the spectator oct. 25, 2012
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Print Issue for 10/25/2012TRANSCRIPT
Your vote, your electors, your president
The SpectatorChabot CollegeHayward, California Thursday, October 25, 2012
TRUTH, LIBERTY & INTEGRITY
www.thechabotspectator.com
• A-Precinct420500Ochoa Middle School - Room 27 2121 Depot Road, Hayward, Calif.
• B-Precinct420600Fire Station 6 Classroom Rear 1401 West Winton Avenue, Hayward, Calif.
• C-Precinct420700Southland Mall Community Room A (Side A) 1 Southland Mall, Hayward, Calif.
• D-Precinct421000Southland Mall Community room A (Side B) 1 Southland Mall, Hayward, Calif.
• E-Precinct420900Alameda County Office of Education building hall B-C 313 West Winton Avenue, Hayward, Calif.
• F-Precinct421100Park Elementary School Hallway 411 Larchmont Street, Hayward, Calif.
Polling stations near Chabot College
Election day is just around the corner. If you do not know where your polling place is, please visit the Alam-eda Election Info page at https://www.acgov.org. Once you are on the page, you will need your address and date of birth to gather your election day information.
Graphic by allen S. lin
Graphic by allen S. lin
On Nov. 6, 2012, the public will cast their votes for the next president of the United States, or will they?
Student Youssef Riahi feels that voting “sym-bolizes our willingness to take actions on our own behalf. Sure, you can be represented by someone else who gets paid to do so, but when you unapologetically represent your-self, your inner self gets paid.”
In truth, when you receive your “I voted!” sticker, it means you have chosen to trust your vote to an elector in the Electoral Col-lege - whose 538 citizens have the real deci-sion in their hands.
The magic number Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will be chasing on election night is 270 electoral votes - the majority plus one, out of 538 possible votes.
According to the article “The History of the Electoral College” by Kevin Bonsor, each state has a number of electors equal to its U.S. senators plus the number of representatives, determined by population of the state.
The public is able to project the winners on election night by the number of votes each state is supposed to be worth.
As of the 2010 census, California is worth 55 electoral votes - more than any other state.
Electors are average citizens who have pledged to vote along their chosen party line when their candidate wins the popular vote.
In most cases, these people have been nomi-nated or voted on by their state party committee, have many years of service with their party, and usually have close personal or political ties with the candidate.
When a vote is cast in a polling place or via absentee ballot on Election Day, that vote is re-ally one in a pool of influence for an elector, but an elector is not always required by law to follow the popular vote in their area.
In some states, such defectors are called “faithless electors” and can sometimes be fined or punished for going against their state or dis-trict’s popular vote.
Congressional nominees, federal govern-ment employees, as well as members of Congress are all prohibited by the California Elections
Code (Division 7, Section 7100) from being an elector, keeping the balance between executive and legislative branches of our government.
Also barred are citizens who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S., as stated by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
This idea is troubling to students like Camille Cristobal, “We are ‘the people’ and if we don’t vote we are letting other people decide the rules we are governed by and the way we live our lives.”
It i s unders t andable w hy some people
could be against the Electoral College system. Federal law dictates that the Electoral Col-
lege meets on the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. This year, that will be on Dec. 17, 2012.
The results of the election aren’t actually con-firmed until January 6, 2013. That’s when the
electors’ votes are opened and read by the president of the Senate in front of both houses of Congress.
Presently, most states follow the winner-take-all or proportional rep-resentation systems.
Winner-take-all is exactly as it sounds: the public votes and the majority wins the state, giving the candidate who won all of the electoral votes; this is the process in California.
With proportional representa-tion, states are divided into districts -- each with their own electors -- and those electors place their votes following the popular vote.
The electoral votes in that state are then split according to the per-centage of districts each candidate won.
The Electoral College was cre-ated by the founding fathers, when they wrote the Constitution, who
were looking for a way to compromise between allowing Congress to elect the President and how to honor the popular vote.
