Kelly Fang/File

Power was fully restored to all buildings on the UC Berkeley campus as of Friday morning after a Sept. 30 explosion near California Hall damaged underground power lines and left 11 buildings unable to connect to the campus’s power grid.

Most of the 11 buildings without power were connected to portable generators rented by the campus in the days after the explosion and were reconnected to the main power grid between Tuesday night and early Friday morning. The process of switching from the backup generators to the campus power grid left those buildings without power for up to six hours, said Christine Shaff, communications director for the campus’s facilities services department.

“It was a fairly straightforward process,” Shaff said. “We did schedule the switch-over in coordination with the building occupants. I think everybody was anxious to be off of the generators.”

One student was hospitalized in the explosion, which forced a campuswide evacuation and caused the campus to declare a state of emergency. The explosion occurred after a power outage campus officials attributed to damage from theft of copper wiring at an off-campus electrical facility. Power was restored to all but 11 buildings on campus the next day.

Dwinelle Hall was brought back onto the campus power grid Tuesday night. Three locations that had been without power since the explosion — Edwards Track, the campus cogeneration plant and Environmental Health and Safety — were restored Wednesday.

California Hall, Durant Hall and the Bancroft and Doe libraries were connected to the power grid Wednesday night. Haas Pavilion, Dwinelle Annex and the Alumni House were connected by early Friday morning.

According to Shaff, the delay in restoration occurred because maintenance workers and a “high-voltage team” needed time to assess the damage from the explosion, remove damaged equipment and test power lines to make sure they were safe.

“It’s not just repairing the damage,” Shaff said. “It’s also understanding what we needed to do.”

On Oct. 1, maintenance crews removed a damaged switchboard at the site of the explosion. Switchboards allow crews to switch between two lines of the campus power grid. With the two-line system, power can be delivered to buildings when only one line is operational, allowing crews to conduct maintenance without disrupting the flow of power.

According to Skip Ray, an accounts manager at Peterson Power, the company leased seven generators of five different sizes to UC Berkeley, ranging from 150 to 800 kilowatts. Generators can cost between a “couple hundred” to a “few thousand” dollars a day, Ray said.

Except for pending repairs to the electrical vault from which the Sept. 30 explosion originated, the restoration of the campus power grid represents a return to normalcy after the incident. Shaff estimates the caution tape around the vault will remain for “a few days.”

Chris Yoder covers crime. Contact him at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post Power fully restored to campus in aftermath of explosion appeared first on The Daily Californian.

UCPD/Courtesy

UCPD released a photo Wednesday evening of a man who may be linked to the theft of laptop computers and other personal property on campus.

According to a press release from UCPD, the suspect probably is the individual who has been reported prowling inside buildings on the north side of the UC Berkeley campus on several occasions since early August.

The man in the photograph is described as wandering hallways with his cellphone at his ear, possibly pretending to be engaged in conversation while looking for opportunities to enter unsecured offices and labs, according to the release.

The suspect is described as a man in his late 40s or early 50s, six feet tall, with a thin build and weighing about 160 pounds. He is typically seen wearing a baseball cap, a short-sleeved shirt with a collar and blue jeans.

Those with information about the suspect are asked to contact the UCPD Criminal Investigation Bureau at 510-642-0472 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. or 510-642-6760 at all other times.

Chris Yoder covers crime. Contact him at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post UCPD releases photo of man who may be linked to theft on campus appeared first on The Daily Californian.

But an early September shooting in the same location that has been linked to several murders in Berkeley and Oakland has further dampened the mood of an otherwise quiet West Berkeley neighborhood.

On the evening of Sept. 8, Berkeley resident Anthony Medearis was shot and killed after an alleged robbery attempt during a game of dice, according to a probable cause declaration from Berkeley Police Department Officer Shan Johnson. Darnell Williams, a 22-year-old Oakland resident, was arrested that evening in connection with the Medearis shooting.

“It’s like we’re cursed, right here in this particular spot,” said Berkeley resident Janet Guastavino. “A lot of people come and go in that apartment building next door. A handful of them have been really friendly with me. And (Medearis) was one of them.”

In a press conference Tuesday, Oakland police announced charges against Williams not only for the killing of Medearis but also for the July death of an 8-year-old Oakland girl, helping piece together a string of homicides that rattled neighborhoods in Berkeley and Oakland.

