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He has been speedskating since he was a kid, and at 20 years old, he went on to become the top-ranked American skater in the world, entering the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2022 at No. 29. During those trials, he suffered crashes during the finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim persevered, and now he’s finally headed to the Olympics. He described his passion for speedskating and what he plans to see in Italy off the ice, in conversation with KQED morning news host Brian Watt. Here’s an excerpt of their conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Watt: How would you describe speedskating? What is happening on the ice?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Kim:\u003c/strong> We’re racing in a pack. We have 17-inch blades. We’re turning around the corner, leaning at crazy angles and going up to speeds of 30 miles per hour. I’m a short-track speed skater, so I compete inside like an Olympic-size rink, which is like a regular public rink. Our races consist of a lot of strategy. It’s definitely the more exciting version of speedskating compared to long track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Short track seems intense, almost like the sprint on a typical track and field-like track, versus the longer distances, where you have to watch for a while.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like watching paint dry. I guess the general consensus among short trackers is that long track is boring, and it’s easier because you don’t have to pass people and things like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072695\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon Kim of the United States competes in the men’s 500-meter heats during the ISU Short Track World Tour, Montreal, at Aréna Maurice-Richard on Oct. 9, 2025, in Montreal, Quebec. \u003ccite>( Sarah Stier/International Skating Union via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I have to admit, I barely learned to ice skate. The idea of going that fast, like with any speed whatsoever, terrifies me. So, how did you get into it, and how did you maybe get over a fear of going fast?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started when I was 9 or 10 years old, after watching the [2010] Vancouver Olympics. I thought just the speed that the athletes were going at and turning and racing seemed exciting. And there were a few teams around my area, so I just started out that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Your dream has been to make it to the Olympics. And you got really close, right before the 2022 Beijing Games. Can you talk a little bit more about that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We qualify for Olympic spots based on our performance at World Cup competitions prior to the Olympics. I had earned those spots, but unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble at the Olympic Trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I fell like five times. It was a difficult competition for me. With short track, you never know what will happen because you’re racing in a group. You’re passing different people, so there can be a lot of collisions.[aside postID=news_12072038 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/WinterOlympics2026Getty1.jpg']\u003cstrong>You are going to make your Olympic debut, and you’re also a full-time student at Stanford. When you are studying? And training for competitions, what does a typical day look like for you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not like a student athlete. I wasn’t recruited to Stanford for short track or anything like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I’m at school, I prioritize my academics. I do a lot of weight lifting and training by myself because there’s no ice rink at Stanford. So, when I go out to compete, I fly out like Wednesday and then start competing on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having just one or two days to acclimate myself and compete again, it’s something that not many, if any skaters, have done. Being away from the ice yet being able to compete at the highest level brings up my confidence and sets me apart from different athletes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As you join Team USA in speedskating, competing alongside people like Jordan Stoltz, what’s going through your mind?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just want to take it one race at a time and make sure my preparation from now until we start racing is as good as possible. I don’t want to let the pressure overwhelm me or anything like that. I just want to skate my own race and give it all I got.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are you looking forward to doing in Italy that is not speed skating?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside the Olympic Village, I’m looking forward to looking at the Duomo di Milano. We had the test event at the Olympic facility last year, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check it out. So this time, I want to be able to get a look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For most student-athletes, the balancing act between exams and training is part of the job. But for Brandon Kim, a rising senior at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> studying computer science, he calls himself a full-time student first, who still makes time to go for gold at this year’s Milan Cortina \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/winter-olympics\">Winter Olympics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My journey to where I am now is totally different from what a traditional skater or athlete might be,” said Kim, who was born and raised in Fairfax, Virginia. “When I’m at school, I don’t have access to an ice rink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim, 24, is among the 20 or so athletes with Bay Area ties who are competing in the Winter Games. He has been speedskating since he was a kid, and at 20 years old, he went on to become the top-ranked American skater in the world, entering the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2022 at No. 29. During those trials, he suffered crashes during the finals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim persevered, and now he’s finally headed to the Olympics. He described his passion for speedskating and what he plans to see in Italy off the ice, in conversation with KQED morning news host Brian Watt. Here’s an excerpt of their conversation, which has been edited for brevity and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brian Watt: How would you describe speedskating? What is happening on the ice?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Kim:\u003c/strong> We’re racing in a pack. We have 17-inch blades. We’re turning around the corner, leaning at crazy angles and going up to speeds of 30 miles per hour. I’m a short-track speed skater, so I compete inside like an Olympic-size rink, which is like a regular public rink. Our races consist of a lot of strategy. It’s definitely the more exciting version of speedskating compared to long track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Short track seems intense, almost like the sprint on a typical track and field-like track, versus the longer distances, where you have to watch for a while.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s like watching paint dry. I guess the general consensus among short trackers is that long track is boring, and it’s easier because you don’t have to pass people and things like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12072695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12072695\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/02/BrandonKimOlympicsGetty2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon Kim of the United States competes in the men’s 500-meter heats during the ISU Short Track World Tour, Montreal, at Aréna Maurice-Richard on Oct. 9, 2025, in Montreal, Quebec. \u003ccite>( Sarah Stier/International Skating Union via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I have to admit, I barely learned to ice skate. The idea of going that fast, like with any speed whatsoever, terrifies me. So, how did you get into it, and how did you maybe get over a fear of going fast?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I started when I was 9 or 10 years old, after watching the [2010] Vancouver Olympics. I thought just the speed that the athletes were going at and turning and racing seemed exciting. And there were a few teams around my area, so I just started out that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Your dream has been to make it to the Olympics. And you got really close, right before the 2022 Beijing Games. Can you talk a little bit more about that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We qualify for Olympic spots based on our performance at World Cup competitions prior to the Olympics. I had earned those spots, but unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble at the Olympic Trials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I fell like five times. It was a difficult competition for me. With short track, you never know what will happen because you’re racing in a group. You’re passing different people, so there can be a lot of collisions.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You are going to make your Olympic debut, and you’re also a full-time student at Stanford. When you are studying? And training for competitions, what does a typical day look like for you?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not like a student athlete. I wasn’t recruited to Stanford for short track or anything like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I’m at school, I prioritize my academics. I do a lot of weight lifting and training by myself because there’s no ice rink at Stanford. So, when I go out to compete, I fly out like Wednesday and then start competing on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Having just one or two days to acclimate myself and compete again, it’s something that not many, if any skaters, have done. Being away from the ice yet being able to compete at the highest level brings up my confidence and sets me apart from different athletes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>As you join Team USA in speedskating, competing alongside people like Jordan Stoltz, what’s going through your mind?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I just want to take it one race at a time and make sure my preparation from now until we start racing is as good as possible. I don’t want to let the pressure overwhelm me or anything like that. I just want to skate my own race and give it all I got.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What are you looking forward to doing in Italy that is not speed skating?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Outside the Olympic Village, I’m looking forward to looking at the Duomo di Milano. We had the test event at the Olympic facility last year, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to check it out. So this time, I want to be able to get a look.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "stanfords-aradshar-chaddar-dreamed-big-and-left-a-lasting-impact",
"title": "Stanford’s Aradshar Chaddar Dreamed Big — and Left a Lasting Impact",
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"content": "\u003cp>Aradshar Chaddar spent his life chasing big dreams — from debate halls and stages in Lahore to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring, at 21, the Stanford sophomore was killed in a bike collision on campus, a death that stunned friends and family across two continents and cut short a life defined by ambition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His death — the first bike fatality on Stanford’s campus in nearly six years — rattled those who knew him as more than an accomplished student. To loved ones, Chaddar was someone who lifted up the people around him, carried the hopes of his family in Pakistan, and made others believe in the magnitude of their own dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the gravest blow,” his father, Sessions Judge Zafaryab Chaddar, said to KQED from Pakistan. “I would have gone to a grave before Aradshar, but life is very cruel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was so smart, he was so beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s determination showed early. At 7, he was one of the top students in his school’s debate competitions. The topics for first graders were simple, but his peers could tell he was something special. Born in the United States and raised in Pakistan, he quickly stood out among his classmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067143\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The intersection of Arboretum Road and Palm Drive, where 21-year-old Stanford sophomore Aradshar Chaddar was hit and killed in a bike collision this past summer at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was way ahead of everyone else around him,” said Ismail Iftikhar, his classmate and friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 13, Chaddar, known as Arad or Chad to friends and family, began going to Model United Nations conferences, where he came alive during long, winding speeches about world affairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could tell that beneath the words, there were larger dreams and visions of a world that’s better,” said Mustafa Khan, who attended the same high school as Chaddar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 18, he shot up to 6-foot-3 — a college student with glasses, neat dark hair, a wide smile and a glimmer in his eyes as he would rope his friend Léon Garcia to help him run the Stanford Democrats or into a last-minute trek to San Francisco’s Chinatown.[aside postID=news_12047968 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250630-HUMANITARIANPAROLEDEEPDIVE-13-BL-KQED.jpg']“He would go out of his way to talk to people on the street whom he ran into, who he thought he could learn something interesting from,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 21, Chaddar ran into his high school history teacher, Shaan Tahir, in Lahore, Pakistan. His teacher asked him: “Arad. Ambitious as ever?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sir. Is there any other way?” Chaddar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are you aiming for?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“President of the USA,” he confidently responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tahir laughed, then remembered who he was talking to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t doubt it,” he said to his former student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, at a memorial service at the high school, Tahir recalled the memory as he sat among a crowd wracked with grief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew that he meant it … He is possibly the most ambitious person that I’ve ever met in my life,” Tahir told KQED. “Extremely determined to be someone in life and be something in life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s story is “about dreaming,” Khan said. “Not just for yourself, but dreaming for other people. Recognizing other people’s dreams and making them feel like they’re capable of achieving them because they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chasing big dreams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar was 7 when he met Chaddar, and the first impression was not positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought he was full of himself,” Iftikhar said, laughing. “I thought he was incredibly selfish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even then, he could tell Chaddar was ambitious and smart. They were among the top students at their school in Lahore, a city of over 14 million people and Pakistan’s academic center. Their friendly rivalry persisted until eighth grade, when Chaddar asked Iftikhar to join his Model United Nations team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067034\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067034\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chaddar once described himself as “an avid mountaineer.” In a 2023 Instagram post, he said he hoped to “summit all the eight thousander peaks.