“I like the idea, [of the Electoral College] and it’s not a popular idea among young people when they find out they’re not really voting for their president,” said ICC member Skye Ontiveros, “It’s not a democracy, it is a representative de-mocracy, and we have representatives for a good reason. “Among industrial nations, we have one of the lowest educational systems, people don’t even know the political system.”
By Jessica [email protected]
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I VOTED!
(I THINK)
In the wake of the Richmond refinery fire and the power failure of another refinery in Torrence, Californians saw a major spike in gas prices.
In the Bay Area gas prices soared well over $4.50 seemingly overnight, leaving Californians to pay record breaking highs for the state.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) is an auto club that serves 49 of the 50 states and reports that the national average of regular gas is currently $3.73.
While gas prices continue to back down af-ter the spike, Californians are still paying well above the national average.
This affects hundreds of students at Chabot, “I paid $47 last time at the pump, I usually pay about $30,” says Ashlynn Swenson, a biology major here at Chabot, “I’m a delivery driver, I get paid for delivery, I don’t get [more] if gas prices go up.”
According to “Popular Mechanics” maga-zine, there are around 20 different blends of gasoline in the United States. Each blend is dif-ferent to control the amount of volatile organic compounds mixed in.
These compounds are likely to evaporate in higher heat and are the main cause of smog. Each of these types of gas is measured on the Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) scale that measures how easy the gas is to vaporize, and how bad it is for the environment. The higher the RVP is, the more expensive the cost of the gas will be.
The RVP in summer grade fuel is much dif-ferent than in winter grade fuel. Summer grade fuel is better for the environment because of a lower RVP and winter grade is cheaper but with more emissions.
In the cooler months, the higher amounts of smog don’t affect the environment as greatly and costs a lot less.
With gas prices soaring out of control in California, Gov. Jerry Brown ordered state smog regulators to allow refineries to release our win-ter blend gas earlier than most years when we release them on October 31.
State senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have both released statements about the cost of gas in recent times. Boxer called on the Department of Oil and Gas Price Fraud Group to look into the recent rise of gas affecting Californians. “It is critical that we ensure that these shutdowns are not part of any broader ef-fort to deliberately keep gasoline supplies tight, and prices high, at the expense of the consumer.”
Over the last week after the winter gasoline was released, we have seen gas prices drop pret-ty dramatically with gas prices down to $4.31 at some gas stations near Chabot College.
Hopefully as time goes on we will see it drop more.
NewsHayward, California Thursday, October 25, 2012www.thechabotspectator.com
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Founder of the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fu-kushima (SVCF) Yasuteru Yamada is on a tour that stopped at Chabot College on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012.
Yamada is visiting community colleges and universities in order to gain support from stu-dents in bringing jobs to elderly, skilled veterans
to help restore the devastation of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station in March 2011.
Yamada made a special appearance hosted by philosophy instructor Jeff Zittrain. One of Yamada’s biggest concerns was that Fukushima brought about a worldwide change.
Over 45 percent of the world was affected by Fukushima.
A month after the disaster, Yamada came up with an idea to make a change. He wanted to bring in a group of elderly skilled men to help with the infrastructure of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station because the chance of ra-diation damage is very low for elderly people.
“I am 73 and, on average, I probably have 13 to 15 years left to live; Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop. Therefore, us older ones have less chance of getting cancer.” said Yamada.
Yamada felt the responsibility of fixing what was destroyed from the tsunami is the responsi-bility of the elderly.
“We need to clean up the mess for the next generation.”
The main problem is that SVCF has not gained any support from the owner of the To-kyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) in their proposition of having elderly men working (to reduce young men working) on the power plant. TEPCO admired their proposition, but did not comply.
SVCF feels that plant Fukushima Daiichi should be independent from TEPCO, “We ask to act out together with us,” expressed Yamada.
For more information about SVCF, visit http://fukushimaresponse.org.
Yamada’s mission to restore FukushimaBy Sergio AlmodovAr
Yasuteru Yamada,73, founder of the Skilled Veterans Corps for Fukushima (SVCF) gives a presentation on SVCF’s mis-sion to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in Japan to Chabot College students in Hayward, Calif.
