The Pioneer Newspaper August 18, 2016

THE PIONEER Covering the East Bay community since 1961

California State University, East Bay

News, Art, & Culture for the East Bay

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

www.thepioneeronline.com

Summer 2016 Issue 9

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROGER LAKE

The old Bay Bridge in front of the new structure taken from a sailboat in 2014. The removal of the old structure is nearing the end of the second phase of demolition. Eventually it will be completely removed and transported to Pier 7 in San Francisco by barges where it will be disposed, according to Caltrans.

Old Bay Bridge nearly gone for good Final pieces removed

by Caltrans crews

On Aug. 10 Caltrans crews removed the fifth and final metal piece of the old Bay Bridge called a truss.

The project took two days to complete, however, the process is far

By Louis LaVenture from over.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF According to a statement from Caltrans, the 504-foot truss will be The new Bay Bridge will finally cut off and lowered onto barges just be out of the shadow of its prede- like the previous four. cessor.

The main difference is that this

truss is so large it must be cut into three pieces before being moved to Pier 7 in San Francisco, which added anywhere from five to seven days to the project.

The removal of the final truss will complete the second part of the process to completely remove the old bridge.

With the first phase completed in 2015, the final phase will require Caltrans crews to remove 14 trusses

nearly 300 feet each that connect to Oakland.

Caltrans and Bay Bridge officials were both hopeful the second phase would be completed this week sometime.

The removal of the final truss was streamed live by Caltrans on their website and gave people all over the world the opportunity to see the final moments of the iconic structure.

Caltrans officials hope to complete the project by 2017 and at publication time the second phase had not yet been fully completed.

According to the Historical Society of San Francisco Museum and Historical Society, construction on the Bay Bridge began in 1933 and was completed by American Bridge Company. Just 3 years later, on Nov 12, 1936, it opened, six months before the Golden Gate Bridge.

Baseball coaches step down

Two dead outside Oakland art gallery

By Wendy Medina

SEE OPINION PAGE 2

VOTERS SHOULD SETTLE ON CLINTON AND KAINE

SEE OPINION PAGE 3

COLLEGE GRADUATE SETS EXAMPLE FOR FAMILY

SEE SPORTS PAGE 8

OLYMPIANS INSPIRE THROUGH PERFORMANCES

#PIONEERNEWS /thepioneernewspaper @thepioneeronline @newspioneer

COPY EDITOR

By Louis LaVenture EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Coaches leaving Cal State East Bay is starting to become a trend.

CSUEB men’s baseball Head Coach Bob Ralston and Associate Head Coach Darren Lewis — a former San Francisco Giants center fielder — both stepped down on Aug. 11, according to Director of Athletics Joan McDermott.

The move is a shocking one considering the baseball team is coming off their best season since joining the NCAA Division II level in 2009. The Pioneers finished 33-22 overall and 21-16 in California Collegiate Athletic Association games and had a bunch of firsts.

They captured a share of the CCAA North Division title and almost won the conference tournament, but fell in the championship game to Chico State 10-9.

The stellar season led to an NCAA Tournament berth, the first in school history, according to Director of Athletics Communications Steve Connolly.

This is the sixth head coach at CSUEB to leave or step down in the past year, under McDermott, who took over the Director of Athletics role on April 1, 2015. In addition to Ralston and Lewis, the women’s basketball, track, cross country, softball, men’s soccer and swimming coaches have all stepped down or left to pursue other opportunities. Neither Ralston nor Lewis replied to messages from The Pioneer.

McDermott thanked Ralston and Lewis for their dedication to the student-athletes and program but did not comment on the circumstances surrounding their departures.

During his five-year tenure at the helm for East Bay, Ralston was 134-114 overall and 98-108 in CCAA competi-

tion. Ralston also won more than 30 games in a season three times including last year, which also produced a CCAA Coach of the Year Award and the West Region Coach of the Year selected by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Ralston graduated from Cal State Hayward in 1988 and also played baseball for the University of Arizona after he graduated from Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward.

He also played two years at Chabot College before he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins and went on to play seven minor league seasons for them and the Oakland Athletics.

Lewis was also at East Bay for the last five seasons with Ralston. Like Ralston, Lewis also played at Moreau, Chabot and in the majors, primarily with the San Francisco Giants.

PHOTOS BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER

Top: Former Cal State East Bay men's baseball Head Coach Bob Ralston celebrates with his team following a win on the Hayward campus last season.

Bottom: Darren Lewis, former Associate Head Coach stepped down along with Ralston from their positions on Aug. 11.