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ismail Iftikhar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I realized that selfish is the last word I would use for him,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the type of friendship only two high achievers could have, one that endlessly pushed each other. They were prefects together and ran the Model UN club together. They poured over films together, diving into dialogue, politics and themes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t name a single thing he hadn’t seen,” he said. “There was basically nothing I could beat him in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s favorite directors were Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. He devoured books. While it’s common for Americans to be fans of the 2015 biographical musical \u003cem>Hamilton\u003c/em>, it’s less common for a kid from Pakistan — and Iftikhar said that Chaddar knew the dialogue by heart. He commanded English and Urdu with ease. He had a course load that confounded teachers. He brought home awards and distinctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vulnerability was hard for Chaddar, who felt deeply for the people around him, as if there was no separation between someone’s sorrow and his own. Their happiness was his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the emotions got to him. In high school, Iftikhar and Chaddar’s team lost a Model UN competition. Chaddar was “a really bad loser, because he wasn’t used to losing,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At home, after the rest of the team left, Iftikhar found Chaddar lying down on the couch. He was clearly distressed, almost on the verge of tears. Iftikhar walked over and hugged him. Chaddar cried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Later on, he told me that that was like his favorite memory of us,” Iftikhar, now 21 and living in Southern California, said. “It just holds a special place in my heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It felt natural that they would be the only two of their class to go to California for college — Iftikhar to Claremont McKenna College near Los Angeles, Chaddar to Stanford in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life cut short\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chaddar arrived at Stanford in fall 2023 on a scholarship, planning to study political science and international relations. He tried to convince Garcia, a fellow freshman, to drop physics and pursue the same path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a big evangelist for the humanities,” Garcia said. “He believed that it was his job to lift up the people around him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Chaddar’s goal was to be president, spending time with him felt like being on the campaign trail. To Garcia, he was a “Don Quixote-style character.” When he wasn’t studying, Chaddar was pushing Garcia to leave the Stanford bubble and venture into San Francisco, where Chaddar knew people and places as if he lived in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067144\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vigil for 21-year-old Stanford sophomore Aradshar Chaddar, who was hit and killed in a bike collision this past summer, sits under a tree at Terman Fountain at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He kind of lived life in his own world, almost, and he brought everybody around him into that world,” Garcia said. “He was like one of the last true romantics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He would spontaneously pop up at the San Francisco apartment of Khan, who graduated from Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His energy is quite infectious as well. Always having this cheeky grin on his face,” Khan said. “It was hard not to fall in love with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was hard to imagine someone so full of life being gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 31, Chaddar was riding an electric bike on the Stanford University campus when, around 3 a.m., he was struck by a car. He was taken to a hospital, where he died at 3:25 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been crossing the intersection of Palm Drive and Arboretum Road in the dark, with limited visibility, when an Uber driver entered the intersection and hit him on his left side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a collision on campus results in an injury, CHP responds for an investigation and a report, said Bill Larson, public information officer for Stanford’s Department of Public Safety.[aside postID=news_12067175 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/250418-SFPDFile-46-BL_qed.jpg']Stanford data shows that from December 2018 to November 2025, there were 120 bike collisions on campus that resulted in a CHP investigation. Around 60% of those collisions were between a bike and a vehicle that resulted in an injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When expanding the dataset beyond collisions resulting in a CHP investigation, there have been almost 240 bike accidents on campus reported from September 2018 to October 2025. According to the Stanford Daily, some \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/11/mapping-bike-accidents-on-campus/\">spots on campus\u003c/a> have a kind of notoriety for being dangerous for cyclists. For example, the roundabout near the school’s Clock Tower is called the “Circle of Death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the roads at Stanford are not very well lit,” Khan said. “I am so afraid every time I drive through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar said around the time of the collision, speculation arose about what happened. It made sense that people were searching for more answers, he said, trying to understand the sudden death of someone so loved. But he wasn’t sure there was more to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar learned about Chaddar at 7:20 a.m. on June 2, 2025, after getting a message from Chaddar’s mother. Iftikhar was working on the Claremont McKenna College campus that summer and was the closest of his friends to the Bay Area. He booked a flight the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s aunt from North Carolina also arrived. What followed was a succession of office visits. They went to the medical examiner’s office. They couldn’t see the body right away because the investigation was still ongoing. So they went to a funeral home and talked to the coroner. They signed documents and packed his dorm room. They attended a hastily organized vigil on campus, joining more than 200 students, staff and faculty as stories were shared and music played. Even more watched online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A courier company predicted it would take at least weeks to bring Chaddar home to Pakistan, citing logistics. Iftikhar worked with Chaddar’s aunt to expedite the process — filling out documents, contacting the U.S. State Department and the Pakistani embassy. In early June, Chaddar was able to be transported back to Pakistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just was very restless,” he said. “I don’t know. I just ended up doing things, and that’s my way of dealing with things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boys went to California together. Now they were going home together.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life remembered\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While he went to school in Lahore, Chaddar’s family was from Mano Chak, a village three hours away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar was buried there, near his younger sister, who died a few years earlier. At the service, Iftikhar said he saw “more people than I’ve ever seen” in the village — all gathered for him. Friends from Stanford, including his girlfriend, also flew from California to see him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is survived by his father, mother and his 12-year-old sister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067141\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067141\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hoover Tower at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was such a friendly baby,” his mother, gynecologist Sadia Chaddar, said. He had a sweet disposition and happily chirped, “Yes, I can do it, Mama!” whenever she needed his help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She laughed when remembering how the kids called him Mr. President.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to argue with him,” she said. “Ardi, there are many other options. Why do you want to be the President of the USA?’ But she supported him, no matter what. Whatever he wanted to do, she would be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t get my baby out of my mind,” his mother said. “I just sleep with his thoughts in my mind. I wake up with his thoughts in my mind.”[aside postID=arts_13893843 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/2/2021/03/guillaume-de-germain-Z_br8TOcCpE-unsplash-1020x681.jpg']She thinks of him when she looks at her daughter, Farazeen. She is just like her big brother – sharp, thoughtful, ambitious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s basically my motivation whenever I’m studying,” Farazeen said. “He was a role model for me growing up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s room – and library full of books he devoured – is preserved just the way it was when he would visit home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His father pores over his son’s writing, his debates, his speeches, his pictures, the tributes to him. His pride and love radiate as he talks about his eldest child; his grief immense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not my personal loss. People claim that it is a national loss,” his father said. “Pakistan has lost a brilliant man.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://theazb.com/does-the-american-dream-still-hold-true/#google_vignette\">June column\u003c/a> for an English-language online publication focused on Pakistan, Chaddar wrote that his middle-class background gave him opportunities not afforded to others in his village. When he was home, he said it was common to hear advice like, “There is nothing for you here,” and “Get out of here as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, being from Mano Chak and Pakistan meant everything to Chaddar. He missed home fiercely, especially when coming to the United States, Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar knew his ambition would always take him away from home and the family he loved. He struggled with that, writing his thoughts out in his journal and sharing them with Iftikhar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The village was a place that offered a lot of peace, a lot of security,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also where he drew his strength from. Chaddar wanted to be the best. Even more, his friend said, “He wanted to make his family proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Aradshar Chaddar, a 21-year-old Stanford student born in the U.S. and raised in Pakistan, died in a campus bike accident, leaving friends and family mourning his ambition and impact.",
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"title": "Stanford’s Aradshar Chaddar Dreamed Big — and Left a Lasting Impact | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Aradshar Chaddar spent his life chasing big dreams — from debate halls and stages in Lahore to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This spring, at 21, the Stanford sophomore was killed in a bike collision on campus, a death that stunned friends and family across two continents and cut short a life defined by ambition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His death — the first bike fatality on Stanford’s campus in nearly six years — rattled those who knew him as more than an accomplished student. To loved ones, Chaddar was someone who lifted up the people around him, carried the hopes of his family in Pakistan, and made others believe in the magnitude of their own dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the gravest blow,” his father, Sessions Judge Zafaryab Chaddar, said to KQED from Pakistan. “I would have gone to a grave before Aradshar, but life is very cruel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was so smart, he was so beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s determination showed early. At 7, he was one of the top students in his school’s debate competitions. The topics for first graders were simple, but his peers could tell he was something special. Born in the United States and raised in Pakistan, he quickly stood out among his classmates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067143\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00717_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The intersection of Arboretum Road and Palm Drive, where 21-year-old Stanford sophomore Aradshar Chaddar was hit and killed in a bike collision this past summer at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was way ahead of everyone else around him,” said Ismail Iftikhar, his classmate and friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 13, Chaddar, known as Arad or Chad to friends and family, began going to Model United Nations conferences, where he came alive during long, winding speeches about world affairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could tell that beneath the words, there were larger dreams and visions of a world that’s better,” said Mustafa Khan, who attended the same high school as Chaddar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 18, he shot up to 6-foot-3 — a college student with glasses, neat dark hair, a wide smile and a glimmer in his eyes as he would rope his friend Léon Garcia to help him run the Stanford Democrats or into a last-minute trek to San Francisco’s Chinatown.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“He would go out of his way to talk to people on the street whom he ran into, who he thought he could learn something interesting from,” Garcia said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 21, Chaddar ran into his high school history teacher, Shaan Tahir, in Lahore, Pakistan. His teacher asked him: “Arad. Ambitious as ever?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sir. Is there any other way?” Chaddar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What are you aiming for?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“President of the USA,” he confidently responded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tahir laughed, then remembered who he was talking to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t doubt it,” he said to his former student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Months later, at a memorial service at the high school, Tahir recalled the memory as he sat among a crowd wracked with grief.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I knew that he meant it … He is possibly the most ambitious person that I’ve ever met in my life,” Tahir told KQED. “Extremely determined to be someone in life and be something in life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s story is “about dreaming,” Khan said. “Not just for yourself, but dreaming for other people. Recognizing other people’s dreams and making them feel like they’re capable of achieving them because they are.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Chasing big dreams\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar was 7 when he met Chaddar, and the first impression was not positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought he was full of himself,” Iftikhar said, laughing. “I thought he was incredibly selfish.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even then, he could tell Chaddar was ambitious and smart. They were among the top students at their school in Lahore, a city of over 14 million people and Pakistan’s academic center. Their friendly rivalry persisted until eighth grade, when Chaddar asked Iftikhar to join his Model United Nations team.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067034\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067034\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251212-Stanford-Student-Death-02-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chaddar once described himself as “an avid mountaineer.” In a 2023 Instagram post, he said he hoped to “summit all the eight thousander peaks.” \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ismail Iftikhar)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I realized that selfish is the last word I would use for him,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the type of friendship only two high achievers could have, one that endlessly pushed each other. They were prefects together and ran the Model UN club together. They poured over films together, diving into dialogue, politics and themes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I couldn’t name a single thing he hadn’t seen,” he said. “There was basically nothing I could beat him in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s favorite directors were Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. He devoured books. While it’s common for Americans to be fans of the 2015 biographical musical \u003cem>Hamilton\u003c/em>, it’s less common for a kid from Pakistan — and Iftikhar said that Chaddar knew the dialogue by heart. He commanded English and Urdu with ease. He had a course load that confounded teachers. He brought home awards and distinctions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vulnerability was hard for Chaddar, who felt deeply for the people around him, as if there was no separation between someone’s sorrow and his own. Their happiness was his.