ALLEN S. LIN/STAFF PHOTOS
Left: Yasuteru Yamada,73, receives translation assis-tance from Shige Kajiwara (right), 61, math instructor at Chabot College during a question and answer session after the presentation.
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The business administration and faculty held a seminar in the events center last Monday, Oct. 15 that was open to all students to explore business and transfer opportunities.
The topics that were discussed were transfer opportunities, business certificate programs, business education plans and programs to help students achieve degrees in business.
Chabot offers AS-Transfer degrees, which are business administration degrees intended for students who plan on transferring to four-year schools, AS degrees, for students who don’t plan on transferring, certificate programs and more.
Dmitriy Kalyagin,who is a business instructor here at Chabot said, “The message is mostly start planning your educational plan early, get help as soon as possible, [and] see counseling.”
During the presentation, professor Kalyagin explained that the AS-T degree is the only guaranteed path to California State University or CSU. It requires 27-30 units of the student’s major, with an additional 29 units of general education courses. Total, there must be a minimum of 60 units completed to achieve this degree.
The AS-T degree requires students to take only one math course. The recommended math course is Math 43.
He also explained the transfer opportunities offered at Chabot. The website http://www.assist.org helps students find schools that they are able to transfer to, and the majors that are offered at those schools. Counselors and the Transfer & Employment Center can help students with questions or advice that may be needed on transferring schools.
The AS degree is for students who don’t plan
on transferring to a four-year school. It is designed for students who are new to the working field. It also may be a good decision for students looking to expand their professional growth or need to change their career. It requires 30-38 units of the student’s major with an additional 19 units of general education courses. Overall, there should be a minimum of 60 units completed. The AS
degree is available for accounting, business, and retail management.
“The important message is just plan early,” says Lynn Klein, a full-time faculty member of the business department. “One of the big obstacles to students achieving their goals here at Chabot is the
math sequence. It could entail a number of courses and therefore they [students] need to start early.
“Another important part of why we’re doing this is because if students declare their major, then it gives them a better chance of having the classes available that they need,” she added. “They’re [students] doing the right thing…getting the education. It will make a difference in their
quality of life and their ability to achieve their goals. So I applaud them.”
Chabot also offers certificate programs. These programs are intended to help with employee skills and career and development growth in students’ fields. There is no general education courses required for a certificate, just 18-30 units of your major. Classes are available in the morning, day time, evening and online. A certificate can be finished in 2-3 semesters for students who are part-time.
Of the 10 majors that are offered, five can be completed fully online. They are management, marketing, bookkeeping, accounting technician and health care management. The other five are human resource assistant, business transfer, retailing & retail management, small business management and real estate.
Gabrielle Medina, a Chabot student who attended the seminar said, “I did five semesters here, and out of the five, two I dropped [classes]. So I was worried that would look bad for me to transfer so knowing that it [the AS-T degree] secures you to transfer…makes me interested now.”
“I got a lot of information about what I need to transfer, what degrees I should really
aim for,” says Franciska Karbobich, also a Chabot student. “It seems like I’m on the right track.”
For more information on degrees and transferring, visit http://www.chabotcollege.edu/BUS. Students can also contact Lynn Klein, or Dmitriy Kalyagin for more information.
By Galia [email protected]
Business education seminarAS Transfer degrees
The above listing is a suggested sequence and some courses may have prerequisites. Students may take courses in any sequence except where a prerequisite applies.* - Business 7, Accounting for Small Business, is strongly recommended before you take Business 1A.
GRAPHIC BY ALLEN S. LIN
Chabot’s WRAC CenterAre you having trouble with writing or reading? Visit the top floor of the library!www.thechabotspectator.com/chabots-wrac-center
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Good Kid, M.A.A.D CityKendrick Lamar’s new rap album produced by Dr. Dre was released Oct. 22, 2012.www.thechabotspectator.com/maad-review/
Newly digital textbooks50 popular textbooks will soon be offered for free, thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown.www.thechabotspectator.com/california-digital-textbooks
Life Goes On for “AR”After being shot, a former student speaks about the Life Goes On Foundation. www.thechabotspectator.com/ar-gun-violence-and-life-goes-on/