On Oct. 1st, An oil spill from a cracked pipeline leaked over 10,000 gallons, off the coast of Huntington Beach. Mayor Kim Carr has reopened the shoreline and water. “It is important that our decision be based on data, that we continue to monitor the water quality going forward.”

Officials told CNN, “they have recovered at least 5,544 gallons of oil and 13.6 barrels of tar balls. In a worst-case scenario, more than 131,000 gallons may have spilled into the waters.” With these notes Orange County has cut off recreational fishing between Sunset Beach and Dana Point from the shoreline to six miles out.

“The health and safety of our residents and visitors is of the utmost importance. We understand the significance our beaches have on tourism, our economy, and our overall livelihood here in Huntington Beach,” said Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr in a press statement.

The City is in coordination with Federal, State, regional, and local agencies.The US Coast Guard is the leading agency and has formed an incident management team putting together a unified command team including Huntington Beach Fire, Marine Safety, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Amplify Energy Corporation to investigate the oil spill incident.

“The City of Huntington Beach is continually assessing and contributing towards mitigation efforts for the Orange County Oil Spill (Pipeline P00547 Incident). The oil spill has significantly affected the City, with substantial ecological impacts occurring at the beach and at the Huntington Beach Wetlands.” City Statement.

The Oiled Wildlife Network (OWCN) reports 65 birds recovered in total, 38 of which were found dead, also reporting nine dead fish.

The Department of Justice has opened their own investigation led by Attorney General Rob Bonta. Who is concerned in the spill minimization and possible prevention.

“The oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach is an environmental disaster with far-reaching consequences for our fish and wildlife, for our communities, and for our economy,” said Bonta. “My sorry fice is committed to devoting the people and the resources necessary to ensure this environmental disaster is fully investigated, and we will follow the facts wherever they lead us.”

According to Jason Neubauer, chief of the office of investigations and analysis for the US Coast Guard.The pipeline was dragged 105 ft and could have been cracked a year ago. Evidence is suggesting the 13 inch linear crack was likely caused by a ship’s anchor pulled along the seafloor.Video released by the Coast Guard showed marine growth on the damaged portion of the pipeline, initially enclosed in concrete.

Neubauer explained “The linear fracture on the pipeline could have been a very gradual crack, which got worse over time.This event could be multiple incidents and strikes on the pipeline after the initial event, that we’re pretty confident occurred several months to a year ago,”

Residents in the area are upset with the contamination of their water fronts. There is a worry the spill will affect visitor attraction. A owner of the Cali Shore clothing store in Huntington Beach,

Sydney said “If people aren’t walking around or strolling around because they think the beach might be unsafe.There’s less of a chance of them walking in the door; hurting us. Because they will move onto the next beach with beautiful stores and sunsets, there’s too many in southern California not to.”

On the other hand, others aren’t too concerned now that access has reopened. After talking with Clare, who tends bar for Cabo Cantina … along the beach,

She said “The spill hasn’t affected us too much.The bar is still packed every night, when the spill happened too. There’s not alot that can keep people from visiting our area. Huntington is Huntington for a reason”.

Taylor Lebar was one of those visitors trying to make the most of a trip planned before the spill was detected. “…”.

Fortunately, she was just passing through to Oceanside clear of the oily water. Unfortunate, for owners making a living from the tourism as Taylor was not strolling. Some of the fears Sydney told us earlier. Fears she will have to figure out and live with as her patience is tested and as the investigation and cleanup continues.

Four years after it was announced that Seattle would get a National Hockey League team, one year of being branded as the Seattle Kraken, 3 months after the expansion draft: Seattle hockey fans didn’t have to wait anymore. The first official game of the Seattle Kraken’s maiden season against the last NHL expansion team: the Vegas Golden Knights.

Concerns were high as many of the high-profiled Kraken players were on the COVID protocol list however most of them managed to be in the game including the player who took the first face-off.

The first of firsts for the Kraken was the very beginning of the game at T-Mobile arena on Tuesday (Oct 12). Jared McCann took the first ever face-off. McCann played for Pittsburgh last year and was an obvious choice for the Kraken to take in the expansion draft with 32 points in 43 games. However, knowing this, the Penguins flipped the forward to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Kraken took McCann from them. He’ll pop up later in this historic game again. 

The first shot was taken by Mark Giordano 18 seconds into the first period. Giordano was another prime candidate to be taken in the expansion draft when protected lists were released. Giordano had been a long time player of the Calgary Flames. He played with the Flames since 2004 and became team captain in 2013. 

