This episode originally aired on November 3rd, 2025.
Jasmine Ascencio: This is KALX Berkeley.
NeEddra James: Today on The Radio Show, Reporter Eli Cohen joins us in studio to talk about what happened on Coast Guard Island the same morning Trump “called off” the National Guard in San Francisco.
While headlines said the operation was canceled, protesters in the East Bay faced down federal agents, flash bangs, and a convoy of Border Patrol SUVs.
Protesters: ICE ain’t welcome in this town. Get up, get down. ICE ain’t welcome in this town.
NeEddra James: We’ll talk about what Eli saw, what the cameras missed, and what it means when enforcement shows up before the press release drops.
Then, Reporter Ara Rosenthal pops in to talk about a recent theft at the Oakland Museum’s off-site storage facility.
Was it a random burglary—or another chapter in a long history of cultural extraction?
ABC News Anchor: Now many of the objects there represent the state’s cultural heritage.
NeEddra James: Ara helps us understand what was taken – and why it matters.
And – it’s holiday season – somehow the year is almost over! We wrap up with a quick look back at stories that shaped 2025, and we leave you with the stories to keep an eye on this week in politics, culture and current events.
I’m NeEddra James – and this — is The Radio Show.
First, a few headlines.
Minahil Arif: Good Afternoon. I am Minahil Arif for The Radio Show. These are today’s top headlines.
After a long wait, the Trump administration said it will send partial SNAP payments this month to roughly 42 million Americans, in compliance with the October 31st order by a federal judge.
This week, the Supreme Court will hear a key case on President Trump’s controversial use of tariffs. Some analysts say the case centers on whether the president’s power to regulate imports includes the power to tax them.
Now, on to some local stories.
On November 10, Turning Point USA will hold its concluding campus tour event at UC, Berkeley nearly two months after its founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University.
The San Francisco‑Marin Food Bank is seeing more demand as the government shutdown affects food‑stamp benefits. Local leaders are asking for extra volunteers and support to help feed the tens of thousands of families who rely on the food bank each week.
Now let’s talk about the weather: A strong storm is moving into the Bay Area, bringing up to two and a half inches of rain and wind gusts of 40 to 60 miles per hour, especially in the hills. Commuters should be careful out there, as roads could get slippery and tricky as the storm moves through.
In Berkeley, I’m Minahil Arif.
NeEddra James: Welcome back, this is The Radio Show and I’m your host NeEddra James. In case you missed – here are a few more stories we are still tracking
I’m gonna turn to Berkeley. Berkeley City Council is deliberating a $600,000 contract with Flock Safety for more surveillance cameras. Berkeley Police say there are already 52 license plate readers installed across the city.
Some residents support the expansion, citing property crime. Privacy advocates oppose it, warning it could endanger unhoused residents, immigrants, and Black and brown communities.
More than 80 Bay Area cities now use automated license plate readers. That’s according to the ACLU. Some cities—like San Francisco and Walnut Creek—feed that data into regional fusion centers like NCRIC, the Northern California Resource Information Center. Excuse me, Regional Information Center.
A few weeks ago, 404 Media reported that the Navy’s criminal investigations unit, ICE and the Secret Service all had access to Flock’s nationwide network. Back in June, the San Francisco Standard reported that Oakland and SF police shared license plate data with ICE. Both departments denied it.
While Berkeley debates, San Francisco’s surveillance grid is expanding with private capital. This summer, crypto billionaire Chris Larsen donated over $9 million to the San Francisco Police Department for new drones and a Real-Time Investigations Center—inside his old office building.
Ben Horowitz of venture capital firm a16z called this public-private partnership, “American Dynamism.”
Last week, Las Vegas Metro Police got a fleet of new Tesla Cybertrucks. Ten of them actually gifted by Horowitz, who’s donated more than $6 million for drones and Flock cameras.
This is public safety, rebranded and privately financed.
Now, turning to West Oakland.
A bankruptcy judge ruled that Oakland may owe developer Phil Tagami millions in damages for blocking a coal export terminal he’s been trying to build for over a decade.
Tagami had a lease with the city until Oakland banned coal in 2016. He sued and he won.
Last week’s ruling opens the door for the project to move forward. If it does, coal trains would pass through one of the most environmentally burdened areas in California.
West Oakland residents already face cancer-causing pollutants and diesel emissions among the highest in the state.
