January 23 2020

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VOLUME 138, ISSUE 13 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

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IRAN VISA SUSPENSION MAY BAR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, SCHOLARS

MA RIO RODRIG U EZ / AGG IE

Trump Administration increases anti-immigration policy with new visa policy

BODY CAMERA VIDEOS AND AUDIO RECORDINGS OF DEADLY OFFICER-INVOLVED SHOOTING RELEASED Davis Police Department released footage and audio files of confrontation that ended in death of Christopher Gray

BY MADELEI NE PAY NE city@theaggie.org

KATH E R I N E F R A N KS / AGGI E

BY A L LY RUSSE L L & A N J INI VENUG OPA L campus@theaggie.org The U.S. Embassy in Armenia announced a temporary suspension of services for some U.S. visa applicants from Iran on Jan. 8. This announcement followed days after the U.S. assasination of Iranian general Qassim Suleimani.

Since the announcement, U.S. and Iranian leaders have engaged in heated rhetoric threatening war and retaliation. Majid Takht Ravanchi, Iran’s United Nations ambassador, called the U.S.’ action “an act of war,” and the assasination of Suleimani “an act of terror,” according to an article.

U.S. President Donald Trump has responded to Iranian threats to retaliate.

“If Americans anywhere are threatened, we have all of those targets already fully identified, and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary,” said Trump in the same article.

In response to the killing, Iranian demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Dec. 31, prompting the Pentagon to dispatch 750 more American troops into the region, as well as plans for additional deployments in the future.

While international tensions remain high, at a local level, visa application restrictions have serious consequences for international as well as Iranian-American scholars and post-doctorates at UC Davis.

While Iranians applying for visas to study in

the U.S. are technically exempt from the ban, students may still face increased restrictions during the application process as well as when trying to enter the United States.

According to the Iranian Student Association at UC Davis (SEDAD), this most recent visa ban is just the latest in a long line of political red tape that has made it more difficult for Iranian students and scholars to study in the United States.

SEDAD released a statement in response to current events.

“Beginning late 2019, there have been multiple cases of students with single entry visas being denied boarding their planes or even being deported after arriving in a U.S port of entry,” the statement said.

Recently, many Iranian students and scholars have been limited to single entry visas, according to the statement, and the unpredictable processing times have altered many international students’ plans.

“With a Ph.D lasting between 5 to 6 years on average, many students prefer to remain in the U.S and not risk returning home to visit their families and loved ones, fearing the risk of being rejected a new visa or being deported upon re-entry,” the statement said.

On Jan. 6, two days before the ban’s official announcement, more than 100 individuals of Iranian descent were already experiencing delays returning to the U.S. from Canada, according to the New York Times.

“Many of the individuals detained were U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents,” said a

statement released by the National Iranian American Council.

While some students may still be able to enter the U.S. from Iran with student visas, due to increased restrictions on other kinds of visas such as work visas, their ability to remain in the U.S. as working professionals has significantly diminished.

At UC Davis, Chancellor Gary May issued a statement regarding foreign relations and their impact on the university.

“We highly value our international researchers, scholars and students,” a statement from May said. “Our international relationships and collaborations form an essential part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and like all members of our community, they contribute to our excellence in research, teaching and service.”

Chancellor Joanna Regulska, the vice provost and associate chancellor for Global Affairs, also issued a statement of solidarity with students and scholars from Iran.

“We are following the news of the continuing conflict between the United States and Iran, and we want to assure you that we are here to support you in any way that we can,” Regulska said.

In an email, Regulska said the Services for International Students and Scholars office is open for advising appointments in relation to visas, immigration status or travel.

“At this time, we have not heard of interruptions in research activities with UC Davis faculty or scholars working with colleagues in the Middle East,” Regulska said.

IRAN on 10

RALLY HELD TO HONOR NATALIE CORONA’S LIFE ON THE ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF HER DEATH

Gathering brings up current social issues, including Blue Lives Matter movement, impact of social media, more

People attending Natalie Corona’s memorial wave flags at passing cars in front of the Davis Police Station on Friday, Jan. 10, 2020. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY SN EHA RA M AC H A N DR AN features@theaggie.org The Davis community was rocked by a terrible tragedy last year, on Jan. 10, 2019: the death of Natalie Corona, a 22-year-old rookie police officer. Corona was fatally shot in the line of duty while responding to a car accident in Downtown Davis. To honor the life of the department’s

“rising star,” community members gathered in front of the Davis Police Department earlier this month, on Jan. 10, to show their support and keep her memory alive.

The rally was organized by the group LEO: Law Enforcement Officer supporters. One of the founding members of the organization, John Freer, expanded on the efforts that were made to support Officer Corona.

“Last Friday marked the one year anniversary of the tragic passing of Officer Natalie Corona,” Freer said. “We wanted to organize a rally to show support for the family and the Davis PD and to let them know that there are people out there that are on their side.”

During the rally, Corona’s former fellow officers unveiled a new park bench and plaque outside the department to honor her legacy. The plaque sits alongside a plaque of Officer Douglas Cantrill, who was killed in the line of duty in 1959.

In addition to the new memorials added to the police department, a company by the name of Frisard’s Trucking Co. Inc. showed their support for Corona. Freer noted that the company has a strong attachment to law enforcement officers and, as a result, created a truck that has the names of all the fallen heroes from police departments across the country in 2019, which they drove from Louisiana in support of Corona.

It was pointed out by the LEO organization that, over recent years,

Body camera videos and 911 audio recordings were released by the Davis Police Department, shedding more light on an officer-involved shooting at a North Davis residence last month. In the early morning of Dec. 19, 2019, Davis police officers responded to a 911 call at 435 Avocet Avenue which ended with two fatalities at the residence and minor injuries sustained by one officer. Carol Gray, who called emergency services, was allegedly murdered by her son Christopher Gray. The son was then shot by police officers during the confrontation.

In a press release issued by the Davis Police Department earlier this month, the incident was described in detail. Links of the radio dispatch audio, in addition to police body camera footage and the 911 call that drew officers to the scene, were released.

“At 3:41 a.m., officers from the Davis Police Department (DPD) were dispatched to 435 Avocet Avenue regarding a report from Carol Gray that her son was being verbally aggressive and making non-specific threats,” the document read. “The emergency phone call ended with what sounded like a physical altercation.”

In the 911 audio recording, the caller can be heard saying, “My son just made threats to me. He said, ‘Go back to bed, you whore.’”

Later in the call, an argument can be heard between two people, before it appears the caller screams and the call ends.

Minutes later, officers arrived at the residence, where they were able to see, through the windows, that Christopher Gray was walking around the house, according to the police body camera videos. Police officers saw Carol Gray seemingly breathing under a sheet on the floor, and the officers entered the residence to help her.

Christopher Gray was holding a knife throughout the video, and, at one point, the police attempted to taze him after asking him to drop his weapon. He managed to retreat into the kitchen and began throwing knives at the officers, who returned outside and repeatedly asked Gray to disarm himself.

Minutes later, Gray charged at the officers and seven audible shots were fired. Out of the five officers present at the scene, three discharged their weapons. Gray was still moving and clutching his weapon on the ground before officers managed to remove the weapon and handcuff him. Officers can be seen applying bandages and performing CPR, but according to the press release, both Carol and Christopher Gray died at the scene.

The police officers who fired their weapons were Corporal Alex Torres, Officer Ben Adams and Officer Francisco Talavera, who had 7.5, 15.5 and 14.5 years of experience, respectively.

The officers were placed on temporary administrative leave but have since returned to their duties.

Three separate investigations are in the process of reviewing the incident. Two external departments, the West Sacramento Police Department and the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office, are investigating the use of deadly force. The Davis Police Department is conducting an internal investigation as well as the homicide investigation of Carol Gray’s death.

Davis Deputy Police Chief Paul Doroshov described the complexity of the investigations, which could take several months to complete.

“The criminal investigation eventually gets analyzed by the district attorney’s office who decides if there’s any criminal culpability,” Doroshov said.

“The shooting is also investigated in parallel by our Professional Standards unit which is ba-

CORONA on 10

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THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

2 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

PROFESSOR WHO PERFORMS MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATIONS ON INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS TALKS ABOUT CALIFORNIA CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Jason Roof discusses psychiatry and the criminal justice system KATH E R I N E F R A N KS / AGGI E

BY R EBE CC A BI H N -WAL L AC E campus@theaggie.org University professors, as experts in their fields of study, are in unique positions to apply their knowledge to real-world situations. Jason Roof, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center, works in the forensic psychiatry field. His field includes performing mental health evaluations of incarcerated individuals in order to help them access the care they need and determining whether accused individuals are mentally fit to stand trial.

Roof is currently consulting on the trial of John Lee Cowell, a “transient” person who fatally stabbed Nia Wilson and stabbed and wounded her sister, Letifah Wilson, on BART in Oakland on July 22, 2018. Although the courts have been unable to determine whether the attack was racially motivated — Cowell is white and the Wilson sisters are black — Cowell stands accused of the murder of Nia and the premeditated attempted murder of Letifah. Although Roof was unable to discuss the specifics of the trial, he did talk about his extensive background in forensic psychiatry and what motivated him to pursue such a profession.

Roof, also the associate training director of the Forensic Psychiatry Fellowship at the medical center, attended medical school at the University of Texas, Houston. He came to UC Davis after four years of generalized medical training and

four years of residency training, eventually becoming a faculty member at the university, specializing in forensic psychiatry.

Roof estimated that he spends 70–80% of his time in direct clinical care, which involves providing services for incarcerated individuals in the Sacramento area. He is also involved in consultations on both criminal and civil cases, describing his profession as “the cross-section between mental health and the law.”

Criminal cases often include general evaluations, sanity evaluations, confidence to stand trial evaluations and risk of dangerousness evaluations. Mental health-related evaluations often occur when the accused individual cites psychiatric or psychological reasons for their actions.

Meanwhile, civil cases often involve contested wills and assessing whether people have the mental capacity to make related decisions.

Roof finds deep meaning in the moral questions and quandaries posed by criminal cases.

“I think one of the things that drew me to this area is [that] the stories of what has happened are so compelling very often,” Roof said. “There’s often significant loss, significant tragedy. And I really enjoy being able to walk into a situation and help people understand. Mental health can be challenging because it’s hard to understand why people are doing things. The stakes can be tremendous.”

Roof described his position as “gratifying,” explaining that he gets “the great privilege” of be-

MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR STUDENT FEE REFERENDUM DISCUSSED AT JAN. 9 SENATE MEETING

Senators adopt units and committees, pass fair trade resolution

ing involved in a trial in a way that many others can’t — “truly learning about individuals,” and how they live and think and about their relationships.

Roof maintained that though mental health disorders do affect a significant portion of the imprisoned population, people accused of crimes may also claim they have a mental health disorder as a way to receive a more lenient sentence, such as in a state hospital rather than a prison. This phenomenon is called “malingering” and can significantly affect the outcome of a trial.

