Happy Memorial Day Weekend, Aggies!
Or happy houseboats, whatever floats your boat. Enjoy a well deserved recovery Monday before the home stretch, two weeks to go! Graduating seniors, savor it.
Here’s what you need to know this week…
Campus:
UC Davis Office of Compliance opens investigation into use of force — a video of UC Davis police restraining a woman outside of the bookstore prompted public outcry and investigation. After a woman allegedly shoplifted from the UC Davis bookstore, video captured campus police officers pinning the woman to the floor where she was heard screaming that she couldn’t breathe after being restrained by a garment. After the video spread on Twitter and Wildfire, the ASUCD Executive Office released a statement via Facebook.
“The police are not attempting to calm her down in the video,” the statement said. “Police should be utilizing de-escalation tactics and intervention with mental health specialists and counselors, instead of brute force to pin someone, a [Chicanx/Latinx] woman of colour, down against her will after explicitly expressing she had PTSD.”
An investigation by a department not affiliated to the UC Davis Police Department is now under way.
“Any time there’s a use of force in this police department, we have to go back and thoroughly review and critique the actions of our officers,” UC Davis Police Chief Joseph Farrow said. “Use of force always looks bad — it just does, and this one has really gathered the attention of a lot of people, probably our entire community.” Read on.
City:
CalFresh soon to come to California Community Colleges — CA Assembly Bill 612 approved to implement the food financial aid program for all 114 state community colleges. With rising tuition rates and costs of living, students are increasingly facing food and housing insecurities. Following the implementation of CalFresh at UC and CalState schools — which offers students with resources and helps to decrease the time to get approved for the low-income government food program — AB 612 aims to replicate the program’s success at the CC level.
“The fact that exists now is that more than half of our students have been food insecure over the last year,” said Larry Galizio, the president/CEO of the Community College League of California. Read on.
Features:
No Prob-Llama — forget therapy dogs. The UC Davis Mental Health Initiative brought four llamas to the Quad to kick off Mental Health Awareness Month. In addition to getting to pet and interact with llamas, students fed them carrots, passing them off between their teeth — a foolproof way to better your mental health.
“It had a very positive impact on students and their mental health. Everyone was so excited to be petting and taking pictures with the llamas, and I heard people talking about it for the next week at least,” Judd, a fourth-year animal science major, said. “It really put a smile on everyone’s face.” Read on.
Arts and Culture:
Mac Demarco performs at Ace of Spades— a collab art’s desk review. Half the art’s desk went to the Mac Demarco concert, they all shared their thoughts, here are a few:
Liz Jacobson: “His charisma and personality made me blush. He is definitely someone I would want as my beer die partner. So comfortable on stage in his gym shorts and cowboy hat, as he grinned ear-to-ear; I swayed with my friends to his “jizz jazz” style music and Bob Dylan-like voice.”
Clay Allen Rogers shared “the good”, “the bad”, and “the ugly” of the night: “The Bad: Getting denied access to the bar because I picked up an empty beer can on the street and threw it away in the recycling bin outside of Ace of Spades. According to the arbiter at the door, those are the signs of pregaming. Thanks guy, I’ll stick to the psychedelics.”
Caroline Rutten: “I banged my head as much as I hugged my close friends around me; watching “My Kind of Woman” performed live will stay with me for a while,” … “my future husband.”
Rosie Schwarz: “Everyone was entranced by DeMarco’s goofy yet passionate stage presence and catchy music, and once the show ended, everyone was still in awe by the incredible performance they had witnessed.”
Sports:
Horse racing — what a recent increase in horse deaths means for the future of the sport. Twenty-four horses have died at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, Calif. since last December, raising an investigation. The suspected cause, Lasix, a drug commonly used in high-level racehorses in the U.S..
“It is very common that many horses have a condition called exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage,” said Dr. Rick Arthur, the Equine Medical director at the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis and full-time member of the California Horse Racing Board. “When they are at peak performance, the alveoli [in the lungs] bleed because of high blood pressure. Furosemide [Lasix], got started by being prescribed in humans to lower blood pressure many years ago [and is used for the same reason in racing horses].”
The total of $165 million was wagered at this year’s Kentucky Derby, a 10% increase from last year, according to the New York Post. These deaths pose a threat to the valued $39 billion racing industry. Read on.
Science:
Parasites — UC Davis nibbling away at discovery. UC Davis researchers have discovered an amoeba called Entamoeba histolytica, a parasite that “nibbles” on human cells and display human proteins on their surfaces in order to evade the human body’s immune response and sneak into the bloodstream.
“We’re not only learning about entamoeba itself, but we’re also further understanding the fact that this nibbling process, trogocytosis […] might be a overarching theme in cell biology in eukaryotic cells,” said Rene Suleiman, a third year microbiology student. “So we know that immune cells do this, and now we know entamoeba and other species of amoeba do this process as well, so I mean I would want people to be excited about it and maybe come up with more questions of how we could study it.”
Doesn’t that just make your skin crawl? Read on.
Culture Corner — Liz’s Weekly Picks
Television: “Schitt’s Creek”
Movie: “Obvious Child”
Book: “The Houseguest and Other Stories” by Amparo Dávila
Album: “Cuz I Love You” by Lizzo
Opinion:
Editorial — “Watch your drinks in wake of drugging incidents at Davis bars”
Humor — “DC hosts houseboats-themed meal with only dino chicken nuggets, alcohol”
Column — “Gen Z doesn’t suck”
That’s all for this week. Check back next Friday.
— Grace Simmons