According to the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, residents there live 10 to 14 years less than people in the Oakland Hills.
Now it’s day 34 of the government shutdown. Five and a half million Californians rely on SNAP. It’s food stamps to avoid hunger. We are hearing so much about how Bay Area agencies are stepping in to fill the gap.
So as the federal government agrees to send partial funding this month, we are looking at over 174,000 people in California who could lose their, who could lose their coverage.
And we’re gonna shift gears to one more story. Is suffering making us more resilient?
That’s the question behind headlines this weekend about a new study from University of Colorado Boulder.
Researchers studied a part of the brain that regulates fear. They exposed mice to a looming predator shadow. Now, at first, the mice froze. But over time, with repeated exposure and no actual harm, the fear response decreased.
The researchers called this “adaptive threat learning.” Coverage across the political spectrum connected it to our fascination with horror movies, true crime, catastrophic media.
The idea is that controlled exposure to fear might help the nervous system learn what’s survivable.
Left-leaning outlets called this psychological growth. While right-leaning outlets said it reflects social decline. Centrist outlets focused on wellness and fear as a market opportunity.
But there might be another reading.
What if constant exposure to threats isn’t making us resilient—but training us to live with violence as ambient noise? What if it’s mass dissociation?
That brings us to our next story.
Since Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles this summer, the Bay Area knew it was coming.
When Trump announced he’d send the Guard to San Francisco before Halloween, the Bay mobilized.
Then Trump called it off. No deployment in San Francisco.
But federal agents had already landed on Coast Guard Island—federal land just across the Bay Bridge.
Coming up, reporter Eli Cohen joins us to talk about what he saw that morning—when Border Patrol pushed through protestors before the “call off” hit the news.
Stay with us.
If you’re just tuning in, you’re listening to The Radio Show. I’m your host NeEddra James.
On September 25th, President Trump signed a memo authorizing federal law enforcement to investigate protesters as domestic terrorists—targeting individuals, organizations, funders, and networks.
Less than a month later, that framework was executed in the East Bay.
Before dawn on October 23rd, Border Patrol agents arrived at Coast Guard Island in Alameda. By 7:15 a.m., they’d deployed flash grenades and shot a preacher in the face with a pepper ball gun to clear protesters.
Two hours later, headlines said Trump had “called it off”—but that was only for San Francisco. By then, agents were already operating on federal land across the Bay.
Reporter Eli Cohen was there. He joins us now.
Hi, Eli. Thanks for joining us today.
Eli Cohen: Absolutely, thanks for having me.
NeEddra James: Oh, our pleasure. So take us to that morning. Um, when did you arrive and what was happening?
Eli Cohen: Yeah, so I arrived right at about 7:00 AM uh, at which point there were already a number of protestors walking back and forth across the intersection leading to the bridge that leads to, the one bridge that leads to Coast Guard Island.
And, uh, a line of cars had already formed in all directions because, you know, a lot of people work on that island every day, but they weren’t getting through that morning.
NeEddra James: Okay. And you got there at seven o’clock, right? So walk us through what happened at 7:15 a.m., just 15 minutes later, when the convoy arrived, what did you see and what happened after those flash bangs went off?
Eli Cohen: Yeah, so it, it got tense pretty quick. Um, I had just been there a few minutes getting my bearings when this convoy sped right up into the crowd. I mean, very fast, very aggressive, honking at people to get outta the way. And, uh, these multiple agents in tactical gear and face mask on, jump outta the cars and start yelling at people to clear the road, clear the road. Uh, the protesters don’t. And at that point, they start driving into the crowd pushing, you know, protesters with their vehicles. Another officer jumps out with the pepper ball, gun, starts screaming at people, uh, you know, pointing it right at them to get them to move, shoving them out of the way of the cars, and a number of cars are able to get through, but then one stops in the middle of the crowd.
And the protestors kind of get back in front of the car and that’s when the, uh, agents bring out the flash bangs, set it off to disperse the crowd. And that’s also when the agent with the pepper ball gun shoots, uh, Reverend Jorge Bautista at point blank range right in the face. Um, yeah.
NeEddra James: That was really, really intense. There’s a lot of photos of that. And you took one of those photographs? Mm-hmm. What was that moment just like for you as a reporter?