“You can find individuals who have lost their freedom, their reputation, their place in society frankly — maybe they are motivated to use something like a psychiatric symptom of some kind to explain why it is that they’ve done what they’ve done, despite the fact that there is, unfortunately, a stigma related to mental disorders,” he said. “Some individuals may weigh the pros and cons of presenting a mental disorder.”

Judges, attorneys and jurors must take such factors into account during the trial process. In California, when someone is on trial, the court must see that they are “mentally present” and if they have their full mental capacity, Roof explained.

“If someone has a mental disorder, we have to look at whether it’s active and we also have to think about whether it may be impacting their ability to [communicate] with their attorney and their defense,” he said. “If it’s impairing one or both of those, it’s the job of the court to freeze the trial and have that person receive care.”

California is home to approximately 115,000 inmates as of 2017 and it spends three times the national average per prisoner as of 2015, according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). Of the 35 state-owned facilities, 13 operate beyond the design capacity mandated by the Supreme Court, meaning that many prisoners live in overcrowded conditions.

Other facilities are privately operated, so their inmates are not accounted for in the PPIC estimate.

“About 15,000 additional inmates are not counted in the institutional population because they are housed in camps or in one of the eight contract facilities that the state does not own,” the PPIC article stated.

African-Americans continue to be overrepresented in the California prison population, while foreign-born Californians are not as likely to be

imprisoned. Healthcare costs in prisons could be on the rise, since the number of prisoners over 50 has “more than quintupled” between 2000 and 2017.

Roof attributes the skyrocketing prison population to the defunding of mental institutions in the 1970s and 1980s, among other factors.

“Incarceration rates over the past 50 years or so have significantly increased, and we found that the majority of mental health care that’s happening is happening inside of these institutions,” Roof said. “Not having funding has forced people into settings where they get caught up in the criminal justice system.”

Roof added that people accused of crimes frequently have problems with substance abuse.

Particularly in the Sacramento area, he said, methamphetamine can be a prominent issue.

Others who are accused may suffer from mental disorders. He added that the elderly, as well as people with intellectual disabilities, often struggle the most with being incarcerated.

“When we’re in that setting, we want to be pretty aggressive about making sure that the individual is allied with the services they need,” he said.

According to Roof, the most challenging part of his job is witnessing the struggles of both accused individuals and victims in the criminal justice system. “[What’s difficult is] the gravity of these kinds of cases, the true impact that [they have] on individuals and the major losses [they can] incur for some individuals,” Roof said. “In doing this work you have to get pretty granular about the events that may occur.”

The complex interplay of “human suffering,” having done harm to someone else and the “guilt and shame” around that is, at times, hard to look at.

“I don’t mean to suggest that if a person makes a decision to harm someone, [then they’re blameless],” he said. “But the setting of being in a jail, being away from individuals that are part of your support group, withdrawing from substances and the people that have access to them [can be hard].”

Still, Roof described the opportunity to apply his professional skills in these court settings as “empowering” and “exciting.” He noted that the work he does can provide “closure” and “clarity” to people involved in the case, for both the accused and the victims.

Basic Needs & Services Referendum ASUCD base fee

currently $8 / quarter

UCD

this funds organizations like... asucd

asucd

asucd

C O F F E E H O US E

EST. 2010

PICNIC DAY

THE PANTRY

ASUCD BASE FEE HASN’T CHANGED SINCE 1979 UC Base Fees CURRENT ANNUAL BASE FEES

UC Budgets for ‘20 – ’21

BUDGET SIZE

$15M

$10M

$5M

$0M

UCSC UCD

UCB

UCI

UCM

UCR

UCSD UCLA UCSB

LET’S FIX THIS: $26 / quarter increase new budget

ASUCD employees include UCD students on campus

1000+

40%

pays student wages

BY JE SSI C A BAG GOT T campus@theaggie.org ASUCD Vice President Shreya Deshpande called the Jan. 9 Senate meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. in the ARC Meeting Room. Interim Senator Lylah Schmedel, Gender and Sexuality Commission Chair Elena DeNocochea and Internal Affairs Commission Chair Ashley Lo were absent.

Following roll call, Senator Shondreya Landrum was nominated and elected as Senate Pro-Tempore – the official representative of the Senate.

The meeting continued with Ex-Officio and Elected Officer Reports from the table, including old and new Senators, on what they worked on over winter break and their plans for winter quarter. Many provided updates on their respective units and committees and their individual marketing strategies for the upcoming Basic Needs and Services Referendum, which would increase ASUCD’s base fee that all undergraduates pay for the first time since 1979.

The table then heard from a fifth-year transfer, who was confirmed as the ASUCD Gardens Unit Director.

“Food safety is very important to me,” the student said. “I wanted to learn the tools to survive in order to give back to my [East Oakland] community and put that into helping marginalized communities on campus have resources to maintain themselves.”

They mentioned that they were passionate about sustainable gardening practices and discussed their aims to decolonize the stigma around gardening and sustainable farming to make the ASUCD Gardens more accessible to marginal groups.

Next, the table transitioned into unit and committee adoption. Each senator is expected to “adopt” one or more units or committees, meaning that they will work closely with them, bring their concerns to the Senate and advocate for them at the Senate table. Senators were able to choose which units and committees they wanted to adopt, which includes the CoHo, The Pantry, Unitrans and Picnic Day; programmatic committees such as the Mental Health Initiative,

the Student Health and Wellness Committee (SHAWC), and the Transfer, Reentry and Veterans Committee (TRVC); internal committees such as the Elections Committee; philanthropic committees such as the ASUCD Scholarship Committee and external committees such as the Recruitment and Retention Organizing Committee.

The table took a recess at 7:37 p.m. and resumed at 7:47 p.m.

Following the break, all introductions of new legislation were tabled and the table moved to consideration of old legislation for Senate Resolution #7.

SR #7, the Fair Trade Resolution, was introduced by ASUCD’s Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC). The resolution aims to support equitable wages for workers and producers of the products that come to campus. It also aims to raise awareness for fair trade products, environmental sustainability and environmental justice. EPPC Chair Kyle Krueger authored SR #7; Alice Beittel, Nick Flores, Lois Kim, Lauren Murvihill and Hunter Ottman were listed as co-authors.

“We want to make sure we are not externalizing negative impacts [for workers],” Krueger said.

Following a Senate discussion, SR #7 passed unanimously.

During public discussion, Controller Kevin Rotenkolber spoke about spreading the word for the fee referendum to all registered student organizations. Deshpande mentioned that they were making a marketing document with a script for classroom announcements and tabling as part of the association’s outreach commitment in order to remind students about the fee referendum.

“It might be beneficial to emphasize up front the things that people care about that will be lost if this fee referendum does not pass,” Krueger said.

Members of the table continued to plan effective strategies to engage the general student body in learning more about the referendum through videos, chalking and other marketing materials rather than relying solely on students to read reports.

The meeting adjourned at 9:14 p.m.

YES, I APPROVE THE BASIC NEEDS AND SERVICES REFERENDUM:

AGGIE REUSE STORE

asucd

KDVS

maintain current ASUCD operations

CLOSED

expand ASUCD program & services

$ increase student job opportunities

NO, I DO NOT APPROVE THE BASIC NEEDS AND SERVICES REFERENDUM:

fund expansions for ASUCD events & organizations

shorter hours for commercial units BIKE BARN: CLOSED INDEFINITELY

fewer services when you need it

EDITORIN-CHIEF student jobs eliminated and replaced by full-time career staff

VOTE: Feb. 18-21 | elections.ucdavis.edu

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 | 3

DECLINE IN FUNDING FOR MEALS ON WHEELS CONTRIBUTES TO LENGTHY WAITLIST

Eighty food-insecure seniors requesting aid from Meals on Wheels in Yolo County

TE SSA KO G A / AG G I E

BY EDEN WINNIFORD city@theaggie.org Meals on Wheels is a nonprofit organization dedicated to delivering daily hot meals to food-insecure senior citizens. The program is partially funded by federal community development block grants, which have diminished by over $1 billion since 2001. This decline has contributed to a lengthy waitlist for the Meals on Wheels service in Yolo County.

The Yolo County Meals on Wheels website describes its mission: “To nourish and enrich the lives of individuals in Yolo County with emphasis on those age 60 and older, by providing nutritious meals to active and home bound people; thereby, promoting their health, well-being and independence,” the Yolo County Meals on Wheels website reads.

Lisa DeAmicis, Program Coordinator of the Davis Senior Center, explained how Meals on

Wheels improves the quality of life for food-insecure seniors.

“It helps seniors in two ways,” DeAmicis said.

“The obvious is that it’s a nutritious meal that is planned by a dietician. Secondarily, it is a wonderful social outlet for people who are often on their own in their homes and may not have much contact with other people during the day.”

DeAmicis summarized the importance of Meals on Wheels’ role in Davis’ elderly community.

“The Meals on Wheels program is a critical component of the services that are provided at the Davis Senior Center,” DeAmicis said.

The organization prepares 350 to 400 fresh meals daily from Monday to Friday, according to the Yolo County website. The food is then delivered to private residences and senior centers in Woodland, West Sacramento, Winters and Davis.

Executive Director of Yolo County Meals on

PILOT INJURED IN PRIVATE PLANE CRASH AT YOLO AIRPORT ON JAN. 1 County police, fire department respond to singleengine crash in Davis

Officials look over the wreckage of a plane that crashed near Yolo County Airport on New Year’s Day, causing minor injuries to the pilot. (Photo by Yolo County Sheriff’s Office / Courtesy).

FROM SPREAD TO SLICES: COHO AVOCADOS HAVE A NEW LOOK

CoHo switches from avocado spread to individually wrapped avocados, demonstrating trade-offs made for sustainability

A student worker prepares a sandwich at the Fickle Pickle Deli at Coffee House. (Photo by Timothy Li / Aggie)

BY JANELLE MARIE SALANGA campus@theaggie.org In Fall Quarter 2019, the CoHo introduced an unlisted change to its menu: instead of using avocado spread on its deli sandwiches, it would now give customers individually wrapped, sliced avocados — switching to single-use, non-compostable plastic.

The switch came as a surprise to Environmental Policy & Planning Commission (EPPC) Chair Kyle Krueger. Before The California Aggie spoke to him, he said he had not noticed.

“When I’m at the CoHo, I’m usually rushing and buying things, so sometimes I miss things

like that,” Krueger said.

EPPC, a part of ASUCD, works to improve sustainability across different campus units and educate the larger community about actions that can be taken to reduce effects on the environment. The commission recently deepened its involvement with the CoHo to implement the Fair Trade Initiative, an effort started by former EPPC chair Alice Beittel.