A party at an Oakland art gallery turned deadly early Sunday morning, leaving two dead and two others wounded during the event.

Prime Development, a vintage clothing store and gallery, hosted a 20th birthday party where at least two shooters opened fire, according to the Oakland Police Department.

Victims of the shooting were identified as Oakland natives Terrence McCrary, 22, and Craig Fletcher Cooks, 20, both graduates of Berkeley High School. McCrary and Fletcher Cooks were pronounced dead at the scene at the 300 block of 15th Street around 1 a.m.

The two injured victims included a woman who had a non-life-threatening gunshot wound and a male who injured himself running into a window when he fled after the gunfire erupted, according to OPD. Spectators say a fight broke out inside the gallery when Fletcher Cooks tried to protect his girlfriend from someone who grabbed her.

The incident spilled outside, where gunfire ensued.

A vigil was held on Monday by family and friends of the deceased, at the intersection of Webster and 15th Streets, where both men were fatally wounded.

Police have not found a motive for the shooting and no arrests have been made. These were the 44th and 45th homicides of 2016, according to Crimemapping.com, OPD’s community crime mapping web site. Anyone with information is encouraged to call OPD at 510-238-3821.

2 OPINION

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

THE PIONEER

Tim Kaine is the right choice

EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Louis LaVenture

By Samuel Salisbury

louis.laventure@csueastbay.edu

CONTRIBUTOR

MANAGING EDITOR When Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee for the President of the United States of America on July 26, many Democrats still said “Bernie or Bust,” clinging to Bernie Sanders, the more left-leaning candidate that they truly wanted.

I was never in this camp. I was always firmly in the camp of “anybody but Republican nominee Donald Trump.”

On July 27, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine accepted the nomination for Vice President.

I did not know very much about Kaine when I first heard about him, but it turns out he’s an unexciting moderate Democrat, especially compared to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who many saw as the more progressive vice presidential choice. Virginia is a swing state, and Kaine has never made waves in the Democratic establishment there.

Kaine has voted Democratic in the senate fairly consistently. Though he is a devout Catholic, he said in a July CNN article that he is a “strong supporter” of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 law that legalized abortion in the U.S. He voted yes on Senate Bill 815, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013, which prohibits businesses from not hiring and firing people due to sexual orientation or gender identity.

In the same year, he voted against senate amendment 1197, which would have required the completion of a Mexican border fence.

Kaine is not the ideal pick for liberals, compared to Warren, who many hoped would be Clinton’s running mate. He is certainly more conservative than most progressives.

However, due to the extreme nature of Trump, this is an election in which it should not matter how liberal the Democratic candidate is. Trump is one of the most unlikeable candidates since Richard Nixon and one of the least progressive candidates in American history.

Trump has had very conservative views this election. He has said that women should be punished for having abortions and has promised to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and that Mexico will pay for it.

Last month at the Republican National Convention, he recently picked a fight with the family of a fallen Muslim soldier. These extreme conservative views conflict with everything that progressives stand for.

One thing that drew voters to Sanders was his hardline stance against the Iraq War, which both Clinton and Kaine voted yes on. Trump made his stance known in a Fox interview on March 21, 2003 when he told Neil Cavuto, “Well,

Kali Persall

kali.persall@csueastbay.edu

COPY EDITOR

Wendy Medina wendy.medina@csueastbay.edu

ONLINE AND SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

Casey Peuser

casey.peuser@csueastbay.edu

VISUAL EDITOR

Tam Duong Jr. tam.duong@csueastbay.edu

STAFF WRITERS

Marissa Marshall marissa.marshall@csueastbay.edu

Sean McCarthy

sean.mccarthy@csueastbay.edu

SPANISH EDITOR

Pavel Radostev Pushina pavel.radostevpushina@csueastbay.edu

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION ASSISTANT

Marina Swanson marina.swanson@csueastbay.edu

FACULTY ADVISOR

Gary Moskowitz gary.moskowitz@csueastbay.edu

FACULTY COORDINATOR

Dr. Katherine Bell kate.bell@csueastbay.edu

ILLUSTRATION BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER

“Clinton and Kaine may not be as liberal as I might like them to be, but they’re no Trump, so they have my vote.”

I think Wall Street’s just going to go up like a rocket even beyond and it’s going to continue and – you know we have a strong and powerful country and let’s hope it all works out.”

Clinton and Kaine should not have voted for the war, but I would much rather have a president who was informed about the war instead of one whose only concern was what the stock market would do in response to it.