Eli Cohen: I mean, it was pretty startling. Um, a lot was happening very quickly. I mean, I, uh, in the moment I actually thought only a handful of cars pulled through the crowd. It was only after going back and looking at the video that I was taking that I saw it was 10 cars that pulled through, um, which I think is just indicative of kind of how chaotic it was.
Um, but after they got in and I was able to go talk to the reverend, I was just kind of. Stunned. I mean, it was so clear that he was clergy. He had the collar, he was just standing there holding a sign, not doing anything. Um. Uh, yeah, the violence was just pretty staggering.
NeEddra James: Yeah. I believe in some other coverage, he said he didn’t actually think the, uh, agent would shoot him.
Eli Cohen: Yeah. He hadn’t shot anyone up to that point. But he, he gave no warning. I mean, I, I, looking back at the video, he walks right up to him. There’s not a second, uh, of hesitation. He just goes for it.
NeEddra James: Wow. So you mentioned in your reporting that, um, a Coast Guard officer says, ‘Hey, ICE isn’t here,’ right? Um, and ‘this is federal property and there’s a lot of operations that are like way outside of the scope of what the protestors are here talking about that need to happen on this island.’ Um, but it appeared that Customs and Border Patrol was there. If you look at video and from, from other outlets, um, there are agents who have CCPV on their, on their vest.
Um, so can you confirm that some agents didn’t have any agency markings? And what do you think that. Uh, officer was talking about there.
Eli Cohen: Yeah. Yeah. So it, it, it was a very confusing day, uh, in many regards. And I do want to clarify one point. I believe that comment was told to a co-reporter of mine later in the afternoon, just to lay out a, a, a little bit of the timeline of what happened is.
Early in the morning at seven, that caravan came on. That was the only caravan I ever saw personally enter the island. Uh, at 10:00 AM uh, Lurie announced that he had a call with Trump and the operation was called off. It was also unclear what exactly that meant, but I would say at that point the protest died down a little bit.
In the afternoon, the California Highway Patrol arrived in their riot gear and they also forced people out of the road. That was to let a huge convoy off of the island. Now, I’m not exactly sure who all that included, but I’d have to guess a lot of those cars were just civilians who either live or work on the base and they wanted to get off.
So that happened, and I believe it was at that point that the Coast Guard officer spoke to my co-reporter saying, ‘Hey, look, ICE isn’t here.’ For what it’s worth. I never saw any evidence of ICE specifically. We absolutely know that the Border Patrol came on that morning, but what they did after that, I’m honestly not sure.
NeEddra James: Yeah, I think that’s a part of the story, right? There’s like a lot of confusion and a, a real lack of transparency and clarity about…
Eli Cohen: Absolutely.
NeEddra James: …who’s there, who stayed there and what are they doing there,
Eli Cohen: Seriously.
NeEddra James: Yeah. Um, so I guess I have another question for you and that is. What are you tracking now around this story?
Um, we know it’s continuing to unfold. Um, in fact, you know, Barbara Lee, mayor of Oakland was saying, we’re just kind of waiting to see what’s gonna happen next. So where’s your reporting taking you next?
Eli Cohen: Definitely, I mean, I think long term. Uh, there’s no guarantee that immigration enforcement is gonna be called off.
I don’t even think it’s necessarily clear that it’s not happening right now. There are so many federal agencies who are getting involved in the business of immigration enforcement, not only, uh, CPB and ice, but, uh, the FBI, the DEA Lurie even said in that press release that he welcomes, uh, Trump to come in doing more operations.
Ostensibly targeted at drug dealers, but we know that in many cases other people get wrapped up in these raids. So I think just keeping an eye on all the three letter federal agencies, making sure, seeing what they’re doing around the bay and who’s getting swept up in that.
NeEddra James: Well, we might also have to keep an eye on the people who are able to call Trump and ask him not to deploy.
Eli Cohen: No doubt about that.
NeEddra James: That was really remarkable too. Hear him say, ‘my friends in the tech industry just give me a call.’
Eli Cohen: Right, if that’s all it takes, then that’s all it takes to call the surge back on.
NeEddra James: Facts. Thank you Eli so much for being here.
Eli Cohen: Yeah, thank you.
NeEddra James: Folks, you can read more at oaklandnorth.net.
Oakland North is produced by reporters at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. When we come back, what was taken from the Oakland Museum Storage Facility and why it matters. Stay with us.
