At this week’s ASUC Senate meeting, senators heard a warning from Finance Officer Alan Ni regarding their financial situation. He said there is less than 9 percent of funds left in the senate’s contingency fund, which is allocated in the spring for the senate to distribute throughout the semester.

Last week, Ni reported that 63 percent of the contingency fund remained. The senate spent about $9,000 at its meeting last week, which was almost 40 percent of the fund, according to Ni. Last week’s meeting was the first full meeting at which the senate could conduct official business since Sept. 23 due to a delay in confirming Ni to the finance officer position.

Ni said he would be writing a bill in the next few days to replenish the contingency fund with money from the carryforward fund, which serves as the senate’s reserve. He added that he thinks the senate needs better guidelines for approving bills.

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As part of its new training program, the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory will accept four apprentice electricians on Nov. 2.

The training program was set up by the lab and Alameda County, and apprentices in the county can fulfill some of their required 8,000 hours of training at the lab.

Lawrence Berkeley Lab’s chief operating officer Jim Krupnick and business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Local 595 union Victor Uno came up with the idea, and  The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Northern chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association sponsored the apprentice training program.

UC Berkeley doctoral student Stacy Jackson, who conducts research at the Energy & Resources Group at UC Berkeley, said world leaders meeting in Copenhagen for the December climate summit should address the use of other pollutants like soot and ozone.

The summit is said to focus on limiting carbon dioxide emissions in its treaty, but Jackson said soot to ozone  are also major contributors to global warming. She said it would be beneficial to set up institutional frameworks that deal with these pollutants too before the anticipated “threshold” in which climate change would be irreversible .

UC Berkeley professor of energy and resources Daniel Kammen and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School research scholar Timothy Searchinger reveled an important, yet fixable, error in legal accounting rules for bioenergy in the Oct. 23 issue of Science.

The error could undermine efforts to reduce greenhouse gases by encouragaing deforestation. Since burning of bioenergy and fossil energy releases high amounts of carbon dioxide, increased plant growth is needed to offset the emissions. Plants grown specifically for bioenergy will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Nations are currently developing a global climate treaty for the December summit in Copenhagen, and scientists said legal rules for bioenergy included in the treaty will impact climate change.

“As we approach the most important climate treaty negotiations in history, it is vital that technologies, such as biofuels, that are proposed as solutions to global warming, are properly evaluated,” said Kammen.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an acoustic hyperlens that can increase the magnification power of ultrasound and underwater sonar devices.

The acoustic hyperlens is made from 36 brass fins which are arranged in the shape of a hand-held fan.

The hyperlens resolves details by capturing information contained in evanescent waves, which carry more details and higher resolution than propagating waves, and manipulating imaging sound wave.

Support for hyperlens research came from the Office of Naval Research, which promotes science and technology programs of the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and provides technical advice to the Chief of Naval Operations and the Secretary of the Navy.

The Berkeley City Council passed a resolution calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan at Tuesday night’s meeting.

The resolution received considerable support from Berkeley residents and members of anti-war protest group Code Pink who held up signs saying “Stop Killing Americans Abroad,” while speakers in favor of the resolution came to the podium.

The resolution was passed by all council members except for one, Gordon Wozniak, who abstained.

UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy will a $5 million grant that officials say will “help protect the prestigious school’s national standing during the economic crisis.”

The grant is from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, which has now invested a total of $15 million into the public policy school.

“With this generous new gift, the Goldman School will increase its international outreach, incorporate more science and technology, especially information technology, into the curriculum, and expand its ability to train future policy leaders as well as policy analysts,” said Henry Brady, the school’s dean, in a statement.

Set against the backdrop of a home football game against Washington State this past weekend, Party Safe @ Cal sponsored Sober Weekend, a challenge held out to UC Berkeley students to commit to staying sober for the weekend.

The Tang Center program, which is part of Collegiate Alcohol Awareness week, urged students to pledge that they would not drink during the weekend, regardless of Saturday being a game day.

Karen Hughes, coordinator of the Party Safe @ Cal program said she feels the program is important in deconstructing the belief that alcohol is essential at college football games.

“The alcohol beverage industry has spent millions building an association between the two-largely to target/educate young males,” said Hughes.

Hughes said the program is an opportunity for indivduals to change habits.

“I think of Sober Weekend as a “cousin” to The Great American Smoke-Out and TV Turn-Off Week,” Hughes said. “This is a chance for individuals to mindfully change a behavior/habit for a finite period in order to see if in a new light. This can lead to longer term change.”

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According to the Berkeley Daily Planet, longtime AC Transit General Manager Rick Fernandez, who has held the position for ten years, announced his resignation last week with little prior notice. When exactly his resignation will become effective is still under discussion.

In a statement released by the district, Fernandez claimed personal reasons—including wanting to spend more time with his family—as the cause for his resignation.

Despite having done what AC Transit President Rocky Fernandez described as an “outstanding job for our riders, our staff and the taxpayers who support our bus system” in a statement to the Berkeley Daily Planet, there has been speculation that the resignation has come as a result of the AC Transit’s bleak fiscal outlook and internal politics.

The agency’s $57 million deficit is expected to result in service cuts, including the discontinuation of 17 bus routes in West Contra Costa County and North Alameda County, and a decrease in the frequency of other routes.

— Sarah Springfield

In an advertisement on Craigslist, UC Berkeley has taken “affordable housing” to a new level, asking only $1 each for two homes located on campus, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.

After laying down $100,001—the price of the land and deposit to ensure commitment— the new owners would be required to remove the 100-year old buildings from the site along College Avenue, a feat which may prove troublesome and expensive considering a mass of old trees in the area.
If no buyer is found, the site may be retained by the university and eventually turned into a parking lot, according to a CBS5 report.

— Sarah Springfield