NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu
CSUSB professor discusses challenges facing Imperial Valley’s economy
KPCC Radio (Pasadena)
Sept. 10, 2019
Kimberly Collins, CSUSB professor of public administration, was interviewed for a segment, “Gig Economy in Imperial Valley,” for the program “Take Two.”
The Imperial Valley consistently has the highest unemployment rate in California, the program reported. And the online gig economy —especially driving for Uber and Lyft — seems like a solution for workers facing few job prospects and traditionally low wages in this agricultural valley. As part of the program’s California Dream collaboration, KPBS' Amita Sharma reported on how much of a boost gig jobs are providing drivers in the valley.
For an overall look at the region, the program interviewed Collins, who has studied the Imperial Valley’s economy. Part of the discussion focused on the geothermal, solar and wind energy industry’s economic impact there. “One you build out the solar plant, or once you have the geothermal plant working, they don’t have a huge staff.”
Of the region’s downside that it has overcome, she said, “You know, it’s in the very corner of California, it’s very hot down here, it’s very flat. It’s not very visually appealing to be here.”
The segment begins at about the 8 minute and 51 second mark of the online podcast. Listen to it at “AB 5 Passage, California Poverty Data, Future of USC Sports.”
CSUSB professor interviewed about John Bolton’s dismissal as national security advisor
Press TV
Sept. 12, 2019
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was interviewed for a segment on the dismissal of John Bolton as the Trump administration’s national security advisor. The news site reported: “Trump has described Bolton as a disaster on Washington’s policy towards North Korea and out of line towards Venezuela. The U.S. president has also refused to rule out easing Washington's unilateral sanctions on Iran, a policy that Bolton, a well-known anti-Iran hawk is reported to have strongly opposed.”
Said Yaghoubian, “The factors that led to the firing of John Bolton are essentially his failures across the board in the foreign policy initiatives that the Trump administration was seeking to promote, from Venezuela to the exacerbation of the situation Afghanistan, in Syria, tensions with Russia and sanctions with Russia, the situation with North Korea and its sanctions, as well as, of course, the so-called regime change effort and ‘maximum pressure’ effort against Iran. All of these efforts essentially ended in failure or are continuing to be failures and embarrassments for the Trump administration.”
See the complete video segment online at “Bolton departs White House.”
Anniversary of 9/11 is a call to curb white extremists, CSUSB professor and other experts say
Telemundo
Sept. 11, 2019
The website of the Spanish-language television network included an interview with Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSUSB in an article about the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The attacks of 9/11 left an indelible mark on the US but, since 2001, the attacks of individuals and groups of far right on US soil have increased, and the government must increase the fight against them, Levin and other counter-terrorism experts say.
Experts interviewed by Telemundo News agreed that the Trump Administration should improve its efforts to combat radicalized individuals acting within the US, often with international ties.
Levin said white supremacists and far-right are a growing transnational threat, dispersed within a global 'ecosystem' that relies on the internet and the easy availability of weapons.
'Talking about groups is incorrect ... they actually form chains of people who act alone, who are part of an ecosystem with colleagues in jail or in the other half of the world,' especially radicalized youth with access to powerful weapons, Levin explained.
'People do not get up turned into someone supremacist. We see teenagers and young people from stable families, without a history of violence,' and the government must improve its monitoring tasks, he added.
So far in 2019, at least 26 people have died in incidents linked to white supremacists, as part of an upward trend: in 2018, the number of fatalities was 17, the previous year was 13, and before, in 2016, only three homicides were recorded, according to a CSHE report.
'Semi-automatic rifles are the favorite weapons of the supremacists,' said Levin.
The academic advocated an increase in intergovernmental cooperation and data collection and exchange, a change in the penal code to punish those who promote violence to alter public order, and greater control of weapons.
Read the complete article, in Spanish, at “Aniversario del 9/11 es un llamado a frenar a extremistas blancos, según expertos.”
CSUSB professor joins other experts to tell Congress that threat from domestic terrorists is rising
Homeland Preparedness News
Sept. 11, 2019
On the eve of the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, experts, including CSUSB Professor Brian Levin, testified to U.S. Congress that while Islamic jihadists remain a threat to the security of the United States, so to do domestic terrorists in the form of white supremacists and other radical right-wing groups.
During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on global terrorism on Tuesday, witnesses stated that Americans were more likely to die at the hands of an American with a gun than at the hands of an international terrorist.
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said a first step toward ridding the country of the threat from white supremacist groups should start with taking assault weapons off the streets.
“I’m a former NYPD. I’m a gun owner,” he said. “But you know what? I don’t want unstable lunatics or ideological extremists to have access to these weapons of war.”
Read the complete article at “Threat from domestic terrorists rising, experts testify.”
CSUSB professor interviewed for documentary on 1915 uprising in Iran against British occupation (in Farsi)
TW Iran
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, appeared in a documentary that discusses the 1915 uprising against the British occupation in Bushire, Iran, which was led by Rais Ali Delvari. Yaghoubian’s interview, which was overdubbed in Farsi, begins at about the 23-minute mark into the online video. The documentary was produced by TW Iran (Telewebion).
These news clips and others may be found at “In the Headlines” at inside.csusb.edu.