NeEddra James: And we’re back. You’re listening to The Radio Show on KALX Berkeley. I’m NeEddra James.
Two weeks before the crown jewels were stolen from the Louvre, the Oakland Museum of California was burglarized. But the story didn’t break right away.
Reporter Ara Rosenthal joins us right now.
Ara, thanks for being here.
Ara Rosenthal: Oh, it’s great to be here. Thank you.
NeEddra James: So what happened? You’ve been doing some reporting on this. What? What happened over there?
Ara Rosenthal: So it did happen a few days before the Louvre. They don’t wanna release details when something’s under investigation. It might hurt the investigation, but after a couple weeks, they wanted to publish the photos of the items that had been stolen in the hopes that community members might see these things if they get put up on Craigslist or on some.
Like eBay, some market out there. If the public knows what was taken and they spot the objects, they can help get them back and track down the crime and who did it.
NeEddra James: Okay, well let’s, let’s, let’s double back. So what was taken and where was it taken from?
Ara Rosenthal: So. What it was was not the museum itself, but a storage facility.
And I read somewhere else that it was kind of a nondescript brick building, so it was sort of incognito. They didn’t. People wouldn’t know what it was that they were breaking into. So when they got inside, it was probably just an opportunity that someone saw, ‘I can break into this building.’ When they get inside, they don’t even know what’s in there, and they may just take whatever’s closest and easiest to access.
So the things that were taken were six Native American baskets. Some modernist jewelry pieces. There were some scrimshaw pieces, which are carved etchings of ivory, like marine mammal bones, teeth tusks, and 19th century etchings on these items. Daguerreotypes, which is like a…
NeEddra James: Oh really?
Ara Rosenthal: You know what that is?
NeEddra James: I know exactly what they are. Those were the first photographs.
Ara Rosenthal: The first photographs. Mm-hmm. Um, and, but the majority of things taken were actually. Memorabilia like California history, political pins, um, award ribbons, souvenir tokens, and things that I, I don’t know what someone would wanna do with those things.
NeEddra James: That doesn’t sound like someone randomly coming across odds and ends. That’s really, it’s really unusual. So you had an opportunity to speak to, I don’t wanna mispronounce their name, Istu Yee Montes.
Ara Rosenthal: Yeah, and she actually did not know that this had happened. When I called her, I got her contact from another student at the journalism school, and I called her up and said, did you hear about this?
She was like. No, I did. She had no idea. And coincidentally she was on her way to the museum at that very moment because she was putting on an event that happened this past Saturday.
NeEddra James: Mm-hmm
Ara Rosenthal: Which was for the Native community in honor of Native American Heritage Month. They had singers, dancers, and they showed a film.
Um, and had catered food as well. So she was just going over there to look at the space and then she hears, you know, there was a theft from the Oakland Museum of these items.
NeEddra James: Okay. So she’s from the Intertribal friendship house. And what did she tell you about what the theft means in her perspective?
Ara Rosenthal: Her first reaction was very sad. She hoped that it wasn’t targeted because of Native American Heritage Month. But the other issue that was really brought up for her had to do with how museums in general forever have handled artifacts from the native community. Oftentimes, like she was talking about her own reservation in Montana and mentioning that people there may fall on hard times, and then they’ll take these things that they have precious heirlooms and pawn them off at a trading post and get whatever money they can.
But then a collector might come along and they know that this is valuable. They take it, they sell it for more to a museum, and then the museum has the stuff. And the tribe doesn’t get to be the caretakers anymore. And this, she said, really has been going on forever. Um, it’s more of an issue with federal museums.
Uh, she also felt that there’s private events, like auctions. Native people aren’t invited to these, so they don’t have the opportunity to get their things back.
NeEddra James: Right. So, I mean, this is, there’s been a lot of, um, stories about repatriation issues in, you know, in the US and Canada and various post-colonial places.
Um, I’m, I’m really curious about what Councilmember Charlene Wang had to say about this. It, it was interesting. She said, you know, ‘it highlights the need for more Flock cameras’ suggesting that there’s just not enough surveillance around the facility.
Ara Rosenthal: I think Charlene wanted to speak to public safety as that’s kind of her, what she has authority over.
Um, there was a jewelry store in her district broken into, and the Flock cameras are able to track things better. So she feels like, because there’s understaffing of police, she feels the technology would make up for that lack.
NeEddra James: I see.
