“Tick tock,Doc,tick tock.” This Seattle-based murder mystery stirs the blood and startles the senses with its time sensitivity,but lacks the intellectual analysis that seems appropriate for a movie with a forensic psychiatrist as the lead character (Al Pacino). Jon Forster (Neal McDonough)known as the“Seattle Slayer,” is sentenced to death row by Dr.Jack Gramm’s (Pacino) testimony to a jury based solely on circumstantial evidence.Nine years later and12hours before Forster’s execution,Gramm receives a phone call from adigitallyaltered voice telling him he has88minutes to live. The audience does not find out the significance of88minutes until much later in the film.Upon this revelation,the viewer isin for a much-needed mental exercise toreview the events thus far and piece together how murders identical to the “Seattle Slayer’s” keep occurring.

Unlike most students, UC Davis’ R4 recycling program was hard at work throughout Saturday combating the largest Picnic Day ever with one of their largest recycling events ever. The Quad, Fire Station and the entire ASUCD Coffee House featured food booths using strictly compostable or recyclable materials with the goal of minimizing waste and recycling everything. The Quad was the area most at risk of wasted recycling opportunities; due to the record number of Picnic Day goers, trashcans throughout the university were overflowing. But Zero Waste coordinator Michael Siminitus and his group saw it coming, and were prepared for the rush. “We handled the Quad better than any of our areas because we had staffed collection stations. We did have to have trash cans because people brought food in with them, some of which contained Styrofoam, but overall we diverted a great deal of waste to recycling or compost,” he said.

With a sagging economy, the dollar cannot buy much. But cobble together $100 worth of change from your La-Z-Boy, and you can multiply your 15 minutes of fame by four while supporting freeform community radio. The annual KDVS 90.3 FM fundraiser kicked off Monday and will last until Sunday at midnight. The weeklong fundraiser is the only time of the year that KDVS actively seeks contributions from their listeners. The 24-hour, volunteer-run radio station derives two-thirds of its annual budget from this weeklong fundraiser, said general manager and junior technocultural studies major Ben Johnson.

Heading into the final round of the Big West Conference Championships Tuesday,theUC Davis men’s golf team was tied with top-ranked UC Irvine at5-under. The rest of the season hung on this last round of golf. AndAggies junior Nate Pistacchio wasn’t ready to go home. TheFresno native shot a68in his final round,en route to a third-placeindividualfinish with a final score of5-under-211.Pistacchio would later be named First Team All-Conference for the first time in his collegiate career. “Nate has always been the hardest worker on the team and he deserves it,“ head coach Cy Williamssaid. “He had a great tournament.

Triumphing inPennsylvania,a state oftenassociatedwith the birth of many American narratives,SenatorHillaryClinton proclaimed that “the tide is turning.“ Shemight haveenvisioned the aptness of her candidacy’s rebirth.But it wasn’t a rebirth.It was the prolonging ofafutile process,the Democrats‘ proportionate delegatesystemrendering her catching-upin the pledged delegate count impossible. Yet by choosing to continue,she is damaging her fellow Democrat’s reputation and amplifying her own negatives,allwhile increasing Senator John McCain’selectoral chances.Should these factorsultimatelycoalesce toelect McCain to office,liberalism would have lost a monumental opportunity to redefineand reassertitself. Butfirstlet’s examine liberalism’s fall from grace. Liberalism’s downturn,in many ways,is testament to the Republican Party’s political acumen and their messages‘ coherence.Through superior organization and unrelenting discipline,a Republican nominee has occupied the White House for all but12out of the last40years.Thisstatisticisn’t trivial.It demonstrates the Republican’s uncannyability to win elections.

It’s been a busy week for the concert-goers as Freeborn Hall hosted two shows in two days: First the Canadian identicals Tegan andSara with the Aussies,An Horse; then Death Cab for Cutie and The Cave Singers came. Attending two back-to-back concerts, similar in taste and most likely drawing an overlapping crowd, might make some double-nighters feel like experts. I went to the front of the line at Death Cab for Cutie and was advised to sign up my friends to take shifts waiting in line. When I askedsophomore communication major Alexandra Garabedian if she was a really dedicated fan since she had been camping out since10:30a.m., she threw me a curveball.

