Kelly Thomas: Ex-officers’ trial in death starts today

David Sklansky quoted in the Orange County Register, December 2, 2013

A video presents problems for the defense, but whether it leads to a conviction is uncertain, said David Sklansky, a professor and expert on criminal law at UC Berkeley. “Videos can often provide much more information about what happened at a confrontation than the memories of the people who survived and were at the confrontation,” Sklansky said. “There are cases where video is powerful evidence, on balance, for one side or the other.”

San Bruno officials suspect PUC judge under pressure to go easy on PG&E

Steven Weissman quoted in San Jose Mercury News, December 2, 2013

Steven Weissman, director of the energy program at UC Berkeley Law School and a former PUC administrative law judge, said it would be acceptable for the executive director and the administrative law judges to discuss “procedural and staffing issues,” but added that “it would be typical for the executive director to discuss these things with the chief ALJ (administrative law judge) rather than going directly to the judge on the case.”

Why travel suppliers should ‘spy’ on their customers

Deirdre Mulligan quoted in USA Today, November 25, 2013

Talk with information experts, and they’ll tell you that surveilling customers just to raise profits is ethically troublesome. Instead, companies should do it for the benefit of guests, says Deirdre Mulligan, who teaches courses on information technology and law at the University of California at Berkeley. The data collection has to be “properly disclosed and agreed to,” she says.

Making sure renewable energy produces clean energy

Ethan Elkind writes for UCLA Today, November 25, 2013

Californians can certainly brag about the state’s leading role in deploying renewable energy from the sun and wind. In-state renewable energy generation has spiked in the past few years, prices have come down significantly, and we appear to be well on our way to meeting the goal of 33 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2020. But will this renewable energy boom actually mean cleaner air and less greenhouse gas pollution?

Viewpoints: Making sure renewable energy produces clean energy

Ethan Elkind writes for the Sacramento Bee, November 24, 2013

Most of us assume that renewable means clean. But the intermittent nature of much of this power – since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow – may lead grid operators to rely on more fossil fuel-based power to fill gaps in the renewable sources.

Experts on the NSA’s history of abuses: There they go again

Jennifer Urban’s Samuelson Clinic brief cited in The Atlantic, November 21, 2013

“Recent surveillance activities, and the executive’s justifications for them, share core features with surveillance programs that operated from the 1930s into the 1970s,” they write. “These features include: expansion of surveillance programs beyond their original purpose; a tendency to collect as much information as possible, with the result that surveillance expands as technology advances; and a preoccupation with secrecy that thwarts an effective evaluation of these programs’ effectiveness or legality.”

China legal reform promises cause for cautious optimism

Stanley Lubman writes for Wall Street Journal, November 20, 2013

The initial communiqué that emanated from China’s major meeting of top Communist Party leaders on November 12th focused on economic reform and had little to say about the legal realm. That changed three days later when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party released a 60-point “resolution” that announced two potentially significant legal reforms and provided more detail about additional reform targets.

Oakland crime strategy has failed in past

Barry Krisberg interviewed on KTVU, November 19, 2013

“It certainly hasn’t been effective so far, and there is no information suggesting it is effective,” says Barry Krisberg, UC Berkeley criminologist. Krisberg calls Ceasefire a distraction. “We need a closer connection between police and community. Oakland police have pretty much abandoned community policing.”