Capitol News Stories
Monday, August 11, 2008
Contra Costa Times
LA Times
- For tricky California budgets, turn to the old masters
- Numbers add up for accounting majors
- Parents may home-school children without teaching credential, California court says
- A bill for patients
Sac Bee
- Proposal to harness wind power off Mendocino coast worries fishing industry
- Time may be running out for California to craft budget deal
- Analysis: Big 5 try to resolve big differences
- Dan Walters: Do ballot initiatives help or hurt California?
San Diego Union-Tribune
- College courses also part of new program
- Governor's pared plan may have slim chance
- Governor's pared plan may have slim chance
- State budget impasse looks poised to worsen
- Student aid requests soar as economy plummets
- Schwarzenegger's ham-handed budget moves
SANTA CRUZ/LOS ANGELES/IRVINE/BERKELEY/DAVIS/CALIFORNIA
Firebomb attacks anger, worry UC scientists who use animals in research; Despite fears, most academics say they will not be intimidated by violent tactics. (Los Angeles Times)
By Richard C. Paddock
Two firebomb attacks last week on UC Santa Cruz scientists who conduct animal research have angered and worried academics throughout the UC system, who said their work has broad public support and that they will not be intimidated by bombers who crossed the line by targeting families. "It is outrageous when people's families are targeted," said UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. "This is incredibly serious because it could have led to loss of life. It's chilling."
See also:
San Jose Mercury News, Finding options to animal testing; Some companies use computer modeling (*registration required)
BERKELEY/SANTA CRUZ/CALIFORNIA/NATION
Student aid requests soar as economy plummets (San Francisco Chronicle)
By Tanya Schevitz
Record numbers of college students are lining up for financial aid - and asking for more of it - as the nation's economic woes hit campuses across the country. Nationally, 8.9 million students filed federal student aid forms during the first half of 2008, a 16.3 percent increase over the same period last year. In California, 999,594 students requested federal financial aid during that period - an increase of nearly 20 percent. Bay Area campuses reflect the same trend. From Santa Clara University and San Jose State University in the South Bay to UC Berkeley and Mills College in the East Bay, financial aid officers say families are increasingly struggling to pay rising college costs while they deal with layoffs, home foreclosures and skyrocketing living expenses.
BERKELEY
Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them "disappear". The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre. The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.
See also: The Associated Press , Reuters, AFP
BERKELEY/SAN FRANCISCO
Telemedicine helps prevent blindness in diabetes patients (Contra Costa Times) (*registration required)
By Sandy Kleffman
Even though her father lost his eyesight because of diabetes, Maria Ponce went more than two years without an eye exam. The 44-year-old Pittsburg resident knew she was at risk. She had developed diabetes while pregnant and is now considered pre-diabetic with high blood pressure. But because she lacks insurance, she decided to forgo her recommended yearly screening. "It's too expensive to do these type of tests," she said in Spanish, speaking through an interpreter. That changed last week when Ponce received a low-cost screening at La Clinica de La Raza in Pittsburg as part of a novel telemedicine program now under way at community clinics in the East Bay. The goal is to catch problems in time to prevent blindness. Using new digital cameras, clinic employees photograph the retinas of their diabetic patients and transmit the images to UC Berkeley or elsewhere for review by off-site optometrists and ophthalmologists.
BERKELEY
Oracle bone a coveted prize for Cal library (San Francisco Chronicle)
By Charles Burress
Resting on a tiny white cushion in a royal-blue embroidered box - secure in its new home behind a locked door at UC Berkeley's East Asian Library - is an old piece of chipped bone, the size of a matchbook and yellowed with age. Engraved with 10 curious symbols, most of which are indecipherable to all but an elite corps of scholars, it is a rare Chinese oracle bone, treasured as a record of the earliest known Chinese writing. And since Chinese writing was adopted also by early Japan and Korea, Chinese oracle bones are the oldest known ancestors of Berkeley's vast East Asian collection, whose nearly 1 million volumes rank second in size only to Harvard's among U.S. universities.
BERKELEY/VENEZUELA
Rabies from bats suspected in Venezuela deaths (The Associated Press)
By Ian James
At least 38 Warao Indians have died in remote villages in Venezuela, and medical experts suspect an outbreak of rabies spread by bites from vampire bats. Laboratory investigations have yet to confirm the cause, but the symptoms point to rabies, according to two researchers from UC Berkeley and other medical experts.
