City News

The mood at Emerson Jr. High’s Carnival at Cannery Park this weekend was especially jovial in light of the school board’s Apr. 3 decision to keep the school open. In order to help make the necessary $4 million in budget cuts for next year, the school board recently considered the option of reconfiguring secondary schools, which would have involved closing Emerson and redistributing its students. At the urging of Emerson parents and students, the school board voted 3-2 to keep all three junior highs open and maintain the same 10-12 grade configuration in the high schools. “Everyone was kind of tense and stressed before the decision,” said Frances McChesney, co-president of the Emerson Parent Teacher Association. “After [the decision], people were really enjoying themselves at the carnival.”

FRIDAY Fight Club Part II An intoxicated subject was reported outside wanting to fight on Bidwell Street. Natural born killer? Individual had two shotguns, a pistol and ammunition to turn in for destruction on Fifth Street. I wanna be like Jewel Individual believes people are living out of a vehicle on West Covell Boulevard. Leave the bottles to the carnies A report was made about bottles thrown at an apartment on Drew Circle. What about the hunchback? Pitbulls in area keep getting out on Notre Dame Drive. SATURDAY Wanna take this outside? Subjects were heard fighting near the bike path on Secret Bay Street. Brotherly love A group of intoxicated males were seen on Colgate Drive. Don’t burn your bridges Individual reported receiving harassing phone calls from a former friend on East Eighth Street. Hope that’s not my boyfriend A male with a dark suit and light colored shirt was seen at the entrance of a lot watching employees enter on E Street. Talk about a tantrum Individual reported an unhappy customer in the store that was throwing things on West Covell Boulevard.

As Picnic Day approaches, local businesses prepare for students, families and alumni to swarm the campus and downtown areas. For Soga’s, there will be an increase in staff, and the restaurant will open 11 a.m. on Saturday instead of its usual 5 p.m. opening time. “It’s the Mother’s Day for the bar,” said Soga’s manager Cliff Mohr. “If you know what Mother’s Day is like for restaurants, that’s what it’s like for the bar.” Since 90 percent of customers are college students coming into the bar, business will be extremely busy, Mohr said. For businesses such as Soga’s, the Graduate, Chipotle and other bars and restaurants alike, “that’s one of the busiest days we have of the year,” Mohr said. The Davis Downtown Business Associationconducted a survey among its membership a month ago to find out more about the Picnic Day experience. “We did the survey in hopes of having an impact,” said DDBA administrator Joy Cohan. “We are having a dialogue with our members to continue to enhance the impact Picnic Day has upon downtown.”

California became the first state to ban helium-filled metallic balloons under a bill unanimously approved by a California state senate committee Tuesday. The bill’s sponsor, state senator Jack Scott (D-Altadena) implemented this bill to prevent further power outages caused by metallic balloons tangled in power lines. Lorinda Ferrell, a partner at Continental Sales, a professional wholesale balloon distributor, said she is against the bill and believes it won’t solve the problem. “All that Senator Jack Scott is trying to do is prevent power outages,” she said. “It’s something we would like to do, but outlawing sales on helium-filled metallic balloons won’t accomplish that.”

Although as much as 75 percent of the total oil spills in the state occur on inland waters, there are currently no penalties and a severely limited response structure. California State Representative Lois Wolk is working to change this with two bills she has introduced to the state assembly. “Right now no agency is responsible for command authority,” Wolk said. “There are civil and criminal penalties for marine spills, but they don’t apply to inland spills, which are more common.” Josh Basofin, a California representative of Defenders of Wildlife, a cosponsor of the bills, also said there is no command structure for inland oil spill response.

080411_ci_DQagain.CHeadline: Turmoil continues at D-Q UniversityLayercake: Trustees, students at impasse on school’s futureBy JEREMY OGULAggie News Writer Just a few miles outside of Davis, students and trustees at a small American Indian college are wrestling for control over the troubled institution’s future. After two rounds of arrests, students continue to occupy the shuttered campus of […]

TUESDAY Tempted by the fruit of another Unknown suspect entered residence and removed food products from kitchen on Albany Avenue. Taking out some aggression Unknown suspect entered locked vehicle and damaged passenger side window on Sycamore Lane.

On Apr. 1, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors commenced Child Abuse Prevention Month with Yolo County’s participation in the statewide campaign against child abuse. Prevent Child Abuse California’s “It Only Takes a Minute – to Make a Difference in a Child’s Life” campaign aims to raise awareness about child abuse in the Yolo County area. Child abuse, including neglect, is the third highest issue statewide behind education and health care, said Danielle Mole, program manager for Legislative Affairs at Prevent Child Abuse California. “The point of this is to raise awareness of child abuse issues at each county level,” Mole said. First 5 Yolo is a sponsor of “It Only Takes a Minute.” Statewide polling results from their 2007 Community Needs Assessment report found child abuse is a high priority issue, but few know how they can help. Child abuse was closely related to parents who were substance abusers and involved in the welfare system.

California Representative Charles Calderon introduced Assembly Bill 1956 to the Board of Equalization on Feb. 13. This tentative bill may implement a sales tax on all digital property, including media, books and movies in California. “Sales tax is generally not charged on products purchased over the internet,” said Daniel Simmons, professor at UC Davis School of Law. “[The bill] is trying to eliminate the unfairness, but of course, consumers won’t like it because it finds a way to enforce sales tax on downloaded products.” Although this may make consumers upset, it will make online transactions fair, he added.

Despite average precipitation this year, Californians might be experiencing a water shortage. As snow melts in the Sierra Nevadas this spring, that water collects in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, which traverse the state to the San Francisco Bay. Pumps at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta supplies water to the California Aqueduct, which provides water to agricultural fields in the Central Valley and large parts of Southern California. However, the pumping stations have been limited this year by a court order, the result of a legal case brought against the federal government by the Natural Resources Defense Council. In December of last year, a judge in Fresno ordered restrictions placed on pumping in 2008 to protect the delta smelt.

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.

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.