A lack of funding and resources in America’s public education system has made a large impact on public schools in low-income areas. The absence of properly trained teachers is one reason why children in those areas receive poor levels of education. Teach For America seeks to eliminate this problem. In an effort to close the country’s achievement gap, the nationwide TFA program recruits and trains highly motivated individuals to teach in these disadvantaged regions. “By the time children in low-income levels are nine, they are back three grade levels. I had fourth graders who couldn’t read [the] Harry Potter [series],” said Amber Saloner, Pacific Coastal Senior Recruitment Director for TFA. “We want to equip them. We want you to empower the students,” she said.

The Sacramento Municipal Utility Districtunveiled a new solar-powered hydrogen refueling station on S Street on Apr. 1 for use in the district’s participation in a Department of Energy program. The station boasts $1.7 million worth of solar panels paid for by SMUD as well as another $1.7 million in hydrogen refueling equipment paid for by the DOE and British Petroleum. The renewable energy source will refuel hydrogen fuel cell vehicles driven by SMUD employees on district business. “The solar ray is keeping with SMUD’s history of supporting solar,” said Bill Boyce, supervisor of SMUD’s electric transportation group. “We’ve been a strong solar utility for over 20 years.”

I’m probably the lamest role model out there. For one thing, I love settling for mediocrity. All those camp counselors out there are probably thinking, “Well, she’s certainly not going to get anywhere with that attitude,” and they’re probably right, so suck it. I played the violin for 12 years, and all I got out of it was a CMEA medal that I had to buy myself. I also run this column, but I’ve never written anything worthy of a literary magazine or a scholarship. I don’t even understand why, considering I write so good.     My two life mottos are “It could be worse,” and “Good enough is good enough,” both of which have nothing to do with being your best because most of the time, you’re not. There will be someone out there who is smarter, faster, stronger and more gorgeous than you. And they probably have whiter teeth too and donate more money to charity or something.

The Social Security Administration has recently made revisions to their no-match letter in hopes of overturning a previous injunction that prevents them from using it. The injunction was instated because civil rights groups had protested the letter, which informs employers that an employee’s given social security number does not match their name. The new letter informs employers that a non-matching social security number can mean that the employee is an undocumented immigrant. This revision includes an explanation of this information, which they hope will be satisfactory to repeal the injunction.

Social networking websites such as facebook.com and myspace.com have become a staple of our culture among teens and young adults. With such a plethora of information and multimedia readily available on the Internet, it’s not hard to believe a business owner or employer would use such resources to dig up more information about prospective employees.

Student-led construction is ongoing for a new community center for the UC Davis Domes community. Construction of the new community center started approximately two months ago, and the builders anticipate the structure will be finished during the summer. The Domes is a cooperative living community located on the west side of campus. There are 28 students residing in the Domes, which was built in the 1970s. Currently, the builders are nearly finished with the floor and heating system. Today will mark a new stage in the project, as concrete will be poured over the existing structure.

While Proposition 215, passed by California voters in 1996, allows patients to possess and cultivate marijuana for medicinal use, not all counties in the state are accepting of the discrepancy with federal law. In a 3-2 vote last month, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors rejected a medical marijuana identification card program, mandated by Senate Bill 420 in 2003 to address vague provisions of the initial law. The county is one of 18 in the state that has not yet adopted the state program. Advocates say the ID cards help all parties involved by identifying patients who have a legal right to possess medical marijuana based on a physician’s recommendation. “What the ID card does is give a legal patient an easy way to identify themselves, should they be questioned,” said Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s simply something that makes life easier for both patients and police.”

TODAY Chemistry Club meeting 5 to 7 p.m. 179 Chemistry Get involved with this club’s popular Picnic Day magic show! To participate in the show, you must attend the meeting or e-mail the president at snavarro@ucdavis.edu. Wildlife Society meeting 6 p.m. 1227 Haring Geography graduate student Megan Wyman will give a talk on her research of bison communication.

In the Apr. 4 issue of The California Aggie, the article “Bahá’í Club at UC Davis hosts Unity Concert” states that there are 9,200 Bahá’í in the Davis community. This is incorrect. The actual number is 90 to 100. The Aggie regrets the error.XXX

hat if someone told you that you were emitting hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide per year? Say, 225,200 tons of carbon dioxide? That’s the question the city of Davis is currently facing. According to figures developed by the city’s Climate Action Team, Davis emitted 225,200 equivalent tons of carbon dioxide in 1990. By 2015, if things were to continue without change, the number would jump to 313,006 tons. These numbers were presented to the Davis City Council on Apr. 1 as part of a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The inventory found that 57 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in Davis come from transportation. Another 23 percent of the emissions come from the residential sector and an additional 20 percent from commercial activity. So far the projections are only based on data from 1990.

On Mar. 31, a lawsuit was filed against the Apple Corporation for allegedly deceiving the public and customers by exaggerating and ultimately falsely advertising the capabilities of its new 20-inch iMac monitor. The class-action suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in San Jose by Los Angeles based law firm Kabatek Brown Kellner LLP, a plaintiffs-only firm that is “always on the consumers’ side.” In a press release about the suit, Kabatek Brown Kellner claims that Apple has “grossly inflated the capabilities of its monitor” even though it is inferior to previous generations and the new 24-inch iMacs. Apple told consumers the 20-inch iMac and 24-inch iMac displayed “millions of colors at all resolutions,” which is only true in the case of the 24-inch iMac and previous generations of the 20-inch iMac. In actuality, the new 20-inch only displays 262,144 colors, 98 percent fewer than the 16,777,316 colors on the 24-inch.

This month’s “Sexual Assault Awareness” theme is designed to open the eyes of many students with events around campus to raise awareness. Many organizations, such as Students Against Sexual Violence, the Campus Violence Prevention Program (CVPP) and the Women’s Resources and Research Center (WRRC), will be sponsoring the month’s events. A viewing of the film Searching for Angela Shelton will be shown today at 8 p.m. in 123 Science Lecture. The film reveals the journey of a filmmaker named Angela Shelton who travels the United States in search of other Angela Sheltons and discovers that 24 out of the 40 Sheltons had been raped, beaten or molested. “It’s really important for women to watch this film and that we create a community of women on campus where they feel comfortable enough to talk about these issues, like Angela Shelton did in the film,” said Courtney Laliberte, a volunteer for CVPP who helped organize the event.