DAVIS
UC Davis burn doctor helps treat Oregon firefighters (The Oregonian)
By John Killen
Dr. Tina Palmieri, director of the burn unit at UC Davis Medical Center, got word of a downed helicopter carrying firefighters near Redding late Tuesday night. Palmieri oversees the only burn unit in the area for 300 miles, from Sacramento to the Oregon border, and firefighters are not uncommon patients in her ward, especially as wildfires have erupted with punishing intensity in recent years. But what she didn't know at the time was that she would be treating three Oregonians who were among the the four survivors in what is believed to be the worst air disaster in United States history involving forest firefighters.
See also: The Associated Press
DAVIS
Doctor campaigns for iPhone drug application (San Francisco Chronicle)
By Victoria Colliver
As part of a young generation of doctors, Steven Chang entered the profession with a PDA literally attached to his hip and an array of medical information available to him using mobile devices. Chang, a former Stanford resident now at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, reserves a particular passion for Epocrates Rx, free software created by a San Mateo company that provides clinicians with prescription drug and formulary information such as dosage levels, contraindications and insurer co-payment amounts. But when he tried to combine that passion with another - the iPhone - he hit a virtual wall. Applications for Apple Inc.'s popular smart phone and the iPod Touch were closed to third-party developers. In addition to preferring the iPhone, Chang was tired of juggling multiple devices as he moved around the clinic. Thus began a digital crusade by the 30-year-old primary-care physician.
DAVIS
Cows in UC Davis study opt to cool off (The Sacramento Bee) (*registration required)
By Hudson Sangree
If you think your kids are hogging the bathroom, try dealing with a 2,000-pound bovine that spends seven hours a day in the shower and doesn't want to get out. At UC Davis, researchers are conducting an experiment to see how long cows will stand under a cooling shower if they can do it as long as they want.
DAVIS/CLEMSON
Buildings & Grounds: Raising Heirlooms at Clemson U., and Worms at UC Davis (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
By Scott Carlson
The latest issue of Organic Gardening magazine features a story about David Bradshaw, a retired professor of horticulture who now cares for the Heirloom Garden at Clemson University's South Carolina Botanical Garden. Heirlooms, as any gardener out there would know, are the rare and odd varieties of flowers, fruits, and vegetables that gardeners cherish for their taste or their appearance - or because heirlooms offer some genetic diversity to an increasingly standardized set of commercially grown plants. The issue of Organic Gardening also features a short item on students at UC Davis who have started a worm-composting operation, fed daily by 1,000 pounds of food scraps from the campus food service and by manure from the university barns.
IRVINE
Day laborer injured by quake, insulted by employer's callousness (Los Angeles Times)
By Steve Lopez
Remember the July 29 earthquake that rocked Southern California but produced no injuries? It turns out there were at least two broken bones after all. So says a UC Irvine Medical Center doctor who treated Jesus Rodriguez, an unlucky chap who came tumbling off the roof of a house he was working on when the temblor struck. And that was just the beginning of Rodriguez's troubles.
LIVERMORE/CALIFORNIA
Livermore Lab withdraws application to set off more open-air explosive tests (San Francisco Business Times)
By Steven E.F. Brown
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory withdrew a permit seeking to set off more explosives in the open air at its Site 300 testing ground in the Altamont Hills between Livermore and Tracy. The laboratory had sought to set off three tests using 350 pounds of explosives each, and was required to get permission from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Center. Current permits -- dating from 2006 -- allow tests of up to 100 pounds of explosives per day and up to 1,000 pounds per year.
LIVERMORE
Protestors Denounce Nuclear Weaponry At Livermore Lab (KTVU 2)
On the 63rd anniversary of the last time an atomic bomb was used in warfare, anti-war activists gathered outside the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Saturday to protest the facilities work on nuclear weapons. The protests centered around a speech by Nobuaki Hanaoka, a retired Methodist minister from San Francisco, who lived in Nagasaki with his family at the time of the bombing.