With all the new construction that has taken place in the past several years,Davisstillhas more history to preserve than meets the eye. On Monday, the Historic Resources Management Commission announced their nominees for their annual preservation appreciation awards.The nominees will be presented tothe Davis City Council in May in honor of National Historic Preservation month. The nominees include Richard Berteaux, architect, UC Davis professor emeritus and former commissioner,whohas done volunteer work, historic preservation and reuse projects including the Davis Civic Center Gymnasium,the Third and A project Grieve-Asbill House and the Hattie Weber Museum.The Sierra Railroad Company nominated the A.J. Plant House located at221FirstSt.,and the Old North Davis Neighborhood Association nominated the Craftsman Bungalow located at 643 F St.

The Sodexho food-service worker controversy hasbeen present on the campus foryears.Those in favor of UC Davis employing food service workers argued that workers deserved health care and improved benefits and that the university was underhanded in contracting out their employment.Those in favor of the status quo argued that a minority of workers were dissatisfied andthatthe cost of employing workers was prohibitive.Both sides had valid points,and it would have been easy for the campusofficials to declare a stalemate.However,the UCD administration took this issue seriously and embarked on a lengthy study of its options to address the problem. Throughout the process, UC Davis officials have been guided by twoworthyprinciples:making decisions based on factual research,and improving the situation to both student and worker satisfaction.While not everyone may becompletelysatisfied by the outcome,the compromisingsolution the university has reached ishighlysensible and ethical.Food-service workers will become university employees while Sodexho will continue to manage operations.

ith an estimated 300,000 people dead and over 2,000,000 more displaced from their homes, the conflict in Darfur has now reached the five-year mark and is still raging. In response to the ongoing situation, the UC Davis chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, is trying to make a difference any way it can. On Friday, STAND will host its second annual “Dining for Darfur,” a fully-catered fundraising dinner. All proceeds will go directly to the Genocide Intervention Network to be used for civilian protection for refugees in Darfur and Chad. The dinner will be held in the ARC Ballroom, and doors open at 6 p.m. “‘Dining for Darfur’ is the perfect way for the average student to help the people [in refugee camps],” said Rachel Goldstein, sophomore international relations major and vice-president of the UC Davis chapter of STAND.

o apparently there’s a food crisis. The increased prices of staple foods such as corn (up 49 percent globally over 12 months), rice (up 75 percent) and wheat (up 130 percent)are wreaking havoc across the globe. But, being a rich American capable of offsetting those increases, they don’t scare me. What does scare me is the global system of food production which underlies them. The fact that this issue is being framed as a “food” crisis indicates the depth of the cultural problem we face: Biblical Dominionism. Dominionism is rarely invoked outright, but our culture’s resource gathering methods are rooted deep in that whole “subdue the earth,” “be fruitful and multiply” thing. What comes out of this is the notion that man and the environment are at odds with one another, and that the environment stifles human progress

Davis residents have a desire to preserve the open-space and agricultural areas of their community; it was this thinking that led to the passage of Measure J in2000.Measure J requires voter approval for any proposed urban developmenton open-space or agricultural land and is currently on track to expire in2010.Whether the measure will be renewed or not will be determined by theDavisCity Council. Because of this,the upcomingCity Councilelection is attracting a great deal of attention fromDavis locals who want candidates to make their positions on Measure J clear.The six CityCouncil hopefuls have thus far avoided doing so at City Council meetings.

The city of Davis is trying to decide where it should grow. A report detailing potential housing development sites inDavis was presented to the Davis City Council and Planning Commission in a joint meeting Tuesday.The report lists 36 sites inDavis that could be developed as housing before2 013. “This is a tool for the City Council,but it‘s also the means by which the City Councild etermines what growth policy they‘re going to pursue,“ said planning commission chair Greg Clumpner. The study and report were completed by the Housing Element Steering Committee,a15-member body appointed by members of the City Council. The sites were ranked by how well they met a set of principles selected by the steering committee, including whether they promoted a compact urban form,were close to existing facilities and were close to campus.The committee also evaluated sites based on whether they could provide compact,high-density housing and promote walking and bicycle use.