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Thursday, 21 February 2013
1. Senators in Immigration Talks Mull Federal IDs for All Workers
Wall Street Journal (*requires registration)
An immigration bill currently under consideration in Congress would force all U.S. workers to carry a sophisticated ID card with fingerprints or other personal indicators to prove they are legally eligible to work. A 2012 study by Berkeley's Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy concluded that such an ID system would cost the government $22.6 billion to create and $2.1 billion each year to operate. Full Story
2. The California Report: Activists Inspired by Immigration Debate
KQED Radio
Associate sociology and Canadian studies professor Irene Bloemraad joins a discussion of immigration reform. Link to audio. Full Story
3. Blog: Immigrants May Be The Best Hope For Desperate Baby Boomers.
Business Insider
Public policy professor Robert Reich writes about the disastrous shape of baby boomers' retirement savings and pensions, claiming that immigration reform could be the best solution. "We need to think more broadly, and connect the dots," he concludes. "One logical way to help deal with the crisis of funding Social Security and Medicare is to have more workers per retiree. And the simplest way to do that is to allow more immigrants into the United States. ... Immigration reform and entitlement reform have a lot to do with one another." Full Story
4. Forum with Michael Krasny: 'Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change'
KQED Radio
Law professor Andrew Guzman, associate dean for international and advanced degree programs, discusses his new book Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change. Link to audio. Full Story
5. Topsoil depletion: The next climate change victim
AllVoices
A story on climate change mentions that Berkeley physics professor Richard Muller, a longtime skeptic of climate change, acknowledged last year that he is now convinced that global warming is real and that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are responsible. He's not alone in changing his mind. Today, 70 percent of Americans believe temperatures are rising, up from 58 percent two years ago. Full Story
6. Editorial: During nonpeak hours, open car pool lanes to all
Press-Enterprise
An editorial calling for legislators to support a plan to open car pool lanes to general traffic during non-rush hours cites a 2007 report by Berkeley's Institute for Transportation Studies, which found California’s car pool lanes were underused and that opening the lanes to all traffic at some times of the day would improve freeway conditions. Full Story
7. Car-share parking attracts an unlikely foe in SF
KALW Online
A Berkeley study found that after signing up with a car-sharing program, nearly half of households with a car got rid of their vehicle. Full Story
8. Op-Ed: Nuclear Deterrence for Patents: Let’s Create a Network of Defensive Patents
Wired
Assistant law professor Jennifer Urban, director of Berkeley's Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, and colleague Jason Schultz propose that all innovators need to opt back in to the patent system if they wish to protect themselves from the growing threat of patent lawsuits. "Why?" she asks. "Because if all innovators obtain patents that they commit to keeping for defensive purposes only — linking them together into a defensive network — we can take the patent system as it exists today and use it to create a bulwark against its own worst features." Full Story
9. Corporate Power Is Decaying. Get Used to It
Bloomberg Businessweek
A commentary on shifting power in the world economy cites a study by Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez, which found that the economic crisis caused a 36.3 percent drop in the incomes of the top 1 percent of U.S. earners, compared with an 11.6 percent decrease for the remaining 99 percent. Full Story
10. Rundown Blog: Loaded Words: How Both Sides Are Using Persuasive Rhetoric About Guns
PBS NewsHour Online
Cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff, co-author of The Little Blue Book: The Essential Guide to Thinking and Talking Democratic, comments on the gun control debate, saying that liberals need to find language that appeals to overlapping sensibilities – the liberal hunter, so to speak. The language of gun "control" automatically alienates the individual liberty moral system, he says, while gun "safety" appeals to the same person's sense of personal responsibility. Full Story
11. Facts On Attraction: Research On Human Desire
Huffington Post
A slideshow of 12 research findings about the nature of sexual attraction includes a citation of a 2007 study by then-Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Claire Wyart, who found that when women breathe in androstadienone, a chemical found in male sweat, they give men higher attractiveness ratings than they would otherwise. The slide is fourth in the sequence. Full Story
12. Report Says Stanford Is First University to Raise $1 Billion in a Single Year
New York Times & International Herald Tribune (*requires registration)
The Council for Aid to Education has released its annual college fundraising survey, and UC Berkeley was the leading fundraiser among all public universities in the 2012 fiscal year, with $405 million. [A blurb describing an Associated Press story in yesterday's Berkeley in the News incorrectly stated that the amount of money raised by the UC system did not include the money raised by its individual campuses.] Full Story
13. The edX online learning consortium expands overseas
Boston Business Journal
EdX, a non-profit online learning consortium founded at Harvard but expanded to elite domestic institutions, including Berkeley, is now expanding overseas. The new members include schools in Australia, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Canada. Full Story
14. Teens Pepper Spray Attack Victims at UC Berkeley
NBC Bay Area Online
Campus police are assisting Berkeley police in a search for three female, teenaged suspects in an attempted robbery conducted with pepper spray last Friday night south of campus. Anyone with information about the assault on Dwight Way, near Prospect Street, is asked to call Berkeley police at (510) 981-5900. Another story on this topic appeared in the San Jose Mercury News. Full Story
15. Ranking the Pac-12's College Football Coaching Jobs for 2013
Athlon Sports
A 2013 ranking of Pac-12 college football coaching jobs, based on factors such as tradition, facilities, location, and money, places Cal in 5th place. Weighing the pros and cons, their verdict was: "Cal is an intriguing job. There is a lot to like, but there are certain drawbacks. You can win in Berkeley, but the culture of the university will likely prevent the football program from ever reaching elite status." Full Story
16. Search for starting QB will be major task in Sonny Dykes’ 1st spring ball as Cal coach
Washington Post
A key task for Cal's new football coach Sonny Dykes will be finding a new starting quarterback. Last year's starter, Zach Maynard, has used up his eligibility. Full Story
17. At Magnes, fictional woman illuminates 20th-century life
Berkeleyside
A new exhibit at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life tells the story of three European women and a fourth, fictional character, in a multimedia display relating decades of 20th-century European cultural history. Called "Through the Eyes of Rachel Marker," the exhibit is based on the writing of Mills College art history professor Moira Roth and was curated by Alla Efimova, director of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the Bancroft Library. Full Story
18. Photo Flash: UC Berkeley Presents Peter Barnes' Dark Comedy The Ruling Class, 3/8-17
Broadway World
Berkeley's theater, dance, and performance department will present Peter Barnes' The Ruling Class, opening March 8 at Zellerbach Playhouse. The show is directed by lecturer Christopher Herold. Full Story
19. 'Secret Garden': Beloved children's book now a Berkeley-bound opera
San Jose Mercury News (*requires registration)
Cal Performances and the San Francisco Opera are co-presenting an opera by Nolan Gasser and Carey Harrison of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic The Secret Garden, opening March 1 at Zellerbach Hall. Full Story