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

UC Berkeley will be hosting an earthquake preparedness drill at  noon on Wednesday as part of of Earthquake Preparedness Month, according to a message Chancellor Robert Birgeneau sent Oct. 2.

This October will mark the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck the San Fransisco Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989. Birgeneau urged the campus community to remember to some basic safety tips for how to respond in the event of that an earthquake occurs to reduce your chances of injury and death. (Click here to read more…)

Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Olympic Games, ousting bids from Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid said the International Olympic Committee.

“It is time to light the Olympic cauldron in a tropical country,” said Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.

Despite political lobbying by President Obama and the full support of the White House, Chicago was booted in the first round, before Tokyo, which had the lowest public backing in polls.
Former IOC member Kai Holm attributed the early cut to Obama’s rather brief appearance in Copenhagen, where the vote was held. Citing his visit as “too business-like” and saying that some IOC members may have seen it as a lack of respect, Holm said Obama’s actions could have set the U.S. back.

And the setbacks don’t just apply to the city’s defeat in favor of Rio—Chicago lost an estimated $100 million in the bidding process, said Robert Livingstone, an expert in Olympic selection procedures.

While Madrid made it to the last round, entreaties by the former IOC president of over two decades, Juan Antonio Samaranch, fell on deaf ears. The 89-year-old Samaranch tried to appeal to voters saying, “I am very near the end of my time,” but it wasn’t enough to sway results.

The announcement is a big win for Rio. Now they just have to come up with the capital—$2.82 billion for the games themselves, $11.1 billion for transportation, energy and security and another $200 million in upgrades.

“I think a lot of people look at the Olympics, and they try to justify it by how much money it adds to the economy,” Livingstone said. “(But) if you’re in this to make money and improve your economy, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.”

Via-CNN Money, Time and MSNBC

- Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato

Almost a week after the Sept. 24 UC-wide walkout to protest the budget cuts, roughly 200 students, union workers and teachers reassembled Wednesday on Lower Sproul Plaza to discuss the future of the movement.

The three-hour meeting unveiled a plan to hold a conference at UC Berkeley on Oct. 24. Organizers hope the event will assemble supporters from across California’s public education system, including teachers and students in grades K-12, community colleges and the state university system.

(Click here to read more…)

In addition to raising parking fees and adding meters (see the story in print), the Berkeley City Council also returned to the issue of affordable housing in its meeting Tuesday. The council voted to hold a workshop Oct. 27 to investigate methods of strengthening the city’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance.

By compiling a panel of experts and forming specific recommendations for the Planning Commission in the workshop, the council hopes to expedite the process of creating affordable housing throughout the city, council members said.

“I don’t think we can have the discussion in the council—I mean we could, but what good would it be?” Councilmember Susan Wengraf said. “I would rather wait a little bit and make sure that we have all the important information before us.”

Finally, the council also unanimously approved the completion of United Nations treaty reports by the city’s Peace and Justice Commission, which would detail Berkeley’s compliance with the UN’s Treaty recommendations.

Copies of the reports will be available to residents of Berkeley, as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

“The city of Berkeley is providing an example on a small scale that we are going to respect these treaties as much as we can,” Councilmember Kriss Worthington said. “In our small little way, we are going forward with this small, profoundly positive, inspirational step that is very important and creative.”

—Sarah Springfield

A daily roundup of the biggest headlines in Bay Area and national news.

The Senate Finance Committee rejected a pair of amendments to add a public option to health care legislation. The amendments, which were both proposed by Democratic senators, were shot down after a half-day of debate on Tuesday afternoon. Several other bills containing a government-run plan are making the rounds through Congress. via NYTimes. (Click here to read more…)

UC Berkeley astronomy professor James R. Graham is currently developing a new optics system—called the Gemini Planet Imager—that will be used for taking pictures of planets in far-off solar systems, according to the College of Letters and Science’s ScienceMatters@Berkeley publication.

Graham, who is working on the system’s design with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory colleague Bruce Macintosh, began the project to solve distortion problems with current telescopic photos. Graham experienced such distortion firsthand after analyzing a 2004 Hubble Space Telescope photo, which contained streaks of distortion.

The distortion is caused by pockets of warm air in the atmosphere. Since light is conveyed faster through these pockets than the cold air around it, the resulting telescopic image becomes smeared. Graham’s design uses thin mirrors that bend and filter out the distortion caused by the atmosphere.

The system is being developed for the Gemini Observatory’s 8-meter telescopes, and will allow astronomers to take direct pictures of extrasolar planets. The project, which will cost $18 million, was started in 2003 and is scheduled to be operational by 2011.

–Michael Garcia

UC Berkeley’s NewsCenter issued a press release today about a new initiative to revamp breast cancer treatment. UC Berkeley is one of the six UC campuses participating in the effort, called the ATHENA Breast Health Network.

To kick off the initiative, approximately 150,000 women will be screened for breast cancer. The five UC medical centers will then track the women for multiple decades. According to the release, the study’s large size may significantly improve breast cancer prevention.

As part of the study, UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco researchers will collect data on physician preferences, treatment choices and clinical outcomes. UC Berkeley researchers at the School of Public Health are also developing an “evidence-based” system to manage patient care.

The project is funded by a $5.3 million grant from the University of California, as well as a $4.8 million grant from the Safeway Foundation. Several other organizations are collaborating with the university on the project, including the Northern California Cancer Center, the National Cancer Institute and the Center for Medical Technology Policy.

–Michael Garcia

UC Berkeley researchers released a report today that analyzes energy efficiency measures in the American Clean Energy and Security Act, according to the Sacramento Business Journal. The act, which has been passed by the House of Representatives, could create up to 1.9 million new jobs (Click here to read more…)