CSUN On Point

When the coronavirus pandemic hit about a year ago, many of our personal lives moved online. 

In one Harris poll, roughly half of U.S. adults reported using social media more after the pandemic began.

But some flocked to social media for more than entertainment or personal connection. With stay-at-home orders forcing shops to close, and triggering widespread job losses, some turned to social media as content creators, hoping to find ways to make ends meet and build their businesses during the lockdowns.

Recent Cal State Northridge graduate Gabriela Linares took the first stay at home order as an opportunity to work full time on her business selling candles, crystals and other holistic self-care products. At first, she thought the pandemic would force her to shut down her Instagram shop, called Sobre la Luna.

But during the lockdown, “I’m doing better than I ever was going to farmers markets or other events to sell in person,” Linares said.

She’s now making roughly $3,000 to $4,000 per month.

Joe Gagliese, CEO of Viral Nation, a marketing agency that represents influencers, said the pandemic has been a huge opportunity for businesses of all sizes to grow their online presence.

The pandemic is “slowing people down to take a look at small businesses,” Gagliese said. “Large brands and big influencers have benefitted from this, it was like shaking off the old school.”

Like Linares, Jayde Stamm, owner of CBJ Studios and current CSUN undergrad, assumed his cake business would suffer. The influx of new orders has slowed down, but Stamm has continued to create content, apparel and other goods that are growing his brand.  

Stamm went as far as saying that his business depends entirely on his social media presence.

Just as their businesses and social media presence grew during the pandemic apps like YouTube experienced a 63.7% increase in usage and Facebook 62%, according to Statista.

According to Business of Apps, TikTok saw its number of U.S. users grow 85.3% during 2020.

Linares recently created a TikTok account for Sobre la Luna. She’s also active on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for her business.

Stamm is active on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and OnlyFans for CBJ Studios.

Influencers often try to have a presence on multiple platforms.

Stamm started on Facebook but moved mostly to Instagram very naturally as the platform gained popularity.

“For cake services, Facebook will generate the most money,” Stamm said. “The selling platform is much easier and more familiar than Instagram. With Instagram I can sell more of our merchandise, products and cookies.”

Both Stamm and Linares emphasized they put a lot of time into creating posts that will attract people to each of their platforms.

Gagliese said the work ethic required to brand yourself or a small business is often overlooked. 

Gagliese said the amount of time and effort necessary to build a following on social media is often overlooked: “The amount of time you have to learn how to edit. The amount of time you have to learn what’s trending. The amount of effort you have to put into content, ideating and all those things…”

“It’s really a battle of consistency and brawn,” he continued. “At the beginning you’re creating this content for no one. There’s a lot more to it intrinsically then financially and I don’t think people give (influencers) enough credit.”

It’s not clear whether the new audiences that flocked to social media will remain as engaged in a post-pandemic world. But even for businesses or influencers looking to make their mark in person, social media will likely remain a tool they must learn to use effectively.

Gagliese saw the pandemic as an inevitable push towards social media, and even shared “hacks” — tips and tricks — that he said bigger companies have yet to discover.

“I don’t know if you guys know this,” Gagliese said, turning to Stamm and Linares, “but on social media there are content aggregator pages… For instance Jadye there are cake instagram pages that have 2 million followers. And they’re the TV of our generation, and are surprisingly low cost to activate: you can pay them a couple hundred dollars to post your content.” 

In the case of Sobre la Luna and CBJ Studios social media has been able to provide their creators a steady source of income and consumers interactive posts, giveaways, ambassador opportunities and products that might have otherwise been hard to find during a pandemic. 

Gagliese believes the pandemic only sped up the process of pushing everyday life online and increasing the reliance on technology. 

“When people were sitting at home,” he said, “running out of things to do on social media, they started to discover the Jaydes and Gabrielas of the world… (The pandemic was) an enormous opportunity, and continuing to go down that path is a good one.”

This show was produced by the following team:

• Beatrice Anoh
• Elizabeth Campos
• Justin Gonzalez
• Ava Lange
• Alfonso Henry
• Jordan Henry

The COVID-19 pandemic put many high school sports on pause for much of the last year. 

But following pressure from groups like “Let Them Play California,” officials in the state’s Department of Public Health and the California Interscholastic Federation recently announced new rules allowing all sports in California to resume play.