Many Bernie or Bust people think that Clinton and Kaine are not liberal enough.

However, if people do not vote for Clinton, it increases Trump’s chances of winning, because many on-the-fence Republicans have already accepted Trump as their candidate.

Many esteemed Republicans, includ-

ing house speaker Paul Ryan, former Republican candidate Ben Carson, and former vice president Dick Cheney have all come out in support of Trump, according to The Atlantic.

“It’s not just a choice between parties or policies, the usual debates between left and right,” Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention on July 27.

“This is a more fundamental choice about who we are as a people.”

No matter how moderate or progressive Clinton or Kaine is, this election is ultimately a choice between Trump or no Trump.

Clinton and Kaine may not be as liberal as I might like them to be, but they’re no Trump, so they have my vote.

Political choices are colorblind Ethnicity doesn’t impact party affiliation

By Ira Lazo CONTRIBUTOR My friend Mike is a Chinese American whose family moved here 14 years ago seeking the “American Dream.” I’ll never forget when Mike confessed to me that he was a Republican. I’m a liberal Asian, and my whole life have assumed that most Asians were liberal, so I was shocked.

Our conversation was inevitable, because I’ve made my disapproval of the GOP and their presidential nominee Donald Trump known on all of my social media outlets. I am not a fan or a supporter of the grand old party.

As we sat there having coffee, the only words I could utter to him were, “Are you sure?”

Growing up in a historically blue state like California has encapsulated many people like me in a bubble. So, to encounter a proud Asian American Republican is like finding a unicorn. You want to corner it, poke it a little to make sure it’s real, and then ask a million questions.

My friend Drew, also Chinese-American, was the next person to nonchalantly confess his Republican allegiance to me. It happened after a commercial for Trump came on the television. Drew shook his head disapprovingly, which I mistook as a sign that he was a Democrat. So I proceeded to insult the orange-skinned nominee for five minutes before he said, “You know I’m a Republican, right?” I mutely sat next to him as he began his tirade on the GOP’s lack of leadership, and how every Republican presidential candidate has strayed farther away from true conservative ideals.

A statement, I realized, he said out of consolation since he is a Republican supporter.

The last straw was when I learned that my uncle, a registered Democrat, is voting for Trump because he fears that Hillary Clinton will take away his recreational guns.

Despite supporting the ban of military grade weapons such as assault rifles, Clinton is polling at 62 percent among Asian Americans. Meanwhile the gun-toting Trump who plans to expand concealed carry permits nationwide is polling at 19 percent among Asian Americans, according to a May article

by Politico.

This revelation was shocking to me.

Up to that point, I believed the stereotype that all Asian Americans were predisposed to be Democrats, because who could support a party that puts Asians at a disadvantage?

It never occurred to me that Asian Americans would go against the grain and actually align themselves more with the conservative party that has been so hell-bent on excluding Asians and other minorities through past legislation,

such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Luce-Celler Act of 1946.

Both of which were signed into law

by President Harry S. Truman and restricted only 100 Filipinos and 100 Native Americans to immigrate into the U.S. each year.

I thought being liberal and Democrat was the one thing that we all agreed upon, regardless of whether you’re Filipino-American or Chinese-American. But I was wrong.

My family is divided politically, each one shouting for their candidate.

As the November election looms closer, it’s important for me to question why I belong with the Democrats as opposed to the Republicans.

My experience has reinforced the lesson that I can’t make blanket assumptions of everyone just based on their race. Political views should have no race. Otherwise, I am no better than those who question my citizenship based solely on the color of my skin.

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OPINION 3

THURSDAY AUGUST 18 , 2016

THE PIONEER

The first generation to graduate Race takes a backseat to education

By Maira Sanchez CONTRIBUTOR I am the first member of my Mexican family to go to college.

I am 21 years old and come from a family of nine. I have six older brothers who were born in Mexico but I was born in the US. When I graduate next spring, it will be a great accomplishment, not only for me, but for my parents and my whole family.

Latino families make up 38 percent of the state’s population, according to a July 2015 California Census Bureau report. Of those families, 16.4 percent live in poverty. We are one of the millions of low-income Mexican families in California.

My parents came to this country about 30 years ago to give my brothers and me a better future and a better life.

They spent three decades going back and forth between both countries, but have stayed here permanently since the early 2000s. They are now in the process of obtaining their American residence, a step that precedes earning full citizenship.

Three of my six brothers finished school in Mexico but the other three attended American schools and learned English in middle school and high school, which was difficult. Two of them obtained their high school diplomas.

