedy the corruption, the tax problems, the employment problems and limiting the high power of corporations.

The Progressive Era is a period of US history that followed the Civil War characterized by social activism and political transformation in the United States that thrived from the 1890s to the 1920s. “Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels; later, it expanded to state and national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, and business people.” (Lumen)

Features of the Progressive Era consist of cleansing of the government, innovation, attention to family and education, women’s suffrage, and prohibition. Numerous Progressives wanted to clear the government of corruption, and muckraking became a reform-oriented investigative journalist that uncovered excess, corruption, and scandal on a national level. These difficulties involved the spread of shantytowns and poverty; the abuse of labor; the failure of democratic government in the cities and states caused by the rise of political administrations, or machines, connected with business interests; and a quick movement to economic and industrial attention. Many Americans were scared that their important traditions of responsible democratic government and free economic opportunity for everyone would get ruined by massive combinations of economic and political influence.

Two of the most significant results of the Progressive Era were the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, the first one passed in 1917 and banned the production, sale, and transport of alcohol, and the second one passed in 1919 and empowered women with the right to vote. Unfortunately, progressives didn’t do a lot for civil rights or the difficulty of African Americans in the outcome of Reconstruction, and the Supreme Court confirmed the constitutionality of various discriminatory Southern laws.

Very professional political administrations, heavily financed by politicians and entrepreneurs wanting superior privileges, controlled the majority of national governments in the late 1890s; these organizations were defied by a growing generation of young and committed anti-organization leaders, striving for control. The same leaders reformed the fine art and practice of politics in the US using strong leadership and using institutional changes like the referendum, the initiative and recall, and the direct election of senators, which aided in reestablishing and refreshing democracy. Further, progressives accomplished their economic and social ideas such as severe regulation of intrastate railroads and public services, regulation to stop child labor and to protect women’s labor, penal reform, extended charitable services for the poor, and provided accident coverage systems to deliver reimbursement to employees and their families.

At 42 years old Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest president in US history. He is frequently mentioned as the first Progressive president. Roosevelt had wide democratic sympathies; additionally, thanks to his involvement as police commissioner and governor of New York, he was the first president to have a deep understanding of modern urban complications. Instead of running again for president, Theodore Roosevelt “was so much the idol of the masses of 1908 that he could have easily gained the Republican nomination in that year. After his election in 1904, however, he announced that he would not be a candidate four years later, adhering stubbornly to his pledge” (Naisbitt, 2019) and organized the nomination of William Howard Taft of Ohio, who had strongly supported Roosevelt’s policies and thought of himself as a progressive.

Works Cited

1. Cohn, S. (2019, Jun 18). Export volume for the first four months of 2019 from California is down roughly 13%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/18/trade-war-with-china-could-crush-californias-economy-and-other-states.html
2. Didion, J. (2004). Where I Was From. Vintage International.
3. Dorcas, W., & Koty, A. C. (2019, Oct 24). The US-China Trade War: A Timeline. Retrieved from Chian Briefing: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/the-us-china-trade-war-a-timeline/
4. Lumen. (n.d.). The Progressive Era. Retrieved from Lumen: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-progressive-era/
5. Miller, J. (1998). Environmental Deterioration in the Gold Country, 1890. In C. Merchant, Green Versus Gold : Sources In California’s Environmental History. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
6. Naisbitt, J. (2019, Oct 27). United States. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Theodore-Roosevelt-and-the-Progressive-movement
7. Rohe, R. (1998). Mining’s Impact on the Land. In C. Merchant, Green Versus Gold : Sources In California’s Environmental History. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
8. Tully, S. (2019, Oct 8). Trump’s Tariffs Were Supposed to Ding China, But the U.S. Economy Is Getting Hit 2.5x Harder. Retrieved from Fortune: https://fortune.com/2019/10/08/trump-china-tariffs-trade-war-us-economy-impact/
9. Zeeshan, A. (2018, Jul 6). Vox. Retrieved from The US-China trade war, explained in under 500 words: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/6/17542482/china-trump-trade-war-tariffs

Ethnic studies is the inclusive study of variation in race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and gender. Ethnic studies aim to confront existing curricula and concentrate on the past various minority ethnicities in the United States; it is formulated to modify the stories, conflicts, and achievements of colored people taught in existing classes. Ethnic studies departments were originally organized on college campuses around the country and developed to involve African-American studies, Asian American studies, Raza studies, Chicano studies, Mexican-American studies, and Native American studies, as well as Jewish-American studies and Italian-American studies. Institutions that do not offer diverse courses or programs where students can learn about their countries or cultures of origin should find ways to build these opportunities into the curriculum. As diversity increases throughout the country, higher education will play a key role in building the diverse democracy of the twenty-first century. Colleges and universities should encourage students to engage intelligently with ethnic identity so they can best contribute to our shared world. California should brace its students to thrive in diverse university situations and employment in a global economy, therefore, it must present its students with the wisdom of diverse groups of people in America.

Making ethnic studies an integral part of high school makes sense in California as our state is home to the nation’s largest and most diverse student population. Given California’s growing diversity, it is especially important that students learn about the various racial and ethnic groups in our state and their shared American identity. In doing so, students gain a better understanding of other cultures while learning respect and tolerance. Additionally, ethnic studies courses allow students to learn about their respective cultures in the context of California’s rich history, while also helping them understand that they can change their communities in positive ways.

Having access to ethnic studies could increase student engagement in their schools and therefore improve their academic outcomes. The National Education Association found that there is considerable research evidence that well-designed and well-taught ethnic studies curricula have positive academic and social outcomes for students. A 2016 study by researchers at Stanford University showed that ethnic studies courses helped high school students increase their educational outcomes, attendance, and credits earned. Researchers found that students’ GPAs improved by 1.4 grade points, attendance rose by 21 percentage points, and class credits earned increased by 23.