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the emotions got to him. In high school, Iftikhar and Chaddar’s team lost a Model UN competition. Chaddar was “a really bad loser, because he wasn’t used to losing,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At home, after the rest of the team left, Iftikhar found Chaddar lying down on the couch. He was clearly distressed, almost on the verge of tears. Iftikhar walked over and hugged him. Chaddar cried.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Later on, he told me that that was like his favorite memory of us,” Iftikhar, now 21 and living in Southern California, said. “It just holds a special place in my heart.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It felt natural that they would be the only two of their class to go to California for college — Iftikhar to Claremont McKenna College near Los Angeles, Chaddar to Stanford in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life cut short\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Chaddar arrived at Stanford in fall 2023 on a scholarship, planning to study political science and international relations. He tried to convince Garcia, a fellow freshman, to drop physics and pursue the same path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a big evangelist for the humanities,” Garcia said. “He believed that it was his job to lift up the people around him.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Chaddar’s goal was to be president, spending time with him felt like being on the campaign trail. To Garcia, he was a “Don Quixote-style character.” When he wasn’t studying, Chaddar was pushing Garcia to leave the Stanford bubble and venture into San Francisco, where Chaddar knew people and places as if he lived in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067144\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDSTUDENTDEATH00786_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vigil for 21-year-old Stanford sophomore Aradshar Chaddar, who was hit and killed in a bike collision this past summer, sits under a tree at Terman Fountain at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He kind of lived life in his own world, almost, and he brought everybody around him into that world,” Garcia said. “He was like one of the last true romantics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He would spontaneously pop up at the San Francisco apartment of Khan, who graduated from Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His energy is quite infectious as well. Always having this cheeky grin on his face,” Khan said. “It was hard not to fall in love with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was hard to imagine someone so full of life being gone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On May 31, Chaddar was riding an electric bike on the Stanford University campus when, around 3 a.m., he was struck by a car. He was taken to a hospital, where he died at 3:25 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He had been crossing the intersection of Palm Drive and Arboretum Road in the dark, with limited visibility, when an Uber driver entered the intersection and hit him on his left side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a collision on campus results in an injury, CHP responds for an investigation and a report, said Bill Larson, public information officer for Stanford’s Department of Public Safety.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Stanford data shows that from December 2018 to November 2025, there were 120 bike collisions on campus that resulted in a CHP investigation. Around 60% of those collisions were between a bike and a vehicle that resulted in an injury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When expanding the dataset beyond collisions resulting in a CHP investigation, there have been almost 240 bike accidents on campus reported from September 2018 to October 2025. According to the Stanford Daily, some \u003ca href=\"https://stanforddaily.com/2020/02/11/mapping-bike-accidents-on-campus/\">spots on campus\u003c/a> have a kind of notoriety for being dangerous for cyclists. For example, the roundabout near the school’s Clock Tower is called the “Circle of Death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the roads at Stanford are not very well lit,” Khan said. “I am so afraid every time I drive through.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar said around the time of the collision, speculation arose about what happened. It made sense that people were searching for more answers, he said, trying to understand the sudden death of someone so loved. But he wasn’t sure there was more to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Iftikhar learned about Chaddar at 7:20 a.m. on June 2, 2025, after getting a message from Chaddar’s mother. Iftikhar was working on the Claremont McKenna College campus that summer and was the closest of his friends to the Bay Area. He booked a flight the same day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s aunt from North Carolina also arrived. What followed was a succession of office visits. They went to the medical examiner’s office. They couldn’t see the body right away because the investigation was still ongoing. So they went to a funeral home and talked to the coroner. They signed documents and packed his dorm room. They attended a hastily organized vigil on campus, joining more than 200 students, staff and faculty as stories were shared and music played. Even more watched online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A courier company predicted it would take at least weeks to bring Chaddar home to Pakistan, citing logistics. Iftikhar worked with Chaddar’s aunt to expedite the process — filling out documents, contacting the U.S. State Department and the Pakistani embassy. In early June, Chaddar was able to be transported back to Pakistan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just was very restless,” he said. “I don’t know. I just ended up doing things, and that’s my way of dealing with things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boys went to California together. Now they were going home together.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A life remembered\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While he went to school in Lahore, Chaddar’s family was from Mano Chak, a village three hours away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar was buried there, near his younger sister, who died a few years earlier. At the service, Iftikhar said he saw “more people than I’ve ever seen” in the village — all gathered for him. Friends from Stanford, including his girlfriend, also flew from California to see him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is survived by his father, mother and his 12-year-old sister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12067141\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12067141\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251210-STANFORDFILE00607_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hoover Tower at Stanford University in Palo Alto on Dec. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He was such a friendly baby,” his mother, gynecologist Sadia Chaddar, said. He had a sweet disposition and happily chirped, “Yes, I can do it, Mama!” whenever she needed his help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She laughed when remembering how the kids called him Mr. President.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to argue with him,” she said. “Ardi, there are many other options. Why do you want to be the President of the USA?’ But she supported him, no matter what. Whatever he wanted to do, she would be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t get my baby out of my mind,” his mother said. “I just sleep with his thoughts in my mind. I wake up with his thoughts in my mind.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>She thinks of him when she looks at her daughter, Farazeen. She is just like her big brother – sharp, thoughtful, ambitious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He’s basically my motivation whenever I’m studying,” Farazeen said. “He was a role model for me growing up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar’s room – and library full of books he devoured – is preserved just the way it was when he would visit home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His father pores over his son’s writing, his debates, his speeches, his pictures, the tributes to him. His pride and love radiate as he talks about his eldest child; his grief immense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not my personal loss. People claim that it is a national loss,” his father said. “Pakistan has lost a brilliant man.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://theazb.com/does-the-american-dream-still-hold-true/#google_vignette\">June column\u003c/a> for an English-language online publication focused on Pakistan, Chaddar wrote that his middle-class background gave him opportunities not afforded to others in his village. When he was home, he said it was common to hear advice like, “There is nothing for you here,” and “Get out of here as soon as possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this, being from Mano Chak and Pakistan meant everything to Chaddar. He missed home fiercely, especially when coming to the United States, Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chaddar knew his ambition would always take him away from home and the family he loved. He struggled with that, writing his thoughts out in his journal and sharing them with Iftikhar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The village was a place that offered a lot of peace, a lot of security,” Iftikhar said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is also where he drew his strength from. Chaddar wanted to be the best. Even more, his friend said, “He wanted to make his family proud.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A hearing in the case of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office was marked Tuesday by heated discussions over the word genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the court session focused on pretrial motions — which attorneys and the judge use to lay out the ground rules for a trial — a debate over whether the term genocide should be allowed during the proceedings elicited the most impassioned arguments from defense attorneys and a deputy district attorney alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, defense attorneys and the county prosecutor verbally sparred over whether Israel’s actions in Gaza being characterized as a genocide is a settled fact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Using the word genocide is the same as saying the sky is blue. It is what it is,” Leah Gillis, a defense attorney in the case, said in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.[aside postID=news_12064351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-7_qed.jpg']“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”[aside postID=news_12065375 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/240508-Berkeley-High-File-MD-03_qed.jpg']Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Robert Baker, the prosecutor heading up the case for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, said Gillis’ comment was offensive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s absolutely absurd. And I think there’s people who were murdered in World War II that would probably think that the word genocide is a lot different than just the word blue,” Baker said, raising his voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The flashpoint between attorneys in court stemmed from discussions on Tuesday about one of the central fights in the case thus far: the motivations of the protesters during their action on June 5, 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12066600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12066600\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251209-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-4_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Robert Baker listens during a Dec. 9, 2025, pretrial hearing in San José in the case of a group of pro-Palestinian protesters charged with vandalism and conspiracy for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office last year. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Gillis and other defense attorneys representing the five former and current Stanford students in the trial have emphasized in court filings and in court on Tuesday that their clients’ actions were motivated by what they believe is a genocide in Gaza, and their protest was aimed at saving Palestinian lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prosecution has questioned the validity of those arguments and has tried to limit the scope of what the jury could be influenced by during the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very clear the whole point of this argument is to prevent the defense from blaming a country that is currently litigating that very point,” Baker said of Israel’s dispute over its actions being labeled as genocide. “It is currently the subject of litigation in the United Nations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Hanley Chew ultimately agreed to allow the use of the word genocide, he asked defense attorneys to be “very judicious” about it, and warned that if he felt they overused it, he would change his mind.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“I’m not going to exclude the use of the word genocide, but I don’t want the word genocide paraded throughout this trial. And if it is, I will exclude it,” Chew said. “As all of you have pointed out, the word genocide is very powerful and is very politically charged. And if I feel that the parties are exploiting that word with their own use … I will exclude its further use.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The courtroom at the Hall of Justice in San José was packed with several dozen people on Tuesday, nearly all of whom appeared to be supporting the protesters and donning keffiyehs, patterned black and white scarves that have become a visible signifier of Palestinian solidarity and resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of what was 12 protesters said on social media at the time they entered the university offices that they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The action came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Defense attorneys emphasized that international bodies and experts, such as the International Association of Genocide Scholars and an independent United Nations commission, have labeled Israel’s actions genocide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Using a word like genocide is “setting the stage” for what was in the minds of their clients when they took their actions, Gillis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062229\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062229\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-6-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of Hoover Tower on the Stanford University campus in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The prosecution asked the court to bar all use of the word genocide, arguing it is “inflammatory” and could prejudice the case, and also sought to exclude explanations of the motives of the protesters during testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said the motives of the protesters are irrelevant to a jury trying to decide whether they are guilty of felony vandalism and conspiracy charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they were protesting the Gaza War, if they were protesting the 2020 election, if they were protesting President Biden, if they were protesting President Trump, it makes no difference,” Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re going to transform this trial into a political forum rather than a search for the truth and determinative facts,” Baker said. “I think there needs to be significant limitations to sanitize what is presented to a jury.