I have been educated in the United States since preschool, so learning English was not an obstacle for me. I graduated high school with a 3.84 GPA and am now a rising senior at Cal State East Bay. In many Mexican families, parents take great pride in their kids attending college. They are accomplishing the goals their parents did not achieve and the parents in turn feel successful. I come from a big family: More than 15 uncles and many cousins live close to us. I am my family’s pride and joy, so

there is no room for me to fail to obtain my degree. Earning a bachelor’s degree is not just my goal; it’s everyone’s goal.

There are more and more students like me in this country.

In 2014, 35 percent of Hispanics aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in a two or fouryear college, a 13 percent increase from 22 percent in 1993, according to the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

When I was in high school I did not think of attending a four-year university right away.

My goal at that time was to work, maybe attend a community college and then transfer. I wanted to make money to help out my family.

I was involved in school clubs and other extracurricular activities at San Lorenzo High School, and graduated from there with honors. A high school counselor encouraged me to apply to CSU and UC schools.

She knew I would get accepted because I had good grades and was involved in extracurricular activities. Also, because I was from a low-income family, I would likely be eligible for scholarships and financial aid.

During my senior year of high school, I applied and was accepted to four CSU’s. I also received financial aid, which now pay for all my classes at CSU East Bay. I am thankful for the counselor’s encouragement because I can now say that I am the first in my family to attend college. I plan to receive a communications degree, hopefully by spring 2017.

As of January, 42.5 percent of firstyear student enrollment at CSU East Bay is Hispanic/Latino, according to the CSU Mentor website. Of all the degree-seeking undergraduates, 28.6 percent are Hispanic/Latino, the highest ethnicity group at Cal State East Bay. I feel proud to obtain a degree, par-

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ticularly right now, because it gives me the chance to show that I am not what Donald Trump has said about Mexicans throughout his presidential campaign. I am not a rapist or drug dealer; I am a student that wants to get an education and give my family a better future, just like anyone else.

I want my parents to feel successful too, and the best way I can do that is by graduating college. It shows our community that being Mexican does not mean we cannot also be successful. As the first to attend a university, I am setting the example for my younger family members that they can also go to college and obtain a degree.

19,412

CSU graduates 2014-2015 College Year Sources: www.csumentor.edu GRAPHIC BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER

4 FEATURES

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

THE PIONEER

ALL EYES ON THE PERSEIDS The annual Perseid meteor shower lights up the night sky through August

A DAZZLING DISPLAY This year’s meteor shower displayed between 100-200 meteors per hour, during it’s peak on Aug. 13. Meteoroids are formed when a comet passes by the sun too closely, burning off bits and pieces from it. As the debris travels along the comets orbit, it enters the atmosphere, lighting up from the friction upon it’s descent.

SUN

EARTH

THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME

By Louis LaVenture, Editor-in-Chief The annual Perseid meteor shower made its triumphant return over the weekend and if you thought it was brighter than normal, you were right.

According to NASA’s official website the shower occurs once a year between the end of July through the end of August. Scientists from all over the world, including some astronomers from the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland said this year’s shower featured up to 200 flashes an hour making it the biggest meteor shower this year.

Normally there would be about 60 to 80 flashes an hour during the shower.

According to astronomers, the planet of Jupiter’s gravity moved some comet debris closer to Earth than normal resulting in more activity.

The flashes of light are actually the comet’s dust particles burning after they enter Earth’s atmosphere.

The shower was reported most visible in areas away from light pollution from urban environments and away from highly dense foggy areas as well.

Comet Swift-Tuttle is the largest object that passes by Earth once every 133 years. The meteor shower occurs in the direction of the Perseus constellation, located in the Northeastern hempishere, deeming it the “Perseid” meteor shower.

COMET SWIFT-TUT TLE

THE ANATOMY OF A COMET

METEOROIDS

When a comet gets closer to the sun, it may burn off pieces of it, creating a debris field of meteors.

Meteors from the Perseid meteor shower streak through the night sky at Russian Ridge Open Preserve in Redwood City early Friday morning.

TAIL

NUCLEUS

The “tail” of a comet is formed and only present when it gets closer to the sun.

The “nucleus” is the main section of a comet.

Infographic by Tam Duong Jr. Sources: Chabot Space and Science Center, www.nasa.gov

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6 FEATURES

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

THE PIONEER

Black female divinity transcends artwork #BWIG celebrates spiritual presence

By Wendy Medina COPY EDITOR Throughout history, Black women’s contributions to society have essentially been disregarded. The artists of “The Black Woman is God: Reprogramming that God Code” felt the importance of extreme self-love was a matter significant enough to explore through artistic medium and show the world how much a Black woman’s voice matters by the way they manifest God. Co-curator and Cal State East Bay’s very own English professor Karen Seneferu is part of the 60+ visual artists and 75 performing artists who contributed work that aims to explore how God is embodied in Black women through their sacrifices and triumphs.