In the past decade, the growth has accelerated in K-12 schools, partly in response to an Arizona law that banned the curriculum. Republican lawmakers in Arizona were specifically targeting a Mexican-American studies program at Tucson High School, where minority enrollment is 87 percent. The Republicans who wrote the legislation, Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, claimed the classes were stoking racial tensions and ‘radicalizing students’. But the teachers of Mexican-American studies classes at Tucson High, Huppenthal says, were ‘indoctrinating students’. In 2010, Horne and Huppenthal passed HB 2281, prohibiting classes and materials that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government and resentment toward a race, class, people, or ethnic solidarity. As Huppenthal says, they were doing a very simplistic application of Karl Marx’s dictum: “All of history is the struggle between the ‘oppressor’ and the ‘oppressed’”. And they were going to identify whites as the oppressors and Hispanics as the oppressed.

House Bill 2845, sponsored by Rep. Diego Hernandez and signed by Gov. Kate Brown, directs the Oregon Department of Education to convene advisory groups to develop ethnic studies standards into existing statewide social studies standards. The bill would require the department to select 14 individuals, each from a diverse background, who will advise the state on where it fails to recognize the histories, contributions, and perspectives of ethnic minorities and social minorities by June 15, 2018. Ethnic studies standards will be adopted by 2020, with implementation in schools set for 2021. The bill would focus on racial and ethnic minorities, as well as Jewish and LGBTQ communities, different genders, and people with disabilities. The new law makes Oregon the only U.S. state to have ethnic studies for K-12, although a few other states have laws in the works.

Washington has a bill to create and update ethnic studies curriculum for 7th-12th grade students, and the NAACP is urging Seattle to add ethnic studies curriculum to public schools.

In 2014, Cal State L.A. faculty voted to require two diversity-related courses, including at least one that focuses on race and ethnicity. In 2016, California passed a law that would create opportunities for all high school students to have ethnic studies curriculum by 2019. By the 2017-18 school year, every L.A. Unified high school must offer at least one semester of ethnic studies. The graduation requirement takes effect in the 2018-19 school year. The effort was largely driven by students who wrote letters, led petition drives that gathered thousands of signatures, and met with educators and elected officials to build support.

About 19 L.A. Unified schools offer 27 ethnic studies courses, but students have little incentive to enroll because fewer than half are approved for credit toward enrollment in the University of California. In L.A. Unified, 74% of students are Latino and nearly 10% are African American.

If California is serious about preparing its students to succeed in diverse university and workforce environments and for jobs in a global economy, it must provide its students with the knowledge of the diverse people who make up our great state and the rest of our world. Ethnic studies play a crucial role, and all students need it to unlearn watered-down versions of historical events and learn America’s inconvenient and necessary truths. “The way that we teach our history and culture… the way that we exclude and minimize certain groups and their experiences while privileging others, feeds prejudice and negative stereotypes”, said Charles. She insists that ethnic studies classes, as well as rethinking traditional courses to be more accurate and inclusive, are the path to countering centuries of misinformation — what W.E.B. DuBois critiqued.

The Aftermath of the Overpopulation in California

California is changing, and not always for the better. water is becoming scarce, open spaces are filling in, traffic, pollution, and overcrowding are all common concerns that affect daily life in California and the biggest factor contributing to California’s decline is simply; too many people. Much of L.A. County in earlier days was characterized by ranches and agricultural land, including numerous citrus groves and open space, but little by little it has given way to vast residential and commercial development. In 1940, more than 53,000 people called the seaside community of Santa Monica home. Today the population is more than 90,000 as the city continues to cater to more and denser development. With relentless growth, hundreds of miles of California coastline have been developed.

Once vast open space, the Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica now are highly built up as are Hollywood and Beverly Hills. In earlier days, Beverly Hills was home to a Lima Bean farm today the Beverly Center a mega shopping destination, sits on land that had previously been enjoyed as an amusement park. post-World War II exuberance and pent-up demand spawned suburban tract homebuilding that has continued for decades with today’s larger single-family homes adding significantly more square footage. San Francisco – once the gem of Northern California, has fallen victim to overcrowding and urban sprawl.

One of San Francisco’s greatest treasures; Golden Gate Park is now surrounded by dense urban life. The last remaining wilderness area in San Francisco; San Bruno Mountain, is also encircled by development. The Bay Area with its sprawling subdivisions even inspired a popular 1960s song with the lyrics: … they’re all made out of ticky tacky and they all look the same – (“Little Boxes”, Pete Seeger)

Crowds have become commonplace in California. the 1950s and 60s were known as the Golden Age of air travel. closed in 1959, the Glendale Grand Central Terminal was the first Airport to offer service between Southern California and New York. today San Francisco International Airport and LAX are among the top ten busiest airports in the United States. California schools once among the best in the nation now suffer from overcrowding. In 1946, there were 2.3 million registered vehicles today there are more than 31 million. More traffic and ever-expanding freeways have become the norm in many California cities today. Besides producing untold driving angst, the relentless traffic and congestion in California cost lives and billions of dollars in increased public health expenses according to the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis. Even in non-urban areas traffic can be a problem, for example, the traffic on I-80 from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe in both summer and winter can be horrendous. As the population continues to rise California historically one of America’s bread baskets continues to lose more and more farmland.

California’s Central Valley includes the San Joaquin Valley, the Sacramento Valley, and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This area produces about 25% of the nation’s food on about 1 percent of all U.S. farmland. At the current rate of farmland loss in the San Joaquin Valley, an estimated 500,000 acres will be lost to development by 2050. Increased population has also changed the way we farm and raise animals for food, some of these changes have led to environmental problems and health concerns. For example, large industrial operations and overcrowded feed Lots have led to nitrate pollution and more than 100,000 square miles of polluted groundwater in California. Increasingly developments are built in areas with steep mountainous terrains opening up the potential for devastation in the event of natural disasters. Rapid population growth in fire-prone areas has led to the loss of lives, livestock, resources, and property and it is often the cause of the devastation. Also devastating are the floods, erosion, and landslides following a fire.

