In recent years, budget cuts have changed the entire scope of the community college system.

There was a time when community college courses were free, easy to get into and students had a greater sense of community involvement and outreach. To be successful on the college level today requires a small fortune, lots of dedication and a flexible schedule.

Getting into classes in a specific major isn’t usually that much of a challenge. However, getting into general education classes is almost always headache-inducing.

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Painted faces, entirely paintedbodies, huge head cutouts, and raucous crowds—these all describe a National Colle­giate Athletic Association basketball game.

Not many sporting events can draw a crowd like an NCAA game. It’s basically like the Seattle Seahawks fans at Centu­ryLink Stadium, who are known as the 12th man, and the fans at Arco Arena (now known as Sleep Train Arena) when the Kings were in their heyday, mixed with large amounts of alcohol.

With all the young fans in Califor­nia rooting for teams hundreds or even thousands of miles away, it may be hard to believe that City College’s sports teams (or most community college sports pro­grams) don’t have a very large following.

Although community college teams aren’t on a national level, there are still plen­ty of students, as well as former students, who one would think might want to come out and show support for their school.

Most sports fans believe that there’s nothing quite like NCAA basketball. The passion and camaraderie among this group is unrivaled. Many college players never go on to play in the pros, so they’re putting in nothing but effort because they’re playing for the love of the game, rather than…» Read More

People value their personal privacy, as evidenced by bathroom door locks, window blinds and passwords.

As Americans, however, we don’t just value privacy—we expect it. And since ­ The Privacy Act of 1975 guarantees privacy, any sense of self-entitlement to such is rightly ours. Recently though, our constitutional right to all things private has been under attack, giving room to question if we really have as much privacy as we once allowed ourselves to believe.

Take for example, the use of unmanned aircraft, more commonly referred to as drones. Drones have been making headlines quite a bit lately—twice on the front page of ­ the Sacramento Bee this month, and not for accomplishments in terms of the fight on terrorism. Rather, on speculation of whether our privacy is under attack by law enforcement agencies right here in the U.S.

Yes, federal law does prohibit the use of drones in densely populated urban areas. However, an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Fact Sheet released Feb. 15 by the Federal Aviation Administration says there is a way around the prohibition. One only needs “to obtain a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) for public aircraft.” ­

The UAS Fact Sheet goes on…» Read More

Whether it’s as far away as Sandy Hook Elementary School, a little closer like a movie theater in Colorado or right here at home—from gun scares at Arden Mall to officers being shot in our own backyard—a gun getting into the wrong hands and being used to cause chaos is something that’s simply happening too much lately.

With the entire nation wondering what the Obama Administration will ultimately do to fight the misuse of guns, one thing is clear: There is almost a down-the-middle split when it comes to opinions on guns.

On one hand, there’s the pro-gun crowd, those who feel the government is infringing on their rights by regulating gun ownership. These folks feel that guns should be used for protection, hunting, and that if everyone has a gun, things like the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting would result in a fewer deaths because a gunman like James Holmes could be stopped with another gun.

But for those of us on the other side of the spectrum, controlling guns is simply a way to help protect the innocent, especially the children of our nation. It isn’t about infringing on the rights…» Read More

Jason Van Sandt-Editor in Chief Jasonv1977@gmail.com

The year was 1988, I was 11 years old and my uncle Jimmy was over for Thanksgiving dinner. My family had just finished dining when my uncle suggested we all go see a movie afterwards. This was a break in our normal holiday festivities. We would usually eat, watch television afterwards before slipping off into our turkey-fueled commas, but my uncle’s suggestion gained traction and soon we were all off to the theater to see the newest Bill Murray film the day it came out into theaters. I was amazed to see a packed theater; I had always thought people just stayed home on Thanksgiving, and also thrilled to see “Scrooged” before all my friends at school. Now no holiday season is complete until I sit and watch Bill Murray in “Scrooged.”