A self-taught artist from Oakland, Seneferu founded The Black Woman is God collective in 2013.

The exhibit honors the Black female presence in every form — physical, spiritual and historical — and offers views that resonates with feminism and politics, but also autonomy, psychology, activism, history and cosmology. Described as an “Afrofuturistic aesthetic”

by Black Woman is God contributors, the exhibit opened July 7 and runs through Aug. 17 at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco.

A notable installation by artist Ayana Ivery is a shrine of a life-sized Black Madonna, and homeage to the Lady of Guadalupe titled “Our Mother,” with mirrors surrounding her, inviting viewers to look at themselves and find peace being amongst this safe haven. The exhibit was serene and spiritual, celebrating the Black woman’s experience while evoking a sense of self-pride, no matter one’s background.

It’s meant to be viewed walking counterclockwise, another attendee shared with me, because the setup of the art is aimed to signify evolution.

The showcase plays with the tangible and intangible, the ancient and contemporary, faith and science.

PHOTOS BY WENDY MEDINA/THE PIONEER

Left: A mural at the SOMArts Cultural Center depicting the mother of all mankind at "The Black Woman is God" exhibit in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. Above: Artist, curator and Cal State East Bay English professor Karen Seneferu's installation at the exhibit on July 29 in San Francisco.

You’ll leave the exhibition with a feeling of enlightenment and deeper appreciation of the self as well as the worth of all races and gender.

The initial idea for this exhibit was to challenge how women artists of color would represent their narrative, their culture, and day-to-day realities through art. Since 2013, the concept of The Black Woman is God collective has blossomed into a platform for issues of social justice, urban expression and empowerment. There are over 100 pieces of artwork in this particular exhibit

forms that include installations, paintings, sculptures, dancers and film.

“We have this idea of what art looks like, but we are the originators of art anyway,” Melorra Green, community activist and co-curator of the BWIG exhibition, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I think we’re creating a shift of what beauty is and what art can look like.”

Sasha Kelley and Queen D. Light, two young emerging artists, and multimedia production platform House of Malico’s Malidoma Collective suggest-

ed to Seneferu that instead of all these Black women artists competing against each other for residency in the industry, they should team up, unite forces and enter together.

In 2012, Green offered Seneferu a solo show at the African American Art and Cultural Complex in San Francisco.

Seneferu said she then took this as the opportunity for various female Black artists to showcase their works together in a group concept to voice the idea of claiming oneself as a God by embracing and celebrating one’s culture.

“I had shown in museums and wellknown galleries, where I was the only Black woman artist and that frustrated me,” Seneferu told The Pioneer.

“I didn’t want to be the only Black woman artist speaking for the collective, and so I saw the invitation to do a solo show as an opportunity to do what I thought was more significant than just myself.”

When Seneferu applied for a residency at SOMArts Gallery, the idea of having multiple Black women artists organizing such an exhibit featuring intergenerational commentary thrilled the executive director, she said.

The exhibit reception debuted in the

wake of the Philando Castile and Alton Sterling police shootings; devastating blows to the Black community and fellow supporters that further ignited the fire of the Black Lives Matter movement.

After these events, Green planned for the artists to dress in white and march into the galley space chanting "We respect and love you" to the audience, Senerfu said.

“I believe this energy shifted the space for those in attendance who were looking for a safe place to release pain, frustration and anger, and recognize that Black people specifically, and the audience, generally had a place to heal from the destruction outside the gallery,” she said.

Seneferu hopes The Black Woman is God will travel worldwide and make the Black woman’s presence known.

“A movement-building platform that explores the intersections of race and gender, the exhibition poses the question, ‘When Black women create, are they God?’” reads the mural upon entering the gallery.

For more information about the collective and gallery, visit www.theblackwomanisgod.com.

NEWS

Wildfire takes its toll on Northern California Suspect arrested for local blaze

By Kali Persall MANAGING EDITOR At least seven major wildfires are currently burning throughout California at different degrees of containment, and local organizations are ramping up safety efforts to prevent blazes from reaching the Bay Area.

Yesterday, the East Bay Regional Parks District released a list of “very high” fire danger precautions in parks throughout the Bay, the second-highest classification in the list of fire danger alerts.