The fact that Williams’ arrest connected the incidents in the two cities did not surprise Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.

“It’s always happened that way,” Quan said. “Gangs don’t have boundaries.”

In 2009, four members of an Oakland gang killed Charles Davis near the corner of 10th Street and Allston Way in West Berkeley. According to prosecutors, the four were looking for Charles Davis’ brother Jermaine Davis, but when they could not find him, they killed Charles Davis instead.

On July 12, the four were sentenced to life in prison without parole by Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland.

A probable cause declaration from Oakland police Officer Robert Rosin sheds light on the day’s events after the sentencing. In what police termed a “retaliatory shooting,” Jermaine Davis was shot and killed shortly before 7 p.m. on the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley. In retaliation for Jermaine Davis’ death, Williams and Joseph Carroll, who is a cousin of Jermaine Davis, allegedly targeted a man whom police have identified only as “John Doe,” Rosin wrote in the declaration.

According to Rosin’s declaration, Williams and Carroll met at an East Oakland residence and determined the address of Doe’s children and their mother in Oakland’s Dimond neighborhood. Carroll traveled to Antioch and allegedly confronted Doe at a gas station, Rosin wrote. The details of the confrontation, however, remain unclear.

Eight-year-old Alaysha Carradine was sleeping over at her friend’s Dimond neighborhood home. About 11:18 p.m., she answered the doorbell. Multiple shots fired through the doorway killed Carradine and injured her friend, the friend’s brother and the friend’s grandmother, according to police.

Carroll was arrested in Harris County, Texas, in late September and was charged along with Williams in the slaying of Carradine, Oakland police announced in the Tuesday press conference.

Outside the home where Carradine was killed, there are no visible signs of the July confrontation. But to many residents of the neighborhood, memories of the incident remain fresh.

Jamaal Fowler, Carradine’s stepbrother, said he never would have expected an incident in the neighborhood.

“Especially over here, it’s so quiet,” Fowler said. “At least they caught (Williams). (It’s) some type of justice.”

Oakland City Councilmember Libby Schaaf, whose district includes the Dimond neighborhood, said she would like to see more coordination between police and social services.

“These are the kind of murders that have ripple effects,” Schaaf said. “For myself, every time I hear the doorbell ring in my house, I feel fear. It’s again more evidence that we’ve got to intervene in these retaliatory cycles of violence.”

West Berkeley residents also described a peaceful neighborhood caught off guard by violence. Guastavino, who saw Medearis five to six times a week, says the arrest of Williams brings little solace.

“It doesn’t bring (Medearis) back,” Guastavino said. “It was just nice to have someone to smile and wave at.”

Staff writer Tahmina Achekzai contributed to this report.

Chris Yoder covers crime. Contact him at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post 2 Berkeley homicides connected with killing of 8-year-old Oakland girl appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Smoke complaints have been reported from Oakland to Contra Costa County, according to Berkeley Acting Deputy Fire Chief Avery Webb. An extra patrol unit was dispatched after a red flag warning was issued at 11:17 a.m. Friday morning for the areas of the East Bay Hills and Diablo Range above 1,000 feet.

As of late Friday afternoon, there are no fires in Berkeley, according to Webb.

Red flag warnings are issued when critical fire weather conditions either are occurring or will occur shortly, according to the National Weather Service. Combinations of strong winds, low relative humidity and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior.

The red flag warning for the East Bay Hills and Diablo Range remains in effect until 6 a.m. Saturday.

Early Friday morning, a vegetation fire behind the Clark Kerr Campus was reported about 3:45 a.m. The fire grew to half an acre in size but was extinguished within an hour.

“We were concerned about (the fire) spreading or rekindling,” Webb said. “They were very thorough with extinguishing it, and checked on it multiple times after that.”

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post Smoke from Solano County fire blows to Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.

About 11:37 p.m., Caffe Mediterraneum owner Craig Becker confronted a man he saw reaching into the cafe’s tip jar. Becker followed him toward the exit, and a physical confrontation ensued. Becker was kicked by three men and threatened with a handgun.

“We ended up getting into a fistfight,” Becker said. “Some of the customers were helping, and (the suspect) had some friends, and they tipped over a table and stuff, broke some of the marble, broke some dishes and then ran off. Basically, that was it.”