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Chew took a middle stance in his ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12062228\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12062228\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/20251029_STANFORDFILE-_GH-3-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students walk and bike past the fountain outside Memorial Auditorium at Stanford University in Stanford on Oct. 29, 2025. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m not going to do a blanket prohibition on defendants speaking about their motivation. However, I will severely limit that ability to speak about motivation,” Chew said, noting he would ban any hearsay evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chew also decided to exclude, for now, testimony from a professor of human rights whom Gillis argued the defense should be able to use during the trial as an expert witness, to help establish facts around “Palestine and the genocide and the motivations of these young people in their request to Stanford to divest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point during the hearing, some people in the audience of the courtroom chuckled, sighed or let out brief comments in response to arguments from Baker, prompting Chew to later issue a warning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the court, and you should act in accordance with the fact that you are in a courtroom. If there are any additional outbursts, I will clear this courtroom. You understand that?” Chew said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hunter Taylor-Black, one of the defendants, said the trial amounts to “political persecution.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Taylor-Black said the case from prosecutors feels “meant to discourage future student activists from acting on the things they believe in in the ways that student activists have acted in the past.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While students at campuses across the country were arrested last spring for Gaza-related demonstrations, few of those arrests resulted in felony charges or trials, making the Stanford case unusual. And defense attorneys argued earlier this year that the District Attorney’s office was overcharging the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five defendants chose to go to trial last month, after six other protesters who were charged in the case entered into mental health diversion programs, or indicated they would take a court-offered deal that would include pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges, with a pathway to potential dismissal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in a grand jury indictment and is now enrolled in a youth deferred entry of judgment program. Such programs allow young people to eventually have a charge dismissed if they do not commit crimes while free, and often include rehabilitative requirements like counseling and community service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germán González, also a defendant in the trial, said after the court hearing that it was disheartening to hear “genocide denialism” in the courtroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Throughout this sort of fear and anxiety that I do feel in the courtroom, I am just reminding myself that it is a privilege,” González said. “Nothing that happens in a courtroom or what happened to me is as severe as what’s happening to the Palestinians, who are facing genocide right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More pretrial conferences are scheduled this week, including a hearing over whether or not the provost of Stanford, Jenny Martinez, will be called to testify as a witness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jury selection in the trial is set to begin in early January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.[aside postID=news_12035346 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.[aside postID=news_12063531 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/240214-GOLDEN-GATE-BRIDGE-PROTEST-JCL-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg']“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly a year and a half after a group of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/pro-palestinian-protest\">pro-Palestinian protesters\u003c/a> were arrested for breaking into and vandalizing the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> president’s office, a trial is set to get underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of five protesters is scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 24. They face felony vandalism and conspiracy charges stemming from a grand jury indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While hundreds of students have been arrested at college campuses across the country for protest-related activity since the war in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> began, few of the cases have progressed this far. Attorneys for the defendants and their supporters have accused the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office of seeking overly harsh punishment to quell further protests and speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday morning, three other protesters told the court they intend to take a deal offered to them by a judge, which would require them to plead guilty to misdemeanors, a plan opposed by prosecutors. Three other protesters recently enrolled in mental health diversion programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The details of the misdemeanor deal remain vague for now, but attorneys for those defendants said it would likely include a path for their clients to ultimately have the charges dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EmilyRose Johns, an attorney representing Cameron Pennington, said the deal would likely require her client to perform community service and avoid any criminal behavior for a certain amount of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064524\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064524\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-2_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hunter Taylor-Black, center, one of five pro-Palestinian protesters going to trial for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office, speaks to a group of supporters outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court has indicated that if they’re successful, it may ultimately allow withdrawal of the plea and a diversion deal, which would mean that the clients have no conviction history,” Johns told KQED after a court hearing on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office oppose the deal, which attorneys said was offered late last week to all the defendants by Judge Deborah Ryan, following private discussions between attorneys and Ryan in court chambers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for the District Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday afternoon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The judge is the current arbiter of justice. The judge is the person who decides what is just and appropriate and can dismiss cases over the district attorney’s objection and can make court offers to clients over the district attorney’s objection,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“The reason that misdemeanors are even on the table is that Judge Ryan has indicated that she didn’t believe this resembled felony conduct,” Johns said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The case stems from a June 5, 2024, action by a group of a dozen protesters, mostly made up of current or former Stanford students at the time, who broke into the president’s office in the early morning hours and barricaded themselves inside before being arrested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group said on social media at the time they wanted Stanford leaders to “address their role in enabling and profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” It came amid a series of larger campus demonstrations aimed at pressuring the school to divest from companies that support Israel’s military bombardment in Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in April, when he brought initial felony charges against the group, that they “crossed the clear and bright line between dissent and destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kaiden Wang, one of the defendants who intends to take the court deal, said the group’s actions fit into a legacy of protest in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that our action is part of the long history of activism in the Bay Area,” Wang said. “The Bay Area seems to be one of the earliest brewing grounds for these types of actions and these kinds of resistance towards systems of oppression.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-15-1-e1744310968489.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The protesters who intend to take the deal, as well as those who are headed to trial, will all still have to contend with the issue of a $329,000 claim for restitution by Stanford for damages caused by the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tony Brass, an attorney representing Hunter Taylor-Black, who is proceeding to trial, said Stanford has refused to talk with attorneys about the figure, which could amount to “crippling debt” for some of the protesters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said the number could increase or decrease after a restitution hearing, and Stanford’s lack of engagement on the topic makes it hard to know what consequences his client and others may face, and is part of the reason they are going to trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What they’re trying to avoid is unknown consequences, unfair consequences, extreme consequences. And this could all be clarified,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12064526\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12064526\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/11/251117-STANFORDTRIAL-JG-1_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group of supporters gathered for a rally outside the Hall of Justice in San José on Nov. 17, 2025, after a court hearing for a group of pro-Palestinian protesters indicted for breaking into the Stanford University president’s office. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One other protester, Jack Richardson, served as a witness for prosecutors in the grand jury and is now enrolled in a youth deferred judgment program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass and other attorneys have also taken issue with the district attorney’s motions asking a judge to ban any mention of the word “genocide” from the trial. In those filings, the DA’s office said the word “genocide” is “inflammatory” and would prejudice the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosen’s office also filed motions asking to exclude the motives behind the actions of the protesters, saying the defense will likely “attempt to use this trial as another form of protest,” instead of focusing on guilt or innocence.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“What matters is only that they agreed to occupy the building and that vandalism was necessary to accomplish the occupation. Their reasons for doing so have no relevance to the issues the jury will be asked to decide,” the filings say. “While such evidence might be relevant at sentencing, it serves no purpose at jury trial.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The DA’s filings said the defense will attempt to “make this proceeding an extension of the June 5, 2024, political protest by falsely accusing Stanford University of supporting genocide.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brass said those motions show Rosen is trying to “present this trial completely sanitized,” without full context.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These students were acting for a greater good. And their inaction was something they, out of a sense of conscience, couldn’t live with,” Brass said. “They had to draw more attention to it, had to amplify their voice, and this is what they did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also noted that the protesters went into the building when it was empty and did not harm anyone or threaten anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maya Burke, one of the protesters going to trial, said the motions trying to limit the scope of the defendant’s arguments are “alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burke said they are seeking justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are war crimes on,” Burke said, “and I would hope to see that acknowledged in the court and acknowledged in public.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Who Killed Jane Stanford? Inside a 120-Year-Old Mystery",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003cbr>\nFounded in 1885, Stanford University is famed for its world-class research in medicine, business, law and the humanities, not to mention its 20 living Nobel laureates.\u003cbr>\nThis manicured institution on the San Francisco peninsula isn’t necessarily the kind of place you’d expect to harbor a century-old murder mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But 120 years ago this year, the university’s co-founder, Jane Stanford, died suddenly one winter evening. And although the official verdict was natural causes, the original coroner’s report indicated something far more sinister: poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what really happened to Jane Stanford in 1905? It’s a question that preoccupies Richard White, Stanford University history professor emeritus and author of \u003ca href=\"https://history.stanford.edu/people/richard-white\">\u003cem>Who Killed Jane Stanford\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, White was teaching his students how to use the Stanford University archives. He asked them to research the curious history of Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, if I can’t get them interested in the story that supposedly somebody murdered the founder of the university, I cannot get them interested in anything,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061787\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1594px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1594\" height=\"2500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg 1594w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-160x251.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-979x1536.jpg 979w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-1306x2048.jpg 1306w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1594px) 100vw, 1594px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Portrait of Jane Stanford with her son, Leland Jr., before he died of typhoid in 1884. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When his students kept hitting roadblocks in the archives, an intrigued White couldn’t resist looking into the story himself — and soon found himself baffled that the death of Jane Stanford wasn’t a bigger source of intrigue. Especially since Stanford Medical School physician Robert Cutler had \u003ca href=\"https://www.sup.org/books/history/mysterious-death-jane-stanford\">already published a 2003 book\u003c/a> concluding that she did not die of natural causes, but had instead been killed by strychnine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The university had contended from the very beginning that she’d died of a heart attack,” White said. “And that contradiction, I thought, would have a lot of public interest and certainly bring some response from the university — but it hadn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.stanford.edu/about/history/\">The university’s history webpage\u003c/a> doesn’t mention the death of Jane Stanford at all, let alone the fact that she may well have been murdered. (Stanford University didn’t respond to our request for official comment on their co-founder’s death.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one thing is certain: strychnine poisoning is a particularly horrible way to die. When this white powder gets into the body, it attacks the chemical that normally controls nerve signals to a person’s muscles, inducing waves of painful spasms. The jaw locks tight and the limbs start twisting in on themselves. In high amounts, strychnine can kill within minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strychnine tastes bitter but is odorless, making it a notoriously popular way to poison a person in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was also an ingredient in rat bait — and even some medicines — making it easy to obtain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to be able to follow the evidence, and I follow the evidence,” White said. And after much research, he has a theory about who ended Jane Stanford’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘personal fiefdom’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was born Jane Lathrop in 1828 in upstate New York. At the age of 22, she married Leland Stanford, a railroad baron, who briefly served as governor of California from 1862 to 1863, and then a U.S. senator for almost a decade starting in 1885.