These precautions prohibit smoking, campfires and barbecues outside of designated day-use areas and enforce limited gas-fueled stove usage, because fires can easily start from matches or glowing embers, can spread rapidly and quickly increase in intensity, according to parks district statements.

EBRPD named the following areas as having very high fire danger: Bishop Ranch, Briones, Carquinez Strait, Crockett Hills, Cull Canyon, Las Trampas, Las Trampas Little Hills, Martinez Shoreline and Sycamore Valley parks.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided federal funding to combat at least five of the seven fires, including the Fish Fire and Sand Fire in Los Angeles County, the Chimney Fire in San Luis Obispo County, the Sobrantes Fire in Monterey County and the Clayton Fire in Lake County.

The Clayton Fire, named because of its origin location at Clayton Creek off of Hwy 29, has spread throughout 4,000 acres with only 35 percent containment since it started on Sunday, according to Cal Fire’s Tuesday Incident Update report.

On Monday, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office arrested Damin Anthony Pashilk, 40, of Clear Lake on fifteen felony counts of arson and four misdemeanors in connection with 13 fires, according to a statement from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. His bail is set at $5 million. Authorities suspect that Pashilk has started other fires in Lake County stretching back to last year.

The Clayton Fire has destroyed approximately 175 structures and currently threatens 380. On Tuesday, there were 2,372 fire personnel battling the flames under the jurisdiction of the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Cal Fire unit, according to Cal Fire.

There were no recorded injuries or deaths at the time of publication, but

Two fire water tanks sit near a wildfire in Lake County in Northern California over the weekend. On Monday, the Lake County Sheriff's Office annonced the arrest of Anthony Pashilk, 40, and charged him with 19 counts related to arson in Clear Lake, California.

PHOTO COURTESY OF GEORGE GARRIGUES

thousands were forced to evacuate their homes and on Monday, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake County.

In all cases, FEMA Region IX, located in Oakland, determined that the

fires “threatened such destruction as would constitute a major disaster,” according to FEMA Public Affairs.

FEMA provides funding through a Disaster Relief Fund in the form of Fire Management Assistance Grants. These

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THE PIONEER

NEWS 7

Apple to ‘disarm’ iPhones

UC Berkeley chancellor steps down

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

By Kali Persall

MANAGING EDITOR In a few months, iPhone users will be able to illustrate a text with rainbow flags, female athletes, professionals and single-parent families, but not guns.

This fall, the pistol emoji will be removed from iPads, iPhones and be replaced with a lime-green water gun in the iOS 10 software update, which will add over 100 new and redesigned emojis to Apple devices, the technology company announced on Aug. 1.

The replacement follows a Twitter campaign called #disarmtheiphone, headed by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, a nonprofit activist group that advocates for safer gun laws in the state of New York.

The initiative, originally pitched to NYAGV by interns at New York advertising group BBH Barn, has urged Apple’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to “disarm” emojis since last summer, said Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

The call to action came amidst the Charleston church shooting in South Carolina, the Lafayette movie theater shooting in Louisiana and the on-camera murders of news reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam

Ward of CBS in Virginia.

Barrett told the Pioneer that the campaign was a symbolic initiative to raise awareness of gun violence in the United States. “Our culture is saturated with gun violence,” she said. The idea was to “send a message to other tech companies and to the wider media community that we need to do something in America to stop glamorizing gun violence.”

Barrett became involved in the gun control movement in 1999, two years after her brother Greg Gunn was killed by a gunshot wound to the head at his business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was 40 years old. She joined NYAGV’s board in 2011 and became executive director in 2013.

There were 34,531 firearm-related incidents in 2016; 8,826 of these, deaths, 18,472 injuries and 242 mass shootings, reports the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that compiles data about gun violence from 1,500 law enforcement and government organizations daily. “This is entirely preventable,” said Barrett.

“No other developed country has to undergo this carnage from a consumer product.”

NYAGV is currently focusing on enacting universal background checks and closing the “loopholes” for people who don’t purchase firearms through licensed dealers. Barrett stated that the group aims to influence Congress to lift the 1996 ban on firearms research in the CDC, make firearm trafficking a felony, repeal the 2005 immunity law that makes it illegal to hold gun manufacturers responsible for murders committed with the firearm, ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines and im-

By Kali Persall

MANAGING EDITOR

pose national licensing and registration on all gun sales.

“A cultural shift needs to happen, away from the idea that guns make you powerful and toward the notion that a gun makes you weak and endangers you and others, which is the reality,” said Barrett.

