Californians will face a number of choices on the June 8 ballot. One is Proposition 15, an initiative which, if enacted, will impose fees on registered lobbyists in California and use the additional revenue to provide funding for political campaigns in the state. Initially sponsored by Sen. Loni Hancock (D-Oakland), the proposal launches a pilot program that will only apply to political campaigns for the Office of Secretary of State in 2014 and 2018. Hancock said the people of California will benefit from Prop. 15 as well as those considering running for secretary of state who do not want to spend years of their life “dialing for dollars.”

When the men’s basketball team needed an offensive spark, they turned to Julian Welch. The 6’3″ guard from Elk Grove, Calif. consistently showed an ability to break down opposing defenses off the dribble while also punishing teams with his long-range shooting.

Last year, when UC Davis came up short to UC Santa Barbara at the 2009 Big West Conference Championships, something clicked in Scott Weltz’s head. “We realized we were a really good team,” Weltz said. “This year, coach [Pete] Motekaitis was telling us that it was in our hands to win championships.”

The recent release of recommendations for computer configurations from UC Davis’s Information and Education Technology department outlines what specifications students should have to achieve maximum functionality. The list, the Recommended Computer Configurations for 2010-2011, has key changes from previous versions. It orients students to have more RAM (random-access memory), bigger hard-drives and a new operating system (for both Macs and PCs). Outdated computers run the risk of not meeting campus cyber security policy, and not achieving desirable functionality both on and off campus.

Tanya Ho has made major contributions to the UC Davis gymnastics team in her four-year career. The senior out of Elk Grove, Calif. has won a total of nine Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week honors since her freshman campaign. She has also captured 13 All-MPSF nods, including vault and all-around for four straight years. Last year she was even named the conference Gymnast of the Year.

Heidi Heintz has made quite an impression. In her first season on the court for UC Davis, the Spokane, Wash. local led the team with a .486 field goal percentage and a .856 free-throw percentage while placing second in points (10.8) and rebounds (4.5) per game.

Players that give maximum effort on every play are rare, but the men’s basketball team has one in Joe Harden. Harden, the Notre Dame transfer from Acampo, Calif., put together another solid season offensively, coming in third on the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game while shooting 43 percent from the floor.

In a season marred by injuries, the men’s basketball team had to adapt to new lineups throughout the season. One thing that never changed was center Dominic Calegari.

Junior wrestler Barrett Abel had a strong junior season on the mat as he finished No. 14 in the country and won the Aggies’ first individual Pac-10 title since 2007 at the 149-pound slot. This feat cashed Abel’s ticket to his second straight national championship tournament.

Not only is Katie Yamamura the first UC Davis freshman to break the 39-point barrier in the all-around, she is also the first Aggie to pass that mark more than once. After winning the floor exercise (9.750) and placing second both on balance beam (9.600) and in the all-around (38.575) in her college debut, Yamamura was named the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week for the first time. She received the same accolades three more times throughout the season – Feb. 9, Mar. 16 and 23.

There’s dominance and then there’s Paige Mintun. The junior out of Valley Center, Calif. was rewarded for her stellar performance when she was named to the All-Big West Conference first team for the second consecutive year. “People might not know how difficult it is to win that award once, let alone twice in two years,” said coach Sandy Simpson.

So I was standing in line at SaveMart, buying my usual DiGiorno pizza, when I saw a Cosmopolitan magazine. Of course, there was some half-naked woman on the cover looking at me like I was a DiGiorno pizza. What made it even more uncomfortable was the fact it was Lady Gaga. (I think I’m the only person on the face of the Earth that hasn’t gone gaga over Gaga. Her outfits are stupid and her songs bug me. What the hell is a disco stick? Why don’t you just turn off your phone when you’re at a club? What if I just dance and things aren’t okay?)