The perpetrators fled south on Telegraph, and moments later, witnesses heard gunshots, according to police. Officers later located a discarded firearm on the 2600 block of Regent Street.

Police were on the scene within minutes. Berkeley Police Department and UCPD detained two of the suspects as they attempted to flee, and officers found the third suspect after searching the area. BPD identified the suspects as Jeremiah Lee, 19, Willie Smith, 18, and Markeise Prince, 19.

“I think the police did a great job,” Becker said. “I was surprised how fast they came.”

Becker suffered a swollen lip and scrapes on his face but sustained no major injuries as a result of the confrontation. He said no one else suffered any major injuries.

Chris Yoder covers crime. Contact him at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post 3 arrested in Caffe Mediterraneum tip jar robbery Saturday night appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Arya Aliabadi/File

When Edy Beteran transferred to UC Berkeley in spring 2011, he hoped a college degree would help him find a stable job and support a middle-class lifestyle.

But since he graduated in December as an English and rhetoric double major, Beteran has been unable to find a job on par with his qualifications. Although attending UC Berkeley gave him a taste of a middle-class lifestyle, he has found it difficult to work his way out of the lower class.

“I come from a lower-class working family of immigrants,” Beteran said. “My parents pushed me towards getting a college degree. But if you’re not able to get that job (after graduation), you feel stuck. It’s like, you’re back at the bottom now.”

Stories like Beteran’s are becoming increasingly common for college-educated Americans. According to the General Social Survey, which monitors social change in the United States, the percentage of college-educated Americans who identify as “lower class” increased to 3 percent in 2012, up from 1.7 percent in 2002 and the highest rate since the survey was first taken in 1972. The percentage of college-educated Americans who say their standard of living has gotten worse over the last few years increased 57 percent between 2006 and 2012.

According to the UC Berkeley Office of Planning and Analysis, 13 percent of admitted freshmen and 18 percent of new transfers admitted for fall 2012 identified as “low income/poor.” Sixty-five percent of undergraduates receive some form of financial aid.

The overall percentage of Americans who identified as “lower class” in 2012 also reached a record high of 8.4 percent, up 0.2 percentage points from 2010.

Jane Mauldon, a UC Berkeley associate professor of public policy, points to an increasingly pessimistic financial outlook rather than raw unemployment numbers as a possible explanation for the shift in class identities.

“You might say we’re worse off than in 2008,” Mauldon said. “Since 2008, people have used up their safety cushions. People’s circumstances are just getting worse and worse.”

A shrinking middle class points to increased polarization of income, according to Sarah Bohn, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Even though education level is still strongly correlated with income, it has become more difficult for college graduates to break into the workforce.

“There’s not the same ample job opportunities that were there (before the recession),” Bohn said. “I could see that it takes longer for students to get jobs when they’re entering the market.”

Still, Bohn said, college graduates have a tremendous advantage when entering the workforce.

“I think the clearest direction is to encourage higher levels of higher education attainment,” she said. “The evidence is generally clear that the more skills you have around the world, the better opportunities there are for skill.”

The percentage of Americans identifying as lower class is still low when taken in context of high poverty levels, which remained stagnant at 15 percent this year, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Beteran, who is looking for a job in advertising or marketing, says students who enter the job market without experience or connections face a disadvantage.

“In the past, if you had a college degree, (the employer) would hire you and train you,” he said. “Now if you have a college degree, it comes down to what experiences you’ve had. … It comes down to who you know, as opposed to what kind of person you are.”

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post College-educated Americans identifying as lower class at record rates appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Liliana Velazquez/Courtesy

The Pac-12 Networks, which televise hundreds of athletic events for Pac-12 schools each year, have run into opposition from unions of technicians who claim that the wages and benefits the networks offer fall below industry-standard rates.

Members of the Bay Area branch of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees began a bannering campaign at the networks’ headquarters in San Francisco earlier this month to raise awareness about what they consider to be substandard wages and benefits that the networks offer their broadcast technicians.

Unlike other sports networks such as FOX Sports Networks and ESPN, the Pac-12 Networks hire workers for each event without negotiating a contract with a union. Broadcast technicians are hired as freelancers and paid an hourly wage. According to Dan Nicholson, the business representative of IATSE Local 119, the Pac-12 Networks hire union members only for positions that they deem most important, effectively shutting many union members out of employment with the networks.