That includes not only outdoor sports like football, but indoor sports like basketball and volleyball. The addition of indoor sports comes after a deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office last week. 

The deal also calls for mandatory COVID-19 testing for all players and coaches.

Under the new rules, high school sports will be allowed to return when a county’s case rate drops below fourteen daily COVID cases per hundred thousand people. Case rates in several Southern California counties, including Los Angeles, just dipped below that level recently.

This debate over whether to let these athletes go back and play has been intense in California. 

Bradley Hensley says he co-founded Let Them Play California “out of desperation.”

He said his organization grew as limitations on high school sports stretched beyond last spring, and then through the summer.

“We got to the fall, they canceled, they postponed the season. And they kept saying ‘Oh, next month, next month’” Hensley said. “And they finally issued guidance [on high school sports] in December, and once they issued guidance, we realized the kids would probably never play again and they had no outlets.”

”We basically understood there was no voice for youth rights,” Hensley added. “We really didn’t know what we were doing frankly, and we said, “okay let’s start a Facebook page.” 

 Hensley’s  son is a junior and a quarterback on his high school’s football team. Like many athletes, his son hopes his performance on the field can help him get into college.  

“In order to get recruited,” Hensley said, “he needs to have a varsity film and with no games, there’s no film — so [colleges] don’t look at California kids.”

Hosting a sporting event is not without risk. In a guidance document about youth sporting events, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control advises that “safely hosting a large event, including sporting events, in areas where there are high levels of COVID-19 within the community will be challenging.”

But Hensley says many parents worry about the physical and mental health risks of preventing high schoolers from participating in the sports they love.  

“We have a mental health crisis with our kids because they have no outlets,” Hensley said. “The damage we’re gonna see is a second pandemic. Depression, isolation, suicide ideation and sadly suicide. 

“Sports are proven to help kids both emotionally physically, and psychologically,” Hensley added. “ They’ve lost out on that for several months.” 

Clarissa Nuñez, a cross country and track athlete at Oxnard High School, says being away from her team has been hard.“I tended to isolate myself a lot because of the pandemic and because sports were canceled a while now,” Nuñez said. “I just worked out in my room but it’s not the same when you go outside with a team.”

Some coaches wonder how much time with limited practices, training or conditioning will affect some athletes. 

“I don’t want to rush things,” said Darnell Furman, the basketball coach at Alta Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga. “I still wanna give them as much time as possible to get in shape. Even though we wanna be playing right away I’m concerned with their fitness so I’m gonna have to watch minutes.”

Nuñez has been mentally and physically getting ready.

“I need to like get back out there,” she said. “I had to do you know yoga, I have to run more because I haven’t been able to run because of the pandemic. You know it’s been pretty hard, but I’ve been preparing myself by working out even harder than before.” 

Nuñez says sports are important to her and she’s happy to have them back.

“Sports have definitely helped me mentally and both physically,” she said. “I could definitely see the difference when I’m in the sport and when I’m not and like now when things are starting up everything’s like opening up again little by little so it’s like been bettering for myself and everyone else.”

This show was produced by the following team:

• I’Yonna Applon Kettles
• Abtin Mashadi
• Malik Patterson
• Cynthia Puga
• Jahaiara Quazi

Higher education institutions have been conducting classes virtually for almost a year, but with COVID-19 vaccinations now being distributed, how close are colleges and universities to resuming in-person instruction?

Governor Gavin Newsom and state legislative leaders have already reached a deal aimed at encouraging K-12 schools to reopen this school year. The CDC has also released information that advises schools on how to prepare for reopening.

At the college level, California State University  Chancellor Joseph Castro stated that the system’s campuses are planning to return by fall of this year. He says each campus will have an individualized reopening plan.

Like a number of other schools, Cal State Northridge officials will not require students or faculty to get vaccinated. 

Maurice Walker, a student at College of the Canyons who is immunocompromised, says he does not feel ready to return to campus. He would want to wait at least another six months.

“It will be a while before I feel comfortable being on campus, but I can’t let my paranoia get the best of me,” Walker said.

CSUN nursing student Samuel Sherry says it is natural for people to be concerned about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, considering that it was created so quickly.