LOS ANGELES
UCLA drills disabled vets on entrepreneurship; The Anderson School of Management provides basic training to 15 recruits. (Los Angeles Times)
By Tiffany Hsu
Former Marine Sgt. Shawn James has found moving from the military world to the business world a difficult journey. Add a disability, and potential partners shy away in droves, said the 33-year-old San Diego resident, who dreams of starting a company involving hybrid vehicles. So he's spent the last several days with 14 other men at the all-expenses-paid Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans With Disabilities at UCLA. Offered for the first time by the UCLA Anderson School of Management, the program is based on a model launched by Syracuse University last year and replicated this year at Texas A&M University, Florida State University and Syracuse University.
MERCED
UC Merced chemistry student accused of cooking drugs; Authorities say he took equipment and chemicals from the university. (The Merced Sun-Star)
By Corinne Reilly
Call it a lesson in applied science. A UC Merced graduate student close to earning a Ph.D in chemistry was arrested Thursday afternoon on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine. Jason West, 36, was arrested at his home in the 100 block of Castle Drive in Atwater, Merced County sheriff's officials said. Authorities believe West stole more than $10,000 worth of chemicals and equipment from a UC Merced lab, which he used to cook methamphetamine, said deputy Ed Katen. West, who was among the first four UC Merced students to qualify for a Ph.D at the young campus, hadn't yet been granted the degree.
RIVERSIDE/NATION
UCR not ranked high in survey's happiness category (The Riverside Press-Enterprise)
By Elaine Regus
UC Riverside's marketing campaign probably won't include the latest survey from the Princeton Review. According to "The Best 368 Colleges: 2009 edition," UCR ranks sixth worst among the top 10 schools with the least-happy students.
SAN DIEGO
UCSD Pharmacy School Coping With Fiscal Crisis; Accreditation Council to Meet With Campus Officials in October (San Diego Business Journal)
By Heather Chambers
Just six years old and barely through its third class of graduates, UC San Diego's pharmacy school is already struggling with financial problems that could weigh heavily on its accreditation status.
SAN DIEGO
Under the microscope; Increased scrutiny has hospitals focusing more on safety (San Diego Union-Tribune)
By Keith Darcé
Sharp HealthCare executives have spent the past two weeks trying to reassure the public that their hospitals are safe amid news that recent lapses in management and medical care at Sharp Grossmont caused the deaths of at least three patients. They're not alone in that challenge. Hospitals everywhere are vulnerable to human error, and they've all had to deal with patient-care crises. In the past 16 months, state and federal regulators have named at least five hospitals in San Diego County with serious problems that contributed to the deaths of five patients, including those at Sharp Grossmont, and put hundreds of others in harm's way. Since the California Department of Public Health began issuing fines in January 2007 for "immediate jeopardy" mistakes - those causing death or grave injury - it has penalized 39 hospitals statewide. Two of Scripps Health's hospitals - Scripps Memorial and Scripps Green, both in La Jolla - have suffered "immediate jeopardy" cases since last year. The other facilities with such incidents include Sharp Grossmont, UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest and UCSD's Thornton Hospital in La Jolla.
SAN DIEGO
Scientists seek cold, hard facts; Scripps to analyze ice for climate change clues (San Diego Union-Tribune)
By Mike Lee
Any day now, Ross Beaudette will order some ice for his laboratory in La Jolla.
He's not interested in just any cube of frozen water. The stuff Beaudette is after was removed from a massive ice sheet last winter by researchers who endured weeks of whiteout conditions in the windiest, coldest and most remote place on Earth - Antarctica. The ice then took nearly four months to reach the United States; it's now finally ready for distribution to scientific centers nationwide. At places such as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, Beaudette and other researchers will look for evidence of climate changes stored in the ice.
SAN DIEGO
Into view: Right now, his art is an open book; When Eric Baskauskas learned to 'inject more mystery,' his work took off (San Diego Union-Tribune)
By Robert L. Pincus
He's made 12 books thus far and continues to embrace the form. "Coverage" is a different type of work. It's a cross between poetry and conceptual art, and it's made to be mailed - in installments. He just had hhis first solo exhibition in a gallery, at Harrington Fine Arts in San Francisco, which included paintings and assorted other works. Eric Baskauskas, now 23, grew up near the Bay Area - in Martinez, northeast of Berkeley. But San Diego has been home for the past six years. He finished his B.F.A. at UC San Diego in 2006 and has stayed, working as a graphic designer on campus.
