Football fans who are accustomed to taking AC Transit to and from Cal games should expect a change in service beginning this Saturday, when the Bears take on the University of Maryland at Memorial Stadium.

AC Transit officials announced Monday that the transit agency will be discontinuing its supplemental buses that are used to transport thousands of fans on game days. The buses run along the popular 51 line, picking up fans at the Rockridge BART station, the Amtrak Station at Third Street and University Avenue, and a stop in Downtown Berkeley.

The reasoning behind the decision: AC Transit’s severe budget deficit, which stands at $57 million and has led officials to seek fare increases and service reductions. In total, AC Transit loses $200,000 per season by running the supplemental buses, a cost that could not be incurred this year.

“Without a full subsidy from UC Berkeley, AC Transit has no alternative,” said AC Transit spokesperson Clarence Johnson in a statement.

Johnson could not be reached for comment Monday.

Fans will still be able to commute to games using a new fleet of buses contracted by Cal Athletics to supplement AC Transit service, which had operated in conjunction with UC Berkeley for over 30 years. (Bus lines will stop at Rockridge and the Amtrak station, and another route will run to and from Pittsburg, Calif.)

The new service, which will include 30 buses serving the Rockridge and Amtrack stops, will cost fans a $5 flat rate for a round-trip ticket, said Herb Benenson, director of media relations for Cal Athletics. One way service will cost $3, and riders will also be able to reserve tickets ahead of time at www.calbearsbus.com

Looks like UC President Mark Yudof is not the only executive of a higher education institution that is being subject to a no-confidence vote by his employees. The faculty members at a two-year college in Maryland have done the same for their own president.

-Angelica Dongallo

Bones from Japanese war-dead have become the center of a dispute between the UC Berkeley administration and government critics who are calling for the immediate repatriation of the remains, the San Francisco Chronicle  reported.

Collected by a U.S. Navy doctor at the Battle of Saipan and later donated to the campus from a private collector, the bones are currently stored at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. State legislative officials and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called the continued presence of the remains an outrage that should be resolved as soon as possible.

Museum officials countered the criticism by saying the remains were used for federally-funded research in 1995 and 1998, the Chronicle reported.

A federal judge has blocked the construction of a new UC Berkeley computer research center unless further environmental impact studies are performed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the project, which would serve a new home for U.S. Department of Energy supercomputers, will be controlled by the federal government, and therefore needs additional government studies before construction can begin.

Alsup issued an injunction in March, stopping the $113 million project until he could reach a ruling. According to the Chronicle, UC Berkeley is disappointed but reviewing its options.

A federal judge set Jan. 11 as the starting date for a case challenging the constitutionality of California’s same-sex marriage ban, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker also allowed the City of San Francisco to join the case, citing the city’s claim that denying same-sex couples the right to marry increases social service and health care costs. However, the judge rejected the requests for gay-rights groups and pro-Prop 8. groups to join the suit.