Between 1994 and 2014, over 180 million applicants for firearm purchases or transfers were subject to background checks, according to findings by the U.S. Department of Justice. Roughly 1.3 percent of 15 million applicants were denied a permit in 2014; 42 percent of which were due to felony convictions, charges, arrests and indictments. Approximately 1,300 state, local and federal entities conduct background checks on people who purchase firearms or permits.

“It’s important to know that so far not one law has been proposed that would have prevented any of the recent mass shooting incidents…Because while the laws take guns out of the hands of good guys who could defend themselves, they do nothing to take guns out of the hands of criminals,” Craig DeLuz, legislative and public affairs director of the Firearm Policy Coalition told the Pioneer. The FPC is a non-partisan, grassroots organization that advocates for second-amendment rights of Americans through activism.

Apple didn’t explicitly address the pistol replacement in its press release, but stated that the emoji updates were part of an effort to “reflect the diversity of people everywhere.”

Apple has received its fair share of criticism, dating back to when the company halted the creation of a rifle emoji in mid-production in June.

Critics have also voiced concerns about censorship, shining a light on other emojis that implicate violence, such as the knife and bomb. “It’s odd that a company which has fought for free speech and privacy rights would through its own actions subvert speech regarding another fundamental right; that being the right to keep and bear arms,” said DeLuz. The emojis will be created by the Unicode Consortium, the governing body that oversees coding standards for emojis and software worldwide.

Another UC Berkeley faculty member just called it quits.

On Tuesday, Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced that he will step down from his position sometime next year, once a replacement is found.

“Over the summer I have come to the personal decision that the time is right for me to step aside and allow someone else to take up the financial and institutional challenges ahead of us,” he stated in a message to the campus community.

According to UC Berkeley Public Affairs, Dirks, a historian and anthropologist, became the tenth chancellor of UC Berkeley on June 1, 2013.

UC Berkeley made headlines earlier this year when a slew of sexual harassment charges against faculty and staff surfaced, which revealed a lapse in disciplinary action on behalf of the school.

In April, Dirks created the Committee on Sexual Violence, Harassment and Assault to take a closer look at these cases and bolster improvements in policies and services to prevent harassment. Headed by Dirks, the committee began gathering data in April and will report their findings to the chancellor in October.

Dirks said he looked forward to helping in the transition process and fulfilling his primary reason for coming to the school, to teach full-time.

Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof confirmed that Dirks intends to remain at Berkeley as a member of the university’s faculty in his academic fields of expertise, history and anthropology.

8 SPORTS

THURSDAY AUGUST 18, 2016

THE PIONEER

Pioneer athletes earn academic honors

Preseason begins for NFL

By Louis LaVenture

By Louis LaVenture

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For student athletes at Cal State East Bay, grades seem to be just as important as sports.

On Aug. 1 the California Collegiate Athletic Conference announced its 2015-2016 All Academic Team that saw 58 Pioneers make the squad, more than six other teams in the 13-team conference.

According to the CCAA, in order to make the team student-athletes must meet several requirements.

They must be an undergraduate varsity student-athlete, participate in one of the 12 CCAA sponsored sports - men’s cross country, women’s cross country, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s golf, men’s outdoor track & field, women’s outdoor track & field, baseball, and softball.

They must also have a grade point average for the 2015-16 academic year of 3.4 or higher in a minimum of 36 quarter units completed at the certifying institution.

The CCAA implemented the team in 2005-2006 and this year 722 total athletes made the team up 108 athletes from 614 in 2014-2015.

The UC San Diego Tritons led the way with 87 student-athletes making the team.

The 58 spots on the squad posted by

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For football enthusiasts, it is the best time of the year.

The NFL preseason kicked off last week and both of our local teams, the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers, finally got to hit another team after long couple months of training camp competing for roster spots with teammates. Here is how both teams faired.

PHOTO BY TAM DUONG JR./THE PIONEER

Members of the Cal State East Bay women’s softball team hit balls during a practice at Pioneer Softball Field in Hayward in March. The softball team led all CSUEB squads with ten members on the CCAA All-Academic Team.

CSUEB is the most in school history surpassing the 51 from last year.

The softball team led all Pioneer squads with 10 members while the wom-

en’s soccer team finished in a close second with nine. The baseball, men’s soccer and volleyball teams were all close behind with seven members each.

Oakland Raiders Despite the starters only playing two series in the first preseason game in Arizona against the Cardinals, the silver and black dominated their first action of the 2016-2017 season. Oakland jumped out to a 17-3 lead after a dominant first quarter en route to a 31-10 mauling of the Cardinals.