Development in coastal and low-lying areas, common in California is also prone to natural disasters. For example, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in Alaska generated a 20-foot tsunami wave that flooded low-lying areas and river valleys in Northern California killing 11 people. California has spent billions of dollars to bring water to what was previously desert. Increasing human demand has been at the root of water shortages and is the motive behind the need to seek out new resources. Known for its natural beauty and lauded by naturalist John Muir, Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park was flooded for a dam to provide water to San Francisco and surrounding areas, today there was a movement to remove the dam built in the early 1900s and restore the earlier pristine environment, how this proposal will play out with ever-increasing water demands is unknown.

Drought conditions common in California, further exacerbate California’s water shortages. According to the NASA Earth Observatory, in 2010 Lake Mead reached its lowest levels since 1956. In California electricity consumption alone is projected to increase by 15% by 2024, primarily due to population growth. Surfing is synonymous with California, but pristine beaches were from an earlier time, today surfers have to be cautious. According to Heal the Bay’s 23rd annual beach report card, 14 California beaches got D or F grades due to high bacteria counts, commonly linked to urban runoff which can cause stomach flu, ear infections, and skin rashes. Shipping at the Port of Los Angeles has grown from 633,000 units in 1982 to 7.9 million units in 2013. While many think of smokestacks and their accompanying air pollution as a thing of the past, they’re still with us, but today air pollution assaults our environment and lungs in insidious new ways. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the single largest source of air pollution in Southern California with asthma rates for children living in port-adjacent communities almost twice as high as the rest of the U.S. California has eight of the ten most polluted cities in the country. In an earlier California, schoolchildren didn’t have to contend with the chemicals that some students are exposed to today. The air outside California schools in Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Coachella, Fresno, La Quinta Long Beach, San Mateo, Visalia, and Wilmington registered high levels of benzene chloroform or carbon tetrachloride; concentrations high enough to cause serious illness or increased cancer risk with long-term exposure.

Smog hasn’t gone away, even with advances in clean energy technology because of the rapid level of population growth in the state. As the population continues to rise, so does our waste. Of California’s 29.3 million tons of waste generated in 2012, 99% went into California landfills with approximately 1% exported to landfills in other states. Although the state has a goal of 75% recycling, the average Californian still generates about 4.3 pounds of trash daily, and more than half of that trash ends up in landfills. Despite recycling efforts and good intentions, with a large population, a significant amount of trash also winds up on beaches and in the Pacific Ocean. There’s little way around the fact that nearly 40 million people, all consumers, will generate a lot of waste of all kinds and, it is discouraging to learn that according to the London School of Economics study, if each of us living in a highly developed country reduced our carbon footprint by 40 % over 40 years, all of that will be canceled by our present population growth rates alone. California is the most populous state in the nation and the human population continues to increase.

Increasing population means more demands on resources such as land and water which are needed by native plants and animals too. According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, habitat loss due to human population growth presents the single greatest problem facing native plants and animals in California. California has an estimated 6,500 plant varieties native to the state, many found nowhere else in the world. These plants are essential to healthy ecosystems and natural processes, providing valuable renewable materials and other benefits. Loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation are contributing to the decline of many native plant populations. Some 26 species of California plants may now be extinct in the state and some plants have been so severely reduced that they are at risk of extinction. Some of California’s iconic redwood trees are more than 2,000 years old but today more than 95% of the old-growth redwood forests are gone. The Giant Sequoias are the largest trees on earth and among the oldest living things in California found only in the Sierra Nevada air pollution from the neighboring Central Valley threatens them.

Today California has 300 endangered or threatened animal and plant species, with habitat destruction due to overpopulation a major cause. By 1987, the entire surviving population of condors in the wild had plummeted to a mere 22. Through tremendous efforts today numbers are higher, but the Condor remains one of the rarest birds in the world. Human development continues to impact California’s mountain lion habitat. Freeways cut off the mountain lions’ range and can prove lethal when the big cats try to cross them, residential development further fragments their habitats, and pesticides and other chemicals people use can poison them, all these factors contribute to the decline of these apex predators. The California grizzly also known as Golden Bear, dominates the state flag but is nowhere to be found in the 31st state to join the union. It was hunted to extinction by earlier California residents. This is one more cautionary tale for us, are we going to continue down an unsustainable path of growth and development? or can we take the necessary steps to solve the overpopulation problem we face? What can we as individuals do to help save some of America and some of California for tomorrow?

Individuals can make a difference in terms of the personal choices we make as parents and consumers and in how we work to affect broader political and economic policies. We can be advocates and educators on behalf of California, U.S., and world population stabilization. Personal decisions to limit our demographic impact by limiting our families to a sustainable size, or using resources more judiciously will make no difference unless people and large enough numbers think it is important enough to behave similarly. Take a stand and speak out forcefully to news media, politicians, and environmental groups. Tell the media that the environment is important to you and that overpopulation especially in California threatens to overwhelm it. Make politicians and environmental groups accountable. Tell them that they will get neither your donations, nor your votes or membership unless they acknowledge the connections between immigration, overpopulation, and the natural environment California is still one of the best and most beautiful places in the world, help us preserve all that we can for the future.