“They can save money by hiring nonimportant people from outside the union,” Nicholson said. “That’s the problem we have with it.”

Local unions have been fighting the Pac-12 Networks since the networks’ launch in August 2012. IATSE announced a strike against the networks in December, but multiple negotiations between network representatives and IATSE 119, the union of Bay Area television broadcast studio employees, failed to produce a contract that the parties could agree to.

Kirk Reynolds, vice president of communications for the Pac-12 Networks, says the networks’ unusual structure puts them in a unique situation. Although he says the networks cannot offer benefits to freelancers on top of their hourly wage, they are provided compensation above the industry average in “the vast majority of positions.”

“We remain committed to open dialogue with union leadership,” said Reynolds in an email statement, “even as we remain steadfast in our commitment to the flexible model that has proven successful in our first year of operation.”

Nicholson said the networks’ unwillingness to offer traditional benefit packages has caused a stalemate.

“(The networks) told us we’re too expensive for them … We’re not drawing a line in the sand and saying we’re not willing to negotiate,” Nicholson said. “But we’re not willing to negotiate by saying these (technicians) can’t have healthcare and retirement packages. That’s where we draw the line in the sand.”

Derek Hirsch, an audio mixer and member of IATSE 119, said that because union workers tend to be more highly skilled, the quality of the Pac-12 Networks’ product suffers when union workers are blocked out.

“It’s really frustrating that we’ve done this work for decades and the Pac-12 decides not to hire us,” said Hirsch. “They don’t care so much about the quality of their broadcasts as much as the cost.”

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post Union technicians press Pac-12 Networks for better wages and benefits appeared first on The Daily Californian.

But Patel was surprised to learn that she’d also been chosen for another campus award, the STEM Scholarship Program — a new undergraduate program that will provide financial aid to students interested in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

Patel and seven other UC Berkeley students who are in the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Program, will each receive a $5,000 per year scholarship, starting with the 2013-14 academic year. The program, funded by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., is expected to expand in future years to include a total of 32 UC Berkeley undergraduate students.

Thermo Fisher, which makes laboratory equipment, chose UC Berkeley and four other universities from around the world for the program based on their strengths in STEM fields and their physical proximity to Thermo Fisher’s operations. UC Berkeley placed third in August’s Academic Ranking of World Universities and currently staffs four Nobel Prize winners in STEM fields.

“It’s a philanthropic program that is designed to inspire students to join STEM fields so that they can … make the world healthier, cleaner and safer,” said Taryn Corbino, who manages the scholarship program for Thermo Fisher. “It seemed logical to join with these institutes of higher education.”

For Patel, who is interested in biology and health, the scholarship not only supports her desire to pursue a career in science but also lessens the burden on her parents to pay for her education.

“I was definitely super excited,” Patel said. “I ran to my dad, and I think he was more excited than I was. I was really happy.”

Although UC Berkeley faculty is in charge of the scholarship review and selection process, Thermo Fisher provides the criteria for the scholarship, which include academic success and community service before arriving at UC Berkeley.

Corbino says the STEM scholarship will be assessed by Thermo Fisher on a regular basis and judged on an array of factors, such as the company’s engagement with students and the academic standing of students in the program.

Harry Le Grande said in an email that he hopes the scholarship will prompt similar programs in the future.

“Anytime we can cut the cost of education by scholarships like this,” LeGrande said, “we all win.”

Apart from UC Berkeley, the program is open to students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Imperial College London and Fudan University in Shanghai.

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post New scholarship rewards young talent in STEM fields appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Abel Barrientes/Courtesy

It’s not even close. The Cal rugby team has had the most successful history of any sports team at Cal. Its run of dominance over the past three decades is unparalleled by any other team in college rugby.

No other team in any sport can match the accomplishments of the Cal rugby team.

Phooey on Wooden’s Bruins. To heck with Auriemma’s Huskies. Jackson’s Bulls, Auerbach’s Celtics and Stengel’s Yankees can all go take a hike. The Cal rugby team has won 26 national championships since 1980, and Jack Clark has been around for 22 of them.