Giordano won the Mark Messier award in 2020 which is given to a recognizable leader on and off the ice. Giordano also won the James Norris award as best defenseman in the league in 2019. With a resume like that, Giordano was taken from the only team he had ever known. Flames fans were sad but probably became even more sad when Giordano was named captain of the Kraken and scored his first (unofficial) goal with the team in a preseason game against the Flames.

The Kraken’s first game and the whole momentum behind this new team was shortly cut off. 3 minutes and 10 seconds into the first period, the Knights scored to make the score 1-0. Welcome to the NHL. 6 minutes and 36 seconds into the period and the Knights score another goal making it 2-0 to end the 1st period. The Kraken would go down 3-0 at 6:43 in the second period. Not a great way to start an inaugural game or season.

11 minutes and 32 second into the second period and history was made. Joonas Donskoi was selected in the expansion draft from the Colorado Avalanche. He had been a solid point producer for the past 3 seasons with the Avalanche and Sharks. Donskoi makes a pass to Vince Dunn. Dunn was another selection in the expansion draft from the St Louis Blues. Dunn is a Stanley Cup champion, winning it with the Blues in 2019. Dunn shoots the puck on net and Vegas goalie Robin Lehner makes the save. The puck rebounds in front of the net where an unlikely player would be.

That is where Ryan Donato stands. Ryan Donato unlike most of the Kraken’s players didn’t come from the expansion draft. Donato has bounced around the league for a little bit. He was drafted by Boston, traded to Minnesota where he played for 2 seasons, and then traded once again this time to San Jose where he played last season. Donato went to free agency after the Sharks didn’t offer him a contract and didn’t actually get signed until August where the Kraken signed him to a 1 year, league minimum contract. Donato gets the puck and backhands it into the net. First goal for the Seattle Kraken in franchise history. Ryan Donato becomes a trivia question answer. Not bad for a player who has been across the league the past couple of years.

Shortly after Ryan Donato’s goal, Jared McCann scores the Kraken’s second goal. He is assisted by Jordan Eberle who was selected in the expansion draft by the Islanders and Jaden Schwartz who was signed in free agency by the Kraken. Schwartz is another Stanley Cup champion winning with the Blues in 2019. McCann’s goal makes the score 3-2. A comeback in their first game? Kraken fans hoped so. The Kraken fans who had waited so long to see their team hit the ice and so long for their city to even get a team got their wish.

 The 3rd period brought the 3rd Kraken goal. 7 minutes and 58 seconds into the game and Morgan Geekie: selected in the expansion draft from the Carolina Hurricanes, shoots a wicked shot to beat Robin Lehner. He is assisted by Jeremy Lauzon: the expansion draft pick from the Boston Bruins. The game is tied 3-3. The score was 3-0 at one point of time, now it’s 3-3.

Unfortunately, the Kraken wouldn’t get their Cinderella story that night. Soon after Geekie’s goal, Chandler Stephenson would score to make the score 4-3 Vegas and although the Kraken would get some good shots on goal, that would remain the final score.

“We did a lot of good things, being down 3-0 in this building and being able to push back to get it back to even. It says a lot about this group in terms of sticking together and making plays but it’s disappointing not to come away with 2 points,” said head coach Dave Hakstol.

“I think we gave them too many grade A opportunities right away and it came to bite us so we need to correct some things and obviously we’ll learn from that,” Ryan Donato told the media after the game.

The Kraken would win their next game against the Nashville Predators which became the first win in franchise history. Meanwhile, although their debut in the NHL ended on a low, it was worth it all the same to Kraken fans everywhere. The sold out crowd on October 11th in T-Mobile arena, although consisting of a lot of Knights fans, had Kraken jerseys dispersed in the crowd as well. A dream 4 years long that came true.

The San Francisco Giants had their season come to a close at the hands of the L.A. Dodgers in game 5 of the first round for the MLB. The final score was 2-1 with the Giants’ historic 107 win season ending when fans weren’t ready for it to end.

The scoring started in the top of the 6th with Corey Seager hitting a double and getting Mookie Betts to home making the score 1-0. The Giants then matched it with Darin Ruf homering one, tying the game. At the top of the 9th, Cody Bellinger hit a single bringing Justin Turner home to bring the Dodgers the lead 2-1.

Controversy struck at the bottom of the 9th. The Giants’ season was on the line and Wilmer Flores was up to bat. 2 strikes and Max Scherzer pitched. Scherzer pitched outside the zone and Flores checked his pitch. However the umpires said the pitch was in and the game between the 2 top teams in the MLB ended. Dodgers 2, Giants 1.

