STUDY ABROAD!
six colleges, six continents: let us help you decide where to fly. see pg. 6
ILLUSTRATION BY /GUARDIAN
VOLUME 47, ISSUE 8
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2013
ATHLETICS
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
CALIFORNIA
State Supreme Court Demands Inmates Released California has until Nov. 10 to reduce prison crowding from 149 to 137 percent capacity. BY aleksandra konstantinovic
associate news editor
California’s Supreme Court has refused to consider Gov. Jerry Brown’s appeal of an order to reduce prison populations in the state. Brown will have until Jan. 27 to meet a court-ordered population cap mandating the release of over 9,000 additional prisoners. The state’s push for prison reform began in 2011, when a federal court demanded that California improve prison health conditions. In April 2013, the Supreme Court of California gave Brown 20 days to come up with a plan to reduce the number of inmates or be held in contempt of the court. Brown’s initial plan included releasing certain inmates and sending others to county prisons in order to lessen the pressure on state prisons, which currently hold inmates at up to 149 percent of capacity. Releasing the additional prisoners will bring state prison overcrowding to 137 percent of capacity. Brown’s plans may not add up to the mandated 9,600 prisoners that need to be released, and the court can order the release of more prisoners on top of its first mandate. Brown petitioned the initial order to release inmates by December of this year, asking for an additional three years to meet the court’s requirements. The mandate was PHOTO BY CARINA CORNEJO /GUARDIAN
The UCSD women’s volleyball team lost to Cal State Los Angeles in five sets last Saturday, Oct. 19, after defeating Cal State Dominguez Hills in four sets on Friday, Oct. 18. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
See PRISONS, page 3
SAN DIEGO
UCSD Surgeons Perform Filner Pleads Guilty on Battery Charges former mayor ended his political career Tuesday in a plea deal for his false 3,000th Heart Surgery The imprisonment and misdemeanor charges and will not serve any jail time.
The pulmonary thromboendarterectomy procedure was developed at UCSD in 1970. BY Andrew Huang
Contributing Writer As of Oct. 16, surgeons at the UCSD Health System performed their 3,000th pulmonary thromboendarterectomy, a life-saving surgery developed by the UCSD Medical Center in 1970. This is an important milestone for UCSD doctors because patients who require PTE surgery suffer from severe pulmonary embolism, which are small blood clots that form in the lungs. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it
typically affects 300,000 to 600,000 Americans annually, but a small minority may further develop scar tissue and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. The condition leads to shortness of breath and, eventually, heart failure. PTE is a procedure established by Doctor Kenneth Moser and a team of UCSD cardiothoracic surgeons to successfully clear this scar tissue. Over the course of several hours, the patient is put on a cardiopulmonary bypass machine to clear the lungs of blood, allowing surgeons to work on the arteries. Additionally, the patient’s body is chilled to 18 degrees Celsius to protect major organs during the main part of the surgery, which places the patient under cardiac arrest. While the surSee SURGERY, page 3
BY gabriella fleischman
contributing writer Former San Diego Mayor, Bob Filner pleaded guilty to a felony charge for false imprisonment and two misdemeanor battery charges on Tues., Oct. 15, reaching a plea deal with the city. He was accused of forcibly restraining or making sexual advances toward three women against their will. His sentence included mandatory mental health treatment, three months home confinement and three years probation during which he cannot vote, serve on a jury or possess firearms. In addition, he cannot run for office again and will lose his mayoral pensions from the date of the first accusation until his resignation. If he violates these sentences, he could serve up to six months in prison.
Filner, 71, resigned in late August after 18 accusations of sexual harassment were made against him. However, he agreed to resign under the condition that the city pay for his legal fees in civil cases. His former fiance, Bronwyn Ingram, left him in July due to his sexual advances on other women. The women he committed false imprisonment and battery against were identified as “Jane Doe 1, 2 and 3” in reports. Filner violently held back Jane Doe 1 with what is now referred to as the “Filner headlock” on March 6 at a fundraiser. The first misdemeanor occurred on April 6, when the former mayor kissed Jane Doe 2 against her will at a “Meet the Mayor” event. On May 26, Filner allegedly grabbed the buttocks of Jane Doe 3 at a Fiesta Island rally.
The former Freedom Rider served as mayor for nine months and was San Diego’s first democratic mayor in 20 years. During his resignation speech, Filner called himself the victim of a “lynch mob,” explicitly stating that he was never a perpetrator of sexual harassment. A mere six weeks later he pleaded guilty to the charges. The guilty plea comes a month before the special election for Filner’s replacement. Former UCSD professor Nathan Fletcher leads the polls with 4 points over Kevin Faulconer, with David Alvarez and Mike Aguirre at 20 percent and 8 percent of the vote, respectively, according to U-T San Diego.
readers can contact
Gabriella Fleischman
gfleisch@ucsd.edu