Fair trade products are “conducive to the rights, equity and welfare of the people who made them,” Krueger said. The CoHo agreed to stock fair trade products with the condition that EPPC held tabling events to help increase awareness of the importance of fair trade.

Wheels Christie Skibbins commented on the decrease in funding for the program.

“There used to be a lot more government grant money and now there’s less available, but because all of the baby boomers are turning 60 years old, there are more people who need our services, and we’re able to serve less of them,” Skibbins said.

To qualify for home-delivered meals, seniors must be over 60 years of age and be homebound, have a physical or mental disability or have trouble cooking. The only criteria for the community meals at various Senior Centers, however, is to be over 60 years old. Both programs are completely free for seniors, but there is a suggested donation of $4.

The program’s Yolo County website lists its sources of income, which are primarily from fundraising, in addition to state and federal grants. Some of the federal funding takes the form of community development block grants, which have been declining steadily since 1980.

Funding is used to cover all of Meals on Wheels’ expenses, including food, trays and employee payroll.

There are roughly 80 food-insecure seniors on the waitlist for Meals on Wheels in Yolo County, according to Skibbins. She explained the limiting factors on the program’s capacity.

“It’s the amount of money it takes to deliver the food and the amount of volunteers it takes to deliver the food,” Skibbins said.

Despite this need, funding will continue to be cut in 2020. Meals on Wheels America released a statement regarding the federal budget for 2020.

“The proposed budget as presented would eliminate, or significantly cut, a number of critical funding sources that support the nationwide network of Meals on Wheels programs,” the website read. “Such cuts would put millions of vulnerable seniors in harm’s way.”

Currently, Meals on Wheels Yolo County is looking for student volunteers who would help in the Davis Senior Center Kitchen or in food distribution. Any interested students should contact Meals on Wheels Yolo County at volunteer@ mowyolo.org or call (530) 662-7035.

SHEREEN LEE / AGGIE

Play your instruments in tune January 10 “Gas powered leaf blower in the front lot.”

“Unknown address, excessive dogs, loud barking.”

“Male abandoned what appeared to be a metal toolbox.”

January 12 “Reporting party found four passports in the bushes at above location. Reporting party brought them home and has them for an officer to pick up.”

“Reporting party’s husband walked away from Safeway.”

January 14 “This morning, a subject walking by their building picked up rocks and threw them at the window panes several times, eventually breaking through the glass.”

“White SUV circling the area throwing eggs.”

“Male subject circling the neighborhood on foot, carrying a flashlight.”

January 15 “Male subject playing violin out of sync and causing reporting party to be upset.

Reporting party has asked him repeatedly to move. On going problem for several years now, and it is causing undue stress to the reporting party and would like us to ask him to move to another corner.”

January 16 “No answer on call back. Message left.”

A homebuilt, single-engine aircraft crashed at Yolo County Airport on Jan. 1. The aircraft flipped upside down, injuring the pilot and the plane’s sole passenger, according to the West Plainfield Fire Department and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

West Plainfield firefighters were the first to report the crash on Twitter, at 3:37 p.m. on Jan. 1.

“Station 30 has been dispatched to AIR Aircraft Crash at AVIATION AVE, DAVIS, CA,” the post read.

In a later post on Facebook, the station said they received notice from a “third hand report” Yolo Emergency Communications Agency of a downed plane at Yolo Airport on Jan. 1 at 3:37pm — just down the road from their station near County Road 95 and County Road 31.

Fire department, medical and police responders arrived on the scene to find the small plane overturned near one of the runways, said the West Plainfield Fire Department on Facebook.

“The West Plainfield Fire Department, American Medical Response Ambulance, and the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene and found a single engine VANS RV-8 upside down off of Runway 34,” the post read.

The post included photos that show the scene of the crash. Skidmarks ran from the runway to the crash site, where the small plane lay flipped upside-down — its cockpit window smashed and surrounded by debris.

The pilot of the downed aircraft had been helped out of the plane’s cockpit by the time responders arrived, according to the fire department, and was later transported to a local hospital.

The preliminary accident data has since been removed from the FAA’s website, but a cached page of the original incident report suggests that the pilot was the sole occupant of the plane at the time of the crash. The incident report notes that the pilot’s injuries were minor and that the crash occurred during the landing stage of the flight when the aircraft “veered off the runway.”

West Plainfield FD said in its Facebook post that investigation of the cause of the crash had been turned over to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). Lt. Matt Davis of the Yolo Sheriff’s office later said that the cause of the crash was undetermined and that his office would also be turning over the investigation of the crash to the FAA. Data from the plane’s FAA incident report confirms the plane’s model as the VANS Aircraft RV-8, a tandem, fixed-wing and single-engine experimental aircraft. VANS advertises the plane as a fast and “aerobatic” plane capable of performing loops and rolls in competitions.

According to a brochure from the airplane manufacturer’s website, the RV-8 is part of a line of airplane models built from a kit, which VANS says can be assembled at home in a garage or similar space and does not require professional experience to put together.

“Building an RV requires a modest array of tools and a comfortable space about the size of a two-car garage,” the brochure read. “It does not require any special skill. Most RVs have been completed by people with no aircraft building background at all.”

The Yolo County Airport is listed as a General Aviation Airport on its webpage, meaning that it primarily serves private transport and recreational planes similar to the RV-8 that crashed on New Year’s Day, rather than commercial flights.

This condition falls under the umbrella of the CoHo’s education portion of its sustainability efforts, which include labeling local and organic products. The CoHo also works to reduce its environmental impact in other ways. Every quarter, the CoHo conducts an internal waste audit and adjusts accordingly, and the single-use utensils in the CoHo are all compostable. It is the contrast between the CoHo’s demonstrated commitment to reducing environmental impacts and the use of single-use plastic-wrapped avocados that left Krueger surprised.

According to Plastic Oceans, around 50% of plastics are used once and thrown away. Often, they end up making their way to the ocean, with more than 8 million tons of plastics dumped into oceans each year.

Making the decision to switch from avocado spread to wrapped avocados, however, was a balancing act for Darin Schluep, food service director for AS Dining Services, which runs the CoHo. “When making [this change], we had to balance the savings in labor and reduction in food waste versus the possible addition of packaging waste,” Schluep said via email. “We are often faced with these tough decisions, but in this case, the quality improvement tipped the scales towards us making this change.”

He believes the wrapped product more closely resembles the avocado product customers receive when ordering sandwiches elsewhere. Previously, the CoHo made its avocado spread from scratch, but Schluep said the process was labor-intensive and costly.

“Managing the ripening of fresh avocados led to a large amount of food waste, and the product wasn’t consistent in quality,” he said.

On college campuses, food waste accumulates quickly: according to Education Dive, 22 million pounds of food are wasted each year on college campuses.

This food waste has large effects and contributes to climate change. If food waste was its own country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind Canada and the U.S., according to The Guardian.

Consequently, the CoHo transitioned from

house-made avocado spread to a pre-packaged avocado spread to reduce waste and labor. It then made its latest shift toward the new wrapped avocados, which “provided consistency of quality, labor cost savings and a reduction in waste,” according to Schluep.

Still, UC Davis Food Science & Technology professor Dr. Alyson Mitchell said wrapping avocados does not necessarily influence freshness.

“That will depend on when the avocado was picked,” she said.

Schluep said the product received a positive student response and that the CoHo has not heard any negative comments about the switch thus far.

“Last spring, prior to the change, we had between 8% to 10% of our sandwich customers adding avocado spread,” Schluep said. “Figures after the change were anywhere from 11% to a high of 13.5% of our sandwich customers adding sliced avocado.”

The entire CoHo management team — including student managers — were consulted before the switch was made, but Krueger said he wished the CoHo had consulted EPPC as well.

“Obviously, not all switches are bad, but it’s good to be informed and have that environmental perspective,” he said.

Though he didn’t know at the time of the interview why the switch was made, Krueger said he understood how reducing food waste would ultimately be a win for sustainability.

“We’ve had really good conversations with the CoHo,” he said. “They’re starting to work on more plant-based [food] options at the South CoHo — they’re working independently, but we look forward to working with them to maximize the sustainability of their efforts.”

Schluep emphasized the CoHo’s commitment to reducing environmental impacts.

“We continue to have a strong waste diversion program,” he said. “Around 87% of the CoHo’s waste is diverted from the landfill to either recycling or composting streams as of our last waste audit, and we will continue to take our sustainable efforts into account with any menu adjustments that arise.”

BY TIM LALONDE city@theaggie.org

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

4 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ROLES OFFER SOURCE OF PASSION TO TWO UC DAVIS STUDENTS

From collecting signatures to protecting the delta, these roles would allow for greater student voice, representation within government

“THE COST OF LIVING IS TOO DAMN HIGH!” PETITION CIRCULATORS OUTSIDE SHIELDS LIBRARY TELL THEIR STORY Circulators encourage students to get involved in politics

(Left) Francois Kaeppelin, a third-year political science major, is running to be a member of the Yolo County Democratic Central Committee (DCC). (Right) Sophia Racke, a fourth-year international relations major, is running for the California State Assembly.

Students sign petitions outside of Shields Library. (Photo by Zoe Reinhardt / Aggie)

BY KAT I E D EBE N E DE T T I features@theaggie.org

BY ALANA W IK K E LIN G features@theaggie.org

With its proximity to the state capitol, UC Davis is often a top choice for students who want to pursue a career in politics. Two students in particular are already starting to take their political aspirations off-campus and are making runs for local and state positions in 2020.

Francois Kaeppelin, a third-year political science major, is running to be a member of the Yolo County Democratic Central Committee (DCC). He has actually occupied this position since March 2019, ever since he sought it out and was appointed to the position. Kaeppelin noticed that the committee had a vacant spot, and is now running for reelection. He saw this role as an opportunity to bring a new voice to the DCC. “I have speaking privileges during meetings, and I can take votes on resolutions,” Kaeppelin said. “It pretty much gives me a place at the table, and the students’ voice was desperately missing at the time.”

In addition to having the much-needed power to bring attention to pertinent issues that affect students, Kaeppelin also puts a lot of his focus on housing and security in the community and has been able to completely revamp the DCC’s online presence. When he began working for the committee, the website’s domain was expired, making it extremely hard for people to stay up-to-date on the committee’s proceedings.

Kaeppelin expressed that having adequate technology is imperative for the success of the committee — and the Democratic party — in the upcoming elections.

“The biggest thing for me is technology,” Kaeppelin said. “I designed the website and make sure that everybody is on the same page when it comes to technology. I’ve basically been setting up the infrastructure to make sure that a Democrat gets elected in 2020. Just setting up the infrastructure is crucial.”

Even though he is currently running for reelection, Kaeppelin is going through the campaign process for the first time, which provides him with a unique perspective. The most difficult part of the process so far, according to Kaeppelin, has been collecting 40 signatures from registered voters in California’s 4th district, which he needs just to appear on the ballot. Though 40 signatures may not seem overly challenging to some, many Davis residents — especially students — are ineligible to sign his papers because they are registered to vote in their home counties.