The Dodgers with their 106 win season will continue their chance to repeat as MLB champions. They will play the Atlanta Braves in the second round.

 Meanwhile the Giants end the season in disappointment. 

“Super tough. Obviously, you don’t want a game to end that way,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “There’s no need to be angry about that. I just think it’s a disappointing way to end. There are other reasons we didn’t win today’s baseball game, so that was just the last call of the game.”

Giants fans reportedly booed and threw beer cans onto the diamond after the controversial miscall. However Giants fans shouldn’t be too disappointed about the result.

“We poured everything we could into this series and it took everything we had to beat these guys,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Logan Webb who pitched for the Giants pitched 7 innings and only gave up 1 run on 4 hits. It was a sold out crowd of 42,275 at Oracle Park and in the end, it’s a game that renewed the Dodgers-Giants rivalry that many Giants fans, Dodgers fans, and baseball fans can appreciate. However, the thought of the Dodgers losing is one thing that is definitely still on Giants fans minds everywhere.

“Biggest Braves fan here for the next 2 weeks,” said local Giants fan Joseph Paredes.

This year marked the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 hijacking,where masses of all ages and ethnicities gathered to pay tribute and unite across the nation, including the bay area, despite differences in politics and age.

“I think for a brief moment in history, the entire country was united. Unfortunately, that unity soon gave way to fear…” Jim Woodbury 31 at the time.

Many of the people honoring those who fell had different connections to the crashes but not all had the same attachment to the tragedy. A disconnect from older generations who felt like survivors,witnessing or remembering the attacks.

“I was scared for other people, worried a lot, and discussed what happened with my family. I was in panic, like it had happened to me… I saw people crying, [on TV] running looking for help to be saved and to survive,” Diana Osaulenko was 13 years old in 2001.

Compared to the older generations, younger generations could only recollect learning about the tragedy through school, a documentary, or on an anniversary.

“I don’t recall”, An overarching theme received from the younger crowd; Who were too adolescent for a grip on politics, the Bush administration, or the affect on the world.

“I was in Kindergarten, we were sitting on the carpet for storytime, I remember that our teacher informed us that a bad attack had happened on the other side of America.” Mario Cruz age 5 during the attack.

An underlying trauma from the plane hijackings was still sensed from every person. Iris Perez was 10 years old.

“I only remember worrying about all the people who were hurt by the accident and wondering why that had happened.”

In almost every survey and interview collected, a sense of confusion was felt around this tragic day. Like other Americans in the following weeks of 9/11, they lacked reasoning, understanding or an explanation for the devastating attacks.

“As a child, I didn’t really question it. The world wasn’t really that expansive to me at that time so I didn’t really think about it.” Mario Cruz

“The misleading of American minds was pitiful. They ( Bush administration and media) used buzzwords and made statements that caused fear rather than solutions to uncover the truth rather than horrible news that was slanted”, Regina Tardy age 38 during the attack.

The commonalities between generations are the heartfelt sentiments, fear, and concern for the ones lost and their own safety. Most residents of the Bay Area were not directly affected from the attacks on the World Trade Center in NY and their responses mimicked that.

Maza Cemazatl Jimenez-Huitzilopochtli, age 3 during the attack said, “It makes me sad for people who have been affected personally, it’s such a huge collective loss”, She now honors the date “just reflecting on the day and recognize that this has affected so many lives and it’s important to be sensitive to that.”

Minneapolis — Officials convicted ex-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who pleaded guilty of suffocating George Floyd by kneeling on his neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds.

Trial officials convicted Chauvin on charges of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd, along with Breonna Taylor, were two African Americans murdered unjustly by police in America. 

According to CNN’s Omar Jimenez, the officers committed a crime of “deliberate indifference to [Floyd’s] serious medical needs.” 

Jimenez stated in his article that three less experienced officers accompanied Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd. 

Officers Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng, and Thomas Lane were all charged with civil rights violations in the fatal incident. 

According to Eric Levenson of CNN, the graphic description of the incident was documented.

“Lane and Kueng were the first responding officers on the scene when the Cup Foods store called police about a man using a suspected fake $20 bill. The two officers then went to a vehicle with Floyd sitting in the driver’s seat. Lane pulled out his firearm and pointed it at Floyd, yelling at the 46-year-old Black man to show his hands, according to their body camera footage.