California was controlled by Mexico before the gold rush (1849-1855) radically transformed it. It provoked one of the largest migrations in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of people coming from all states and across the globe to find gold in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This led to the formation of rapid economic growth and prosperity, railroads, banks, and churches. ‘They who came to California were not the self-satisfied, happy and content people, but the adventurous, the restless’ (Didion, 2004). The technologies had a key role in the development of the state, it changed it from an isolated territory to one of the fastest-growing and advanced states in the country. The cities were growing fast, San Francisco was ‘the closest thing to a metropolis on the west coast’. Even though the gold rush had some positive consequences, ‘The environment was impacted negatively and significantly’ At the beginning the gold was found throughout placer operations first and lode mining after. ‘ Placer mining typically was concentrated in these valleys and resulted in the alteration of relatively small areas’, (Rohe, 1998) but with the invention of other invasive practices, such as hydraulic mining, entire areas had been destroyed to provide the necessary space for mining, roads, railroads, buildings or even entire cities. Lumber became the main material for mining operations, both the hydraulic and the lode mining required it for building purposes and as fuel for the machinery. ‘Hydraulic mining left a noticeable impact wherever it took place. However, the hydraulic process reached its apogee in California, and there exerted its greatest impact” (Rohe, 1998). Forests, rivers, and vegetation are in many areas unrecognizable because extremely different from their original form.

Isaiah 11:9 says: “They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea’. God created the world, he is everywhere and He uses nature to teach us, that we must preserve and take care of his creation and learn from it. ‘Each one of these camps is a world of itself. History, romance, tragedy, and poetry, in every one of them (Miller, 1998), and I believe that this story is more of a tragedy because it tells us how the place we live in could be even more beautiful than it is now, moreover, it narrates once more the effect of greed, power, and ignorance on people.

However, all these events (good and bad) are the reasons why California became a state on September 9th, 1850. A year prior delegates met in Monterey in the famous “Constitutional Convention of 1849”, out of the forty-eight delegates, only six were born in California and nineteen of them had lived in the state less than three years. To form the constitution the delegates decided to copy many Constitutional concepts from Iowa, and a few from New York. Moreover, since the Mexican influence was still important for the first 40 years California was a bilingual state which was stated in Section 21, Article XI of the 1849 Constitution which decreed that all laws must be published in Spanish and English. This Constitution was amended only 3 times. On May 7, 1879, a new constitution was written

The government that controlled the area created new regulations and enforced the law but, at the time corruption was extremely high and bribery was common. For these reasons, and as a consequence of the public criticism and outrage of the negative effects that the railroads created on California’s economy and politics, a new constitution was made on May 7, 1879, trying to remedy the corruption, the tax problems, the employment problems and limiting the high power of corporations.

The Progressive Era is a period of US history that followed the Civil War characterized by social activism and political transformation in the United States that thrived from the 1890s to the 1920s. “Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels; later, it expanded to state and national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers, and business people.” (Lumen)

Features of the Progressive Era consist of cleansing of the government, innovation, attention to family and education, women’s suffrage, and prohibition. Numerous Progressives wanted to clear the government of corruption, and muckraking became a reform-oriented investigative journalist that uncovered excess, corruption, and scandal on a national level. These difficulties involved the spread of shantytowns and poverty; the abuse of labor; the failure of democratic government in the cities and states caused by the rise of political administrations, or machines, connected with business interests; and a quick movement to economic and industrial attention. Many Americans were scared that their important traditions of responsible democratic government and free economic opportunity for everyone would get ruined by massive combinations of economic and political influence.

Two of the most significant results of the Progressive Era were the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Amendments, the first one passed in 1917 and banned the production, sale, and transport of alcohol, and the second one passed in 1919 and empowered women with the right to vote. Unfortunately, progressives didn’t do a lot for civil rights or the difficulty of African Americans in the outcome of Reconstruction, and the Supreme Court confirmed the constitutionality of various discriminatory Southern laws.

Very professional political administrations, heavily financed by politicians and entrepreneurs wanting superior privileges, controlled the majority of national governments in the late 1890s; these organizations were defied by a growing generation of young and committed anti-organization leaders, striving for control. The same leaders reformed the fine art and practice of politics in the US using strong leadership and using institutional changes like the referendum, the initiative and recall, and the direct election of senators, which aided in reestablishing and refreshing democracy. Further, progressives accomplished their economic and social ideas such as severe regulation of intrastate railroads and public services, regulation to stop child labor and to protect women’s labor, penal reform, extended charitable services for the poor, and provided accident coverage systems to deliver reimbursement to employees and their families.

At 42 years old Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest president in US history. He is frequently mentioned as the first Progressive president. Roosevelt had wide democratic sympathies; additionally, thanks to his involvement as police commissioner and governor of New York, he was the first president to have a deep understanding of modern urban complications. Instead of running again for president, Theodore Roosevelt “was so much the idol of the masses of 1908 that he could have easily gained the Republican nomination in that year. After his election in 1904, however, he announced that he would not be a candidate four years later, adhering stubbornly to his pledge” (Naisbitt, 2019) and organized the nomination of William Howard Taft of Ohio, who had strongly supported Roosevelt’s policies and thought of himself as a progressive.

Works Cited

1. Cohn, S. (2019, Jun 18). Export volume for the first four months of 2019 from California is down roughly 13%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/18/trade-war-with-china-could-crush-californias-economy-and-other-states.html
2. Didion, J. (2004). Where I Was From. Vintage International.
3. Dorcas, W., & Koty, A. C. (2019, Oct 24). The US-China Trade War: A Timeline. Retrieved from Chian Briefing: https://www.china-briefing.com/news/the-us-china-trade-war-a-timeline/
4. Lumen. (n.d.). The Progressive Era. Retrieved from Lumen: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-ushistory/chapter/the-progressive-era/
5. Miller, J. (1998). Environmental Deterioration in the Gold Country, 1890. In C. Merchant, Green Versus Gold : Sources In California’s Environmental History. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
6. Naisbitt, J. (2019, Oct 27). United States. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States/Theodore-Roosevelt-and-the-Progressive-movement
7. Rohe, R. (1998). Mining’s Impact on the Land. In C. Merchant, Green Versus Gold : Sources In California’s Environmental History. Washington, D.C: Island Press.
8. Tully, S. (2019, Oct 8). Trump’s Tariffs Were Supposed to Ding China, But the U.S. Economy Is Getting Hit 2.5x Harder. Retrieved from Fortune: https://fortune.com/2019/10/08/trump-china-tariffs-trade-war-us-economy-impact/
9. Zeeshan, A. (2018, Jul 6). Vox. Retrieved from The US-China trade war, explained in under 500 words: https://www.vox.com/world/2018/7/6/17542482/china-trump-trade-war-tariffs

