There's a lot of joy to be found in browsing the shelves of Ulta, Sephora, or a local drugstore, searching for the perfect ruby-red lipstick or picking out a new face mask. The stores are lined with rows upon rows of colorful boxes, bottles, tubes, and palettes, each promising to help potential buyers look their very best.

A young woman on the 757 Los Angeles Metro bus headed south from Hollywood watches a music video of late rapper Nipsey Hussle in which his killer is seen next to him. “It really be ya own people sometimes,” she says as she shakes her head from side to side.

During Club Awareness Day, which took place on main campus on March 28, the quad hosted much more than just clubs scouting new members. There were also small groups of international students concentrating for the purpose of letting other students like themselves know they are there to support each other while promoting a club.

On Tuesday, March 12th, news broke of the discovery of an underground college admissions service run by William “Rick” Singer, who charged wealthy families hefty amounts of cash (from $200,000 to $6.5 million on a case-by-case basis, according to the Los Angeles Times) for his services in getting their children into elite universities. More than 50 people were implicated.

Sometimes we all say or do things that we end up regretting later. It could be something as small as breaking a phone or something as big as fighting with a friend. In the case of Fox News commentator, Tucker Carlson, it's making highly racist statements like, "Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of,

A class of middle schoolers of all shapes and sizes forms a single-file line in front of a scale in the center of a gymnasium. Some look eager, others ambivalent. A few seem fearful. As students take their turns, a teacher announces numbers as if the children are about to begin a boxing match

As the 2020 election looms ahead, America is entering a sweet spot of time for young voters to express their interests, passions, and concerns. So far, there are 14 Democrats and one Republican who are in the running for President in our next election

Wine is ubiquitous in art and culture. It is found in Shakespeare’s poetry, Mozart’s operas and Picasso’s paintings. Yet, on many college campuses, wine’s dangers overshadow its place in the Humanities. Students have ample opportunities to learn about the dangers of alcohol—and rightly so—but focusing solely on the perils of alcohol is not only incomplete, it is dangerous.

The situation in Venezuela is a lot more complicated than what most major media outlets report.For the last few years, Venezuela has been in a state of political and economic crisis, which reached new peaks as the oil-rich Latin American nation entered a state of dual power.

I grew up in the promised land of socialism, Finland, blessed with universal healthcare and quality, free education. And through experiencing the lovely summer breeze of the government taking care of you–with everything practically handed to you–I will proudly say: I’m a socialist.

If you thought the government shutdown was the worst the Trump presidency could do, just remember, this is the Trump presidency. The administration that allows children to be detained by ICE, calls asylum seekers “invaders”, spouts lies on a daily basis and who fails to live up to campaign promises is now willing to declare a national emergency to get its way.

On June 14, 2014, China’s State Council released an outline that detailed the plan to construct the world’s first comprehensive “social credit system” by 2020.  In function, this social credit system, or “social trust system,” as it has recently been relabeled, is meant to quantify each individual Chinese citizens’ or businesses’ trustworthiness by scoring them in “personal trustworthiness points.”

We are living in scary times. Today’s political climate has fallen off the deep end and we can’t seem to wrap our heads around the question of why. From mass shootings in schools, synagogues, churches, bars, and music festivals, to hate speech rhetoric involving antisemitism, vandalism and racism, what is going on with our society?

On December 28, 1922, a man was born that would change the world forever. Celia Lieber gave birth to Stanley Martin Lieber in New York City, although that name may not sound too familiar to you, the name Stan Lee probably does. Stan is the face and name of Marvel Comics, co-creator…

Before my career as an Santa Monica College (SMC) student, I received my BA in the 1980s, around the same time as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and his alleged victims. Attending a women's college - Mt. Holyoke, a school that recruits SMC students every semester - helped insulate my friends and me from the dangerous behavior Kavanaugh’s victims described - but not completely.

On October 28, Brazilians elected Jair Messias Bolsonaro as its 38th president with 55.13 percent of the total vote. Bolsonaro, a candidate of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), is the first president elected not from the Workers Party (PT) in 13 years.

The current political state of our country, and world, seems to constantly be erratically changing – and not for the better. All the power seems to be left in the hands of the orange man in the White House, or so it seems. The news is filled with atrocities and tragedies again and again, as if they will never end.

In the time since his election, President Trump has appointed an alleged sexual predator to the Supreme Court, cut taxes for billionaires (such as himself), launched attacks on the environment, all the while currying favor with right-wing extremists at home and abroad.

When we have L.A sheriffs talk about mass shootings as "the new normal," we may have become complacent when it comes to gun control. Tragedies like Sandy Hook and Parkland were meant to be the spark to ignite change, to make sure that no man, woman, child would lose their lives to crazy people with guns.

….And while there are a number of pro-Trump Republican candidates that frankly fall into this category, we would probably know by now if Trump had a sinister fascist agenda. After all, it took Mussolini, Hitler, and Franco mere months to lay the foundations of totalitarian states that would murder millions.