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 39, Jane Stanford gave birth to \u003ca href=\"https://stanfordmag.org/contents/about-a-boy\">her only child, Leland Stanford Jr\u003c/a>., but Leland Jr. died from typhoid in his teens. “She never gets over that,” White said. “She will be in mourning for the rest of her life.”[aside postID=news_11893685 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/10/RS39771_4.34-qut.jpg']In their grief, the Stanfords sought ways to honor Leland Jr.’s memory. At this time, “California has great ambitions beyond just being a sort of outpost of wealth in the West,” White said. “It wants to become a cultural leader, an industrial leader. And so, founding universities and founding colleges is very much in the mind of the San Francisco elite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, in 1891, Jane and Leland opened their university on the San Francisco Peninsula, called Leland Stanford Junior University. But Leland Stanford Sr would only live two more years before he too died, in 1893.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 65, Jane Stanford found herself in charge of the new university — a heavy responsibility compounded, White said, by Leland Sr’s financial mismanagement of both the university’s funds and the Stanfords’ own money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It turned out that Leland Stanford was not nearly as competent as most people thought,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the next several years, Jane Stanford was constantly fighting to keep the university afloat in a way that wouldn’t further tank her considerable fortune. But her methods of managing the university’s affairs swiftly made her very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once she gets power, she uses it ruthlessly,” White said. “She knows the power of wealth and she exerts that power — so much so that she makes a great many enemies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was a walking contradiction. She was an advocate for women’s rights and insisted Stanford admit female students, but then treated those same students poorly. The women in her personal life found this out firsthand — chief among them her longtime companion and secretary, Bertha Berner, “who wasn’t really a servant, but Jane Stanford often treated her like one,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061782\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1387\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED-1536x1065.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Stanford women’s basketball team circa 1896. Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, insisted that women be admitted from the school’s inception in 1891. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While running the university as what White called “a personal fiefdom,” Jane Stanford butted heads often with the institution’s president, David Starr Jordan. While “devoted” to the university, Jordan knew “that the university and his own job depend on pleasing Jane Stanford,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford’s religious beliefs were also a major headache for Jordan. She was a Spiritualist: a belief system that hinged on making contact with the dead. Like many people who turned to Spiritualism in the 19th century, Stanford was motivated by the losses in her own life: the death of her son and husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the Victorian era, the sheer prevalence of death through disease and infant mortality meant that virtually everyone was surrounded by tragedies like Stanford’s. But it was one thing for well-to-do ladies to be conducting seances in their free time, and quite another for the leader of a major university. Not least because Stanford told people that she was using those seances to receive instructions on how to run the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan and his Stanford University colleagues lived in fear of their boss’s Spiritualism becoming common knowledge, White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s going to endanger all the legal documents she signs,” he said. “It’s very hard to uphold a legal document when you say the ghosts are the ones telling you to sign it or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Jordan, things soon got even worse, White said – when he realized “that Leland Stanford had endowed the university in such a way that the university really has no free and clear access to its funds or even a guarantee of its funds until Jane Stanford is dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this leads us to 1905, when 76-year-old Jane Stanford was poisoned not once but twice. She did not survive the second attempt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A cover-up across an ocean\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first poisoning attempt in January 1905, inside Jane Stanford’s San Francisco mansion, was unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford complained of feeling sick after drinking from a bottle of Poland Spring water and called out for her household staff, including her secretary and companion, Bertha Berner. After vomiting, Stanford recovered — and when the water was tested, strychnine was found.[aside postID=news_11700225 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/10/RS33251_composite_2-qut.jpg'] However, it wasn’t a pure form of the poison in the bottle. “Somebody who didn’t know much about poisoning people had dumped rat poison in it,” White said. Other ingredients in the rat poison had caused Stanford to vomit, which saved her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s inner circle advised her to keep the incident under wraps to prevent a scandal that could taint the university, and to get far away from San Francisco and a poisoner who might try again. So just over a month later, Stanford departed for Hawaii with just two trusted employees: a maid and Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her attempts to evade her poisoner proved unsuccessful. On February 28, 1905, Stanford woke up in her Oahu hotel in the middle of the night and screamed out for Berner. She knew she’d been poisoned again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She died within 10 minutes of the doctor coming in,” White said — and the medical evaluation swiftly concluded she showed all the symptoms of strychnine poisoning. “Later on, the coroner’s jury would determine that it had been strychnine poisoning and that she had been poisoned by party or parties unknown,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the story reported by the earliest newspaper accounts, like that of \u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BT19050304.2.29&srpos=10&e=------190-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22jane+stanford%22----1905---\">the Oceanside Blade in Southern California\u003c/a> on March 4, 1905, which noted the “suspicious circumstances which point to poisoning by strychnine.\u003cstrong>”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061783\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2047px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2047\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg 2047w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-2000x2501.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-1228x1536.jpg 1228w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-1638x2048.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2047px) 100vw, 2047px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Starr Jordan was the first president of Stanford University and butted heads with Jane Stanford often. He died in 1931, outliving Jane by more than 20 years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Stanford’s household fell under suspicion, another person absolutely had the motive, White said: Stanford University’s president, David Starr Jordan. Just a few weeks before the first poisoning attempt, Jordan had not only discovered that Stanford intended to fire him, but had been working with colleagues to try to take control of the university’s finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the news of Jane Stanford’s death, Jordan jumped on a boat to Oahu: “Ostensibly to bring her body home,” White said, “but what he’s really in Hawaii for is to suppress the coroner’s jury verdict.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On arrival in Honolulu, Jordan hired another doctor to deliver a verdict on the death, one who contradicted the earlier account of strychnine poisoning, “though he has not examined the body,” and “doesn’t know anything about strychnine poisoning,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan then used that new verdict to suppress the investigation back in San Francisco, an inquiry which neatly concluded that rather than being poisoned, Stanford had instead died of a heart attack. \u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SRPD19051231.2.17&srpos=5&e=------190-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22jane+stanford%22----1905---\">He also used the local papers\u003c/a> to discredit the Hawaii authorities, creating a general air of — as White put it — “There’s nothing to see here, there’s nothing to look at, let’s get on with things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a long time, this becomes the official story from Stanford University: That she died a natural death and that she was not poisoned by strychnine,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A suspect in plain sight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Jordan certainly acted suspiciously, White said that “the other stuff with Jordan doesn’t really add up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan may have had several reasons to want Jane Stanford out of the picture, but he wasn’t actually present at either poisoning attempt. He lacked the opportunity to poison her himself. “Sometimes you just get really lucky,” White said. “He wanted her killed, and she was killed.\u003cbr>\n[aside postID=news_11894939 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/11/3738571926_99e9526967_o-1020x683.jpg']For White, there’s a far more persuasive suspect hiding in plain sight: Stanford’s longtime, long-suffering companion and secretary Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berner had been in Stanford’s service from a young age, ever since they met at the memorial service for Leland Junior. She was, by all accounts, “a very attractive, very smart, and very capable woman,” White said — and he believes Berner’s decision not to marry was a strategic, practical move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only would marriage have meant giving up traveling the world with Jane Stanford and access to high society, but Berner was also the sole caretaker for her sick mother. “She really cannot afford to give up this job,” White said. And Stanford knew it, even going so far as to sabotage any romantic relationships Berner dared to have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship between the two women became “incredibly rocky,” White said, to the point where Berner quit Stanford’s employ several times. “But she always comes back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not convinced? How about this for motive — Berner was a beneficiary in Jane Stanford’s will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at the time of the second poisoning attempt, Berner’s mother became even sicker. Berner even declined to join Stanford on her Hawaii trip due to fears about her mother’s ailing health, but her employer insisted that Berner make the trip if she wanted to keep the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Stanford clearly did not harbor any suspicions that her trusted companion and secretary of many years had anything to do with the first attempt on her life, she was nonetheless aware that Berner was romantically involved with Stanford’s own butler — and that the pair had been “embezzling money from her,” White said. “She can hang that over Bertha Berner’s head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A killer walks free?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To White, when added together, Berner’s motives are convincing. Her trusted position meant she also had the opportunity to poison Stanford, and she was present at both attempts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White’s research shows Berner also had the means to kill Jane Stanford. By the time Berner left for Hawaii, she’d started a relationship with a Palo Alto pharmacist. This association provided “a place where Bertha Berner can get free, pure strychnine,” White said. “Otherwise, that would be very difficult to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061780\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061780\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-1536x1046.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, bats in a faculty versus student baseball game, a tradition on campus. Jordan often butted heads with Jane Stanford over how to run the university and covered up her death by poisoning in 1905. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>White suspects that university president Jordan may have suspected Berner at the time, and that he may have actively protected her after Jane Stanford’s demise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He does it in writing,” White said: “He reassures her that, ‘we know you didn’t do it; we’re going take care of you; you have nothing to worry about.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even if other people close to Jane Stanford suspected there’d been a murder and a cover-up, nobody wanted to bring that kind of scandal upon Stanford University, White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was buried in the mausoleum at Stanford University, next to her husband and son. As her body was carried to its final resting place, the procession was full of people who had butted heads with her while she was alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man who led the cover-up of her murder now led the walk from the church to her tomb. And walking pride of place, behind the casket, was Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/63j9eNYdy78nVPUzUJ791e?utm_source=generator&theme=0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Stanford University is undeniably a Bay Area icon with the pedigree to match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded back in the late 19th century, this private institution sprawling over 8,000 manicured acres on the sunny San Francisco peninsula is famed for its world-class research in medicine, business, law and the humanities. It has 20 living Nobel laureates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short: not the kind of place you’d necessarily expect to harbor a century-old mystery full of skulduggery, lies and poison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s exactly what lies beneath Stanford’s history. Because the woman who co-founded this place, Jane Stanford, died in very strange circumstances in 1905. And although the official verdict was natural causes, some suspect something far more sinister happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today on Bay Curious, we’re following the historic breadcrumbs to discover who might have been responsible. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> What really happened to Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, who died suddenly in 1905?