“I am hopeful, for the most part,  that over time people will realize that [the vaccine] is for the best,” Sherry said. “The side effects are minimal. Everybody needs to do their part and get vaccinated if they can, and when they can to get to that level of herd immunity.”

Matthew Cahn, CSUN Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, says university officials aim to have at least 30 to 50 percent of classes back on campus. Most of these classes will be hybrid, meaning that they will meet both on campus and virtually.

“The idea is to get as many students as possible to have the opportunity to have some kind of campus experience in Fall ‘21,” Cahn said.

If in-person instruction does resume, staff and students are not required to return if they feel their safety is at risk. 

“We are not creating any expectations that students must be on campus.” Cahn said. “We hope that those who want to [return] will have the opportunity to do so.”

CSUN marketing professor Mariam Beruchashvili said she believes  students and staff should be vaccinated before campus operations fully return to normal, but she understands that there are a lot of people who want to wait some time before receiving the vaccine. 

“It’s a very complex issue with multiple layers, and it will be a challenge.” Beruchashvili said. “I don’t think that many people will volunteer to be vaccinated and that means that we might not be able to go back to full capacity.”

“A place like a college university is probably not one of the safest places to reopen,” added Sherry, “just because it has so many individuals in it.”

The pandemic has also taken a toll on the social lives of many students, so a return to campus could help bring back that missing interaction.

“Even with the six foot rule, I think we’ll have an inclination for [social life] to flourish.” Walker said. “We’re deprived of true intimate communication and interaction. We desire it.”

Students and staff that decide to return to campus must follow all safety protocols, such as wearing masks and maintaining physical distance from others.

This story was reported by the following team:

• Angela Gonzalez
• Kristyn Karmazyn
• Elizabeth Medina
• Daniela Torres
• Bryce Wayne

CORRECTION (Tues., March 2): Due to an editing error, an earlier video version of this show included an on-screen graphic in which guest Samuel Sherry’s name was misspelled. We’ve since corrected the video. CSUN On Point regrets the error.

When a group of casual investors rallied around gaming and electronics retailer GameStop last month, they didn’t only drive a handful of hedge funds close to bankruptcy; they sparked a national conversation about class inequalities in the stock market.

Word spread across social media apps about an upcoming plan to raise the price of GameStop’s stock throughout the last week of January. It ultimately sparked interest in the mainstream as an example of how to make profit in the midst of a sluggish pandemic economy.

In the past year alone, CNBC reports the number of casual investors — sometimes known as “retail investors” — on Wall Street has doubled. The mobile trading app Robinhood became the popular destination for the majority of those involved.

“The biggest benefit of trading nowadays is that you have access to so much research and trading strategies by professionals,” said Daniel Burdick who, outside of his day job as a manager for SoCal Labs, is an active user of the E*Trade platform. “You can earn real good compared to back in the day. Nowadays, you can learn to do it yourself and take on your own risk and build your portfolio to your liking.”

A group of investors on a Reddit forum called “Wall Street Bets” influenced investors. Encouraged by GameStop’s turnaround plan — and enraged by hedge funds betting big money that GameStop would fail — investors drove the company’s stock to 180% above its previous value.

As a result, hedge funds’ big bet against GameStop went sour. Because they put money behind the expectation that GameStop’s stock price would go down, the hedge funds lost huge sums when the price skyrocketed.

A stock represents a small portion of a company that can be sold or bought. Stocks go up and down frequently, which is why people try to purchase a stock at its lowest possible price, then sell it during its highest peak to make big money. In sum, the bigger the stock, the bigger the profit. Hedge funds came into the picture later on. This is when companies take the money and store them in “hedges”.

“If stocks were easy,” said Burdick, “then you wouldn’t be able to make that much money because you have to take on risk… It’s like a get rich quick scheme with the Game Stop AMC thing.”

On January 28, Robinhood and other trading apps made a historic move and halted trading of stocks like GameStop and AMC. AMC is another publicly traded company that was mentioned in the Wall Street Bets Reddit thread. In an official statement, Robinhood said the decision to suspend trading of these stocks was made amid “significant market volatility” and reminded users about their company’s mission statement to “democratize finance for all.”

Professional poker player and investor Stranton Willhelm said he noticed suspicious activity on the app he uses to trade the day after he bought $20,000 worth of AMC stock. Willhelm said the app had blocked him from trading on what he calls the “busiest day of trading” so far — and the app’s stated reason for blocking his trading keeps changing.

