Harbaugh, 49ers part ways officially Recent events give ‘Selma’ immediacy SPORTS | Page C1 LIFESTYLES | Page C6 The Modesto Bee MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 modbee.com CHP struggles to reflect state HIRING OF RACIAL MINORITIES FAILS TO MATCH CALIFORNIA’S DIVERSITY By Jon Ortiz The Sacramento Bee Glancing at the 458 candidates who recently showed up for the California Highway Patrol’s applicant screening on a recent blustery morning, one wouldn’t think the department has a diversity problem. The group that had gathered in the gym at the CHP’s West Sacramento academy came from the Sacramento region and mirrored its multi-hued TODAY’S SCOOP ethnic palette. Brown and black. Yellow and white. No color stood out. Yet if the history holds true, the tiny fraction of hopefuls who pass that physical fitness testing, survive a background check and manage to graduate from the CHP’s academy a year or so from now will swear an oath to take a job that pays $6,225 to $7,720 per month to start. Most of the graduates will be white. While the CHP is trying to make in- roads, it remains far less diverse than the state it patrols. Nearly 7 in 10 officers are white, compared to 4 in 10 Californians. CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow says the relative lack of diversity complicates policing for the 7,500 cops under his command, particularly in a grim new era of unrest. The department came under intense scrutiny last summer for the beating of an African American woman by one of its white officers. Then events in Ferguson, Mo., New York and Ohio jolted communities nationwide and set law enforcement everywhere on edge. The recent ambush killing of two New York police officers by a man who reportedly sought revenge for Eric Garner’s death has ratcheted up tensions even more. (The shooter, who committed suicide, was black. The officers he killed were Asian and Latino.) A 2012 Rand report noted research that found “the police may be seen as more legitimate and may be better able to partner with community organizations in fighting crime” if a department’s diversity mirrors that of the residents it serves. “My goal is to have the Highway Patrol reflect the communities we serve CHP | Back page, A8 “That river’s my backyard, my playground. It’s the only reason I bought that house.” EDWARD QUIGLEY, Riverbank resident near the Stanislaus River LOCAL NEWS A certain poultry producer based in Livingston will get national TV exposure Tuesday night via the Foster Farms Bowl. The bowl will raise money for anti-hunger efforts, including Second Harvest Food Bank, which serves Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Page B1 LOCAL NEWS The shooting in May of a homicide suspect in Turlock involving two Merced County sheriff’s deputies remains under investigation, authorities confirmed this week. Brian Scott Hiatt was the prime suspect in the murders several hours earlier of Rhonda Hiatt of Mariposa and her sister, Lisa Robbins, of Hilmar. Page B1 WORLD As the search for a missing AirAsia plane resumed this morning, Indonesian authorities said they believe the commercial jet with 162 people on board already lies at the bottom of the sea. The plane, an Airbus A320200, had encountered a string of intense thunderstorms and heavy clouds Sunday morning over the Java Sea. Page B6 OPINIONS While federal and state policymakers apparently have taken a smoke break, e-cigarette use has boomed among kids. A government survey released last week confirmed the worst fears of public health officials. In the absence of meaningful regulation, vaping, as it is known, has seeped into the mainstream, surpassing regular cigarette smoking among adolescents. Page A7 INSIDE Mostly sunny 54 | 35 Complete forecast Page B6 Bridge Classified Comics Crossword Horoscope Opinions Lifestyles Local News Lottery Names & Faces Sports C7 C7 B4 B5 C7 A7 C6 B1 B2 A2 C1 Thanks for reading The Bee! To subscribe or to report a late or missing paper, call 1-800-776-4233 The Modesto Bee, © 2014 Joan Barnett Lee [email protected] Edward Quigley and his daughter Arielle walk their dogs along the Stanislaus River in Riverbank on Tuesday. The Quigleys and many of their neighbors are upset at the number of people that park on their streets to use the river in the summer. River users trash subdivision AVOIDING PARK FEE, THEY LEAVE CARS, GARBAGE ON STREETS By Garth Stapley [email protected] RIVERBANK – Charging $5 a carload to enter Jacob Myers Park in the summer may be paying off for City Hall. But people in a nearby neighborhood say they’re paying a steep nonmonetary price. Since the entry fee was imposed three years ago at the popular park on the Stanislaus River, people apparently have looked about for options. Now vehicles belonging to rafters, fishermen and picnickers routinely line the streets of the River Cove neighborhood on the river’s opposite shore, at least in the summertime. If all they did was park and enjoy Riverbank’s river bank, neighbors wouldn’t mind. But the sudden increase in traffic has overwhelmed city-placed trash cans, say neighbors weary of garbage ruining nature, their streets and their yards. Some have a harder time finding street parking. Others have had items disappear from their porches, or come home to people using their hoses to spray sandals and ice chests. “I’ve seen people open their car Trash litters the bank of the Stanislaus River near River Cove Drive in Riverbank on Tuesday morning. doors and push all their crap out (in the street),” said Edward Quigley. “Beer bottles, wrappers, dirty