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Carly Severn brings us the historic mystery — and dastardly cover-up — that a lot of people in the Bay Area still don’t know about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn:\u003c/strong> Death by poisoning is a nasty way to go. But strychnine poisoning is a particularly horrible way to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When this white powder gets into your body, it attacks the chemical that normally controls nerve signals to your muscles resulting in overwhelming, painful spasms all over. Your jaw locks tight. Your limbs start twisting in on themselves. In high amounts, strychnine can kill you within minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strychnine tastes bitter but it doesn’t smell of anything. And as an ingredient in rat bait, and even some medicines in the 19th and early twentieth centuries, it was a very popular way to poison someone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what if I told you that 120 years ago, the co-founder of Stanford University found this out first-hand. And almost nobody is talking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>You have to be able to follow the evidence, and I follow the evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard White is a professor emeritus in Stanford University’s history department. Several years ago he was TEACHING students how to use the university’s own archives to investigate historical conundrums … and he asked them to find out what happened to Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>I thought, if I can’t get them interested in the story that supposedly somebody murdered the founder of the university, I cannot get them interested in anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard found there was a lot his students couldn’t uncover about this case, prompting him to turn historical detective after the class had long ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he started looking into it he was baffled this wasn’t a bigger source of intrigue. Especially because a physician at Stanford Medical School had already written a book showing that Jane Stanford had 100% been killed by strychnine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And the university had contended from the very beginning that she’d died of a heart attack. And that contradiction, I thought, would have a lot of public interest and certainly bring some response from the university, but it hadn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>To get to the bottom of this mystery, let’s wind back all the way to 1828 when Jane Stanford entered this world in upstate New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a young woman, Jane married Leland Stanford, a businessman and politician who made his fortune in the railroad business, and who briefly served as governor of California in the 1860s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane gave birth to her only child — also called Leland — when she was 39. And she doted on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then tragedy struck in 1884, when that son died of typhoid. And in their grief, the Stanfords looked for ways to honor his memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Founding universities and founding colleges is very much in the mind of the San Francisco elite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And so, in 1891, Jane and Leland opened a university on the Peninsula calling it Leland Stanford Junior University, after their son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just two years later, Jane’s husband died. And at age 65, Jane found herself in charge of the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>But it turned out that Leland Stanford was not nearly as competent as most people thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard says Leland Stanford had mismanaged University funds and his own fortune for a long time. So for the next several years, Jane was constantly fighting to keep the university afloat in a way that wouldn’t tank her considerable fortune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is really where the trouble began. Because Jane’s way of managing affairs at Stanford University made her very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White:\u003c/strong> Once she gets power she uses it ruthlessly. She knows the power of wealth and she exerts that power, so much so that she makes a great many enemies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane was a walking contradiction. She was an advocate for women’s rights and insisted Stanford admit female students, but treated those students terribly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it came to men, Jane particularly butted heads with the president of Stanford University: David Starr Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford runs Stanford University as a personal fiefdom. David Starr Jordan is devoted to the university, but he knows that the university and his own job depend on pleasing Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford was also a Spiritualist, a belief system that hinged on making contact with the dead. And like many people who turned to Spiritualism in the 19th century, Jane was motivated by personal tragedy beginning with the death of her son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>She never gets over that. She will be in mourning for the rest of her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>But it was one thing for well-to-do ladies to be conducting seances in their free time and quite another for the leader of a major university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane’s Spiritualism became a big problem for Stanford University and for its president, Jordan. Because Jane told people that she was using her seances to receive instructions from her dead husband and son on how to run Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>The great fear of Stanford University is that they’re gonna discover that Jane Stanford is a spiritualist and that’s gonna endanger all the legal documents she signs. It’s very hard to uphold the legal document when you say the ghosts are the ones telling you to sign it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane’s beliefs were a constant source of stress for Jordan. And their relationship deteriorated even further when Jane made him fire a professor friend of his, sparking a scandal about academic freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while trying to navigate all of this, Jordan made a discovery:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>He also realizes that Leland Stanford had endowed the university in such a way that the university really has no free and clear access to its funds or even a guarantee of its funds until Jane Stanford is dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>In 1905, when Jane was 76, someone tried to poison her not once, but twice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first attempt, at her Nob Hill mansion, was unsuccessful. Jane complained of feeling sick after drinking from a bottle of spring water and called for her staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>One of them was her secretary and companion, Bertha Berner, who wasn’t really a servant, but Jane Stanford often treated her like one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Bertha and the maids helped Jane to vomit. And when that water bottle was tested, the verdict came back: it was strychnine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>But it wasn’t pure strychnine. Somebody who didn’t know much about poisoning people, had dumped rat poison in it. The rat poison had caused her to vomit. She felt very sick, but she recovered from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>The people around Jane advised her to keep the incident under wraps to prevent a scandal. And to get the hell out of dodge away from the poisoner who might try again with something even stronger than rat poison this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Jane left for Hawaii with just two trusted employees: a maid and Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which leads us to the second poisoning. Just over a month after the first attempt, Jane woke up in the middle of the night in her Oahu hotel and screamed for Bertha. She knew she’d been poisoned again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Somebody obtained pure strychnine, put it in her water and she died within 10 minutes of the doctor coming in. The doctors looked at her, she showed all the symptoms of strychnine poisoning. Later on, the coroner’s jury would determine that it had been strychnine poisoning and that she had been poisoned by party or parties unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And this was the story that was reported by the earliest newspaper accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Oceanside Blade, March 1905: Mrs. Jane Stanford of San Francisco … died at Honolulu Wednesday under suspicious circumstances which point to poisoning by strychnine which had been mixed with bicarbonate of soda taken as a medicine … Mrs. Stanford had taken the medicine and retired but was soon afterward seized with violent convulsions dying in a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Naturally, Jane’s household was under suspicion. But another person absolutely had the motive — David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few weeks before Jane was poisoned the first time he’d found out that she was planning to fire him. And Richard says Jordan had also been trying to take control from Jane of those Stanford finances via some pretty shady means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, Jane was dead and Jordan was on a boat to Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Ostensibly to bring her body home, but what he’s really in Hawaii for is to suppress the coroner’s jury verdict. He hires another doctor. He says she didn’t die of strychnine poisoning, though he has not examined the body, doesn’t know anything about strychnine poisoning, and he discredits doctors who in fact are much more senior and well-known than him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jordan then used that new verdict to suppress the investigation back in San Francisco, which neatly concluded that instead of being poisoned, Jane had died of a heart attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan also used the newspapers to discredit the Hawaii authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Press Democrat, December 1905: According to Dr. Jordan no strychnine was found in Mrs. Stanford’s room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>There’s nothing to see here. There’s nothing to look at. Let’s get on with things. And it is a conspiracy to cover up her death and the conspiracy worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Because in 1905 — before widespread telephones, before the internet — covering up someone’s death like this across an ocean no less was in many ways a lot simpler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>For a long time, this becomes the official story from Stanford University, that she died a natural death and that she was not poisoned by strychnine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So you’re hearing all this and thinking: well, it’s so clearly this guy right? David Starr Jordan’s the murderer? He’s the one trying to cover up her death! I mean, what more do we need??\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And that’s what a lot of people think, except that the other stuff with Jordan doesn’t really add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>For one thing, he’s not present at the scene of either poisoning attempt. And he definitely wasn’t anywhere near Hawaii the second time. So while he had the motive, he doesn’t actually have the opportunity to poison her himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>It’s one of those times where for David Starr Jordan, you just think sometimes you just get really lucky. He wanted her killed and she was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So if it wasn’t David Starr Jordan, who did kill Jane Stanford?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well if you’ve watched one murder mystery in your life, you’ve probably learned to watch out for that one “harmless” background character who keeps popping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so you might be wondering, what about Jane’s longtime, long-suffering companion and secretary: Bertha Berner?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bertha had been employed by Jane from a young age, ever since they met at the memorial service for Jane’s son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And Bertha Berner, by all accounts, was both a very attractive, very smart, and very capable woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Bertha never married, which wasn’t that unusual for the time, but Richard says that was a strategic, practical decision she made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>First of all, it would give up her job that she has with Stanford, traveling around the world, the access to a society which otherwise she would have no access to. And secondly, she becomes the sole support of her mother. She really cannot afford to give up this job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And Jane knew it. Richard says this gave her carte blanche to treat Bertha like a true “frenemy,” even going so far as to sabotage Bertha’s romantic relationships when she dared to have them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Their relationship becomes incredibly rocky. Bertha Berner refuses to put up with it. And several times, which rarely shows up until I started looking at it, she leaves Jane Stanford’s employ, sometimes for years at a time. But she always comes back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Another reason that Bertha stuck around through it all … she was in Jane Stanford’s will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where we come to Richard’s theory about Bertha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the second poisoning attempt coincides with Bertha’s mother getting really sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>When Jane Stanford asked her to come to Hawaii, says, I can’t. My mother’s dying. I have to stay here and take care of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>But Jane insisted she make the journey if she wanted to keep the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane clearly still trusted Bertha and harbored zero suspicions she’d been involved in the first poisoning. Although she did have some dirt on Bertha:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Bertha Berner has had an affair with Albert Beverly, who’s Jane Stanford’s butler at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Yup, there’s a shady butler in this mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford knows about that. And she also knows that both of them have been embezzling money from her. She can hang that over Bertha Berners head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>As all good mysteries show, a killer needs the means, the motive, and the opportunity. And according to Richard, Bertha had all three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had the motive: anger at her years of mistreatment by Jane, fear that her embezzlement might be exposed, and financial incentive, from being in the will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>If she can get away with the murder, she will have money in the will. She will in fact be able to continue to take care of her mother and she can set herself up not comfortably, but well enough to last for the rest of her life, which she does do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>She also had the physical opportunity. All of Jane’s servants were suspects in the first poisoning, but Bertha was the only one who’d been present for both attempts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the means. That first poisoning, with the rat poison, had been clumsy. But by the time Bertha left for Hawaii, Richard says she’d started a relationship with a Palo Alto pharmacist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>He becomes a place where Bertha Berner can get free, pure strychnine. Otherwise, that would be very difficult to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Guess the Butler was out of the picture?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some time after Jane died, Bertha also did something really weird. She wrote a tell-all book about Jane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>She doesn’t mention the affairs, she doesn’t mentioned the embezzling, but what she says is Jane Stanford had money and she knew the power of money. She used it like a queen. She dominated everyone around her. She got what she wanted and she forced people to do what she want them to do because she has control over her money. Which sounds very much like the reason why, in fact, in the end, she will kill her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So if it was Bertha, even if Stanford president David Starr Jordan wasn’t in on it, did he know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard says he’s pretty sure the answer is yes, given how Jordan treated Bertha after the murder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>What he does, and this he does in writing, is he reassures her that we know you didn’t do it, we’re gonna take care of you, you have nothing to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And even if other people close to Jane suspected there’d been a murder and a cover-up, they didn’t want to bring that kind of smoke to Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane was buried in the mausoleum at Stanford University next to her husband and son. As her body was carried to her final resting place, the procession was full of people who had butted heads with her while she was alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Starr Jordan — the man who led the cover-up of her murder — led the walk from the church to her tomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the final insult? Walking pride of place, behind the casket, was Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>The woman I think, murdered her.