Sophia Racke, a fourth-year international relations major, is running for the California State Assembly and faced an issue quite similar to Kaeppelin’s.

“I had to collect 40 signatures in one week,

and it was finals week at Davis,” Racke said. “My campaign manager and I reached out to everyone we knew [...] but they had to be registered to vote in the 4th district.”

Racke actually decided to enter the race while studying abroad in London, leaving her with just one week between the time she returned from her program and the deadline to turn in her petition papers that required 40 signatures. After having only one day to find her final 10 supporters, she secured 11 — bringing her total signature count to 41 and securing her place on the ballot.

Racke’s urge to run was a direct product of her time in London. While studying at the London School of Economics, she became involved in conversations regarding United Kingdom students’ concerns about Brexit. The more she talked to these students, however, the more she realized that many of them were also quite uneducated on the details of the issue.

Racke began to examine her friends’ opinions on politics back in the United States and found that they were similarly passionate about certain federal issues, but at a loss regarding how to get educated and involved. Racke explains that this sparked her interest in having a more expansive role in California’s politics. “[My friends and I] thought that we could get attention through [the California State Assembly] and get more people involved in local politics and get people to realize that you can make a difference no matter your age or background if you have the passion and desire to do so,” Racke said.

Racke put together a campaign team, partly comprised of her friends that she met in London, all of whom are featured on her campaign’s instagram, @sophia.racke. They began to brainstorm what issues they feel most passionate about, and Racke and her team came up with five specific policy goals going into 2020.

“One of them is protection of the delta and its wildlife,” Racke said. “Another one of them is investment in wildfire prevention [...] We have awareness, intervention and prevention of sexual assault, especially on our campuses [...] We also have awareness, intervention and prevention of elderly abuse, and the final one is reorganization of political finance and regulations.”

Racke now needs to pass the primary elections on Mar. 3, 2020. If she does so, her name will appear on the ballot for the general elections in November. Her message to students? Get involved in their local politics, whether that be here in the 4th district or in your hometowns.

“Local politics have policies that affect your life every day,” Racke said. “It can be as simple as your housing — as students [at UC Davis] we have a housing issue. Young people have a unique voice, and they should use it.”

“It pertains to everything,” explained Mark Thomas, a 51-year-old petition circulator, about the sign hanging on his table. “Everything is too damn high.”

Outside the Peter J. Shields Library and the MU on the UC Davis campus, one or two individuals can sometimes be spotted sitting behind a small table, urging students to sign petitions.

These individuals, associated with the Department of Elections, are paid petition circulators.

They are paid to collect signatures from voters, all while briefly educating them on the cause.

“The whole point is to try to get [...] a million and a half signatures,” Thomas said. “There’s people all over California doing it.”

From consumer privacy to supporting stem cell research, the circulators are promoting a handful of measures that could appear on the 2020 elections ballot. According to Thomas, the Department of Elections trains petition circulators on each issue before they’re sent off to collect signatures. Nevertheless, it is still up to each circulator to study the ballots on their own.

“We read on them and keep up on them,” Thomas said. “We’re constantly trained on this stuff.”

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), there’s a variety of petition circulators, and different approaches to regulating them. Circulators have specific age and residency requirements, and they can be paid or volunteer.

A handful of states, such as Arizona and Florida, have banned the payment per signature model. In California, however, paid circulators are common and relied upon by most campaigns.

The NCSL website explains that campaigns that can adequately fund petition circulators are more likely to qualify for the ballot.

Although petition circulators are usually paid between $1 and $3 per signature, Thomas said he doesn’t focus too much on that detail. He doesn’t like to count signatures, instead he observes the signed stacks at the end of each day.

For students wondering if UC Davis invited these circulators to campus, the answer is no. As-

sociate Vice Chancellor for Student Life, Campus Community and Retention Services, Dr. Sheri Atkinson, noted that these petition circulators are exercising their First Amendment rights.

“UC Davis is a public campus that allows freedom of expression within proper time, place and manner regulations,” Atkinson said. “In public forums such as the Quad, the university may not regulate the content of speech.”

Although many students have noted that the circulators seem to be harmless, Atkinson added that students who feel uncomfortable about or concerned over the circulators or any outside party have the ability to reference the UC Davis Student Expression support page for services and support.

Yolo County doesn’t have jurisdiction over petition circulators either, explained Armando Salud, program manager of Yolo County’s Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Elections (ACE) department.

“We do not employ them, nor do we know who they are,” Salud said. “Our office serves as the signature verification technicians and will only verify that information if and when the proponent or their representative turns it in to our office and meets certain requirements.”

Salud’s and ACE’s responsibility is verifying petition signatures, not sending out petition circulators.

Thomas says those who turn away usually end up coming back — enthusiastic and eager to help make a change.

“There’s people that came and walk right past us before,” Thomas said. “And then they said, ‘Man, I’d been passing this up, but I didn’t know what this was all about.’”

Thomas says circulators enjoy tabling at college campuses because they appreciate college students’ concerns for issues like the ones included on the measures. He also made sure to point out that he and the other petition circulators come in peace. College campuses, he said, are filled with bright, young people who care.

As a student signed the petitions and repeatedly thanked Thomas and his circulation partner for their presence, Thomas said one more thing.

“Look around,” Thomas said. “You see all these kids walking? They are our future.”

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion THE

C ALIFORNIA A GGIE

E DI TO R I AL B OAR D KAELYN TUERMER-LEE Editor-in-Chief HANNAH HOLZER Managing Editor KENTON GOLDSBY Campus News Editor STELLA TRAN City News Editor HANADI JORDAN Opinion Editor

Abigail Thompson: Diversity statements are not “political litmus tests” Diversity statements reflect job applicants’s commitment to equal access to education

CLAIRE DODD Features Editor LIZ JACOBSON Arts & Culture Editor DOMINIC FARIA Sports Editor CECILIA MORALES Science & Tech Editor

HANNAN WALIULLAH New Media Manager JUSTIN HAN Photo Director SYDNEE RODRIGUEZ Design Director ARIANA GREEN Layout Director SABRINA HABCHI Copy Chief ISABELLA BLOOM Copy Chief ZOË REINHARDT Website Manager SYDNEY ODMAN Social Media Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

UC Students deserve professors, lecturers and other university professionals who understand who we are.

We are a diverse student body, made up of people from myriad races, ethnicities, religions, nationalities, sexualities and genders. The people who are at this university, who teach us and guide us, should be vocally committed to advancing diversity at all levels.

Abigail Thompson, chair of the UC Davis Mathematics Department, sees things differently, as represented in two recent op-eds in American Mathematical Society Notices and the Wall Street Journal, in which she rallies against mandatory “Diversity Statements” in the UC’s hiring process. She amounted these diversity statements to nothing more than “a political test with teeth.”

The Editorial Board resoundingly objects to this argument.

There’s an issue here: Diversity should not be seen as political. The realities facing students because of their intersectional identities are only political because there has been a concerted effort for generations — conducted by politicians and other powerful individuals in this country and elsewhere — to systematically discriminate and subjugate us.

As the UC Davis Principles of Community say, “We acknowledge that our society carries within it historical and deep-rooted injustices and biases.” The scourge of racism, gender-based violence, white nationalism and xenophobia are ever-present in our lives, especially in recent years. We have seen multiple incidents of overt racism and anti-Semitism on this campus, as white nationalist propoganda has been posted multiple times over the past two years.

In this environment, equal access to education is at

risk. Mandatory statements that describe an applicant’s commitment to diversity help preserve and maintain access to a UC education for all.

The history of education in this country is replete with moments where a lack of understanding of diversity has prevented access to schooling. It was only in 1954 that the U.S. Supreme Court mandated public schools to desegregate, a process that continues to this day — such as in one town in Mississippi that was ordered to desegregate its schools in 2016.

To this end, we will admit that maybe diversity is political — but it is only political because the only way we can end discrimination is through our politicial systems.

When we give equal weight to two different arguments — one saying that diversity is good and must be mandatorily advanced, and another one that says that it should be done passively — we are faced with a moral fallacy.

A commitment to upholding diversity actively in the UC system is a moral good. “True commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is active and not passive,” said Chancellor Gary May and Vice Chancellor Renetta Garrison Tull in a response to Thompson’s op-eds.

We agree. Passive action won’t right the injustices that minorities and other marginalized populations have experienced throughout history, especially in the U.S. — a stance that Thompson advocated for by saying that “encouraging students from all backgrounds to enter the mathematics pipeline” would be enough to improve diversity in mathematics.

Thompson, hear it from students at your own university: Support diversity actively and brazenly. Contributing to diversity means that a candidate is intrinsically more qualified for a position at this university.

California is leading the way in the fight for privacy CCPA THE FIRST STEP IN RACE TO TAKE BACK OUR DATA PRIVACY

BY C A LV I N CO F F E E cscoffee@ucdavis.edu

KA ITLYN PA N G / AGGIE

In 1890, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called privacy “the right to be left alone.” But we live in a time where it is impossible to be left alone due to technology. Privacy in the digital age is difficult to even define.

Your degree of privacy depends largely on who you are. What may be private information for one person may not be private for another. For example, the home of former Vice President Dick Cheney does not show up on Google Maps — a privacy that most of us don’t have.

On Jan. 1, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect as the first major consumer privacy law in the United States. Its implications are yet to be seen, but it’s a crucial step toward figuring out what privacy is in this day and age and how we can get it back. The CCPA gives Californians the ability to own, control and secure their personal information that is collected by businesses and hold them accountable for the sale of users’ personal data.

Your data is worth millions of dollars to businesses, but exactly how much it is worth is unknown. Many of the companies buying and selling data still don’t know what to do with it yet, but we do know that our data (and metadata) can be used against us to change the way we think. Based on voters’ metadata, Cambridge Analytica claimed that they had developed psychological profiles of every American voter, allowing campaigns to target their ads directly to those most persuadable.

Our data is collected, assembled, analyzed and then weaponized to sell us products. Additionally, in trying to manipulate how we think, these products now include political candidates. This leads us to a question: How much of this manipulation do we want to allow in our society? In the other 49 states without a bill like the CCPA, theoretically, anything goes with user information — it can be sold and swapped to the highest bidder.

Our data is immensely valuable, and yet we don’t personally see any returns on its sale. The core economy of the online world is our data, and we don’t even understand its value. Luckily, there are those who would like to change that.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) introduced a bill this summer that will require social media companies to be transparent in how they are capitalizing on our data. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wants to implement a data tax that will punish companies that violate our privacy and sell our data. If companies are going to violate our privacy anyways, then we should at least be compensated.