“It wouldn’t let me access it because they were ‘adding new features on the app,’” Willhelm said. “And then 30 minutes later it said ‘due to an overload of trading you cannot trade right now.’ Then 30 minutes after that, it completely locked me out of my account and blamed it on me. This whole day’s worth of lies and then they couldn’t make up their mind of which lie they wanted to stick to.”

Hedge funds’ stocks promised GameStop stocks to the brokers of the bank, which was to be one hundred dollars or less, but was actually more. Other stocks then had to be liquidated and GameStop stocks had to be purchased in repayment. The hedge funds were disappointed because they need bigger hedges to make bigger investments. Because they had smaller money, they had to buy smaller stocks, like GameStop.

“Wall Street, I feel like they just felt, ‘We have all these people on the internet trying to beat [us] at their own game,’” said Burdick. “  … And I get that. GameStop obviously wasn’t worth what the price was indicating. That’s not really how stock trading works — but the restricting part, that kind of goes against everything Robinhood stands for.”

GameStop was struggling to stay alive in the last few years prior to the COVID-19 financial crisis; already making it an easy target for hedge fund traders. It’s now easy to buy and instantly download video games online,  and COVID-19 regulations forced GameStop’s retail locations to close last year. Casino games are also becoming very popular among online players, which is a convenient and accessible way to enjoy casino games like UFABET มีความโปร่งใสและยุติธรรม. GameStop found sympathizers on Reddit, which many gamers also frequent. Check out online casino platforms like levelupcasino.com for exciting prizes!

When gamers discovered how hedge funds were looking to profit off the company, they became furious. They sprang into action by joining the Wall Street Bets thread, where they signed a contract which said they are obligated to buy all GameStop stock.

The following team produced this story:

• Katherine Hernandez
• Emily Brubaker
• Mary Paronyan
• Dailyn Simmons
• Diane Zermeño

Many people don’t have a meal on Thanksgiving or throughout the holidays — but with the pandemic leaving millions of families unemployed, they also can no longer afford and provide the nutritious meals that children and adults need every day.

Before we went into a nationwide pandemic, 35 million people struggled with adequate food supply in their households.

But this year, that number may increase to 50 million people, says Feeding America, a national network of food banks. 

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank is acting as quickly as they can in helping provide meals to families all over the country, says Roger Castle, a development officer with the food bank.

“A lot of it is increasing the amount of food to our partner agencies — which are 700 other non-profit and religious organizations that get food from the food bank,” said Castle. “Mainly through these emergency distributions where we do large drive-throughs in big parking lots, where cars can pull up and we load food, with masks and gloves into their car — and its 80 pounds of food.”

Castle said the L.A. Regional Food Bank sees firsthand how much the pandemic has caused an increase in food insecurity.

“We have seen in our emergency distribution lines people that have said that I’ve worked for thirty years and I’ve never needed food assistance before,” said Castle.  “Our food distribution is up 145 percent and we are now feeding 900,000 people each month either directly or through our agency partners.”

In 2019, according to Feeding America, one out of every 10 American families were ​food insecure, which means they didn’t have access to a variety of healthy, quality foods.​

And in 4.1% of households, Americans went hungry at least twice this year.  

Many are affected by food insecurity — but children are the most vulnerable.

“Currently, one in four children [is] experiencing food insecurity,” said Nellie Duran, Assistant Professor of Family and Consumer Sciences at CSUN. “Even when you control for poverty, when a child experiences food insecurity, there is an impact in their academic performance.”

The L.A. Regional Food Bank tries to close the gap between children and food insecurity.

“We have a child’s breakfast program, we also have an after school meal and summer lunch program. Other places run those programs, but we fill in the gaps where we see that those kids in a certain area are not getting enough food,” said Castle. “If someone’s not getting their meals on the weekend we send them home on Friday afternoon out of school with enough food for meals for the entire weekend so they don’t have to go hungry all weekend home.”

Although the nationwide pandemic has contributed to the increased number of people that are food insecure, the problem has been going on even prior to the pandemic.

Duran believes U.S. leaders must acknowledge that world hunger is a bigger issue.

