Rachel Moran Calls on Citizen-Lawyers to Serve the Common Good

The National Law Journal, January 19, 2009 by Rachel F. Moran
http://www.nlj.com (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

A citizen-lawyer ethic would feed the hunger for consequential service that drives many to study law. Is this call for renewal fanciful? Not this year. As Americans lose jobs and homes, they better appreciate social safety nets that ensure minimum levels of security and dignity. People want advice from experts on law and policy about how to address the grave challenges we face. Legal principles—transparency, the individual’s right to seek relief, deference to courts and legislatures, and the necessity for administrative oversight—are ascendant. No longer is free-market enthusiasm, with its hostility to regulation, the order of the day.

Kathryn Baron Explains Scope of Education Reforms in Stimulus Plan

KQED The California Report, January 17, 2009 hosted by Rachael Myrow
http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/151/510005/99422973/KQED_99422973.mp3?_kip_ipx=559752732-1235001904

“President-elect Obama wants to provide scholarships to new teachers to work in poor inner-city schools, a key to addressing the achievement gap that plagues California schools with their diverse student population. He also wants to put more money into leadership training and mentoring to keep young teachers in the profession. And he is proposing financial incentives to recruit more math and science teachers, who are in short supply in the state.”

Wilda White Believes Race a Factor in Fatal BART Shooting

KQED Forum, January 16, 2009 hosted by Dave Iverson
http://www.kqed.org/epArchive/R901160900

“I think it’s undeniable that race was a factor starting at the way the incident was reported. It was reported as a fight: that probably was because of the race of the people involved. Then we have the footage of the videotape, and research has shown that videotapes are often misinterpreted or interpreted differently based on race. Then we have the charge and the community’s reaction to that charge and I believe that was based on the race of both the victim and the officer. So we have race at the outset and it is continuing and will continue through to the conclusion of this case and what happens after.”

David Onek Says San Francisco Homicides Typically Involve Repeat Offenders

San Francisco Chronicle, January 16, 2009 by Tyche Hendricks
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/16/BAP5159KH0.DTL&type=printable

“The vast majority of victims and perpetrators have past involvement in the criminal justice system,” said David Onek, director of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice … who recently completed a study on San Francisco homicides. “Violence in San Francisco is highly concentrated in a small number of places and a small number of people.”

Franklin Zimring and Charles Weisselberg Weigh in on BART Shooting

Oakland Tribune, January 15, 2009 by Katy Murphy
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_11466194?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

“Are police officers charged with assault and sexual assault and homicide crimes? The answer is yes. Cops are people, too,” said Frank Zimring, a law professor at UC Berkeley. But, he said, murder is so rarely charged as a result of an on-duty use of deadly force because there’s usually “a palpable issue of risk” to the arresting officers or bystanders…. “The officer hasn’t told his side of the story, but when he does, there isn’t going to be an element of that risk,” he said.

Charles Weisselberg, also a UC Berkeley law professor, said it was too soon for him to weigh in on the murder charge, especially without having seen the witness statements and other evidence presented to Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff. “I find it really hard from the videos to determine what’s going on,” he said.

Mary Ann Mason Documents Grads Disillusionment with Academe

The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 15, 2009 by Audrey Williams June
http://chronicle.com/cgi-bin/printable.cgi?article=http://chronicle.com/daily/2009/01/9652n.htm

“In this profession, everything is very front-ended, and that’s a pressure-cooker situation,” says Mary Ann Mason, referring to the dizzying schedules of Ph.D. students and pretenure faculty members…. “This generation of graduate students is completely different. They no longer see how that will work for them,” she says.

Charles Weisselberg and Franklin Zimring Expect D.A. to File Criminal Charges in BART Shooting

The Mercury News, January 14, 2009 by Tammerlin Drummond
http://www.mercurynews.com/oakland-bart-shooting/ci_11447007

“You charge for the top crime it could be,” says Franklin Zimring, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, who specializes in criminal law. That top crime, he says, would be second-degree murder — which automatically includes the lesser possibilities of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.

But if that were to be the case, says Charles Weisselberg, a criminal procedure expert at Boalt Law, “he will want to think carefully about how to state that to members of the public.”