Gov. Gavin Newsom agrees with this sentiment in the form of a data dividend. Given that almost all of us exist online in one way or another, a data dividend would act as a universal basic income, from which we could all stand to benefit. In the same way that Alaskan residents get a check each year for the extraction of oil from the Alaskan Permanent Fund, a data dividend could do

the same for infinite digital resources.

An automated and tech-driven future that leaves humans behind is the fear of many, but a data dividend fund could ensure that those who will suffer the most in this future have a certain level of economic security.

California is leading privacy security in a way that the rest of our country needs to follow. As relentless users of social media, Americans need to win back rights to personal and data privacy before it is too late. We need to have a better understanding of what should be private and what should be publicly accessible.

There is no way to avoid the data world completely. We have to be aware of the tradeoffs we face when we make digital footprints — it is not something we can opt out of anymore. But what we can do is force those in power to do something about it.

Our voices matter, as do these laws we vote on. Privacy must become a political issue across the country. We have a right and a duty to demand that our lawmakers change the rules of the game back in our favor.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

6 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

WE SHOULDN’T BE AFRAID OF HORROR FILMS Scary movies have more to offer than cheap thrills TE SSA KO G A / AG GI E

BY JU L I E T TA BI S H A RYA N jsbisharyan@ucdavis.edu

Out of all the films nominated for best picture in Oscars history, only six have belonged to the horror genre. And although not every movie-goer takes pleasure in being scared, horror films are often more complex than jump scares and splattered blood.

Many tell stories that are as, if not more, important than other genres, making them

deserving of recognition and praise.

But in the past 92 years, horror films have seldom been in the running for the Academy Awards, with the best picture winners falling mainly under the drama and historical genres. Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” was the only horror film to win the award, which begs the question: what constitutes a “best picture?”

Is it a film’s ability to capture the human spirit? To tell stories that aren’t told? Perhaps

it’s the films that ask the difficult questions and spark conversations. If so, horror movies should not simply be swept under the rug of lowbrow cinema.

There is no denying that many horror movies are known for their overused tropes and cheap scares. Many films are produced solely for entertainment purposes and momentary bursts of fear and laughter.

The American film series “Scary Movie” pokes fun at many of these horror film conventions, parodying classics such as “Scream” or “The Haunting.” The haunted mansion and overeager white families are elements that many of us recognize and anticipate.

Underneath the intense music, however, often lies commentary on the horrors that exist in the real world.

A prime example would be Jordan Peele’s Oscar-nominated “Get Out.” Instead of vengeful spirits and creepy nunneries, Peele manifested horror in the form of racism. By using the scary movie format, he created a compelling narrative that vilifies white supremacy while documenting the anxieties of being black in America. As groundbreaking and stirring as the film was, Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” won best picture that year instead, leaving me and many others dumbfounded.

For a genre that often relies on the uncanny, “Get Out” drew a bridge between horror and reality. Instead of shying away

from the “uncomfortable topics” of race and oppression, the film did exactly what any best picture should do: It communicated these issues in a way that was digestible and memorable.

Yet some were turned off by the film’s message, with some Academy members saying that “Get Out” was “not an Oscar film” and another stating that it “was a great, fun, entertaining genre film, but I don’t read as much into it as others do.”

Whereas historical drama films are often praised for showcasing past horrors, scary movies such as “Get Out” that highlight current evils are underplayed.

A film that tackles similar issues less directly is Drew Goddard’s “The Cabin in the Woods.” The movie follows every horror movie stereotype, from the eerie cabin to the blonde who dies first. It does nearly everything you’d expect it to, only with a layer of deeper meaning.

The movie can be interpreted in many ways, but it is commonly read as a metaphor for humanity’s instability or as a commentary of filmmaking itself. In a way, the film mocks the viewers who would otherwise dismiss the movie as another cheesy horror film. It forces us to reconcile that horror doesn’t live in our dark closets or under our beds. It’s within our governments, our prejudices and our own insecurities.

HOR R OR FI LMS on 1 0

HUMOR

YESTERDAY’S WEATHER FORECAST, TOMORROW Jan. 12, 2020

KIYOMI WATSON / AGGIE

BY B E NJAMIN PO RT ER bbporter@ucdavis.edu

Here at the Aggie, we’re proud to bring you high quality news coverage around the clock. Unfortunately, that clock revolves not around the 24-hour day, but around what is typically a two- to three-week editing and publishing cycle, so sometimes we may not be able to provide the minute-by-minute updates that you need. Nonetheless, we do our utmost to bring you the most important and urgent breaking news stories, eventually.

This commitment is stronger nowhere than at our meteorology desk, where we provide you with tomorrow’s weather forecast everyday, no matter how many days it takes. Since we have more days to prepare our daily weather forecast than your other typical newspapers and local television stations might, we are able to take our time and be far more accurate

than other meteorologists. The last thing we would want to do is jump the gun and provide you with predictions that are not as accurate as possible. In fact, we often use the benefit of hindsight to retroactively predict the weather that has already happened with 100% accuracy. Our competitors can’t boast that!

With that, I’d like to wish everyone a good start to Week 2 of Winter Quarter.

Tomorrow, the 13th, we’re expecting a high of 58 degrees and an overnight low of 40 degrees. We can expect a chilly week to follow, with highs in the 50s and overnight lows getting close to freezing. There will also be dryness, humidity, winds, prevailing winds, wind chill, high pressure, low pressure, pressure gradients, visibility, air, air quality, air masses, cells, drafts, bursts, troughs and coldness — WEATHER on 1 0

WEATHER on 1 0

THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

FAMILIAR ASIAN DISHES MEET SOUTHERN CAJUN CUISINE AT NEW RESTAURANT CAJUN FEAST

UC Davis alumni open student-oriented restaurant in downtown

N A ME / AGGIE

BY LIZ JACO B S O N arts@theaggie.org

TV Show: “Fleabag” (Amazon Prime) I’ll admit it. I only watched this show because President Obama put it on his best shows of 2019 list, and I now know that I should have watched it when my roommate recommended it to me three years ago. I also know now that Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a genius. Both the creator and the title character of the show (yes, Fleabag is her name), Waller-Bridge expertly breaks the fourth wall, seamlessly inviting the audience into her thought process as she deals with a Type-A sister, the death of both her mother and best friend, the plights of dating and managing a guinea-pig themed restaurant. Olivia Coleman as Godmother and Andrew Scott as Priest round out the cast. This series only has two seasons and is very bingeable — each episode is less than 30 minutes.

Movie: “Parasite” directed by Bong Joon Ho Recently opening on 206 3rd St. in Davis, Cajun Feast is a new restaurant addition to Davis. (Photo by Justin Han / Aggie)

BY JOSH M A D RI D arts@theaggie.org The formerly abandoned UC Davis bookstore located near the corner of 3rd and A St. is now the sight of an unfamiliar culinary experiment.

Cajun Feast combines Southeast Asian cuisine with the Creole-French influenced decadence of Cajun flavors.

Co-owner Larry Wong wants to give students the sit-down experience on their terms and within their price range and, as a former student, he may have just gotten it right.

The interior is clean and minimalist, yet warmed with wood and copper accents. The crowd is made up of both students and Davis residents, which speaks to Wong’s intention to reflect the local Davis landscape. Situated on each table is a copper “beer tower” that’s a step up in presentation from a pitcher — a small addition that elevates the dining experience for students.

It’s also an interesting way to incorporate tactile eating, as diners can turn the faucet handle to pour themselves a glass of beer. A beer tower starts at $20.

“It’s a casual eating cafe,” said Wong. “There’s nothing fancy about it.”

Wong, a former UC Davis civil engineering major who works in the construction industry, talked about how he came to start a restaurant.

“I’ve always wanted to invest in the restaurant industry, but every time I had to pass on it,” Wong said. “It wasn’t my time yet.”

He expressed his personal experiences with Asian cuisine and how being introduced to Cajun food inspired his desire to bring together the best of both worlds.

“I pull inspiration from different areas [of the world] that I’ve been to,” Wong said.

The first time I tasted the food, I could tell it

was clearly Cajun-inspired. The savory smell of garlic and butter in the garlic noodles immediately showcased the French influence that’s a cornerstone of the cuisine. It was topped with fresh cheese and shallots. I admire that the meal was light and creamy at the same time.

I was supposed to “try” the noodles, but I ate a whole bowl as we spoke. Priced at $5 for a large bowl, good affordable food is their expertise.

Wong wants it to be a student go-to — and I’m sure it will.

“The prices are suited for students,” Wong said. “I was a student once. I’m hoping to be able to make this into a canteen. [Students] can stop by for a quick bite and head out.”

Three large, whole shrimp came next. I’ve never experienced taking apart a whole shrimp, beady eyes and all, so this was a fun first for me.

I enjoyed the tactile component. It’s fun to play with my food, but in a mature way. They were served with a peanut sauce that had a tangy cayenne back-of-the-throat spicy flavor.

I went home with chicken skewers that were accompanied by the house peanut sauce. Again, I liked being able to have hands-on experience.

The chicken is blackened and juicy and when dipped in the peanut sauce, easily devourable.

There is a spice-o-meter on the menu, and at the top is “Hell.” I asked about the few people who have tried the “Hell” level, and the consensus is that it lives up to the name.

As returning members of the Davis community, the Cajun Feast family wants to include students in their success.

“It’s very important to me [to hire students] because they want to learn as we want to teach,” Wong said. “One thing about me is that I love to teach. This is a great way to start.”

The menu and more information are available on their Yelp page and website.

Earlier this month, while accepting the Golden Globe for Director of a Motion Picture, South Korean director Bong Joon Ho said, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” “Parasite” is one of those amazing films. A true ensemble piece, the thriller and drama “Parasite” tackles class inequality in Seoul, South Korea. The film follows the semi-basement dwelling Kim family as they exploit different “tricks of privilege” to infiltrate the affluent Park family. Although his other movies “Okja” and “Snowpiercer” were filled with twists, Bong Joon Ho keeps viewers on the edge of their seats by meticulously building to jaw-dropping moments in “Parasite.” It was during the second viewing of the film that I could appreciate the humor and some of the more subtle elements, like how the score carries the film and the importance of intimacy and closeness.

Book: “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens Out of the many books I read over Winter Break, this one was my favorite — the kind of book you finish by lamplight because you just can’t put it down. Owens’ novel follows Kya at two different points in her life while living in the marshlands of North Carolina.

The first timeline is young Kya’s unique coming-of-age story, growing up as the Barkley Cove “Swampgirl.” After being abandoned by her family to survive on her own in the 1950s and 1960s, she is befriended by a young Tate Walker and the elderly couple Jumpin’ and Mabel. The second timeline follows the murder investigation of Barkley Cove’s golden boy: Chase Andrews. The two timelines eventually intertwine, making this novel a romance, murder mystery and love letter to the marshlands all in one.

