On Wednesday afternoon, Brown appointed a three-member board to investigate the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 192′s strike notice and labor dispute between the union and AC Transit. The board has seven days to conduct its investigation, during which strikes and lockouts are prohibited by law.

At the conclusion of its investigation, the board will present Brown with its findings, and based on the results, Brown can then petition a court for a 60-day cooling-off period.

“For the sake of the people of the Bay Area, I urge both sides to take this matter seriously and to continue working to find a fair solution,” Brown said in his letter to the union and AC Transit.

The individuals appointed to the board include Peter Southworth, deputy secretary and general counsel at the California State Agency Transportation Agency, Josie Camacho, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, and Micki Callahan, director of human resources for the city and county of San Francisco.

After AC Transit employees issued a 72-hour strike notice Monday, AC Transit’s board of directors asked Brown on Tuesday to impose a 60-day cooling-off period to stop AC Transit workers from striking because the proposed strike would “significantly endanger the public’s health, safety and welfare.”

ATU Local 192, which represents about 1,760 bus operators, mechanics, dispatchers and clerical and allied workers at AC Transit, previously turned down two tentative agreements. The union and AC Transit resumed negotiations on Wednesday at 5 p.m.

If AC Transit workers had gone on strike, about 200,000 passengers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties would have been left without transportation Thursday.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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About 7:13 a.m., the victim was walking northbound in the area when two males approached him from behind, according to a UCPD crime alert released Tuesday. The two perpetrators demanded the victim’s property, and one showed him the handle of a handgun in his pocket.

The victim complied, and the perpetrators fled toward Hearst Avenue. The victim went to UCPD’s lobby in Sproul Hall 25 minutes later to report the incident.

The victim was not physically injured during the encounter. UCPD searched the area but was unable to locate the perpetrators.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the perpetrators are described as:

Perpetrator #1 – A black male, 18 to 20 years of age, 5’10,” with a medium build and some facial hair on chin, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants.

Perpetrator #2 – A black male, 20 to 23 years of age, 6’0,” with a slender build, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black pants, carrying a black handgun.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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Stephen Jaffe/International Monetary Fund/Courtesy

President Barack Obama will nominate UC Berkeley professor emeritus Janet Yellen to be chair of the Federal Reserve Wednesday.

Obama is expected to announce the nomination at an event at the White House at 3 p.m., according to Business Insider.

Obama had been considering Yellen and former treasury secretary Lawrence Summers to replace Ben Bernanke as chair of the Fed, but Yellen became the front-runner for the position when Summers withdrew his name from consideration in a Sept. 15 letter to the president.

If she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would be both the first female and the first UC Berkeley professor to serve in the position.

From 2004 to 2010, Yellen served as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She is currently vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Yellen served as a macroeconomics professor at the Haas School of Business beginning in 1980. In 1985 and 1988, she received the school’s Earl F. Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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Nathaniel Solley/Staff

An appeal to stop the sale of the historic 99-year-old post office in Downtown Berkeley was dismissed by the Postal Regulatory Commission on Tuesday.

The appeal, filed by Mayor Tom Bates, contended that the U.S. Postal Service should select a site for the Berkeley main post office’s relocation before selling the building and did not consider how the sale will impact the community.

“The Postal Service actions concerning the Berkeley (main post office) are insufficient to trigger the right to appeal at this time,” the decision reads. Without information on when and to where the post office will relocate, any appeal is premature, the commission said.

In a concurring opinion, Ruth Goldway, chair of the commission, stated that the process the Postal Service has taken regarding the post office sale “appears to cause needless confusion in the affected communities.”

Bates filed the appeal after a Postal Service decision in July to relocate its Downtown Berkeley space as part of a nationwide effort to cut costs and consolidate offices. The Postal Service filed a motion to dismiss Aug. 9.

Bates said he was “disappointed and angry” with the commission’s decision. In his appeal, he argued that the closure of the office constituted a sale rather than a relocation, as he said there are no available spaces in Downtown Berkeley that are the right size and price to replace the current post office.

“It was really just an incredible maze of red tape and misinformation — wrong information and deception,” Bates said, adding that he has asked the Postal Service on several occasions where it is planning to relocate the Berkeley main post office but has received no response.

After the Postal Service’s decision to sell the building, community members rallied in opposition and set up encampments there in protest.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a handful of people were camped in front of the post office but declined to comment on the recent decision.

Bates said the city of Berkeley has joined a lawsuit led by Antonio Rossmann, a Bay Area lawyer and a lecturer at the UC Berkeley School of Law, alleging that the environmental impact of the sale must be reviewed before the closure is finalized.

“This is like a seven-act opera,” Bates said. “We’re on act No. 6. This is not over, even though this is a setback.”

According to Augustine Ruiz, a regional Postal Service spokesperson, the Postal Service is still looking for a suitable site to relocate to before putting the building up for sale.

“What we’re hoping — and it’s our first preference — that whoever entertains buying (the Berkeley main post office building) will let us lease (its front end), so we could still operate out of that building,” Ruiz said.

 Read the decision below:

Contact Daphne Chen and Sara Grossman at newsdesk@dailycal.org. Megan Messerly contributed to this report.

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Lauren Weinberg/Courtesy

Campers and staff members at the Cal Alumni Association’s Lair of the Golden Bear camp were evacuated Thursday due to a nearby wildfire, according to a press release from the association.

An air quality issue was released Thursday, and by early Friday morning, the Rim Fire had moved close to 15 miles from the camp. The fire doubled in size between Thursday and Friday and now covers more than 150 square miles.