It’s the best run any team has had in the history of sports. Ever.

And no team at Cal was better last year.

Problem is, the Bears have been shorted in recent years by a rapidly evolving college rugby landscape, with two competing postseason formats and an increasing preference for the niftier, trendier sevens game over 15s. Clark’s Bears have adapted well, spearheading the creation of the PAC Rugby Conference and finishing second in the inaugural Varsity Cup National Championship last year.

Oh, and by the way, they won USA Rugby’s sevens championship earlier this year.

But because the rugby squad is held to a higher standard than any other team at Cal, its exceptional play is too often taken for granted. The gap between Cal and most of the teams it plays is so great that opposing coaches take pride in their margins of defeat. Triple-digit wins for Cal can be inadequate. Any loss is an epic failure.

The greatest argument you can make against this team is that it hasn’t won a 15s championship in two years — one year in which the Bears opted not to compete in at all. A two-year drought! What a travesty.

Clark’s gang staves off the rising tide of parity by staying ahead of its competition. In recent years, they’ve made a habit of putting up basketball scores in a sport where football scores are the norm. Schools that don’t keep up, like Stanford, do so at their own peril. It’s not that the competition is getting worse; it’s just that the Bears are getting better. Cal won its five matches against PAC Rugby foes — each among the top 20 teams in the country — by an average margin of 60 points last year.

So to even consider that the rugby squad isn’t the best team at Cal is laughable. While no Cal team won its national championship last year, no other team came as close. The ruggers lost their 15s championship in the closing seconds of a dispiriting final against BYU, so they can relate to the men’s golf team’s extra holes loss in their national semifinal. But the Bears have won championships before, and they’re poised to keep winning for years to come.

The only reason they aren’t higher on this list is that they have such a history of making history that it’s hard to appreciate it anymore.

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post Power Rankings: No. 2 rugby appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kevin Hahn/File

It’s not the fault of the Cal men’s swim team that it comes in so low on this list. After winning NCAA championships in 2011 and 2012, the Bears finished second at the NCAAs in March, a finish that felt disappointing only because the team has done so much in recent years to raise the bar.

But in spite of last year’s slip from the pinnacle of college swimming, the men’s swim team has cemented its status as one of the few elite teams in the sport. It’s a label that few teams at Cal can boast.

It’s one thing to have a good season. It’s another thing altogether to make such a habit of winning that second place is utterly insufficient.

Cal’s most recent NCAA bling outshines even the back-to-back titles Cal nabbed in 1979 and 1980. The Bears have finished fourth or higher at NCAAs each of the past six years, and they’ve finished in the top two each of the last four. If the 2011 championship put the Bears back on the map, the 2012 championship ensured Cal would never sneak up on its opponents ever again.

The architect of this recent success has been coach David Durden, who came to Cal after a four-year stint as an Auburn assistant in which its men’s and women’s teams won three NCAA titles apiece. After Durden joined Cal in 2007, the Bears improved each year — from fourth to second to back-to-back firsts — until last year’s dip.

So with the Bears firmly embedded in the upper echelon of college swimming, the only question is how often they’ll reach the tippy top.

Last year’s squad can take solace in ending Stanford’s 31-year streak as conference champions, but Durden’s seasons are geared so much for NCAAs that every other result is effectively irrelevant. The only true measure of Cal’s success is its place on the leaderboard at NCAAs.

So which Cal swim team is better: the men’s or the women’s? Though the men lack a surefire superstar akin to Olympians Missy Franklin and Rachel Bootsma, they boast arguably the deepest squad in the country. The loss of Tom Shields next year will hurt, but there’s enough talent in the pipeline — including two of the country’s top 10 recruits — to ensure the Bears won’t fall much further than they already have. The men are just as poised for a title run in 2014 as they were a year ago.

Even further down the line, a proposed new aquatics center could be another boon to the program. Though construction is pending the UC Regents’ approval of the project, the multimillion dollar facility would be a massive upgrade over the cramped Spieker Aquatics Complex.

If Durden’s past is any indicator of his future, the Bears could be in a position to win NCAA titles for decades to come. But if last year’s second-place finish was a sign of things to come, the next few years could leave a lot to be desired.

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

The post Power Rankings: No. 4 men’s swim appeared first on The Daily Californian.