Ethnic studies is the inclusive study of variation in race, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and gender. Ethnic studies aim to confront existing curricula and concentrate on the past various minority ethnicities in the United States; it is formulated to modify the stories, conflicts, and achievements of colored people taught in existing classes. Ethnic studies departments were originally organized on college campuses around the country and developed to involve African-American studies, Asian American studies, Raza studies, Chicano studies, Mexican-American studies, and Native American studies, as well as Jewish-American studies and Italian-American studies. Institutions that do not offer diverse courses or programs where students can learn about their countries or cultures of origin should find ways to build these opportunities into the curriculum. As diversity increases throughout the country, higher education will play a key role in building the diverse democracy of the twenty-first century. Colleges and universities should encourage students to engage intelligently with ethnic identity so they can best contribute to our shared world. California should brace its students to thrive in diverse university situations and employment in a global economy, therefore, it must present its students with the wisdom of diverse groups of people in America.

Making ethnic studies an integral part of high school makes sense in California as our state is home to the nation’s largest and most diverse student population. Given California’s growing diversity, it is especially important that students learn about the various racial and ethnic groups in our state and their shared American identity. In doing so, students gain a better understanding of other cultures while learning respect and tolerance. Additionally, ethnic studies courses allow students to learn about their respective cultures in the context of California’s rich history, while also helping them understand that they can change their communities in positive ways.

Having access to ethnic studies could increase student engagement in their schools and therefore improve their academic outcomes. The National Education Association found that there is considerable research evidence that well-designed and well-taught ethnic studies curricula have positive academic and social outcomes for students. A 2016 study by researchers at Stanford University showed that ethnic studies courses helped high school students increase their educational outcomes, attendance, and credits earned. Researchers found that students’ GPAs improved by 1.4 grade points, attendance rose by 21 percentage points, and class credits earned increased by 23.

In the past decade, the growth has accelerated in K-12 schools, partly in response to an Arizona law that banned the curriculum. Republican lawmakers in Arizona were specifically targeting a Mexican-American studies program at Tucson High School, where minority enrollment is 87 percent. The Republicans who wrote the legislation, Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, claimed the classes were stoking racial tensions and ‘radicalizing students’. But the teachers of Mexican-American studies classes at Tucson High, Huppenthal says, were ‘indoctrinating students’. In 2010, Horne and Huppenthal passed HB 2281, prohibiting classes and materials that promote the overthrow of the U.S. government and resentment toward a race, class, people, or ethnic solidarity. As Huppenthal says, they were doing a very simplistic application of Karl Marx’s dictum: “All of history is the struggle between the ‘oppressor’ and the ‘oppressed’”. And they were going to identify whites as the oppressors and Hispanics as the oppressed.

House Bill 2845, sponsored by Rep. Diego Hernandez and signed by Gov. Kate Brown, directs the Oregon Department of Education to convene advisory groups to develop ethnic studies standards into existing statewide social studies standards. The bill would require the department to select 14 individuals, each from a diverse background, who will advise the state on where it fails to recognize the histories, contributions, and perspectives of ethnic minorities and social minorities by June 15, 2018. Ethnic studies standards will be adopted by 2020, with implementation in schools set for 2021. The bill would focus on racial and ethnic minorities, as well as Jewish and LGBTQ communities, different genders, and people with disabilities. The new law makes Oregon the only U.S. state to have ethnic studies for K-12, although a few other states have laws in the works.

Washington has a bill to create and update ethnic studies curriculum for 7th-12th grade students, and the NAACP is urging Seattle to add ethnic studies curriculum to public schools.

In 2014, Cal State L.A. faculty voted to require two diversity-related courses, including at least one that focuses on race and ethnicity. In 2016, California passed a law that would create opportunities for all high school students to have ethnic studies curriculum by 2019. By the 2017-18 school year, every L.A. Unified high school must offer at least one semester of ethnic studies. The graduation requirement takes effect in the 2018-19 school year. The effort was largely driven by students who wrote letters, led petition drives that gathered thousands of signatures, and met with educators and elected officials to build support.

About 19 L.A. Unified schools offer 27 ethnic studies courses, but students have little incentive to enroll because fewer than half are approved for credit toward enrollment in the University of California. In L.A. Unified, 74% of students are Latino and nearly 10% are African American.

If California is serious about preparing its students to succeed in diverse university and workforce environments and for jobs in a global economy, it must provide its students with the knowledge of the diverse people who make up our great state and the rest of our world. Ethnic studies play a crucial role, and all students need it to unlearn watered-down versions of historical events and learn America’s inconvenient and necessary truths. “The way that we teach our history and culture… the way that we exclude and minimize certain groups and their experiences while privileging others, feeds prejudice and negative stereotypes”, said Charles. She insists that ethnic studies classes, as well as rethinking traditional courses to be more accurate and inclusive, are the path to countering centuries of misinformation — what W.E.B. DuBois critiqued.

The Pacific Gas and Electric Company is an American Investor-Owned Utility institution whose headquarters are located in San Francisco, California. It is California’s largest gas and electric utility company, running almost half of California’s utilities statewide. Even with California’s high fire risk status, PE&G and their neglect and improper upkeep of their equipment contributed to the increasing threats threat through California in the past few years. In November 2018, a historical wildfire destroyed the city of Paradise, California, in the United States of America. The fire claimed several lives and property in which PG&E was held accountable due to many types of equipment and standard procedure failures. Possibilities like improper equipment upkeep, tree maintenance, and lack of quality assurance played drastically into these fires.