A video recording, according to Levenson, showed that the officers being chaperoned by Chauvin tried to pull the resistant Floyd toward the police vehicle to arrest him. Chauvin, without hesitation, dragged Floyd away from the vehicle and onto the ground.

Levenson reported that Chauvin put his knees on Floyd’s neck and back, as Lane held Floyd’s legs and Kueng held his torso. Floyd, with whatever breath he had in him, exclaimed “I can’t breathe” and called for his “mama.” He was held to the ground for approximately 9 minutes and 29 seconds, as the video recording portrayed. 

Lane suggested multiple times that they should roll Floyd onto his side, but Chauvin instructed as a senior officer to “staying put where we got him.” The officers allegedly murdered Floyd after Kueng checked for a pulse unsuccessfully after the supposed ‘arrest.’

According to Levenson, in addition to this relatively ‘minor’ charge, all three rookie police officers were convicted by state prosecutors of aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

According to the census bureau of police killings, Taylor and Floyd were unfortunately not the only subjects to the main killer for African-American men — violence. In the 1,127 police killings recorded in 2020, only 16 of those cases — 1.4%, resulted in charges against those officers. Of the officers identified by Mapping Police Violence, at least 14 officers were guilty of shooting or killing someone in the past.

These police killings affect communities nationwide such as Poughkeepise, New York, where a teacher assigned students a prompt for an essay to assess the incident and come up with a verdict of Derek Chauvin by their own argument. 

Many parents and faculty questioned the assignment, including Sakinah Irizarry, a mother of two younger children in the same school district. She says she’s been advocating for diversity and inclusion within the district for several years and felt she should speak up as a Black mom of two children.

“There have been some calls saying, ‘People shouldn’t be having these discussions in school,’ and I’m like, schools are exactly where these discussions need to be had, but they need to be had in a constructive and forward-thinking way and absolutely not with lies,” Irizarry said. “When facts become up for debate, then we’ve really lost the focus of what all of us, the children, educators and community are there to do.”

These discussions revolving around violence against minority communities are necessary to discuss the actions needed to achieve justice.

Chabot Professor of Law and Paralegal studies, Cheryl Mackey, mentioned that despite the verdict of Chauvin being guilty, justice may not have reverberated throughout Floyd’s community. Black America is still debating on what real imprint the conviction of Chauvin might have on police departments across America and around the world.

Daniella Frazier recorded this event and discussed the anxiety she has from witnessing the traumatic death of Floyd. Frazier’s recording not only amassed a non-filtered perspective on the incident about the brutal and unforgiving behavior displayed by the Minneapolis police, but condensed the habitual targeting of the Black community and many other minorities by authority figures. 

This shows that not only is Black America a powerful community but a paradigm for justice worldwide and a powerful allocation of voices for reform from outside of the government.

“It’s been nights I stayed up apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting and not saving his life,” Frazier said. 

Frazier added, seemingly referring to Mr. Chauvin, “But it’s like, it’s not what I should have done, it’s what he should have done.” This entails the excessive violence practiced by officers that is not regulated or controlled allowing them to not take responsibility for their actions. Protests have been calling for the reform of police and justice served for hate crimes by authority figures.

According to Eloy Oakley, Chancellor of California Community Colleges, California schools look to assimilate the intention of students statewide in California to reorganize the policing system. 

 “We have asked as part of the call to action, which was initiated after the murder of George Floyd, for all districts to review all their agreements with their police or security details and ensure we are taking steps to provide culturally relevant training to security and police.” Oakley said.

In a statement released on May 6, Oakley said, “Some have their own security, some have their own police.” He said it was up to the district to determine their relationship with police and to determine their own policing system explaining that students and faculty should, from now on, be included in consensus decisions when officiating and controlling the police system before dangerous incidents happen.

“We have asked as part of the call to action, which was initiated after the murder of George Floyd, for all districts to review all their agreements with their police or security details and ensure we are taking steps to provide culturally relevant training to security and police, we are opening up a dialogue with them, ensuring that our student leadership have access to police and security … to remove any policing practices that are either discriminatory in nature or can cause harm to anybody who was being detained.” Oakley said. 

A substantiation of police affairs is governed within an organized system, but the reform for better policing will begin with the voting of students, faculty and staff and not just internal decisions made by the board or even the campus officers themselves. 

Oakley said, “What we have asked from the Chancellor’s office is that every district review its policies and procedures and that we ensure that students, faculty and staff are at the table and that they have the ability to engage in a dialogue with the police and security officers to determine how policing and security is done at each campus.”