An Eclipse Made This Atheist Photographer Find God
For the first time in 40 years, people throughout North America can view a solar eclipse. And thousands of Californians are heading up to Oregon or to other parts of the country where the eclipse will be total. A team from the University of California, Berkeley and Google are producing a 90-minute film of the eclipse traveling all the way across the country. Among them, Mark Bender – who says viewing other eclipses has completely changed his life. KQED science reporter Lesley McClurg reports.
Parents, Get Ready for the Eclipse With a Tennis Ball and a Hula Hoop
If you can’t take a last-minute road trip to Oregon or another prime spot in the path of the eclipse - we will get to see at least a partial eclipse here in California. And if you don’t end up catching it, you can always re-enact it at home, thanks to the new children’s book, “When the Sun Goes Dark”. It’s co-authored by Andrew Fraknoi, who’s just retired as the chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College, in Northern California. The California Report’s Sasha Khokha talked with him.
Strains of Puccini and Verdi Fill the Halls of Silicon Valley Tech Firms
Tech companies in Silicon Valley pull in all sorts of celebrities and theatrical acts for lunchtime entertainment. That gave the folks at Opera San José an idea. What if they took advantage of those captive audiences to make a pitch for opera? KQED arts reporter Rachael Myrow went to check out a performance.
After Trump’s Travel Ban, She Took Off Her Hijab and Learned Self-Defense
The heightened visibility of white supremacist groups means a lot of people are feeling vulnerable. That includes Muslim Americans, already reeling from President Trump's proposed travel bans and an increase in hate crimes towards people perceived to be Muslim. That's all been weighing heavily on 22-year-old Marwa Abdelghani of Los Angeles. She reluctantly stopped wearing her headscarf after Trump took office, but she’s also preparing to fight back. Pasha Zolfaghari brings us the final installment in our series, “At Risk in the Trump Era,” produced in collaboration with student reporters from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.
Published in LA, Banned in Iran: Ketab Books Fights Iran’s Censorship
Southern California is home to the largest community of Iranians outside Iran, many of whom came as exiles after the Islamic revolution took power in 1979. Since then, a repressive regime has made Iran one of the world's most censored countries. In Los Angeles, Ketab Bookstore has been helping readers find ways around censorship for decades. Now the brick-and-mortar store is closing, but its owner vows to continue its work electronically. Reporter Valerie Hamilton has the story.