Looking into Pacific Gas and Electric, you can see the trend of neglect, and improper standards held throughout the company. Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, a California native and staff at the Los Angeles Times, believes that PG&E played a role in the ignition of the wildfire. He states that the PG&E equipment other than powerlines might have sparkled a majority of the fires that destroyed lives (Reyes-Velarde, 2019). The source indicates that some of the most visible causes of the wildfire were the faulty powerlines that were installed and managed by the PG&E across California. On the other hand, the source also suggests that poor vegetation management by PG&E played a significant role in the ignition of the fire. Indications that the PG&E admitted being having been partly accountable for the ‘Highway Fire’, which lasted for four consecutive days claiming 85 American lives (Reyes-Velarde, 2019). It would be impractical to pose an argument that the company could not have been aware of the state of its equipment and the underlying dangers that the material posted to the environment. A large company like PG&E must have regular checks on the state of its equipment, considering the nature of the business that it is involved in and the dangers of faulty equipment to the environment. Also, with a high fire risk state, this should not have been where they lacked.

Many local sources also indicate that the fundamental causes of the fires were faulty outdated powerlines (Avalo, 2019; Reyes-Velarde, 2019). Despite the fact the PG&E company was able to contain a big part of the fire, the ‘Highway Fire’ lasted for four days, claiming 85 innocent lives. I believe in this case; the November 2018 California fire has PG&E’s prints all over it. For instance, the PG&E company admitted before a federal court that its equipment had caused at least ten fires that have been witnessed in North and Central California this year (Reyes-Velarde, 2019). Therefore, the question of whether PG&E company should be held accountable for the California wildfire is answered by the admission of the company itself for its negligence and ignorance of different warning signs before the arson. It is worth noting that PG&E is the largest utility in California, and its revenue is massive, considering the population that it serves in the state of California alone. Recently, the PG&E shut power supply to thousands of residents in California to avoid another arson incident amid strong winds (Reyes-Velarde, 2019). In a report to the Los Angeles Times, PG&E claimed that it had offered the court detailed information on the cause of different fires across California and that the company was committed to undertaking efforts that are directed towards the prevention of similar incidences. However, the recent blackout that the company sent across California due to the state of its equipment which could not survive the winds is a sign that the company’s commitment to the prevention of arson in California could be misguided. For instance, several factors involve climate changes that can facilitate ignition and spread of fire apart from the wind. On the other hand, California residents do not deserve the dramatic blackouts that they are currently experiencing because of faulty cables because they are entitled to the maximum consumption of their purchased ‘light’. Sources indicate that California is comprised of many a high fire and wind zones. This plays a significant role in electrical utility standards. For instance, the third most significant source of hazard in California is a wildfire, especially the Wild-land Urban Interface (WUI) in the recent past (McBride, 2019). This is not only founded based on current records regarding fire as the third most significant source of hazard but also reflects the larger magnitude of destructive fire (Keeley & Symphard, 2019). California’s geographical location with wind and fire together makes them an underlying dynamic regarding arson hazards statewide. Due to the events that have unfolded in recent years concerning incidents of wildfire in California, it has emerged that fire is an annual threat to the state.

The destruction that the state of California has experienced through wildfire is massive in terms of loss of property and innocent lives. In 2018 alone, California’s fires destroyed over 18,000 building structures and evacuated over 53,000 people from their homes. However, the leading sources of hazard (earthquakes) which occur annually in California have claimed fewer lives and destroyed less than fires in the state’s history (Avalo, 2019). On the other hand, flooding is considered the second largest that has life and property in California as well, but again fewer lives than fires. An informed comparison of the three sources of danger would reveal that the first two, earthquakes and floods, are purely caused by natural factors, and their prevention is relatively technical. In the case of fires throughout California, even though natural elements play a part in the ignition and spreading of the fires, it is prudent to note that man-made elements have played heavily, in many of these fires. Generating stations, powerlines, and transformers contributed to these fires. These all were placed in service to power our needs. Curbed through undertaking preventive measures, like proper quality assurance, and oversight because the primary cause has been identified as ignorance from stakeholders. For example, if the faulty powerlines are inspected, fixed, and re-enforced by the PG&E, this could minimalize the possibilities of arson. It is impossible to ignore the part of the role that California’s geographical location, topography, terrain, and increasing population play in the activities related to the arson incidences that have been witnessed in the recent past. It is crucial to note the fact that California is located in a High-Density Forest Area, an aspect that plays a significant role in facilitating the spread of wildfire, thus the process of taming the fires and reducing massive destruction across the state (McBride, 2019). There are also human factors, other equipment factors, wind factors. Infrastructurally California’s population is growing fast. These factors are more of a threat to the state – during dry seasons when the ignitions of fire are easy, and its spreading can be quickly accelerated by the Santa Ana Winds and facilitated by the dry grasslands deep into the forest, especially in the more northern parts of California. The forest covers a significantly large piece of land and controlling the fires can be relatively harder in regions like this, when one has limited personnel and equipment. California firefighters can only do some much when natural elements against them.

On the other hand, the state of California is continually experiencing extreme weather conditions. For instance, the high-pressure systems in the Great Basin play a significant role in driving the Santa Anna Winds to the southern parts of California, hence posing a threat to in cases where equipment like powerlines are not strong enough to sustain the winds (Avalo, 2019). This is the fact that has led to the famous blackout that California experienced recently. A combination of different natural sources and hazards throughout California has made the whole state a high-risk fire zone.

Therefore, the fact that California is a high-risk fire zone necessitates massive effort from relevant institutions to prevent further disasters across the state of California. Future environmental management measures might help to curb future fire problems in California. PG&E, for instance, has submitted a proposal to the senate that requires all electric utilities in California to develop effective strategies on how to construct regular maintenance checks and effectively operate their electrical equipment in an attempt to minimize the possibilities of occurrence of catastrophic wildfires in future (McBride, 2019). Furthermore, PG&E has developed a wildfire safety plan (WSP) that offers insight into the dynamics that can be used to achieve more enhanced and accelerated responses to cases of wildfire in the future (Keeley, 2018).