See also: Voiceofsandiego.org, Art Explores the Science of the Very Small (Calit2, UC San Diego) http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/08/11/news/02particles081108.txt
SAN FRANCISCO/DAVIS - Joyful wedding for lung transplant recipient (San Francisco Chronicle) By Patricia Yollin
Nearly five years ago, when Carrie Shellhammer was dying at UCSF Medical Center, she and her mother selected songs for her funeral, which they assumed was just weeks away. On Saturday, those songs were played at her wedding instead. On Dec. 29, 2003, she underwent a double-lung transplant. Six years earlier, at age 20, she'd been diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension and Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, a genetic disorder.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/11/MNOI1273H7.DTL
SANTA BARBARA - Quantum mechanics milestone (The Vancouver Sun)
Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have recently reached what they are calling a milestone in experimental quantum mechanics. CSB physicists Max Hofheinz, John Martinis, and Andrew Cleland documented how they used a superconducting electronic circuit known as a Josephson phase qubit, developed in Martinis's lab, to controllably pump microwave photons, one at a time, into a superconducting microwave resonator.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a575ba43-8c79-482a-9cf4-4d67c2db22e0
SANTA BARBARA/CALIFORNIA/HAWAII - Big push for Hawaii telescope; Giant telescope eyes site on Mauna Kea (The Honolulu Advertiser) By Kevin Dayton
U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye is pressing to have a huge new telescope project built on Mauna Kea that is almost certain to be controversial among Native Hawaiians. But he is also proposing steps such as scholarships for Hawaiian students as part of an initiative to garner public support for the project. The proposed $1 billion Thirty-Meter Telescope is considered by some to be critical to maintaining Hawai'i's status as a world-class hub for high-tech research and development in astronomy. Inouye echoed that view in a May 8 letter to University of Hawai'i President David McClain. The loss of the TMT project to a competing site in Chile "would not bode well for us as a nation, and could very well signal an end to any major astronomy investment on American soil," Inouye wrote in the letter. TMT Observatory Corp. - a partnership between the University of California, California Institute of Technology and an organization of Canadian universities - selected Mauna Kea and Cerro Armazones in Chile as the two potential locations for the telescope it hopes to build by 2018.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Aug/10/ln/hawaii808100379.html
SANTA CRUZ - Suits over UCSC growth settled: City, county, neighbors reach deal; university agrees to concessions over roads, water and housing (Santa Cruz Sentinel) By Genevieve Bookwalter
UC Santa Cruz can continue its plans to grow the campus by 4,500 students as part of an agreement reached with the city, county and neighbors who had sued the university over its anticipated growth. In return, university leaders agreed to submit building plans for planned north campus expansion to local government scrutiny, house 67 percent of the additional students on campus and pay development and water fees that UC officials previously said they were exempt from, among other concessions. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_10150203
See also:
The Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/08/4191n.htm
(*subscription required)
SANTA CRUZ - Book review: An updated classic, "The Natural History of the UC Santa Cruz Campus" (San Jose Mercury News) By Lisa M. Krieger
Some of the kinkiest encounters at the UC-Santa Cruz campus take place far from the dorms. Like the odd, protracted and sometimes violent mating ritual of banana slugs. Meeting in deep and wet canyons, amorous slugs circle each other, then lick, nudge and bite. They take turns striking each other with their bellies. Finally - because they're hermaphrodites - they insert themselves into each other. With luck, they disengage after several hours. But the affair can turn ugly. One slug may choose to chew off its partner's appendage - and then, in a mollusk version of "Fatal Attraction,'' find its own appendage chewed off, as well. Such tales of romantic retaliation and other wonders of the natural world are lovingly detailed in the newly revised edition of the revered classic "The Natural History of the UC Santa Cruz Campus.'' http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10142332?nclick_check=1 (*registration required)
CALIFORNIA - Time may be running out for California to craft budget deal
(The Sacramento Bee) By Jim Sanders
Ground zero in the state's bitter budget standoff has become the calendar. Mark Saturday, Aug. 16. Republicans who vow not to pass a new state budget unless it contains long-term fixes to chronic budgeting problems see time running out. Voters would need to approve any strong spending restraints as constitutional amendments - and Aug. 16 is the deadline set by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen for reaching the November ballot. Privately, lawmakers say there may be wiggle room to the deadline, perhaps until the end of the month, but all sides agree that time is short.
