My Recent Work

Mayhem on the Metro Green Line

“Ladies, please be careful when riding L.A. Metro. I just had to file a police report for battery. Stay safe.”

My hands shook so hard that I almost missed the “share” button. There was a foul prickle on my lips that countless toothbrushing, mouth washing and even a few shots of vodka later that night couldn’t purify.

It took a few fumbles, but I did it. Within seconds, my story was up on Instagram.

From there, for the next 24 hours, people would see the post. Hopefully, they would take it as

All That Glitters: Long-time El Camino instructor looks back on her years leading one of the oldest courses on campus

Walk past the open door of Jewelry Studio 131 on a Friday afternoon, when the campus is nearly empty and one could pick up on the flurry of activity inside.

Inside, over a dozen students stand in a semi-circle. Each one clutches an empty saw frame, intently watching their instructor for the next step.

At the front of the room, professor Irene Mori delicately threads the needle-like blade into her saw frame and tightens it into place. Her crystal clear voice and quick, purposeful hand movements

Bottoms Up: A beer run around the South Bay’s top breweries

First brewed by the ancient Sumerians as far back as 3400 B.C. in what is now modern-day Iraq, beer is one of the oldest drinks in human history.

Beer has sustained societies across continents and shaped history for millennia.

From the first meeting in a London pub in 1604 that kicked off the Gunpowder Plot, to the libations celebrating the 1810 wedding of a Bavarian crown prince in Munich that sowed the seeds for Oktoberfest, to 1969 when the first shot glass fired at the Stonewall Inn in New

Goodwill Hunting: Save the environment and your money when you go thrifting at these top 5 locations

Don’t let inflation stifle your style. You can still furnish your home and look fly on a budget. From cookware to designer bags to one-of-a-kind vintage clothing, there are plenty of treasures to find at your local thrift shop. So make like Macklemore with $20 in your pocket because we’re “gonna pop some tags.”

Salvage Society offers quality clothes, homewares and electronics in this bright and organized space for under $10. Every second Saturday and last Wednesday of the month offers a storewi

Carl Turano: a story of a cat caretaker looking after 9 lives

No one is sure when the coyotes first appeared.

They seemed to come out of nowhere. It was as if, one foggy night, the coyotes suddenly materialized out of the mist like a nightmare straight out of a Stephen King novel.

Within 10 years, the once-thriving community of 300 cats who call El Camino College home has been whittled down to sparse colonies totaling somewhere between 30 to 50 cats.

The life of an El Camino cat has become more precarious since the recent pandemic. But they are not alon

El Camino College leads the charge in single campus lactation rooms in SoCal

When Jessica Euyoqui first enrolled at El Camino College in the 2002 summer semester, she was a 17-year-old single mother with a daughter.

Less than a year later, she dropped out of school.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what I was doing. As far as services and community, I was not exposed to much to that,” Euyoqui said. “So I was kind of intimidated by college, you can say; I stopped coming to school.”

Euyoqui returned to continue her education as a full-time political science student after 20 yea

Why I waited until my 30s to come out as asexual

Everyone thought Luke* was the perfect boyfriend for me. He was Asian-American from a biracial home studying computer science at UC Santa Cruz. We bonded during freshman year over a love of video games, zombie movies and “Doctor Who.”

We were dating by our sophomore year.

On the surface, everything looked perfect. We were two nerdy teens who found each other on a summer night at a bus stop across the street from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Luke was singing “Still Alive” from “Portal,” and

El Camino College journalism students win big at New York conference

Nindiya Maheswari (left), Brittany Parris, Igor Colonno, Eddy Cermeno, Khoury Williams, Stefanie Frith, Ethan Cohen and Greg Fontanilla celebrate together after winning numerous awards at the College Media Association Convention hosted in New York on March 11. (Photo courtesy of Rosemary Montalvo)

The Union’s seven-student delegation made a triumphant return from the 2023 College Media Association Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, having scooped up an impressive 20 awar

Cherry Blossom Festival brings the storm indoors

Members from Asano Taiko’s UnitOne play the odaiko, a large drum, during the 23rd Annual Cherry Blossom Festival at the Social Justice Center on March 15. (Raphael Richardson | The Union)

With a roll of thundering drumbeats and a lightning-sharp crack of sticks striking together, members of Asano Taiko U.S. raised a storm indoors Wednesday afternoon.

At 10 past noon, the three performers took their places at their instruments.

They raised their thick wooden drumsticks high in the air.

And wi