diapers.” Graffiti mars the trash cans, a city recreation sign, a vandalized nesting box for owls and trunks of riverfront trees. Broken glass makes going barefoot an unwise proposition. “The area has changed so much,” said Quigley, who fell head-over-heels for the riverfront neighborhood 15 years ago. Although the word “river” is in the city’s very name, people here don’t enjoy exceptional access to it. They must cross it, and a county line, for the most likely entrance at Jacob Myers Park. From its inception in the early 1990s, River Cove was meant to change that in a small way. The Stanislaus since has been open to anyone willing to climb a small berm after parking in the 256-lot subdivision, which was carved from a former walnut orchard and now is home to more than 700 people. When Quigley arrived a few years later, he felt he’d stumbled on the best-kept riparian secret in California. He figures he puts in 20 or 30 days a year on the water, in kayaks, rafts or canoes, whether sun, rain or full moon. “That river’s my backyard, my playground,” he said. “It’s the only reason I bought that house.” Things changed when the city started charging entry fees at Jacob Myers, everyone seems to agree. When the weather heats up, River Cove streets are lined with dozens of cars belonging to people from elsewhere. “People are adaptive. They figure things out,” said Riverbank police Chief Erin Kiely. “They find a way around (paying $5), and part of that is to bounce over to River Cove.” Aside from the fee, some might not appreciate the park’s ban on alcohol, which actually affects all public space throughout the city. The rules don’t apply to private property. Just who owns the bank along River Cove could not easily be determined with City Hall dark for the holiPARK | Back page, A8 $1 Brown excuses local man MODESTAN DRANK STOLEN WINE AS A TEEN By J.N. Sbranti [email protected] In pardoning a group of convicted felons last week, Gov. Jerry Brown went out of his way to explain how one of the burglars had taken “expensive wine out of a wine cellar and drank it.” It was an amusing detail offered to justify granting clemency for that crime. But Modesto’s Michael J. Moradian Jr. acknowledges that what he did back in 1986 was no laughing matter. “Nobody knows this about me,” said Moradian, a community advocate whom the City Council honored earlier this month for “his service, leadership and dedica- Michael J. tion” to Mo- Moradian Jr. was in high desto. school when Moradian, 46, said he he stole his hadn’t even neighbor’s told his two wine. children about his criminal record, but the news spread quickly following the governor’s announcement. “I was a senior in high school when it happened,” Moradian recalled. He was attending Modesto’s Davis High School and hanging with the wrong kind of crowd. “I made poor choices at the time.” “My neighbor had a wine cellar, and I decided to help myself. I helped myself more than once,” Moradian admitted. “That was expensive wine I drank.” Several other teens were involved in stealing and drinking that booze, but Moradian was the only “adult,” having just turned 18. Once prosecutors calculated the missing wine was worth more than $10,000, they charged Moradian with felony theft. He was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. “It opened my eyes and totally changed my life. I was on the road to destruction in high school, but it woke me up,” Moradian assured. After being forced to live among inmates at Stanislaus County’s honor farm, he realized: “This was not the lifestyle I wanted.” Moradian qualified for the jail’s work release program. He got a job with EarthCalc, which calculates how much dirt must be moved to complete various projects. But while he spent his days working, he had to spend PARDON | Back page, A8 Overhauling college science classes By Richard Pérez-Peña The New York Times DAVIS – Hundreds of students fill the seats, but the lecture hall stays quiet enough for everyone to hear each cough and crumpling piece of paper. The instructor speaks from a podium for nearly the entire 80 minutes. Most students take notes. Some scan the Internet. A few doze. In a nearby hall, an instructor, Catherine Uvarov, peppers students with questions and presses them to explain and expand on their answers. Every few minutes, she has them solve problems in small groups. Running up and down the aisles, she sticks a microphone in front of a startled face, looking for an answer. Students dare not nod off or show up without doing the reading. Both are introductory chemistry classes at the University of California campus here in Davis, but they present a sharp contrast – the traditional and orderly but dull versus the experimental and engaging but noisy. Breaking from practices that many educators say have proved ineffectual, Uvarov’s class is part of an effort at a small but growing number of colleges to transform the way science is taught. “We have not done a good job of teaching the intro courses or gateway courses in science and math,” said Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the Association of American Universities and a former president of Cornell University and the University of Iowa. SCIENCE | Back page, A8 Max Whittaker The New York Times Catherine Uvarov, an instructor at the University of California, Davis, leads a discussion during her introductory chemistry class. Multiple studies show engaging but noisy teaching methods like this can improve students’ work in science classes.
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