Ara Rosenthal: And really couldn’t tell me specifics again because she was told not to give all those kinds of detail.
NeEddra James: Okay. So, uh, it seems like. Now we’re just kind of waiting to hear from the, uh, Oakland Police about any updates or leads they have, or maybe a presser from the Oakland Museum and any hope of getting these items back.
Ara Rosenthal: I mean, it’s interesting because Istu contacted me this morning. Like late last night.
NeEddra James: Really? Mm-hmm.
Ara Rosenthal: But she said that some strange things happened at the museum Saturday. And I’m going to follow up with her to find out more. Um, I think we haven’t been notified. It will unfold if any of these items surface. Um, if publishing the pictures helps track them down or the suspects. But yeah, we’re just kind of waiting to see how it unfolds.
NeEddra James: Well keep us posted. We’ll swing back around. Let us know what you find out. Thank you Ara for being with us.
Ara Rosenthal: Oh, thank you.
NeEddra James: You can check out more of Ara’s reporting at oaklandnet.com. Oakland North, I’m sorry, Oaklandnorth.net.
All right, my friends. We are winding down the show and before we do, we wanna take a look back because 2025 is winding down. We’re gonna not just look at the headlines, but at the shifts beneath them.
So this year began with Trump’s executive orders and Elon Musk’s DOGE slashing budgets and firing federal workers. Entire departments were left understaffed and AI decision-making systems—designed by Palantir—increasingly filled the gap.
Universities became political battlegrounds. Crackdowns on student protests. Budget cuts. Hiring freezes. You know the list.
The federal government began taking equity stakes in private tech and mineral companies—raising questions about what counts as public infrastructure and how it’s funded.
Internationally, National Security Advisor Tulsi Gabbard stated the U.S. no longer engages in regime change. But naval buildups in the Caribbean, arms transfers in Europe, and expanded security agreements suggest otherwise.
Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti remained active conflict zones. Resource corridors shifted. Biometric enforcement systems expanded globally.
In fact, the definition of governance keeps shifting—not just who governs, but how. 2025 isn’t over, but the logic of automation, attrition, and adaptation is already shaping what comes next.
So we’re gonna pivot and look at what we’re watching in the coming week.
First, the midterm horizon.
Voters in several states—including California—will weigh in on redistricting, ballot access, congressional control. California’s Proposition 50 could reshape how district maps are drawn and stave off Republican minority rule.
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments that could weaken Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act—one of the last protections against racial gerrymandering and vote dilution.
In Oregon, a federal judge blocked Trump’s plan to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, ruling his justification lacked evidence and raised constitutional concerns. That ruling is under appeal—and could redefine when federal force can be used against protest.
In Gaza, a fragile ceasefire is still being called a ceasefire—despite ongoing strikes, raids, and restrictions on humanitarian access.
And finally— with healthcare under pressure and civil rights under attack, we’re tracking how families—especially those with trans children—are navigating shifting laws around access to care. Decisions made this fall could shape migration patterns, health outcomes, and school enrollment into 2026 and beyond.
Before we go, one story from this year:
Back in January, researchers published findings about a third major threat to coral reefs—not just warming oceans or acidification, but oxygen depletion. As seawater heats up, it holds less oxygen. Corals suffocate. Entire reef systems begin to collapse sometimes in days.
Now that story came out in January. This week, it’s been recirculating as the crisis deepens.
Also in the last seven to ten days: Nvidia’s valuation hit $5 trillion.
These aren’t separate stories. They’re the same metabolic system.
See the computational infrastructure fueling that valuation—the data centers, the AI training, the large language model usage—all of that consumes energy, heats the atmosphere, warms oceans. Warmer oceans hold less oxygen.
Tech reporters cover Nvidia’s boom. Science reporters cover reef hypoxia. But we live in one thermodynamic system.
So next week, we’ll talk about what it means when we cover these as separate stories—when they’re actually the same operation just at different scales.
We’ll continue following these stories and more—when we’re back in two weeks.
Until then, I’m NeEddra James. This is The Radio Show—we don’t just break news, we break it open.
The Radio Show is produced and directed by Jasmine Ascencio. Minahil Arif is our newscaster. Special thanks to reporters Eli Cohen and Ara Rosenthal. I’m, NeEddra James, show host and Executive Producer.
Transcripts of today’s show are available on the KALX website.