Album: “HOMECOMING: THE LIVE ALBUM” by Beyoncé This 40-track album of Beyoncé’s showstopping two-hour 2018 Coachella set can be best described as powerful. “Homecoming” is a homage to the traditions of Historically Black Universities and Colleges and a celebration of black culture. Beyoncé is an unparalleled performer and artist. The album showcases the best of her catalogue; she brought her older songs back to life with new maturity and depth. Standouts include “Diva,” “Drunk in Love,” “Bug a Boo Roll Call – Interlude” and the three-song sequence that reunited Beyoncé with her Destiny’s Child groupmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

TRUMP THREATENS TO DESTROY IRANIAN CULTURAL SITES: A WAR CRIME A series of tweets causes international outcry

R A B IDA / AGGIE

BY CA RO L I N E RU T T E N arts@theaggie.org Between 2017 and 2019, ISIS destroyed the remains of the ancient city of Palmyra, located in modern-day Iraq, Syria and parts of Libya.

What once housed centuries-old structures, columns and temples turned to rubble. Such acts of cultural destruction were strategic: to destroy the existence of a civilization that lived before and in contradiction to the Islamic State.

In a series of tweets on Jan. 4, following the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, Trump threatened to destroy 52 targeted Iranian cultural sites if the U.S. was met with retaliation.

Although Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said such actions would not be carried out, as they are war crimes, condemnation of the president’s proposal has nonetheless ensued.

“In human history, humans have often destroyed each other’s gods or cultural property or looted the palaces of defeated rulers and so on,” said Dr. Heghnar Watenpaugh, a professor of art, art history and urban history of the Middle East. “It is important to think about what these things mean

because they tell us that people understood images to have power. And so how do we neutralize the power of our enemies’ gods? Certain kinds of destruction of images can be understood in this way.”

After World War II, when Nazi Germany destroyed personal and public Jewish cultural artifacts as part of their attempt to fully rid the globe of evidence of Jewish existence, the U.S. emerged as a champion of cultural preservation. The Monuments Men, a “special military unit to safeguard monuments,” were created with this agenda in mind.

“We’re at that point where there’s discussion that maybe it’s more important to preserve culture than to win this particular battle,” Watenpaugh said. “After the second World War, there was a whole series of international agreements and legal instruments that were created by individual states but also through international agreement between states that all point to the fact that the international community believes that culture and cultural heritage sites are a special category. And because they are the heritage of all of humanity, not just the country in which they are from.”

One of these international agreements in-

cludes the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage List (UNESCO). This list will “eventually contain all the significant cultural achievements of humanity from distant periods of human history,” according to Watenpaugh. There are internationally-supported protections and preservation plans to maintain the future well-being and posterity of sites inscribed on the list.

Despite the formal international and political consensus that these sites must be protected, it begs the question: Why should the layman care for distant sites and cultures that may not be of their own descent? Watenpaugh cites the World Heritage concept to debunk that perspective.

“The idea of World Heritage is that all of the cultural expressions of humanity, throughout its history, are an important part of the history and inheritance of all of us,” Watenpaugh said. “They don’t simply belong to us, but they have to be preserved for future generations. So even if we have no idea that the Buddhas of Bamiyan exist or we’re never going to visit them, they nonetheless are part of our inherent cultural inheritance.

If they are, for whatever reason — earthquake

or worse — destroyed, we are deprived of something whether we were aware of it or not.”

This ideology views all items of cultural existence as evidence of human existence and human advancement. To Dr. Ali Anooshahr, a professor of Middle East and South Asia studies, the 2019 burning of the Notre Dame — which received international emotional outcry — serves as another primary example of this concept.

“When the roof of the Notre Dame burnt down, it wasn’t just French people who were sad,” Anooshahr said. “People in all sorts of places felt connected to the destruction. I think their reactions reveal how people feel about [these sites] not just as the property of a state (France) or even the property of the present custodian (Macron, who’s the head of the French government) but, in fact, as part of a broader heritage.”

Despite the emotional response to the burning of Notre Dame, some may not feel the same emotional response to other less famous structures, with less media attention and commonality in everyday culture.

TRUMPCULTURALSITES on 10

8 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

9 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

Sudoku

Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain one of each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reachedm logically without guessing.

Answers to the previous puzzle

10 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

POLICESHOOTINGVID

DRONEPESTCONTROL

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

“The shooting is also investigated in parallel by our Professional Standards unit which is basically an internal investigation that evaluates not just the criminal portion [but] any policy violations.”

The released audio and video files were edited “to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of those involved,” according to the press release. Doroshov explained that the editing process is “very cumbersome and lengthy” and is dictated by laws requiring some information to be released for transparency but other aspects to be edited out for the privacy of the individuals.

More footage and audio is set to be released before 45 days after the incident, in

accordance with state law, SB 1421.

During 2019, 16 contacts had been made with the Avocet residence, in which the reporting party describes “blood smeared on front door,” according to the premise history released by the Davis Police Department.

In total, the residence had 58 contacts since 2009, including 911 calls and physical altercations.

Doroshov emphasized the impact that the altercations have had on the community and the Davis Police Department.

“This is just a tragic event,” Doroshov said. “I think a lot of people in the department are affected by it.”

FRANCOIS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

tions on Mar. 3, 2020. If she does so, her name will appear on the ballot for the general elections in November. Her message to students? Get involved in local politics, whether that be here in the 4th district or in your hometowns.

“Local politics have policies that affect your life every day,” Racke said. “It can be as simple as your housing — as students [at UC Davis] we have a housing issue. Young people have a unique voice, and they should use it.”

HORRORMOVIES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

Although “Get Out” was arguably more dynamic, the chilling score in “Us” coupled with Lupita Nyong’o’s impressive dual performance seemed Oscar-worthy.

Still, it is understandable that many people evade horror films simply out of fear. As an avid Stephen King fan myself, it’s not easy recruiting friends to watch scary movies with

me late at night. It’s simply not for everyone.

But no matter how terrifying, horror films deserve to be seen and analyzed just like any other genre. Sometimes we all need a shocking jolt to remind us that these monsters under our beds aren’t as far away as we’d hope.

WEATHER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

possibly due to a cold front, a cold snap or even a cold wave. There’s a jet stream somewhere, too. That’s important.

And you may also need to break out that rain jacket and umbrella toward the end of the week. We know how important it is to plan ahead and dress appropriately for the rain, especially for those bike commuters.

Be sure to get those mud flaps on sooner rather than later, whenever sooner is. There’s a chance that sooner will have already come and gone by the time you read this, meaning you might have to settle for later. What day is this?

Pardon me, I got disoriented there for a

second. Moving on. Regretfully, we can only run our retroactive forecast once a week due to our publishing schedule, so please click here to vote for which future previous days you’d like to receive more detailed hour-byhour weather predictions and updates, after the fact.

We can also now retroactively predict with total confidence that it will’ve be 52 degrees and partly cloudy with a chance of rain on Thursday, Jan. 9, which is already only several weeks ago from now at this point, so we hope you are going to have post-emptively taken the time to have preplanned behind accordingly, in advance.

TRUMPCULTURALSITES CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

To Anooshahr, the prevalence of the contemporary nation-state model may weaken the popular distribution of a world heritage perspective.

“Obviously, there are places that we cannot see, we don’t always have immediate plans of accessing these sites and there are people who will never be able to visit them.

But it’s not just about complete access,” Anooshahr said. “We’re used to thinking within the nation-state model. And in the nation-state model, we disregard humanity as a single being, with a common set of aspirations and achievements that thrives with culture, peace and education. So to think that human achievement in a certain place is irrelevant to me as long as I can’t see it, then I think that misses the point.”

Cultural sites, according to Anooshahr, are the embodiment of changing empires — in the same geographic space, vastly different states have risen and fallen over dense periods of history. The fact these physical structures have survived for centuries is a testament of human accomplishment to preserve its evidence of existence.

“Cultural sites, while they’re ever changing, they are absorbing information and experience every single day,” said Grace Landon, a graduate student of art history.

“When you destroy that, it can’t come back.

All that history can’t be rebuilt. When they’re gone, they’re gone. There’s a reason it’s a war crime.”

Although the specific 52 cultural sites that Trump targeted were not specified, Iran is “home to one of the world’s most storied ancient civilizations, has 22 cultural sites designated on the World Heritage List by UNESCO,” “including the ruins of Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire later conquered by Alexander the Great. Others include Tchogha Zanbil, the remnants of the holy city of the Kingdom of Elam, and a series of Persian gardens that have their roots in the times of Cyrus the Great,” according to The New York Times.

Persepolis was one of the first Universalist empires, said Anooshahr. Rather than enslaving the people of conquered nations, it attempted to assimilate them into the new empire. Destruction of these sites would mean losing physical evidence of such governmen-

tal and intellectual advancements. “[Iran has] mosques that are foundational to religious texts, architectural elements,” Landon said. “If that disappears, it not only affects the field of Islamic art history because you won’t be able to study them anymore, [but] it also destroys the influence it had on other cultures, specifically Chinese art, Western art. And you can see that influence in architectural elements, you can see that in manuscript production, and you can see that in paintings and tile work.”

Beyond the fact that historical evidence would have been lost in the proposed and purposeful destruction, great concern is rooted in that these threats of a war crime come from a president of an organized state.

“In the last five or six years, we have seen intentional destruction of cultural heritage carried out by groups like ISIS,” Watenpaugh said. “We’ve seen it carried out during the civil war in Libya, in Mali, by people that we identify as terrorists, and we don’t think of them as good people that should be imitated.

And so it is very shocking to see the President of the country that created the Monuments Men, and that has contributed so much to the idea of protection of cultural heritage.”

For Landon, although these tweets have not altered her already negative view of President Trump, it reminds her of a deep ideological change in America.

“What America once was, we are so far from today,” Landon said. “We’re moving away from what I think are the essential values of what we should be.”

What Trump may have considered a wartime strategy is a crime with repercussions more detrimental and sinister than possibly realized.

“The state is supposed to be the custodian of cultural sites, so I assume that the thinking is the destruction of culture somehow delegitimizes the state as incapable of protecting them,” Anooshahr said. “But it doesn’t really work politically, it actually causes people to rally. It causes pain and anger among people, and it causes them to rally behind the state that they would not otherwise rally behind as in an emergency. It’s not just the state that suffers. People in the country suffer because it causes humiliation, pain.”

CORONA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

because of the negative portrayal police officers often have in the media.

“Times have changed, and a simple traffic stop can be their last stop,” Freer said.

“There are brave men and women that put their lives on the line to protect outs and I think that there are times that it is taken for granted. If you are sitting in the comfort of your home and something goes wrong, you can always call 911 and they are going to be there. Being an officer is a dangerous job and we want them to know that they have people

supporting them.”

Freer expressed the need for community members to “protect the people that protect us,” and that joining organizations like LEO and the Sacramento Valley Backs the Blue is a good place to start.