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1145146.html (*registration required)
See also: San Francisco Chronicle, Budget impasse looks poised to worsen http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/11/BAJ4127OQF.DTL;
Los Angeles Times, George Skelton: For tricky California budgets, turn to the old masters http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap11-2008aug11,0,939129.column; San Diego Union-Tribune, Health care: The push for reform: Governor's pared plan may have slim chance http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080811-9999-1n11health.html; The Sacramento Bee, Analysis: Big 5 try to resolve big differences http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1145149.html (*registration required); The Daily Californian, Executive Order Suspends State Cal Grants Funding http://www.dailycal.org/article/102243/executive_order_suspends_state_cal_grants_funding
CALIFORNIA - Teachers join union in march (Daily Bruin) By Will Weiss
Chants of "No peace, no contract" could be heard echoing throughout De Neve Plaza and all over the Hill on Thursday as members of the California Teachers Association joined UC workers and others from their labor union to picket in support of higher wages and better working conditions for UC workers. Approximately 600 of the 1,000-plus members of the association, who stayed in De Neve last week for an annual conference, used their lunch break to march in solidarity with the AFSCME Local 3299, the last of several gestures of support made by the teacher's union between Sunday and Thursday.
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/aug/11/teachers-join-union-march/
CALIFORNIA - California universities gather to discuss sustainability; Campus leaders and students discuss future of green campuses (The California Aggie) By Angela Ruggiero
Representatives from the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges gathered in San Louis Obispo at the beginning of August for the seventh annual California University Sustainability Conference. Over 850 students, faculty, staff and administrators attended the four-day conference to discuss energy-efficient, cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable solutions for the future of California higher education under the theme "Putting sustainability to work." http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/1239
See also: Daily Bruin, UCLA's green efforts include transportation http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/aug/11/uclas-green-efforts-include-transportation/
NATION/CALIFORNIA - For Adjuncts, Progress and Complexities
(Inside Higher Ed) By Scott Jaschik
A few years ago, sessions at gatherings of adjunct leaders featured a sort of one-upmanship of horror stories. Activists would trade tales of the worst abuses, the most impoverished scholars and so forth. On Saturday, at a national gathering of adjunct leaders, one session almost turned into a boasting session of how successful some unions have been in winning job security and other rights for faculty members off the tenure track. Some of the questions fielded by Robert Samuels, president of the University of California lecturers' union, an American Federation of Teachers affiliate, suggested that audience members thought the contract provisions his union had won were literally too good to be true. More than one person, after the session, talked about the contract as a "gold standard" for non-tenure track professors. http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/11/adjuncts
NATION/BERKELEY - College students nowadays choose action over protest (Houston Chronicle) By Jeannie Kever
The Kent State shootings and other iconic protests of the 1970s are so last century. Student activists now are more likely to run recycling stations or deliver bottled water to day laborers. Activism isn't dead on the nation's college campuses; it's just different. "In my generation, maybe about 10 percent really care, but those who care are really passionate about it," said Imelda Padilla, 21, a senior at UC Berkeley, who is spending the summer in Houston for an internship with the Service Employees International Union. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5935525.html
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OLYMPICS
LOS ANGELES/BEIJING - Beijing stabbings leave Southern California volleyball community reeling; The victims are called boosters of the sport who supported their daughter's career at UCLA and as an Olympian. 'Wiz' Bachman of Irvine witnessed the assault on her parents that left her father dead. (Los Angeles Times) By Louis Sahagun and Esmeralda Bermudez
On the way to LAX for her flight to Beijing early Wednesday, Elisabeth "Wiz" Bachman McCutcheon spoke excitedly to her friend Michael Soylular about joining her husband and parents for the start of the Olympic games. Just 72 hours later, Soylular got terrible news. His friend's parents, well-known in Southern California's volleyball circles as avid backers of the sport, had been attacked in China. McCutcheon's father, Todd Bachman, 62, of Lakeville, Minn., was killed about noon in an attack that also left his wife, Barbara, critically injured with multiple lacerations and stab wounds. She underwent eight hours of surgery at a Beijing hospital. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-react10-2008aug10,0,5079710.story
See also: San Diego Union-Tribune http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/sullivan/20080811-9999-1s11sullivan.html, San Jose Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/othersports/ci_10156475 (*registration required)
LOS ANGELES/BERKELEY/NATION - Jessica Hardy's positive drug result reportedly delayed by mistake; UCLA lab acknowledges that it failed to expedite results to U.S. Swimming in time for Hardy to be replaced on the team. (Los Angeles Times) By Lisa Dillman
The positive drug test of U.S. swimmer Jessica Hardy was delayed, officials said Friday, a miscue that probably deprived the team of a replacement. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency clarified why authorities, despite an expedited request, didn't notify Hardy of a July 4 positive test at UCLA for clenbuterol until July 21, the deadline for naming a replacement. That delay kept USA Swimming from replacing Hardy, a former Cal swimmer, on its Olympic roster, spots that could have been filled by Tara Kirk and Lara Jackson. The UCLA lab incorrectly logged the sample, failing to mark it expedited as requested, and the result later sat, unnoticed, in USADA's offices the weekend before July 21, Ron Judd of the Seattle Times reported Friday.