  Daniel Wilson-Online Managing Editor daniel.wilson8504@yahoo.com

The greatest holiday movie ever is an easy choice for me. I’ve been watching “A Christmas Story” since I was a child and have seen it at least 200 times. It combines the perfect example of the American Christmas experience with great actors, a funny and entertaining story and unforgettable scenes, quotes and moments to create…» Read More

Finals, as a typical college student may know, are defined by Dictionary.com as, “the last, usually comprehensive, examination in a course of study.”But why restrict finals at City College with the words like “last” or “examination”? Look around campus during the next week and notice that it’s more like a college cultural phenomenon. Small groups begin to cluster together at every corner, collectively gathering knowledge. Coffee begins to gain some new fans. Finals are an amazing and necessary thing for students to go through semester in and semester out. Now is the time to review what’s been learned and not learned, not only in the classroom, but also in how the semester was lived and know that nothing is final. Students are here to learn, and the vision of finals is that of students who are doing it right. Of course some students are cramming from not going to class, or are looking at their laptops with their eyebrows raised because something interesting is happening on Facebook. As students in a community college, most of us are hardly reaching the end of anything, because the next step will always be a new learning experience. Whether you are transferring to…» Read More

Uncomfortable? Yes. Attitude issues? Absolutely. Urinating non-stop? Oh my gosh!  Hungry all day? Yes, I have to eat or I will throw up, and it’s not pretty.

Is it easy being pregnant and going to college? No. My life as a pregnant student is taking a toll on me. It’s getting harder and harder, as my pregnancy progresses.

I feel tired all the time. In fact, I’m usually exhausted and don’t want to do anything at all. Most of the time I don’t even want to go to school or do my homework.

I have to, though, because I don’t want to be a failure. I just want the best for my unborn son, Mykel. Having kids makes you want to change and become a better person. I fight through the pregnancy pains and still come to school, and do what I have to do. I want to be a good role model for my son. I want him to know one day that he can be whatever he wants, he just has to do things he’s never done before.

Still, being pregnant is not fun at all. Everyone says it’s a beautiful thing, but not to me. The only…» Read More

A shove to the ribs, a crushing boot on the feet and a swinging shopping bag to the head as you maneuver through the line of yelling people. You may have been shopping Nov. 23, the day after Thanksgiving, or you were training for the TV game show “Wipeout.” If you didn’t plan on aggressive wrestling; perhaps this type of shopping was not for you.

Black Friday could easily be tagged as the most dangerous shopping day of the year. On this day, sleep-deprived people are baited with historically low prices on a limited amount of much-wanted merchandise found in a building maxed to capacity with fellow shoppers. Forgive the inability to utter “thank you” for keeping a store open when holidays are traditionally meant for people to be off work. Target, Toys’R’Us, Banana Republic, and Raleys are just a few of the retailers who were doing business some part of Thanksgiving Day.

The nauseating news of Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour being trampled by shopping crowds after being caught in the store entranceway in 2008 is what it took to implement security and order. You’ve probably heard of more recent stories of injured shoppers, such as the fight in Roseville…» Read More

I was 17 when I realized my peers were selling their souls to MySpace. As a graduating senior, I found it ridiculous that most my yearbook classmates were logged into their MySpace accounts as they worked on assignments in class.

The number of “friends” attested to their popularity and a personalized profile with flashy icons and colorful backgrounds became another outlet for visual creativity.

My classmates were shocked to learn I did not have a MySpace account I maintained. It was just a distracting fad. As graduation day approached, I realized MySpace could be the next best thing to seeing my friends every day.

I was leaving high school, after all, and couldn’t imagine losing touch with certain people. So, I signed up for an account. Over the course of seven years, the allure of MySpace dwindled as my frustration with social media grew. While I had fun “pimping out” my profile every day with various HTML codes, I found it annoying that comments from friends were mostly random advertisements. Guys in their teens to their mid-40’s would send messages like, “Hey, sexy” and “What’s up, cutie?” How did this alternative avenue of communication become a billboard and meat market?

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The holiday season is a time when many people get overwhelmed with the spirit of giving and feel that yank on the old heart strings that loosens up their pockets and compels them to help out those less fortunate than them. Tis the season. Or is it? While it is noble to want to help out our fellow man and woman, why is it something that most just do seasonally, if at all? And not by just leaving spare change in a small bucket by a cash register or dumping off canned goods for the poor that you didn’t want anyway. Rolling up your sleeves and helping out is the focus here. Of course, don’t stop writing those checks or doing those Thanksgiving runs to feed the hungry. These helpful holiday donations make up a significant chunk of the annual funds raised by charitable organizations. This is simply a call to action to not be last-minute philanthropists. Don’t try to cram all your goodwill into the last two months of the year. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Research in October 2008 found that asking supporters for their time rather than directly asking for money is a better…» Read More