“Right now, we have ash falling from the sky,” said Michael Yaley, director of the Lair of the Golden Bear, in the statement.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the blaze began burning across Yosemite’s western boundary Friday. There are 2,000 firefighters on scene, and 2 percent of the fire has been contained so far.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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The robbery occurred on Aug. 15 at 12:56 p.m. in O’Brien Hall and Hesse Hall, according to the UCPD crime alert. University staff members detained the suspect and notified UCPD. UCPD then arrived and arrested the suspect, whom they later identified as George Davis.

However, the suspect is no longer in custody, and an active warrant has been issued for his arrest.

According to the UCPD crime alert, the suspect is described as a black male, 53 years old, 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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The purpose of the walk, which will focus on high-crime and low-light areas, is to identify safety concerns about current lighting conditions and to create a plan of action, according to a press release from the EAVP’s office.

The walk will begin at 9:30 p.m. on Dwight Way and Fulton Street and tour the south side of campus before concluding at the ASUC offices in Hearst Gym. A presentation and open discussion will be held to address any poor lighting conditions identified during the walk as well as possible solutions.

UCPD chief Margo Bennett, Berkeley Police Department chief Michael Meehan and other city of Berkeley, UC and ASUC stakeholders will be attending the walk, according to the press release.

Contact Daphne Chen at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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About 33 percent of the students tested in California met all four college-readiness benchmarks in the following subjects: English, reading, math and science. The benchmarks show the minimum scores needed on the four subject tests to signify a 50 percent chance of obtaining a B or better or a 75 percent chance of obtaining a C or better in corresponding college courses.

Of the 107,243 high school graduates who took the test in California, 72 percent met the standard in English, 51 percent in reading, 58 percent in mathematics and 41 percent in science. All percentages were higher than the corresponding nationwide averages.

These numbers have risen over the past few years, however. Between 2009 and 2013, the percentage of California high school students who met all four benchmarks for the test increased from 29 to 33 percent.

Daphne Chen is a news editor. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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The victim has been identified as Alberto Santana-Silva, a 21-year-old male from Fremont who is not affiliated with UC Berkeley, according to UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode.

UCPD officers responded around 5:38 a.m. to calls regarding shots fired near signpost 16, DeCoulode said.

Upon arriving at the scene, UCPD officers found the victim with gunshot wounds. He was next to his car, which was several yards away from where the shooting occurred. He was pronounced deceased at the scene by Berkeley Fire Department.

DeCoulode said a number of people were in the area when a disagreement or argument occurred, and Santana-Silva intervened and stopped the disagreement. A few people left, but within roughly 20 minutes, an unidentified person came back, walked up to Santana-Silva’s car and shot him multiple times.

According to DeCoulode, the investigation is ongoing.

Daphne Chen is the lead city government reporter. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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UC Berkeley student Jose Felix Mayen died in a car accident on the San Mateo Bridge approximately two weeks ago. He was 23.

On April 24, Mayen was driving a Toyota Corolla on Highway 92 on the side of the San Mateo Bridge when his car stalled. A black BMW station wagon rear-ended the Toyota, and a silver sedan rear-ended the BMW at 7:15 a.m., according to California Highway Patrol officer Art Montiel.

Shortly afterward, an ambulance transported Mayen to the Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he passed away the next day, Montiel said. The California Highway Patrol is still investigating the crash.

“When Jose passed, I had to make the announcement to let everyone know,” said Genevieve Negron-Gonzales, a UC Berkeley lecturer on global poverty and practice, in an email. “Several students commented that they were looking for him that morning because he was always there, on time, sitting near the front, with a warm smile. His absence was felt by all of us.”

At the age of 16, Mayen came to the United States from Guatemala, facing the challenges of learning a new language and adapting to a different culture. However, these difficulties did not stop him from excelling academically.

When Mayen entered his sophomore year at Menlo-Atherton High School, he knew little English and took English instruction classes, but by the time he was in his junior year, he had already caught up and was taking core English classes.

“He had a great sense of community,” said Stephen Ready, a bilingual resource teacher at Menlo-Atherton High School. “He was diligent about catching up, accelerating up as quickly as he could … In my 20 years as an educator, I have never known anyone like him.”

Before he came to UC Berkeley, Mayen attended Canada College, where he was heavily involved in many areas of campus life, such as serving as the vice president of the campus’ student government, working as a tutor for English learners and helping out at the reference desk in the library.

“We have a lot of students who start off the same way as Jose,” said David Patterson, a librarian at Canada College. “They’re immigrants, they have very little English and they have lots of dreams … Jose was able to do it. He was able to transfer to Berkeley.”

His passion for helping others led him to consider sociology as a major. Since he personally knew the challenges immigrants face upon coming to America, Mayen hoped to be an immigration lawyer, Patterson recalled. Even before he came to UC Berkeley, Mayen had already received his paralegal certificate.

One of the classes Mayen took at UC Berkeley was called “Educational Justice: Undocumented Migrant Students and Struggles to Remake ‘Citizenship.’”
“(Jose) saw himself as a member of a community and wanted to get involved in changing the conditions that make it so difficult for marginalized students to access a university education,” Negron-Gonzales said.

But beyond his academics, Mayen was also deeply committed to his family. When his father went into heart failure, he deferred his admission to UC Berkeley, according to Alicia Aguirre, mayor of Redwood City and a professor of Spanish literature at Canada College.

“He was just one of those students you loved having in class,” Aguirre said. “I challenge people to follow in his dreams, to do what you really believe in doing.”

Mayen is survived by his parents, his brother and his sister, who live in California.

Daphne Chen is the lead city government reporter. Contact her at daphnechen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @dchen_dc.

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