George Atkinson III, a third-year running back from Concord and son of former Raider George Atkinson, provided the highlights of the game for Oakland. Atkinson III scored 2 touchdowns on just 5 carries for 97 total yards. His first score came on a 53-yard run where Atkinson III beat the defense to the corner and turned up field running past everybody.

With limited action for the starters, it was the reserves who got their chance to play and impress. Defenders Cory James, Korey Toomer and James Cowser all made big plays during the con-

test and made a case to make the team, which must be down to 53 players after the final week of the preseason on Sept.

4, before the regualer season begins.

Oakland will travel to Green bay to take on the Packers on Sunday at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin.

San Francisco 49ers Despite a rocky start for the San Francisco 49ers, they bounced back and made their first preseason game a close contest.

San Francisco eventually lost 24-13 to the Houston Texans on Sunday in Santa Clara at Levi’s Stadium, but overcame an early mistake. On the 49ers first possession they fumbled and a Texans defender returned the miscue for a touchdown to give Houston an early 7-0 lead.

However, new coach Chip Kelly and his offense racked up 302 yards in the first half and 409 total but managed just 1 touchdown and 13 points. Apparent starting quarterback Blaine Gabbert found veteran tight end Vance McDonald on a short pass that McDonald turned into a 49-yard score.

Gabbert finished the game 4-for-10 passing with 63 yards and a touchdown.

It was his backup on the day, veteran Thad Lewis who impressed before he suffered a leg injury on a scramble in the third quarter. Lewis finished the game 12-for-21 with 97 yards.

San Francisco will have to travel to Denver to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Broncos on Saturday.

Olympians inspire through historic performances

PHOTO COURTESY OF MARK REIS/COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE/TNS

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles delivers a gold-medal performance in the Individual Women’s Floor Exercise final at Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2016.

Americans come up golden in games

By Marissa Marshall STAFF WRITER The Olympics are a time when greatness happens: Records are broken, medals are won and the best athletes in the world compete against each other.

Simone Manuel, Simone Biles and Michelle Carter made history not only for the United States, but for black women across the globe at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro last weekend.

Last Thursday, Manuel became the

first African American swimmer to win an individual swimming event medal.

She swam an Olympic record of 52.70 in the women’s 100 meter freestyle and tied for gold.

Manuel also took home gold in the women’s 4/100 meter medley relay, coming in at first place at 3:53.13 and earned two silver medals in the women’s 20 meter freestyle and women’s 4x100 meter freestyle relay, with times of 24.09 seconds and 3:31.89 respectively.

In a world where the stereotype “black people can’t swim” prevails, this was a huge accomplishment for manuel, who stated in a post-competition interview, “The gold medal wasn’t just for me. It was for people that came before me and inspired me to stay in the sport,” she said. “For people who believe that

they can’t do it. I hope I’m an inspiration to others to get out there and try swimming. You might be pretty good at it”.

Manuel represented black women across the nation and let them know that nothing is impossible.

Biles made history as well, becoming the first United States gymnast to win three gold medals in one Olympic games.

Biles took home gold in the team competition, the individual all-around competition and on the vault on Sunday. Afterward, Biles tweeted a simple yet strong statement: “dreams DO come true.” This is Biles’ first Olympic games, as she was too young to compete in the 2012 London Games, but she has made quite the name for herself. Before the Olympics, Biles became the first female gymnast to win three consecutive all-around

World Championships. She is the most decorated U.S. women’s gymnast in history, holding 19 World and Olympic gold medals. Simone’s stellar performances in the Olympics is no surprise, considering that she has been making history silently for the past three years.

Last, but surely not least, the United States Michelle Carter became not only the first American woman to medal in shot-put since 1960, but the first to win gold. She also broke the American record in the event, throwing a 20.63m (67-8.25). Carter is also the team captain for the United States Track and Field team, These three women have not only achieved greatness and claimed the highest awards possible, but have also been an inspiration to millions of wom-

en and girls across the world, especially black women. They have broken down barriers that not many black women have overcome before. They showed us that limits are not real and that any barrier can be broken down.

As a black woman, this inspired me to set higher goals for myself, giving me even more motivation and reassurance that I always have “more in the tank,” like Carter stated after her win, to achieve whatever I want to do as well.

It also made me proud to be the black woman I am to see a person the same color as me accomplish their ultimate dream on the highest stage. Thank you Manuel, Biles and Carter for giving women around the world that extra push and letting them know that they can do anything.