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>When you made as many enemies in life as Jane Stanford not even your funeral is safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious has published many episodes over the years that get into the spookier side of Bay Area history. If you’re looking for a little thrill this All Hallow’s Eve, check out our spooky Spotify playlist linked in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, don’t forget to grab yourself a ticket to our trivia night. It’s on Thursday, November 13 at KQED headquarters in San Francisco. Come alone or with a team. It will be a lot of fun! Tickets are at kqed.org/events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced at member-supported KQED in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Christopher Beale, Gabriela Glueck, Olivia Allen-Price, and me, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow. See you next week!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cbr>\nFounded in 1885, Stanford University is famed for its world-class research in medicine, business, law and the humanities, not to mention its 20 living Nobel laureates.\u003cbr>\nThis manicured institution on the San Francisco peninsula isn’t necessarily the kind of place you’d expect to harbor a century-old murder mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But 120 years ago this year, the university’s co-founder, Jane Stanford, died suddenly one winter evening. And although the official verdict was natural causes, the original coroner’s report indicated something far more sinister: poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what really happened to Jane Stanford in 1905? It’s a question that preoccupies Richard White, Stanford University history professor emeritus and author of \u003ca href=\"https://history.stanford.edu/people/richard-white\">\u003cem>Who Killed Jane Stanford\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several years ago, White was teaching his students how to use the Stanford University archives. He asked them to research the curious history of Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought, if I can’t get them interested in the story that supposedly somebody murdered the founder of the university, I cannot get them interested in anything,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061787\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1594px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061787\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1594\" height=\"2500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED.jpg 1594w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-160x251.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-979x1536.jpg 979w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-06-KQED-1306x2048.jpg 1306w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1594px) 100vw, 1594px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Portrait of Jane Stanford with her son, Leland Jr., before he died of typhoid in 1884. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When his students kept hitting roadblocks in the archives, an intrigued White couldn’t resist looking into the story himself — and soon found himself baffled that the death of Jane Stanford wasn’t a bigger source of intrigue. Especially since Stanford Medical School physician Robert Cutler had \u003ca href=\"https://www.sup.org/books/history/mysterious-death-jane-stanford\">already published a 2003 book\u003c/a> concluding that she did not die of natural causes, but had instead been killed by strychnine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The university had contended from the very beginning that she’d died of a heart attack,” White said. “And that contradiction, I thought, would have a lot of public interest and certainly bring some response from the university — but it hadn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.stanford.edu/about/history/\">The university’s history webpage\u003c/a> doesn’t mention the death of Jane Stanford at all, let alone the fact that she may well have been murdered. (Stanford University didn’t respond to our request for official comment on their co-founder’s death.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But one thing is certain: strychnine poisoning is a particularly horrible way to die. When this white powder gets into the body, it attacks the chemical that normally controls nerve signals to a person’s muscles, inducing waves of painful spasms. The jaw locks tight and the limbs start twisting in on themselves. In high amounts, strychnine can kill within minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strychnine tastes bitter but is odorless, making it a notoriously popular way to poison a person in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was also an ingredient in rat bait — and even some medicines — making it easy to obtain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have to be able to follow the evidence, and I follow the evidence,” White said. And after much research, he has a theory about who ended Jane Stanford’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A ‘personal fiefdom’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was born Jane Lathrop in 1828 in upstate New York. At the age of 22, she married Leland Stanford, a railroad baron, who briefly served as governor of California from 1862 to 1863, and then a U.S. senator for almost a decade starting in 1885.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 39, Jane Stanford gave birth to \u003ca href=\"https://stanfordmag.org/contents/about-a-boy\">her only child, Leland Stanford Jr\u003c/a>., but Leland Jr. died from typhoid in his teens. “She never gets over that,” White said. “She will be in mourning for the rest of her life.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In their grief, the Stanfords sought ways to honor Leland Jr.’s memory. At this time, “California has great ambitions beyond just being a sort of outpost of wealth in the West,” White said. “It wants to become a cultural leader, an industrial leader. And so, founding universities and founding colleges is very much in the mind of the San Francisco elite.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, in 1891, Jane and Leland opened their university on the San Francisco Peninsula, called Leland Stanford Junior University. But Leland Stanford Sr would only live two more years before he too died, in 1893.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At age 65, Jane Stanford found herself in charge of the new university — a heavy responsibility compounded, White said, by Leland Sr’s financial mismanagement of both the university’s funds and the Stanfords’ own money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It turned out that Leland Stanford was not nearly as competent as most people thought,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the next several years, Jane Stanford was constantly fighting to keep the university afloat in a way that wouldn’t further tank her considerable fortune. But her methods of managing the university’s affairs swiftly made her very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once she gets power, she uses it ruthlessly,” White said. “She knows the power of wealth and she exerts that power — so much so that she makes a great many enemies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was a walking contradiction. She was an advocate for women’s rights and insisted Stanford admit female students, but then treated those same students poorly. The women in her personal life found this out firsthand — chief among them her longtime companion and secretary, Bertha Berner, “who wasn’t really a servant, but Jane Stanford often treated her like one,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061782\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061782\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1387\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED-160x111.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-04-KQED-1536x1065.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Stanford women’s basketball team circa 1896. Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, insisted that women be admitted from the school’s inception in 1891. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While running the university as what White called “a personal fiefdom,” Jane Stanford butted heads often with the institution’s president, David Starr Jordan. While “devoted” to the university, Jordan knew “that the university and his own job depend on pleasing Jane Stanford,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford’s religious beliefs were also a major headache for Jordan. She was a Spiritualist: a belief system that hinged on making contact with the dead. Like many people who turned to Spiritualism in the 19th century, Stanford was motivated by the losses in her own life: the death of her son and husband.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back in the Victorian era, the sheer prevalence of death through disease and infant mortality meant that virtually everyone was surrounded by tragedies like Stanford’s. But it was one thing for well-to-do ladies to be conducting seances in their free time, and quite another for the leader of a major university. Not least because Stanford told people that she was using those seances to receive instructions on how to run the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan and his Stanford University colleagues lived in fear of their boss’s Spiritualism becoming common knowledge, White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s going to endanger all the legal documents she signs,” he said. “It’s very hard to uphold a legal document when you say the ghosts are the ones telling you to sign it or not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for Jordan, things soon got even worse, White said – when he realized “that Leland Stanford had endowed the university in such a way that the university really has no free and clear access to its funds or even a guarantee of its funds until Jane Stanford is dead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this leads us to 1905, when 76-year-old Jane Stanford was poisoned not once but twice. She did not survive the second attempt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A cover-up across an ocean\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The first poisoning attempt in January 1905, inside Jane Stanford’s San Francisco mansion, was unsuccessful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford complained of feeling sick after drinking from a bottle of Poland Spring water and called out for her household staff, including her secretary and companion, Bertha Berner. After vomiting, Stanford recovered — and when the water was tested, strychnine was found.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> However, it wasn’t a pure form of the poison in the bottle. “Somebody who didn’t know much about poisoning people had dumped rat poison in it,” White said. Other ingredients in the rat poison had caused Stanford to vomit, which saved her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford’s inner circle advised her to keep the incident under wraps to prevent a scandal that could taint the university, and to get far away from San Francisco and a poisoner who might try again. So just over a month later, Stanford departed for Hawaii with just two trusted employees: a maid and Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her attempts to evade her poisoner proved unsuccessful. On February 28, 1905, Stanford woke up in her Oahu hotel in the middle of the night and screamed out for Berner. She knew she’d been poisoned again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She died within 10 minutes of the doctor coming in,” White said — and the medical evaluation swiftly concluded she showed all the symptoms of strychnine poisoning. “Later on, the coroner’s jury would determine that it had been strychnine poisoning and that she had been poisoned by party or parties unknown,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the story reported by the earliest newspaper accounts, like that of \u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=BT19050304.2.29&srpos=10&e=------190-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22jane+stanford%22----1905---\">the Oceanside Blade in Southern California\u003c/a> on March 4, 1905, which noted the “suspicious circumstances which point to poisoning by strychnine.\u003cstrong>”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061783\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2047px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2047\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-scaled.jpg 2047w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-2000x2501.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-160x200.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-1228x1536.jpg 1228w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-05-KQED-1638x2048.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2047px) 100vw, 2047px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Starr Jordan was the first president of Stanford University and butted heads with Jane Stanford often. He died in 1931, outliving Jane by more than 20 years. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While Stanford’s household fell under suspicion, another person absolutely had the motive, White said: Stanford University’s president, David Starr Jordan. Just a few weeks before the first poisoning attempt, Jordan had not only discovered that Stanford intended to fire him, but had been working with colleagues to try to take control of the university’s finances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the news of Jane Stanford’s death, Jordan jumped on a boat to Oahu: “Ostensibly to bring her body home,” White said, “but what he’s really in Hawaii for is to suppress the coroner’s jury verdict.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On arrival in Honolulu, Jordan hired another doctor to deliver a verdict on the death, one who contradicted the earlier account of strychnine poisoning, “though he has not examined the body,” and “doesn’t know anything about strychnine poisoning,” White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan then used that new verdict to suppress the investigation back in San Francisco, an inquiry which neatly concluded that rather than being poisoned, Stanford had instead died of a heart attack. \u003ca href=\"https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SRPD19051231.2.17&srpos=5&e=------190-en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22jane+stanford%22----1905---\">He also used the local papers\u003c/a> to discredit the Hawaii authorities, creating a general air of — as White put it — “There’s nothing to see here, there’s nothing to look at, let’s get on with things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a long time, this becomes the official story from Stanford University: That she died a natural death and that she was not poisoned by strychnine,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A suspect in plain sight\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While Jordan certainly acted suspiciously, White said that “the other stuff with Jordan doesn’t really add up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan may have had several reasons to want Jane Stanford out of the picture, but he wasn’t actually present at either poisoning attempt. He lacked the opportunity to poison her himself. “Sometimes you just get really lucky,” White said. “He wanted her killed, and she was killed.