“As long as our policies continue to ignore the right to food,” she said, “we are always going to have food banks, food pantries, food drives.”

This story was reported by the following team:

• Muhammed Asad, producer
• Chloe Hooper, anchor
• Alexia Mersola, producer
• Desiree Leon Rosales, producer
• Gina Wong, moderator

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on many people’s finances.

More than 57 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March. Most have already spent their one-time stimulus check from the federal government.

Many have been able to return to work. Still, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that in October, more than 15 million people were still out of the job or working fewer hours “because their employer closed or lost business due to the coronavirus pandemic.”

With many struggling to get jobs these days, Americans have turned to their hobbies, talents, or side hustles into full-time work.

Zamir Hurtte, a lash and nail technician, decided to take control by making her side-hustle her day job — but she says business has been “off and on.”

“It has some good days and some bad days,” Hurtte said. “Some days I will have multiple clients and some weeks I won’t have any. It really just depends I guess on the service they might want or how they’re feeling because … I won’t work with anybody that feels sick.”

There are signs more people are starting businesses during the pandemic.

The Wall Street Journal reports more people are filing requests for an Employer ID Number — which they’d need to start a business. More than 3.2 million entrepreneurs have applied for one so far this year, compared with 2.7 million at the same point in 2019.

Fontana resident Hannah Fields works full-time at an Amazon warehouse while also running her own side business as a lash technician.

“I work graveyards now with doing lashes on the side on my days off,” she said.

“I was fascinated with lashes and I loved how they looked,” Fields added. “I remember seeing a lot of these new lash techs coming out, [saying], ‘Oh, well, you know I can make my own schedule. I can make my own money’…”

The freedom was a draw for Fields.

“I wanted to open up my schedule more,” she said, “for ministry and travel and family and stuff like that.”

It’s a difficult time to own a business, which must deal with new health and safety restrictions, limits on their operations, and the closure of indoor venues. As the pandemic has swept through the U.S., nearly 100,000 small businesses have closed permanently, according to a recent Yelp analysis.

But for Fields, the pandemic has been a great time to start a new venture.

“The worst thing that could happen is you fail,” she said, “but you learn so much from it — and just don’t give up. You’re going to have moments where you feel like you can’t do this but you know what take a deep breath, pray, do whatever you have to do and get it done because the results in the end are the best.”

This show was reported by the following team:

• Nikiko Burnett, anchor
• Tayler Lawson, producer
• Tia Lawson, producer
• Yahaira Joaquin Flores, moderator
• Jeanie Rodriguez, producer

Experts say climate change has been a key factor behind wildfires that broke records across the world in 2020.

Climate change has increased California’s risk for wildfires, producing warmer, drier conditions, causing more frequent  droughts and prolonging the state’s fire season..

This year’s Bobcat Fire was also one of the largest wildfires in L.A. County’s history, burning over 100,000 acres of land in the Angeles National Forest. 

L.A. County also set a new temperature record of 121 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“We have to be able to curtail the greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jonathan Parfrey, the executive director of Climate Resolve, an organization that connects communities, organizations and policymakers to address a global problem with local action. “But at the same time we have to learn how to adapt.”

Wildfires have  threatened biodiversity and  put species in danger of extinction. The fires have also increased greenhouse gases, contributing to the severity of climate change itself. 

“The climate crisis is the greatest threat humanity has ever faced,” said Professor David Klein, director of CSUN’s Climate Science Program. “Biologists tell us that we’re in the middle of the sixth mass extinction, the last one occurred 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs.” 

According to CNN, utilities cut power to thousands of Southern California homes amid high wildfire danger on Thanksgiving Day. 

“In order to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius,” Klein said, “we have to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions 45% by the year 2030 and bring it down to zero net emissions by mid century by 2050.” 

Some regions of California recently reintroduced control burns as a method of wildfire prevention.

Controlled burns are any type of fires that intentionally set off to meet specific land management objectives such as reducing flammable fuels, restoring ecosystem health, recycling nutrients or preparing an area for new trees or vegetation. 

Marti Witter, a fire ecologist for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said controlled burns are very effective, especially if officials use controlled burns in enough areas over a long period of time.

“One great example is Yosemite National Park and Sequoia National Park where they’ve been doing prescribed burning for decades now,” said Witter.