Text/video: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-olyhardy9-2008aug09,0,2046502.story
SANTA BARBARA/NATION - Showing some heart; Amazing finish in relay wins gold, saves Phelps (San Diego Union-Tribune) By Mark Zeigler
Michael Phelps and his quest for eight gold medals was over. Done. Finished. Drowned. His body language said so. The scene in the pool said so, too. France's Alain Bernard had just turned for home on the final leg of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay, and he led by nearly a second - an eternity in swimming - over American anchor Jason Lezak. Suddenly Lezak began closing on Bernard, and Bernard began fading, and Lezak began closing some more. Phelps snapped to attention, stood over the end of the pool and began wildly cheering Lezak, madly motioning him home. They reached for the wall, and Phelps swiveled his head to see the scoreboard. 1. USA, 3:08.24. 2. France, 3:08.32. It was vindication and validation for Lezak, 32, an Irvine High and UC Santa Barbara alum who has toiled his entire career in the anonymity of relays.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/olympics/20080811-9999-1s11oly.html
See also: The New York Times, Lezak, Not Phelps, Puts On a Show http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/sports/olympics/11swim.html?_r=2&em&oref=slogin&oref=slogin (*registration required); Los Angeles Times, Anchor Jason Lezak's stunning 400-meter relay performance proves he's a team player http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-olylezak12-2008aug12,0,6313222.story
For more Olympics news, see www.universityofcalifornia.edu/summerolympics2008
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EDITORIAL/OPINION - Letter to the editor: Researchers need our protection (San Jose Mercury News) By Mark G. Yudof (UC president), George Blumenthal (UC-Santa Cruz chancellor)
The firebombings in Santa Cruz demonstrate once again that academic researchers and their families deserve better protection against acts of domestic terrorism. We unequivocally support the civil, legal and free expression of views, including those that oppose the use of animals in research. But our society cannot allow these unacceptable acts of outright violence and harassment to continue. A reasonable first step in better protecting researchers and their families is Assemblyman Gene Mullin's AB 2296. This bill would make it a violation to enter the residential property of an academic researcher for the purpose of interfering with that researcher's academic freedom. We urge the Legislature's support and intend to continue working with our state's leaders to identify the most promising ways of thwarting and prosecuting these abhorrent attacks. http://www.mercurynews.com/letters/ci_10156508 (*registration required)
EDITORIAL/OPINION - Editorial: We must expand protections for animal research (San Jose Mercury News) A firebombing this month came frighteningly close to harming a professor at UC-Santa Cruz and his family. It must prod legislators into expanding protections for scientists doing research on animals. Lawmakers will next get their chance Monday, when a revived version of AB 2296 goes before a Senate committee. The Legislature should expedite its passage and take a second look at other safeguards that were stripped from an earlier form of the bill. Current state laws are not up to the threats posed by animal-rights militants.
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_10163834 (*registration required)
See also: The Oakland Tribune, Editorial: Home-grown terror http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_10117778; Las Vegas Review-Journal, Editorial: Animal rights terrorists http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/26825939.html; Los Angeles Times, Al Martinez: Violence for animal rights hurts the goal http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-martinez11-2008aug11,0,1982339.column; The Daily Californian, Editorial: Ethical Treatment; Animal rights activists' violent attacks on researchers only attract negative attention to their cause. http://www.dailycal.org/article/102232/ethical_treatment
To submit any questions, comments, requests or logistical problems, please contact: alec.rosenberg@ucop.edu