PG&E through its WSP program suggests that shutting off power in California is a necessary measure in cases where extreme weather condition threatens a fire ignition (Avalo, 2019). With efficient preventive measures, it can be argued that PG&E should fix its powerlines first or install equipment that can sustain pressure from extreme weather conditions. As of now, PG&E proposed rolling blackouts, securing power throughout the state will be an option. They justify how rolling blackouts in California by revealing the role it plays combating the weather condition. This does not sound like the most effective plan to curb the disastrous events that are brought forth by catastrophic wildfire. Nevertheless, the public and PG&E with the involvement of the court are aware of the underlying threats that the faulty powerlines and equipment that belong to the PG&E pose hazardous risks. It would be more practical and workable if the court orders the closure of the company along with compensation to the consumers of the company’s product until the faulty powerlines and equipment are fixed to a standard where they can sustain in extreme weather conditions in that geographical location.

Research by Alexandra Syphard and Jon Keeley suggests that fuel and wind are the most dominant factors in the ignition and spread of wildfire (Keeley and Symphard, 2019). This is evident from the data that have been prepared by different researchers on the topic of the California wildfire. However, it is equally important to insist on the fact that there needs to be a solution to the natural causes of wildfire, including the two significant sources of hazard in California, earthquakes, and floods, considering their capabilities to ignite destructive fires human causes. This can only be done through consultative engagement between relevant parties that are concerned about the magnitude that these wildfires.

Today, wildfires are a significant source of hazard in modern-day California. Therefore, both time and resources must be massively invested in humanitarian efforts that are meant to establish and develop preventive measures to curb the ignition and spread of fires. With the population growing and the risk of human error, fires are most likely going to happen more often in California. On the other hand, accountability from the PG&E regarding both large-scale and small-scale fires that have been witnessed in the past is inevitable and long overdue. It can be further asserted that PG&E negligence is still ongoing, and relevant measures should be taken to ensure the safety of the Californian population. It is prudent to note that any preventive measures directed towards preventing the wildfire from menace another disastrous wildfire. Utility companies throughout California like PG&E need to improve standards and reduce fire hazards from their equipment. With California’s population growing and the geographical location being so dry, there need to be fire risk standards. Because the root causes of the fire have not been eliminated yet. Overall, they will never eliminate fires, but PG&E, the state, and local officials can reduce this with possible measures.

References

1. Avalos, G. (2019, August 14). PG&E Has Missed Many Trees, and Work Indent Quality Is ‘Questionable’ to Prevent Wildfires: Court Report. The Mercury News [San Francisco]. Retrieved https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/14/pge-has-missed-many-trees-work-quality-is-questionable-in-effort-to-prevent-wildfires-court-report/
2. Keeley, J. E., & Syphard, A. D. (2019). Twenty-First Century California, USA, Wildfires: Fuel-Dominated Vs. Wind-Dominated Fires. Fire Ecology, 15(1). doi:10.1186/s42408-019-0041-0
3. McBride, J. R. (2019). Fuel Management and Wildfire Mitigation Proposal for the University of California Property in Strawberry and Claremont Canyons, Professional Forester #1306. Retrieved: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56e612b159827e4b847675c9/t/5d82ba700ec48a2b5ba1ec0d/1568848499754/Fuel+Management+Proposal+single+page+24+page+online+version.pdf
4. Reyes-Velarde, A. (2019, September 10). PG&E Admits Its Equipment May Have Sparked Several Fires This Year. LA Times [Los Angeles]. Retrieved https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-10/pge-admits-equipment-may-have-sparked-several-fires-this-year
5. Keeley, J. E. (2018). Historical Patterns of Wildfire Ignition Sources in California Ecosystems. International Journal of Wildland Fire, 27(12), 781-799. doi:10.1071/WF18026.
6. Syphard, A. D., & Keeley, J. E. (2019). Factors Associated with Structure Loss in the 2013–2018 California Wildfires. Fire, 2(3), 49. doi:10.3390/fire2030049.
7. Sullivan, E., Jackson, C., Broberg, D., O’Dair, M., & Velan, V. (2019). California Lawmakers Should Take Action to Mitigate the Effects of the 2019 PG&E Bankruptcy. Retrieved https://sciencepolicy.berkeley.edu/wpcontent/uploads/2019/07/PGE_memo_20190725.pdf

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit” was a statement made famous by Johnnie Cochran. This quote is from America’s first medialized criminal cases in court, The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson. O.J. Simpson wasn’t the only one on trial. The Los Angeles Police Department and forensic science itself was also on trial for mishandling, racism as a key factor, cross contamination and placement of evidence and the lack of knowledge of DNA testing. The case captured the attention of millions of people nationwide. A case that is known to today’s society as the O.J. Simpson case.

Orenthal James Simpson was a wealthy African-American man that was a retired college and professional football hero, actor and he was also a commentator for Monday night live football. O.J. met Nicole Brown while she was working in a nightclub in 1977. They got married on February 2, 1985, they had two kids together, Sydney Brooke Simpson and Justin Ryan Simpson. They were married for 7 years before Nicole filed for divorced in December of 1992. Nearly 2 years after divorced, On June 12, 1994, the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found at her home in Brentwood, CA, with two children in the home. O.J. Simpson was notified of their deaths while in Chicago where he was supposed to attend a golf tournament. He caught the next flight back to Los Angeles and was taken into custody for questions.

