California Gov. Jerry Brown praised students for making a difference in the last election, and encouraged them to continue their activism to improve the world, in his keynote speech at Monday’s political-science graduation.
State & local archive
From high school dropout to U.S. Gates Cambridge scholar 
April 16, 2013: Justin Park dropped out of high school, but he never lost his love of literature and learning. After 20 years as a bartender, bike messenger and military man, Park returned to school at UC Berkeley, graduated — and now has been selected as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, a top world honor.
New report: California lags in fracking regs
April 12, 2013: A new report on fracking in California warns of potentially irreversible contamination of surface and groundwater near oil drilling sites, unless the technique is carefully monitored and controlled. “Regulation of Hydraulic Fracturing in California: A Wastewater and Water Quality Perspective” is an independent analysis produced by Berkeley Law scholars.
Connected Corridors aims to up efficiency of existing roadways
March 18, 2013: Connected Corridors, a project led by engineering profs Alex Bayen and Roberto Horowitz, is developing technologies to help Caltrans gather and analyze traffic data. A goal of the research: to make existing roadways more efficient, rather than launching new highway-construction projects.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to keynote 2013 commencement
February 27, 2013: Berkeley’s Class of 2013 has chosen Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to be keynote speaker at its May 18 Commencement Convocation at Memorial Stadium. Gladys Hernandez, senior class council president, said the council put the ’86 alum “at the top of the list” of possible convocation speakers. Wozniak is currently chief scientist for the data-storage company Fusion-io.
Policy experts, health care leaders offer landmark roadmap for better health care at lower cost
February 26, 2013: An unprecedented, year-long collaborative effort involving policy experts from UC Berkeley, CEOs of major health insurers and health care delivery systems, and leaders from California’s public sector has produced a detailed roadmap that would transform the state’s health care system and improve care and outcomes while saving billions of dollars in the process.
Committed to cutting kilowatts, and heck on wheels
February 26, 2013: After staffing the campus’s myPower program by day, Erin Fenley dons quad speed skates, protective gear and the signature tie-dye T of Berkeley Resistance, a roller-derby team in a highly ranked all-female league. “You can’t do it timidly,” she says of the intense sport of choice for a “strange sorority of women from all over the world.”
Newts, up close and (very) personal 

February 11, 2013: For a front-row view of a biological spectacle, newt love, there’s no better spectator stand than the banks of the UC Botanical Garden’s Japanese Pool, and no better time than now. Docents are on hand at specified times to explain the life-cycle and mating rituals of these lively and fascinating amphibians.
Spring 2013 coming attractions: Chinese rock ‘n roll, The Secret Garden, your Canis familiaris
January 29, 2013: From visits by prominent Chinese and Taiwanese artists to a new opera based on the children’s novel The Secret Garden to talks on understanding the family dog and feeding the world’s soon-to-be 9 billion mouths, UC Berkeley’s spring calendar boasts events to engage, entertain and explain.
In tradition of Ed Roberts, youth with disabilities urged to think big
January 23, 2013: Local high school students with disabilities were urged to consider higher education, even UC Berkeley, as within their reach, at a campus event celebrating California’s annual Ed Roberts Day, Jan. 23. A take-home message: “your presence is going to matter to the University and the world.”
President Yudof to end his tenure in August
January 18, 2013: Mark Yudof will step down as president of the University of California effective Aug. 31. He announced his decision in a Jan. 18 statement. Chancellor Birgeneau issues a statement praising his leadership.
Prize highlights young economist’s steady, bold trajectory
January 16, 2013: BERKELEY — UC Berkeley economist Ulrike Malmendier could have chosen any number of career paths. After all, she speaks six languages, is fascinated with Latin and Greek, and loves physics and math. While working on a Ph.D. in law, another focus of her eclectic interests, she took a modern-economics course and that changed everything. Malmendier set off to explore the [...]
Prop. 30 and how to sell a tax hike
January 14, 2013: In what even Republicans have called a “coup,” Gov. Jerry Brown’s Prop. 30, a California initiative to raise taxes by roughly $6 billion a year, won with 55 percent of the vote in the November 2012 election. Berkeley’s Ethan Rarick analyzes that rare accomplishment — selling a tax hike — in “Policy Options Journal.”
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