VOLUME 48, ISSUE 38
THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2015
WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG
STUDENT LIFE
TRAVEL GUIDE 2015
SAN DIEGO
PHOTO COURTESY OF MASSIMO CATARINELLA
Border Patrol Seizes Record Shipment of Marijuana
TOO MUCH SPARE TIME THIS SPRING BREAK? UCSD GUARDIAN STAFF WRITERS SHARE THEIR ADVENTURES AND OFFER ADVICE ON THE BEST PLACES TO VISIT IN THE U.S. AND ALL OVER THE WORLD. LIFESTYLE, PAGE 6
NET NEUTRALITY
What it is and why we need it opinion, Page 4
STOCKTON SHOWDOWN basketball begins playoffs sports, Page 12
FORECAST
THURSDAY H 71 L 48
SATURDAY H 76 L 51
FRIDAY
H 75 L 48
SUNDAY
H 73 L 53
Authorities confiscated 32,000 pounds of narcotics at Otay Mesa Port last week, marking the second-largest bust in U.S. border history. UCSD held a celebration in front of Geisel Library to honor what would have been Dr. Seuss’ 111th birthday this past Monday. The event also opened the “Hats Off to Dr.Seuss” exhibit, open through March 22. Photo by Jesus Pacheco / UCSD Guardian.
CAMPUS
A.S. Council and GSA Pass Che Cafe Resolution The resolution requests that the collective vacate the facility and reintegrate into campus.
A
By tina butoiu News
.S. Council and the Graduate Student Association passed a joint resolution on Feb. 18 that called for the C.H.E Cafe Collective to refrain from operating at its facility until Spring 2016 and created a C.H.E. Collective Campus Reintegration Committee to assist the Che in becoming a more student-centered organization. The resolution, entitled “The A.S./Graduate Student Association Building a Stronger StudentCentered C.H.E. Collective,” allows the collective to use the C.H.E. Cafe courtyard for small events until the end of the reintegration period. Additionally, the resolution requires that A.S. Council, GSA and University Center Advisory Board be consulted before making any modifications to the C.H.E. Cafe facility. Finally, it requests that University Centers and the UCSD administration seek input from A.S. Council with regard to potentially allowing the C.H.E. Collective to operate at the original facility, “provided that: 1) Financial stability and sus-
Editor
tainability has been achieved; 2) Student involvement has improved; (3) Funding has been secured to repair and renovate the C.H.E. Cafe and 4) Renovations and repairs have been completed.” A.S. Council President Robby Boparai told the UCSD Guardian that safety concerns would have to be addressed in order for the C.H.E Collective to be able to utilize the C.H.E. Cafe facility. “In the future, if … the [C.H.E.] still [is] calling for the facility and the majority of students on this campus believe it is something that’s necessary, then A.S. [Council] would probably support the C.H.E. Collective in being reintegrated into that facility,” Boparai said. “But that would have to be after the safety concerns for the facility are met.” The UCSD administration has expressed initial support for the resolution as well. However, C.H.E. Cafe Collective Core member Mauro Chavez told the Guardian that, although he feels positively about reintegration, passing the resolution does not ensure the C.H.E. will be able
See CHE, page 3
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VERBATIM
THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT USING U.S. FOREIGN AID TO ASSIST COUNTRIES ABROAD IS ACTUALY A GREAT IDEA. HOWEVER, LIKE ALL GREAT IDEAS, EUROPE CAME UP WITH IT FIRST.” Marcus Thuillier & Ayat Amin
ACROSS THE GLOBE OPINION, PAGE 4
INSIDE RECORD POT BUST.......... 2 EDITORIALS..................... 4 A&E REVIEWS.................. 9 SUDOKU........................ 10 BASEBALL..................... 11
California
Study: Cities Show Bias Against Homelessness A recent UC Berkeley report found unfair execution of several California municipal codes. BY BRYNNA BOLT
staff writer Researchers from the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic released a new report on the growing enactment and enforcement of California’s vagrancy laws on Feb. 12 at a legal clinic at UC Berkeley. The Western Regional Advocacy Project commissioned a network of homeless advocacy groups to study the municipal codes of 58 California cities. Among the major cities studied were San Francisco, Sacramento and San Diego. The study determined that, in recent decades, the state has increasingly criminalized homelessness even beyond what
is occurring in other parts of the nation. According to the study, 22 percent of homeless people live in California. Meanwhile, the sample of California cities has enacted 59 percent of the nation’s anti-homeless laws since 1990. Co-author and graduate student at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley Marina Fisher stated that it is the hope of the researchers that data collected for the report will make it a unique asset for policy makers. “Our hope is to have shed light on the issue,” Fisher told the UCSD Guardian. “There have been a lot of anecdotal reports, but there hasn’t been a lot of quantitative data. Part of the problem has been in figuring out how big the problem is. Data is
hard to find, but we hope this report can be a launching point to create solutions to the problem.” The report’s authors based much of their research on categories of anti-homeless law previously defined by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. Within these categories are daytime activities of the homeless, such as standing, sitting and resting in public places, and nighttime activities, such as sleeping, camping and lodging in public places. Laws against panhandling, begging and sharing food with the homeless have also been cited. In San Diego, anti-lodging state codes, such as California Penal Code 647(e), have been used to target the homeless. In 2004, over See STUDY, page 2
BY Jacky to
staff writer U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized approximately 32,000 pounds of marijuana at the Otay Mesa cargo port on Feb 26. This is the largest narcotics seizure to have ever taken place at the port and the second largest ever at any U.S. border crossing. CBP Director of Field Operations Pete Flores told the UCSD Guardian that this seizure is significant because it enables the CBP to achieve a number of goals. “This drug seizure at our port not only keeps these drugs out of our communities, thereby helping make them safer,” Flores said. “But it also denies the transnational criminal organizations the profits they were hoping to derive from their eventual sale.” The seizure took place at approximately 6 p.m. on Thursday when a driver crossing the border claimed to be transporting a cargo shipment of mattresses and cushions. After conducting an x-ray examination on the truck, CBP officers identified an “anomaly” and decided to further examine the vehicle. When the officers opened the trailer doors, they discovered that it was full of plastic-wrapped packages stacked to the ceiling with a few mattresses stacked against the walls. They found a total of 1,296 packages that carried a total of approximately 31,598 pounds, which the CBP estimated has a street value of close to $18.96 million. The driver was a 46-year-old male Mexican citizen who owned a valid border-crossing card. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that, according to a federal charging complaint, the driver told authorities he was offered $50,000 to smuggle the marijuana from Tijuana to Burbank. California. After the incident, CBP officers cancelled his card and turned him over to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Flores told the Guardian that he thinks the CBP officers at the border deserve the credit for the seizure. “Our officers did a great job stopping this massive amount of marijuana at the border,” Flores said. “These extraordinary accomplishments are the direct results of the professional men and women in uniform honorably See MARIJUANA, page 3