Latest news with #SacramentoCityCollege
CBS News
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
New book explores Joan Didion's impact on American literature: "We Tell Ourselves Stories"
SACRAMENTO – An extraordinary woman with deep Sacramento roots is being celebrated in a new book. "I think she's undefinable, kind of by design. She's just a very brilliant writer in different mediums," said New York Times Film Critic Alissa Wilkinson. Wilkinson is the author of "We Tell Ourselves Stories". The book and title pay tribute to acclaimed writer and Sacramento native Joan Didion. "Often, she's really good at seeing how media and political and social culture have come together in American life," Wilkinson said. Three years after her death, Didion is still recognized for her ability to observe the world and write honestly about it. "Part of the reason her writing about Hollywood is so powerful, and later her writing about political culture as Hollywood seeps into it … is she really knows what she's talking about. She's been there," Wilkinson said. Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934 and often said her childhood home on 22nd and T streets shaped her life. "She writes a lot about the stories she believed about California," Wilkinson said. Didion attended McClatchy High School and Sacramento City College before graduating from UC Berkeley. She landed her first job in Manhattan – and would then meet her future husband. Some of Didion's most influential writing can be found in her personal memoirs. "When we talk about mortality we're talking about our children," Didion wrote in her memoir "Blue Nights." As for Wilkinson, she takes her readers on a journey of new discoveries about the fifth-generation Sacramentan. "[It] started out as a book about Joan Didion in Hollywood and kind of became something bigger as I started writing it," Wilkinson said. "We Tell Ourselves Stories" is out in bookstores now.
CBS News
12-03-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
California senator wants to automatically admit qualified students to CSU system
WEST SACRAMENTO — The stress of submitting college applications may soon be a thing of the past in California. Some students could automatically be getting a congratulatory college acceptance letter. State Senator Christopher Cabaldon is introducing Senate Bill 640, which would give California high school graduates guaranteed acceptance into the California State University (CSU) system. "If you have a 2.0 GPA and you take the right classes, then you can just go," Cabaldon said. The proposal could also help CSU campuses that have been struggling financially due to having fewer students. "There are seven or eight or nine campuses that are experiencing enrollment declines," Cabaldon said. The idea is based in part on the City of West Sacramento's college promise program, which Gabaldon helped create when he was the city's mayor and guarantees all local high school students acceptance into community college. "The vision really was to make West Sacramento the best place to raise a kid in the country," said Jennifer Laflam, dean of Sacramento City College's West Sacramento center. Educators say the program has been a big success in allowing more youth to get an advanced degree. "It is a really smart idea because early on, we are investing in our state's future," Laflam said. Cabaldon said the proposal will have a minimal impact on the state budget but a big impact on students whose higher education can get them higher-paying jobs. "For many students, they don't even know that that's an option for them," Cabaldon said. "They're thinking, 'I could never go to the state university,' but you can." If passed, CSU officials will determine how many of the system's 23 campuses have enrollment capacity, so students may not be able to automatically get into the most popular schools.
