Law + Policy

Cooking with Gas

Since 1988, Mark Levine, group leader of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been doing the highly technical work of measuring and assisting China’s progress on energy efficiency. But one evening last April, he carried out his duties by fussing over his backyard BBQ. While Levine prepped the salmon, Zhou Dadi, whom Levine described as “the most knowledgeable person about energy in China in the world,” scurried around cleaning deck chairs with paper towels.

Exiled Home

Guantánamo is the name of a bay in Cuba and the American naval base that has operated there since 1898. But since 2001, when the United States government built a detention center on the base to incarcerate the enemy as defined by the Bush administration’s “war on terror,” the name has become synonymous with that detention center and the “aggressive interrogation techniques” practiced there. Like “Abu Ghraib,” “Guantánamo” is a name that conjures a mix of shame, dread, and uneasiness. Most of us would rather not think about it or about the men behind the razor wire.

From the January February 2009 Effect Change issue of California.

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earthquake

From his tiny upstairs office in San Francisco’s Mission Neighborhood Health Center, where a large portrait of Our Lady of Guadalupe watches over the other Catholic saints covering the walls, Chris Sandoval tries to imagine how his clinic will handle a rush of traumatized patients after a catastrophic earthquake. Most of the nonprofit clinic’s clients are Spanish-speaking and uninsured, and Sandoval, the training and development director, knows that a quake’s no idle worry. The U.S.

From the March April 2009 The Soul of Wit issue of California.

Access and Excellence at Berkeley

Since July 1, 2006, I’ve had the best job in academia: executive vice chancellor and provost at the University of California, Berkeley. The position, both endlessly challenging and exhilarating, is the culmination of a 37-year career as faculty and allows me to give back to the university in ways that stretch beyond research and teaching.

From the November December 2008 Stars of Berkeley issue of California.

The Newest New Deal

Once upon a housing boom in the Bay Area, million-dollar studios seemed cheap. Short-order cooks were flipping condos instead of hamburgers. Every other cab driver seemed to be moonlighting as a mortgage broker. The proverbial investment-savvy shoe-shine boy—grandson, maybe, of the one whose financial advice gave Joe Kennedy the signal to put his money in the mattress just before the 1929 market crash—was way long on South of Market lofts.

From the January February 2009 Effect Change issue of California.

Beyond Academics

As a girl growing up in Los Angeles, UC Berkeley always held a fascination for me. I loved hearing about the pioneering role it played in the Free Speech and Civil Rights Movements. I even carried an image of the City of Berkeley as a place alive with diversity and openness. So it was no surprise to my family and friends when Berkeley topped my list of college choices.

From the March April 2009 The Soul of Wit issue of California.

Above the Influence

He may be the most powerful man in the world, but Barack Obama seems determined not to act like it. Making his official international debut at the G20 summit in London recently, the new president laid out a striking manifesto of modesty. “We exercise our leadership best when we are listening,” he declared, “when we recognize that the world is a complicated place and that we are going to have to act in partnership with other countries, when we lead by example, when we show some element of humility and recognize that we may not always have the best answer….”

From the May June 2009 Go Bare issue of California.

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