In California, wildfires ravaged about 4 million acres this year, making 2020 one of the worst fire seasons in the state’s history.

But California isn’t alone.

According to the BBC, wildfires have burned more than 13,000 square kilometers of the world’s largest tropical rainforest in Brazil.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature reported that this year’s fire season was the worst in Australia.

Chris Dicus, who leads the Association for Fire Ecology, said there are many ways to manage wildfires in California. He says the use of prescribed fire is incredibly effective in many ecosystems across California but not in certain places.

“We use our entire tool belt to go into and manage the forest,” Dicus said, “because there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to managing our wildlands.”

This show was reported by the following team:

• Sammy Fernandes, moderator
• Samuel Novicki, producer
• Brenda Saldana, producer
• Jessica Vaughan, anchor
• Serim Yeo, producer

Public school students in at least 40 schools of California’s 58 counties have been able to return to their classrooms for in-person instruction since the pandemic began.

However, those who remain online have faced several challenges. Some students have had limited access to devices, internet, meals. They’ve also faced Zoom fatigue caused by having to sit in front of a computer screen for several hours each day.

Juana Maria Valdivia, board president for a charter school network called PUC Schools, says the biggest challenge has been providing students with the technology needed to continue their education, and figuring out how to further support students with special needs.

“We’ve learned a lot of new things with this pandemic and I think it has brought us to where we are today,” Valdivia said. “As we started the first semester to be a little more structured and also the opportunity to provide more support to our students and engage more with the families through virtual meetings.”

PUC’ schools have been able to provide technology for their students, and have worked to provide more one-on-one interaction for students with special needs. 

Valdivia said it’s crucial to understand that the pandemic is taking a toll on our mental health. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more children are going to the emergency room with mental health-related problems. The CDC said the proportion of emergency room visits by 12- to 17-year olds that involve mental health challenges increased 31% in 2020 compared to the previous year.

Lawrence King, superintendent of the Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District, appreciates the work that administrators, teachers and classified school staff have done to create meaningful and engaging instructional methods for students and families. 

The transition hasn’t been easy, King said, but “with continued training for teachers they have stepped up to learn all sorts of software.”. 

In order to receive instruction, students need access to the internet through devices, hotspots and wi-fi.. 

A report published by the Economic Policy Institute concluded “the pandemic has exacerbated well-documented opportunity gaps that have put low-income students at a disadvantage relative to their better-off peers.”

“Those inequities start with technology,” Valdivia said. “We just learned that some families have three or four children and there’s one piece of technology and it had to be shared at some point.”

Students, teachers, administrators and educational leaders aren’t the only ones struggling with online learning. The move to distance learning has put parents in a tough position. 

“I have a whole different level of respect for teachers,” said Porscha Chambers, a parent and college student, “because having to do the whole one-on-one with your child is like, ‘Wow!’ If parents have multiple children and they have to do this with each of them it’s a lot of work.”.

Keeping students engaged is a difficult task, especially for high school students as Zoom fatigue creeps in quickly. 

By incorporating mindfulness into Friday lectures, PUC schools are finding ways to be more student centered and connect with them at a deeper level. 

Acton-Agua Dulce Unified School District officials are relying on county health department guidance.

“We want to open up in a way that ensures safety for again not just students but also parents and visitors,” King said. “We’ve worked very closely with our teachers association, our California School Employees Association, our parents group to make sure that we are opening in a safe manner and again within the guidelines that have been implemented by the County of Department of Public Health. “

This story was produced by the following:

• Amanda Alvarado, moderator
• Savanna Birchfield, anchor 
• Casey Contreras, reporter
• Kimberly Linares, reporter 
• Sophia Lesseos, reporter

A divided Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as the 115th Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, Oct. 26.

How will Justice Barrett’s appointment affect our nation’s politics?

“I would expect that the decisions that come out of the court on anything like abortion, immigration, crime control— a lot of these are gonna have a much more conservative perspective,” said Craig Renetzky, a criminal defense attorney and lecturer in CSUN’s Department of Criminology and Justice Studies.

But Renetzky also said Supreme Court justices’ political philosophies can change over the course of their lifetime appointments.

Democrats have raised concerns that that Barrett’s religious views may interfere with her decisions.