“It’s really tragic to see a beautiful 22-year old officer taken for no reason,” Freer said.

“We just hope that the community continues to heal and that the family of Officer Corona knows that she will never be forgotten for the brave sacrifice that she made.”

In perfect weather conditions, drones can deliver mites without a hitch. On a windy day, the programming becomes more complicated. These drones use a method called time series prediction to calculate the ideal location and time to release the pest control.

“The way that it works is like the stock market,” Kong said. “You use the wind direction and wind speed from the past few minutes to predict the wind for the next few seconds.”

In theory, the programming works like a charm, but real-world variables — mainly weather conditions — leave room for improvement. Still, drones are poised to become a valuable tool for farmers to supplement current pest control practices and monitor crop health.

“There are farmers in this area that are using drones regularly,” said Susan Ustin, a distinguished professor emeritus of environmental and resource sciences. “They have knowledge of how they’re managing the field and what to expect. [When] they have these patterns they don’t understand, they’re close enough to go check it out. It gives the farmers

a lot more control over their own land.”

Even without mite-dropping capabilities, drones can revolutionize how farmers interact with their fields. Sensing drones are able to survey a large area in a short time, which could save hours of labor in the field. Using light-sensitive cameras can also detect pest activity early to prevent further crop damage.

“With the sensor, you don’t have to wait until you can see the damage by eye,” de Lange said.

“There are already very subtle differences occurring in how plants reflect light when they get attacked.

We can find the problem and treat a smaller area with pesticide instead of the entire field.”

As the technology improves, drones are becoming more of a staple in the agricultural arsenal. Their designs are trending toward larger machines that can fly for longer durations, making them well-suited to regular use for monitoring crop health.

“This is 21st century agriculture,” Kong said.

“We are trying to be more precise and intelligent instead of using inefficient and labor-intensive practices.”

ENCELADUS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

“The idea is that if you put a container of water in the freezer, the water expands and pressurizes the container,” Manga said. “As the water freezes, it expands and pushes out on the container. The same thing happens on Enceladus.”

The ice is thinnest at the poles, which explains why the cracks form in the south pole, however, they were equally likely to happen at the north pole, Manga said. Jupiter raises tides in the ocean, which create heat and friction that are strongest at the poles, making the ice thinner.

The same tidal forces explain why the cracks do not freeze shut, even though the surface temperature of Enceladus is very cold, at 200 degrees Celsius.

The main fissure continuously opens and closes as water from the ocean sloshes up and down it, making it thinner and hotter, Manga said.

Once the first crack formed, the built-up pressure from the freezing ocean released, so it did not create the other cracks. When the eruption from the main crack occurs, most of the materials go back onto the moon’s surface. The weight of the snow landing on the surface causes the ice to bend and, when the stress is great enough, another crack forms, Manga said. Each fissure is exactly 21.75 miles apart because that is where the stress is greatest.

“It turned out that by very reasonable assumptions about the ice shell, 35 km [21.75 miles] is a very natural number to get,” Hemingway said.

Finally, these fissures have only been seen on Enceladus because of certain necessary conditions present. Enceladus is small and has weak gravity, so the compressing stresses are slight and the cracks can penetrate deep down, all the way to the ocean, Hemingway said. The combination of the bending stresses from the fissure ripping open and the weight of the ice holding it shut allows the crack to occur and stay open.

“The most interesting part of the paper, which we were not actually looking for, was why it only happens on Enceladus,” Hemingway said. “On bigger bodies of moons, the gravity is much stronger, like 10 times stronger, and when they start initiating a fracture, the overburden pressure of the weight of ice will hold it shut and not be able to open it.”

Even though Enceladus was first discovered in 1789, this icy moon was not understood until recently. In the 1980s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space crafts passed by the moon and took its first close-up pictures. These images drew few conclusions about the moon, only showing that the terrain was fairly reflective and geologically youthful, according to NASA. More specific details about the moon were discovered in 2006, when NASA’s Cassini spacecraft started many flybys of it while orbiting Saturn.

Cameras and instruments on the spacecraft took photographs of Enceladus, providing data and evidence to confirm the presence of an ocean and that

the eruptions reach through the ice to this ocean, according to NASA. “Cassini took beautiful photographs of what the surface looks like and the eruptions,” Manga said.

“It also keeps track of where the spacecraft is and figures out the gravity. Knowing the gravity plus topography and elevation on the surface, we could figure out how thick the ice shell is.”

The explanation for Enceladus’ first crack was initially thought of around 10 years ago, and Rudolph, Hemingway and Manga hoped to use this idea to address their further questions, such as with the eruptions, Hemingway said.

The geological activity of the moon surprises many researchers because of its small size and old age at one billion years, Manga said. The icy surface, however, is younger, explaining the eruptions that spew icy particles into space.

Rudolph, Hemingway and Manga’s work took about a decade of collaboration, Manga said. Answering all of their questions required piecing together a lot of different bits of information.

“We had terrible intuition,” Manga said. “We had other ideas about what would put a load on the surface. We always thought it was happening underground, and all the weight from the snow could be doing this. It took a long time to get there to figure it out.”

Rudolph, Hemingway and Manga’s work was published on Dec. 9, 2019 in “Nature Astronomy” and was presented at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco on Dec. 10, 2019.

Next, Manga and Rudolph plan to look closer at the assumptions they made in their research. When solving the differential equations, many simplified assumptions had to be made. Manga said he wants to write a thorough and careful proposal to relax some of the assumptions that have not been taken into account yet.

“We are trying to understand more of the details associated with these processes,” Rudolph said. “We presented a first-order model, but from the simplicity of the models, we want to add complexities and understand each step.”

Understanding ocean worlds like Enceladus is important because they help astrobiologists understand the evolution of these moons and whether they might be habitable and sustain life. Moons like Enceladus could uncover information about the context and origin of other lifeforms, Manga said.

“It is a great place for life to persist if there is life inside the ocean,” Manga said.

Their work studying Enceladus was funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Collaborative Institute for Dynamic Earth Research.

“This research is motivated by our innate curiosity as humans about the diversity of planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond,” Rudolph said.

IRAN CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“Additionally, our Study Abroad and global learning programs in the Middle East are being monitored and are all currently operating normally.”

Other student groups on campus, including the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, have also issued statements of support for Iranian students, scholars, staff and faculty at UC Davis.

This most recent travel ban follows a similar pattern of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant

global policies. In Sept. 2019, Iranian students with approved visa applications faced similar difficulty entering the United States according to an article.

Nima Abdollahpour, a UC Davis Ph.D. student was one of at least twenty students barred from boarding their flights to travel to the United States.

Abdollahpour declined to comment on the ways in which this most recent ban impacts Iranian scholars.

CORONA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

a disproportionate number of police officers have been killed in the line of duty.

“It’s only the beginning of January and we have already lost ten officers across the country,” Freer said. “These people are human, just like you and me, and every year there are so many more police officers getting shot at. It’s ridiculous.”

Corona’s death sparked controversy at the UC Davis campus, when the ASUCD Senate attempted to pass a piece of legislation to honor her life and efforts. The ASUCD Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission responded to this proposal with a statement of their own, calling the Blue Lives Matter movement “anti-Black and disrespectful.”

Freer touched on this sentiment, saying the dangers associated with being a police officer have become even more grave because of the negative portrayal police officers often have in the media.

“Times have changed, and a simple traffic stop can be their last stop,” Freer said. “There are brave men and women that put their lives on the line to protect outs and I think that there are times that it is taken for granted. If you are sitting in the comfort of your home and something goes wrong, you can always call 911 and they are going to be there. Being an officer is a dangerous job and we want them to know that they have people supporting them.”

Freer expressed the need for community members to “protect the people that protect us,” and that joining organizations like LEO and the Sacramento Valley Backs the Blue is a good place to start.

“It’s really tragic to see a beautiful 22-year old officer taken for no reason,” Freer said. “We just hope that the community continues to heal and that the family of Officer Corona knows that she will never be forgotten for the brave sacrifice that she made.”

11 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

USING DRONES AND PREDATORY BUGS, UC DAVIS RESEARCHERS TREAT CROP PESTS Flying into the future of agriculture

Dro nes are c ur ren tly b ei ng t e st e d f o r a p p l i ca t i o n i n pe st c o n t ro l. ( Ph o t o by Elv i ra d e L an g e / Co ur t esy)

BY LAU RE N G LE VAN I K science@theaggie.org

Entomologists and engineers are collaborating on a new method of controlling agricultural pests. In Santa Monica, Calif., researchers flew drones with light-sensitive cameras over a strawberry field to locate pest-damaged plants. Armed with a map of leaf reflectance patterns, they deployed drones loaded with predatory bugs to spot treat the field.

“Our goal is to eliminate the pests,” said Zhaodan Kong, a UC Davis professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, whose research includes agricultural and environmental applications of drones. “We [use] sensors to detect the problem, and then do something to achieve the goal.”

To find insect outbreaks, a drone equipped with a hyperspectral camera flies over the field and senses light reflected from the plants.

“If plants are healthy, they absorb a lot of sunlight for photosynthesis, but if they are less healthy from insect or drought stress,

they reflect light in a different pattern,” said Elvira de Lange, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of entomology and nematology. “We can look at these differences and determine which plants need a little bit of extra care.”

Light reflectance data from the sensing drone informs the second part of the process.

Another drone then delivers predatory mites directly to the infested plants. The mites are natural predators of agricultural pests and are an eco-friendly alternative to spraying pesticide.

Although using predatory mites is an effective biocontrol method, they are much more expensive than pesticide per acre, “but we could potentially make it more attractive to use predators versus pesticides,” according to de Lange. To make the mites economically feasible for farmers, the bugs have to be deployed in small amounts with precision. This need for accuracy presents a new challenge researchers have to take into consideration: wind.

DR ONESP ESTCONTR OL on 1 0

UC PROFESSORS WORK ON COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH TO EXPLAIN TIGER STRIPES OF ENCELADUS, SATURN’S TINY, ICY MOON Reasoning for cracks, water eruptions from Saturn’s moon modeled in collaborative research K IYO M I WATS O N / AGGI E

BY MARG O ROS E NB AUM science@theaggie.org

A tiny, frozen ocean world. Enceladus, the six largest of Saturn’s 62 confirmed moons, reaches only 310 miles in diameter, which, for reference, is about the size of the United Kingdom. An ice shell about eight miles in width covers the 20-mile deep ocean at its surface, which underneath contains a rocky core. Four straight, parallel fissures or “tiger stripes” cut across the moon’s south pole, with a constant flow of ocean water erupting out of the surface.

The geological features of this icy moon lacked much understanding until three colleagues attempted to study it.