During questioning, they discovered he had a cut on his left hand and his statement about the cut wasn’t adding up to investigators. There was difficulty with the investigation as there was no eyewitnesses and no murder weapon found at the first crime scene however, there was a lot of evidence found at the home of O.J. Simpson like a bloody sock and glove that matched the DNA at the crime scene along with a shoe print that matches the same size as O.J. Simpson. There were also hair samples that were found on Ronald Goldman’s body and a forensic geneticists matched the DNA to O.J. Simpson. While gathering numerous pieces of evidence from the multiple crime scenes, on June 17, Simpson was apprehended of the double murder of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. They called loudly for him to appear at 11:00 that day, but he never did. Around 7pm, Simpson was seen riding with someone, later identified has A.C. Cowlings in his white bronco on interstate 405, which lead to the infamous chase of the century. It was medialized and viewed by millions. While riding in the bronco, Simpson had a gun to his head threatening to kill himself. The chase ended at Simpson’s house in Brentwood and surrendered to the police after speaking with his mother. After the chase, police found wads of cash, a change of clothes, a passport belonging to O.J. Simpson, family pictures, a fake mustache and goatee and a loaded .357 Magnum.

The trial began January 11, 1995. Simpson hired famous Los Angeles lawyer, Robert Shapiro, who hired what is known now as the ‘Dream Team’ of lawyers that consisted of F. Lee, Gerald Uelmen, Alan Pershowitz, Dr. Henry Lee, Johnnie Cochran, Barry Scheck and Robert Kardashian. Two of these lawyers were brought on for forensic science specifically. The trial went on for a year and caused public attention internationally.

The prosecution mainly relied on three differences of proof during the trial. The first proof was the behavior and motivation that would have made Simpson murder Nicole. He became furious that he had been abandoned by his ex-wife They had divorced; then she had tried conciliation more than a year before. He had gone for it, but by returning his birthday gift and excluding him from the family circle at the dance recital and the dinner afterwards, she abandoned him again a month before the killings. Second was the physical evidence. On the murder scene, a left-handed blood-soaked glove and ski cap were discovered, and what looked to be the right-hand blood-soaked companion to that glove was located behind Simpson’s house on the outside walkway. Fibers on the ski cap mirrored fibers on the Bronco’s interior, and identical fibers were identified on the gloves and on the shirt of Ron Goldman. The scientific evidence was the third proof to be used in trial. DNA tests for blood samples contained within the Bronco fit O.J. Simpson, Ron Goldman, Nicole Brown Simpson. A relatively clear triple blood match was found on the glove located at the Simpson house. A sock discovered on Simpson’s bedroom floor had a blood stain that created a match to Nicole Brown Simpson’s DNA. So, did the drops on Bundy’s (The Murder Scene) pavement and on the walkway and hallway at Rockingham matched O.J. Simpson. The prosecution had multiple witnesses on stand trial against Simpson. On June 30th, Allen Wattenberg, a knife store owner, testified during the preliminary hearing that Simpson bought a 14-inch Stiletto knife from his store. During the preliminary hearing, Allen Wattenberg, a knife store owner, claimed that Simpson had ordered from his store a 14-inch Stiletto blade. The limo driver to drive Simpson to the airport came on June 12, He saw a black man at Simpson’s estate with the same profile as Simpson sprint through the grass But, when Simpson answered, he said that he was napping. Simpson acted guilty: he composed a suicide note and led police around L.A. on a huge chase that ended with his arrest and incarceration at his Brentwood estate. After much evidence presented at trial and numerous expert witness testimony, the prosecution finally rested on that side of the case.

The defense claimed that the evidence had been planted, tempered with immensely and that racism played a huge factor in the trial. First, the evidence such as blood drawn the day after the incident during questioning from O.J., it was not put into evidence immediately and was not handled the way it should have been, there was time when the blood was in polices possession that would have given them plenty of time to go to O.J.’s estate and spread it around his property and all over the driveway. Some of the blood found at O.J.s had a preservative in it that is added by police and is not in a person’s blood. That shows that the blood had to have gone through the police before it got on O.J.’s property, leaving doubt that they planted it there.

Next, Detective Lange was a lead detective. He harbored shoes that belonged O.J Simpson from one of the scenes and placed them in his car’s trunk. He held the boots in his possession for six hours. It raised the question of why he had taken evidence from a crime scene. The evidence was not properly stored and was not taken into custody of the forensic team. There is also video evidence of Dennis Fung, a lead criminalist, putting a blanket that was brought from inside the home, then placed on the body in Nicole, mishandling the evidence during collection that could have led to inaccurate DNA test results.

Finally, the main officer helping out the prosecution Mark Fuhrman was accused of being racist and of planting evidence to frame O.J. He denied being racist under oath and he was later in the trial found to be lying, he was heard on a tape saying the word ‘nigger’ and other racist things. He was also accused of planting a bloody glove at the Simpson home and planting bloody socks in O.J.s room. The blood splatter patterns on the socks were not consistent to what it should look like if they got blood on them when they were being worn, it was more like they were splattered with blood when they were off the defendant. The conclusion of Simpson criminal trial resulted in his acquittal. There were various reasons for this acquittal. The most prominent reasons include accusations of racism, evidence contamination, and the lack of faith in DNA profiling.

The date of June 12th, 1994 will always be historic for forensic science and the Los Angeles Police Department and based on the trial of the People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson commencing January 11, 1995. The trust of the Los Angeles Police Department and forensic science itself were also for mishandling, cross-contamination of samples and lack of knowledge regarding DNA testing. As a result of this perception of cross contamination and mishandling the evidence, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Andrew Smith states: “We’re more cognizant of contamination or the possibility of contamination or the appearance of contamination — that a jury might toss out some evidence”. One of the biggest factors in this case was race. The case itself caught the national interest of millions of people. The trial of the century changed perspective to millions on the Los Angeles Police Department and the perspective and trust of forensic science and investigators. Since the acquittal of O.J. Simpson, forensic science has advanced and the credibility of DNA profiling has greatly surpassed the efforts of the Los Angeles Police Department.