“She’s a disciple of the late Justice Antonin Scalia,” said Bruce Zucker, Associated Chair of Criminology and Justice Studies at CSUN — a justice who, Zucker says, is no liberal, “but he wasn’t as far to the right as people like [Justice] Clarence Thomas have proven to be.”

Zucker further gave an example on how Scalia surprised people with his decision when “Scalia blasted sort of the conservative bent” on a criminal defense arena.

Although Scalia had a conservative bent at times, and this can in turn give people hope that Justice Barrett will have the same approach on decisions.

It is important to note that Barrett’s mentor Justice Antonin Scalia was a constitutional originalist.

Kimberly West-Faulcon, Professor of Law at Loyola Marymount University, said Scalia and Barrett both ascribe to a judicial philosophy known as “original public meaning originalism.”

“It sounds great to the lay person,” West-Faulcon said, “but it operates in such a way that the judges who are implementing it have an immense amount of power.”

“The reality,” West-Faulcon added, “is [originalism] is a way to cover up a lot of your ideological beliefs a lot of things that you may not, in your own mind, know.”

Many abortion rights activists are are concerned Barrett may cast a decisive vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.

“That would mean we would return to the status quo that existed before Roe v. Wade,” said Bertrall Ross, the Chancellor’s Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, “in which it would be a state determination as to whether and to what extent women would have reproductive freedom and certain states would make different choices.”

Liberals worry not only about reproductive rights, but also about gun policies.

West-Faulcon believes Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh might be willing to rule favorably on more permissive gun laws.

“Justice Kavanaugh and again I think Justice Barrett is willing to … say, ‘Well if a lot of people have the weapon, it’s no longer unusual,’” West-Faulcon said. “That’s an approach that could mean that the most dangerous assault rifles, if enough Americans were to buy them, we could live in a dystopian America where people are walking around everywhere with assault rifles.”

“Sadly, for some Americans,” West-Faulcon added, “what I  just described is not dystopia it is what they see when they walk out of their homes.”

This story was reported by the following team:

• Muhammed Asad, anchor
• Chloe Hooper, producer
• Alexia Mersola, moderator
• Desiree Leon Rosales, producer
• Gina Wong, producer

Thousands have made their way to the streets of Los Angeles in recent weeks to show support for Armenians fighting in an armed conflict more than 7,000 miles away.

The hostilities involve Armenia and neighboring country Azerbaijan, who are fighting for control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. (Many Armenians often refer to the disputed are by its historical name, Artsakh.)

Southern California is home to the most ethnic Armenians of any region outside Armenia itself. Los Angeles has seen multiple pro-Armenia protests since late September.

Protesters are marching in hope of getting major news outlets to cover the conflict in Artsakh.

Many have also called on the U.S. to step in — even if it strains America’s relationship with Turkey. Turkey is currently in support of Azerbaijan.

At one recent protest, hundreds gathered outside the Turkish consulate in waving flags and signs in support of the Armenian cause.

“All we want is for the war to end,” said Harout Agzikyouchoukian, a pro-Armenian protester. “In regards to how [the war] makes me feel, at first it made me devastated. It made me feel sad for my people, but now as time goes by you get angry.

“I can’t believe,” Agzikyouchoukian added, “the world doesn’t want to interfere with this war,’ because we have superpower countries that could end this today if they really wanted to. The U.S.A. has the power to do so.”

For many Armenians, this conflict is a fight for survival.

“By terrorizing the population, by using international band cluster bombs on civilians, it makes it clear that [Azerbaijan] wants that territory free without Armanians inside it,” said Syuzanna Petrosyan, associate director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Armenian Studies.

Nagorno-Karabakh “is an unrecognized state,” Petrosyan added. “It does not get the advantages as everything else that countries get such as passports, […] its universities are unaccredited, and it cannot be part of international state treaties, security treaties, etcetera.”

For years, Armenians have protested peacefully in the U.S. to raise awareness of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

“Many Armenians are pretty well known to marching,” said Nzhde Avag-Petroysan. “The cops are really used to us marching on the streets, taking over and shutting down sections of Los Angeles.”

Avag-Petrosyan says the U.S. bears some moral responsibility for the conflict; the U.S. government has aided the militaries of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“Without proper funding from the outside government,” Avag-Petrosyan said, “I think Azerbaijan and Turkey wouldn’t have the incentive of trying to take over.”