Max Rudolph, an assistant professor of earth and planetary sciences at UC Davis; Douglas Hemingway, a planetary scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington D.C.; and Michael Manga, a professor and department chair of earth and planetary sciences at UC Berkeley, began their research a decade ago to understand the interesting geological processes at play on Enceladus.

The main questions they investigated

UCAL.US/REGISTER

included: Why these eruptions were occurring; why they were occurring in the south pole; why the fissures would break the ice but not freeze shut; why additional parallel cracks, around 21.75 miles apart, were occurring and why these processes have not been seen elsewhere in the solar system, Manga said.

“This has puzzled the astronomy and planetary science community,” Rudolph said. “There are a number of peculiar things about the fissures.”

After examining photographs, observing through telescopes, constructing physicsbased computer models and computing differential equations, the colleagues believe they now know why these fissures are erupting.

The eruptions occur due to ocean water freezing, expanding and becoming more pressurized. Water is pushed up from the ocean, erupting out of the ice, which creates the first crack. When the water reaches the surface and hits the low-pressure existing in the vacuum of space, it spontaneously boils, creating the eruption, Hemingway said.

ENCELADUS on 1 0

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

12 | THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2020

DEFENDING HOME COURT

Aggies edge out Long Beach, hold on to another conference win at home

From left to right: UC Davis guard Katie Toole (13,left) drives towards the basket while being guarded by Long Beach forward Cydnee Kinslow (1,right). Cierra Hall (32,left) goes up for an offensive rebound attempt against the Long Beach Defense. Kayla Konrad (23,middle) attempts a shot while surrounded by the Long Beach defense. (Photos by Benjamin Cheng / Aggie)

BY OMAR NAVARRO sports@theaggie.org The UC Davis women’s basketball team defended The Pavilion last Thursday night, holding on for a 57-55 win over Long Beach State. A game that seemed to be shaping up as an easy win for the Aggies turned into a nailbiter that took all 40 minutes to decide.

“These are games [that] earlier in the season we weren’t finding a way to win,” said UC Davis head coach Jennifer Gross after the game. “It’s exciting that our players are finding a way to help us get the win. And that is how you build that confidence and that championship mentality.”

After winning the opening tip, Long Beach State scored the game’s opening points, followed by a quick response from the Aggies. The next several minutes of the game saw a lot of back and forth between both teams, along with a number of turnovers from a UC Davis side that could not

find the answer to Long Beach State’s 2-3 zone.

With about four minutes left in the opening quarter, the Aggies broke through and began an 8-0 run to close out the period up 17-11. Long Beach junior guard and Woodland, Calif. native Shanaijah Davison scored seven of her team’s 11 points in the quarter, which only shot 5-18 from the field and 1-6 from three as a whole.

As the second quarter commenced, the ball movement on the UC Davis side led to plenty of open looks and a 5-0 start to the quarter. As was the case in the first quarter, the Beach got great looks themselves, but continued to miss them at the basket. The Aggies, seemingly in control for the time being, got sloppy with the basketball and turned it over three times during a 9-0 Long Beach run that closed the deficit to two. A three by the Beach’s freshman guard Kristyna Jeskeova tied the game up for the first time since the opening minutes.

After a timeout, the Aggies regained their

AN ODE TO THE OAKLAND RAIDERS AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

Raiders prepare for new era in Las Vegas with everything to prove KA ITLY N PA N G / AG GI E

BY AJ SEYMOUR sports@theaggie.org After a combined 47 seasons in the city of Oakland, the Raiders have officially began their transition to Las Vegas.

Following a divorce with Oakland in 1981, which led to a 13-year stint in Los Angeles, most Raiders fans in the Bay Area never imagined they would have to go through an agonizing breakup for a second time. But another two decades of failed stadium proposals in an attempt to replace the 54-year old Oakland Coliseum left the team with no choice but to explore other options outside of Northern California. Although there is more than enough blame to go around amongst Oakland politicians and team executives, it has become increasingly clear that neither party had the wherewithal or resources to strike a deal that suited everyone.

Narrowly missing out on a return to Los Angeles, where the Rams and Chargers are preparing to open a new stadium together, the Raiders eventually had to set their sights on “Sin City”.

The team is expecting to move into the brandnew Allegiant Stadium — a 65,000-seat domed venue with an estimated price tag of $2 billion — in time for the 2020 season, which begins in August. Although the project has faced some recurring problems with the roof installation, team officials say the building is still on track to open its doors in July.

This state-of-the-art structure, located just across the freeway from the Las Vegas Strip, will likely host a future Super Bowl, in addition to other major sports and entertainment events. Las Vegas already took a big step in this direction by successfully bidding to host the upcoming NFL Draft at the end of April.

The financial details of the Allegiant Stadium’s funding can be best described as questionable and bizarre. The primary reason why the Raiders settled on Las Vegas was because Clark County pledged a $750 million contribution in public funding to support the construction costs of the stadium. This unheralded donation of taxpayer money, which most cities in America would never consider, was secured through the sale of municipal bonds that will be repaid through increased hotel and tourism taxes in Las Vegas.

Nevada is taking a risk in gifting such a lucrative sum to a private entity like the Raiders. This stems from the state’s optimism about the economic benefits of housing a professional football team and the revenue that traveling fans will produce each time they’re in town for a home game.

The politics of how this piece of legislation

was passed by Nevada lawmakers are quite a mystery, but prominent casino owner and billionaire Sheldon Adelson was rumored to have played a pivotal role in persuading politicians to get on board with the plan.

Adelson initially agreed to provide the Raiders a separate loan of over $600 million to cover a large chunk of the costs but later backed out of the deal altogether. Goldman Sachs then appeared ready to step in and provide the necessary financing, but later withdrew from negotiations.

The Raiders finally found a partner in Bank of America and secured a mammoth $650 million loan that will go toward construction costs.

If that wasn’t enough, the NFL also chipped in a $200 million loan.

The Raiders will reach into their own pockets for the remainder of the cash, which will bridge the final $500 million funding gap. This money will mainly come from the sale of personal seat licenses, naming rights and other sponsorships.

Conversely, the team must pay a $378 million relocation fee to the NFL, but they have received a special extension to pay off this debt over the next few decades.

For those keeping track at home, that’s over $1.2 billion in loans and fees that will have to be repaid in the next 20-30 years. For some perspective, the entire franchise itself is currently valued at $2.9 billion.

The long-term viability of an NFL team in a small market like Las Vegas has been the subject of much debate. The Raiders are leaving a top-ten media market in exchange for a region with well under half as many people. The team managed to quickly sell all available personal seat licenses, generating $478 million, but 40% of these sales came from fans residing outside state boundaries. It will be interesting to see the level of commitment from those outsiders if the team disappoints on the field in upcoming years.

If season ticket holders decide to sell their seats on the secondary market, there could be a high degree of demand from visiting team fans.

Even with the expansion of sports gambling around the country, Las Vegas remains a very attractive destination for a weekend getaway.

NFL fans love to travel to new cities and see their teams play on the road, so the home field advantage at the new stadium could be negatively affected in this way.

So what’s left of Oakland? Has the city officially written the last line in its long, storied football history?

R E AD FU LL ART ICLE O NLINE

footing and closed out the half on an 8-2 run, and went into the locker room with a 33-27 lead.

UC Davis’ leading scorer at the break was redshirt-sophomore forward Sage Stobbart, who had 10 points to go along with three rebounds.

The Aggies shot an efficient 11-19 from the field in the first half, including 4-10 from three, and recorded 10 assists. Their one deficiency at the half was also a common theme for the rest of the game: turnovers. The Aggies committed 11 before halftime. On the Long Beach State side, Davison led the charge with 16, while only three other players on the Beach had points.

The visitors as a whole shot 12-34 from the field.

“Tonight we got a little flustered with their pressure,” Stobbart explained. “We tried to prep for it during practice but nothing quite matches that athletic of a team” The third quarter saw very minimal offense as only five points were scored in the first five minutes, all by UC Davis. The Beach only made three field goals in the period for a total of six points, but the UC Davis offense was stagnant as well. The Aggies continued their turnover woes by giving the ball away eight more times in quarter, which kept them from building a more sizeable lead. Regardless, the Aggies entered the final frame up 42-33.

“A lot of us just thought we need to keep shooting,” Stobbart said about the rough offensive showing in the second half. “It definitely was difficult with all those turnovers to keep that attacking mindset.”

Another mini-run by Long Beach State to start the final quarter pulled the visitors within four, and it took UC Davis about three minutes before freshman guard Evanne Turner answered back with a tough floater on the left elbow. A corner three from redshirt-junior guard Mackenzie Trpcic with about six minutes remaining gave the Aggies their nine-point lead back. It seemed as if, in a game where offense was at a premium, that would be too much for Beach to overcome.

But with about five minutes remaining, Long Beach switched to a full-court press and instantly forced back-to-back Aggie turnovers. As the game approached 3:30 remaining, Long Beach hit a tough layup with the foul, knocked down the free throw and made it a 47-46 game.

The Aggies could not get out of their own way, as they turned it over again, leading to a

Beach fastbreak and an easy lay-in that gave them their first lead since the first quarter.

With the Aggies reeling, Cierra Hall managed to make her first and only shot of the evening, a clutch three in the corner to give UC Davis the lead right back with two and a half minutes remaining. The Aggies were able to capitalize off of the Beach’s missed shots, and two made free throws by Trpcic made it a six-point game with 27 seconds left.

After a loose ball foul gave Long Beach State two free throws, the Aggies missed one of their own at the other end and allowed Long Beach sophomore guard Justina King to nail a three with 13 seconds to play.

The Beach were then able to force a jump-ball turnover and a chance to tie the game with 12 seconds left, down 57-55. The ball was in King’s hands once again, as she drove in the paint and put up a tough layup that ultimately fell short.

Stobbart grabbed the rebound, and the Aggies survived.

Turner was the Aggies’ leading scorer with 11 to go along with five rebounds and was key in holding on to the victory down the stretch.

“Our mindset down the stretch was just attack them,” Turner said. “We know we have the ability to get out of those [situations]. We just kept pushing. We never had a doubt in our mind that we were going to win this game.”

Although Stobbart did not score in the second half, she was able to gather seven rebounds and notch a double-double. Three Aggies finished with five assists and collectively the team shot 47.5% from the field. But the Aggies’ 29 turnovers compared to Long Beach’s 10 allowed the visitors to stay in it all throughout.

“That was a bit uncharacteristic of us to be honest,” Gross said about the 29 turnovers.

“Something we’ve done really well all season is taking care of the ball. I think they sped us up a bit and to their credit, that’s what they do. So to turn the ball over like we did and still find a way to win definitely says a lot about our group and our defense.”

A win’s a win, and this one moves the Aggies to 7-9 overall and 2-1 in conference, extending their home win streak against Big West opponents to 24. Their next matchup will be against the Gauchos on Thursday in Santa Barbara, a place the Aggies have not lost since the 20152016 season.