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>For White, there’s a far more persuasive suspect hiding in plain sight: Stanford’s longtime, long-suffering companion and secretary Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berner had been in Stanford’s service from a young age, ever since they met at the memorial service for Leland Junior. She was, by all accounts, “a very attractive, very smart, and very capable woman,” White said — and he believes Berner’s decision not to marry was a strategic, practical move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only would marriage have meant giving up traveling the world with Jane Stanford and access to high society, but Berner was also the sole caretaker for her sick mother. “She really cannot afford to give up this job,” White said. And Stanford knew it, even going so far as to sabotage any romantic relationships Berner dared to have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The relationship between the two women became “incredibly rocky,” White said, to the point where Berner quit Stanford’s employ several times. “But she always comes back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not convinced? How about this for motive — Berner was a beneficiary in Jane Stanford’s will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at the time of the second poisoning attempt, Berner’s mother became even sicker. Berner even declined to join Stanford on her Hawaii trip due to fears about her mother’s ailing health, but her employer insisted that Berner make the trip if she wanted to keep the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Stanford clearly did not harbor any suspicions that her trusted companion and secretary of many years had anything to do with the first attempt on her life, she was nonetheless aware that Berner was romantically involved with Stanford’s own butler — and that the pair had been “embezzling money from her,” White said. “She can hang that over Bertha Berner’s head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A killer walks free?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To White, when added together, Berner’s motives are convincing. Her trusted position meant she also had the opportunity to poison Stanford, and she was present at both attempts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>White’s research shows Berner also had the means to kill Jane Stanford. By the time Berner left for Hawaii, she’d started a relationship with a Palo Alto pharmacist. This association provided “a place where Bertha Berner can get free, pure strychnine,” White said. “Otherwise, that would be very difficult to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12061780\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12061780\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1362\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-160x109.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-JANE-STANFORD-ARCHIVAL-02-KQED-1536x1046.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, bats in a faculty versus student baseball game, a tradition on campus. Jordan often butted heads with Jane Stanford over how to run the university and covered up her death by poisoning in 1905. \u003ccite>(Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>White suspects that university president Jordan may have suspected Berner at the time, and that he may have actively protected her after Jane Stanford’s demise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He does it in writing,” White said: “He reassures her that, ‘we know you didn’t do it; we’re going take care of you; you have nothing to worry about.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And even if other people close to Jane Stanford suspected there’d been a murder and a cover-up, nobody wanted to bring that kind of scandal upon Stanford University, White said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane Stanford was buried in the mausoleum at Stanford University, next to her husband and son. As her body was carried to its final resting place, the procession was full of people who had butted heads with her while she was alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The man who led the cover-up of her murder now led the walk from the church to her tomb. And walking pride of place, behind the casket, was Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/63j9eNYdy78nVPUzUJ791e?utm_source=generator&theme=0\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> Stanford University is undeniably a Bay Area icon with the pedigree to match.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founded back in the late 19th century, this private institution sprawling over 8,000 manicured acres on the sunny San Francisco peninsula is famed for its world-class research in medicine, business, law and the humanities. It has 20 living Nobel laureates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In short: not the kind of place you’d necessarily expect to harbor a century-old mystery full of skulduggery, lies and poison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that’s exactly what lies beneath Stanford’s history. Because the woman who co-founded this place, Jane Stanford, died in very strange circumstances in 1905. And although the official verdict was natural causes, some suspect something far more sinister happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today on Bay Curious, we’re following the historic breadcrumbs to discover who might have been responsible. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> What really happened to Jane Stanford, co-founder of Stanford University, who died suddenly in 1905?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Carly Severn brings us the historic mystery — and dastardly cover-up — that a lot of people in the Bay Area still don’t know about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn:\u003c/strong> Death by poisoning is a nasty way to go. But strychnine poisoning is a particularly horrible way to die.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When this white powder gets into your body, it attacks the chemical that normally controls nerve signals to your muscles resulting in overwhelming, painful spasms all over. Your jaw locks tight. Your limbs start twisting in on themselves. In high amounts, strychnine can kill you within minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strychnine tastes bitter but it doesn’t smell of anything. And as an ingredient in rat bait, and even some medicines in the 19th and early twentieth centuries, it was a very popular way to poison someone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what if I told you that 120 years ago, the co-founder of Stanford University found this out first-hand. And almost nobody is talking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>You have to be able to follow the evidence, and I follow the evidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard White is a professor emeritus in Stanford University’s history department. Several years ago he was TEACHING students how to use the university’s own archives to investigate historical conundrums … and he asked them to find out what happened to Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>I thought, if I can’t get them interested in the story that supposedly somebody murdered the founder of the university, I cannot get them interested in anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard found there was a lot his students couldn’t uncover about this case, prompting him to turn historical detective after the class had long ended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he started looking into it he was baffled this wasn’t a bigger source of intrigue. Especially because a physician at Stanford Medical School had already written a book showing that Jane Stanford had 100% been killed by strychnine poisoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And the university had contended from the very beginning that she’d died of a heart attack. And that contradiction, I thought, would have a lot of public interest and certainly bring some response from the university, but it hadn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>To get to the bottom of this mystery, let’s wind back all the way to 1828 when Jane Stanford entered this world in upstate New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a young woman, Jane married Leland Stanford, a businessman and politician who made his fortune in the railroad business, and who briefly served as governor of California in the 1860s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane gave birth to her only child — also called Leland — when she was 39. And she doted on him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then tragedy struck in 1884, when that son died of typhoid. And in their grief, the Stanfords looked for ways to honor his memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Founding universities and founding colleges is very much in the mind of the San Francisco elite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And so, in 1891, Jane and Leland opened a university on the Peninsula calling it Leland Stanford Junior University, after their son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just two years later, Jane’s husband died. And at age 65, Jane found herself in charge of the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>But it turned out that Leland Stanford was not nearly as competent as most people thought.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Richard says Leland Stanford had mismanaged University funds and his own fortune for a long time. So for the next several years, Jane was constantly fighting to keep the university afloat in a way that wouldn’t tank her considerable fortune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is really where the trouble began. Because Jane’s way of managing affairs at Stanford University made her very unpopular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White:\u003c/strong> Once she gets power she uses it ruthlessly. She knows the power of wealth and she exerts that power, so much so that she makes a great many enemies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane was a walking contradiction. She was an advocate for women’s rights and insisted Stanford admit female students, but treated those students terribly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And when it came to men, Jane particularly butted heads with the president of Stanford University: David Starr Jordan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford runs Stanford University as a personal fiefdom. David Starr Jordan is devoted to the university, but he knows that the university and his own job depend on pleasing Jane Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford was also a Spiritualist, a belief system that hinged on making contact with the dead. And like many people who turned to Spiritualism in the 19th century, Jane was motivated by personal tragedy beginning with the death of her son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>She never gets over that. She will be in mourning for the rest of her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>But it was one thing for well-to-do ladies to be conducting seances in their free time and quite another for the leader of a major university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane’s Spiritualism became a big problem for Stanford University and for its president, Jordan. Because Jane told people that she was using her seances to receive instructions from her dead husband and son on how to run Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>The great fear of Stanford University is that they’re gonna discover that Jane Stanford is a spiritualist and that’s gonna endanger all the legal documents she signs. It’s very hard to uphold the legal document when you say the ghosts are the ones telling you to sign it or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jane’s beliefs were a constant source of stress for Jordan. And their relationship deteriorated even further when Jane made him fire a professor friend of his, sparking a scandal about academic freedom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while trying to navigate all of this, Jordan made a discovery:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>He also realizes that Leland Stanford had endowed the university in such a way that the university really has no free and clear access to its funds or even a guarantee of its funds until Jane Stanford is dead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>In 1905, when Jane was 76, someone tried to poison her not once, but twice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first attempt, at her Nob Hill mansion, was unsuccessful. Jane complained of feeling sick after drinking from a bottle of spring water and called for her staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>One of them was her secretary and companion, Bertha Berner, who wasn’t really a servant, but Jane Stanford often treated her like one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Bertha and the maids helped Jane to vomit. And when that water bottle was tested, the verdict came back: it was strychnine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>But it wasn’t pure strychnine. Somebody who didn’t know much about poisoning people, had dumped rat poison in it. The rat poison had caused her to vomit. She felt very sick, but she recovered from it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>The people around Jane advised her to keep the incident under wraps to prevent a scandal. And to get the hell out of dodge away from the poisoner who might try again with something even stronger than rat poison this time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So Jane left for Hawaii with just two trusted employees: a maid and Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which leads us to the second poisoning. Just over a month after the first attempt, Jane woke up in the middle of the night in her Oahu hotel and screamed for Bertha. She knew she’d been poisoned again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Somebody obtained pure strychnine, put it in her water and she died within 10 minutes of the doctor coming in. The doctors looked at her, she showed all the symptoms of strychnine poisoning. Later on, the coroner’s jury would determine that it had been strychnine poisoning and that she had been poisoned by party or parties unknown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And this was the story that was reported by the earliest newspaper accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reads newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Oceanside Blade, March 1905: Mrs. Jane Stanford of San Francisco … died at Honolulu Wednesday under suspicious circumstances which point to poisoning by strychnine which had been mixed with bicarbonate of soda taken as a medicine … Mrs. Stanford had taken the medicine and retired but was soon afterward seized with violent convulsions dying in a few minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Naturally, Jane’s household was under suspicion. But another person absolutely had the motive — David Starr Jordan, the president of Stanford University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few weeks before Jane was poisoned the first time he’d found out that she was planning to fire him. And Richard says Jordan had also been trying to take control from Jane of those Stanford finances via some pretty shady means.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And now, Jane was dead and Jordan was on a boat to Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Ostensibly to bring her body home, but what he’s really in Hawaii for is to suppress the coroner’s jury verdict. He hires another doctor. He says she didn’t die of strychnine poisoning, though he has not examined the body, doesn’t know anything about strychnine poisoning, and he discredits doctors who in fact are much more senior and well-known than him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Jordan then used that new verdict to suppress the investigation back in San Francisco, which neatly concluded that instead of being poisoned, Jane had died of a heart attack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan also used the newspapers to discredit the Hawaii authorities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice reading newspaper clipping: \u003c/strong>Press Democrat, December 1905: According to Dr. Jordan no strychnine was found in Mrs. Stanford’s room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>There’s nothing to see here. There’s nothing to look at. Let’s get on with things. And it is a conspiracy to cover up her death and the conspiracy worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Because in 1905 — before widespread telephones, before the internet — covering up someone’s death like this across an ocean no less was in many ways a lot simpler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>For a long time, this becomes the official story from Stanford University, that she died a natural death and that she was not poisoned by strychnine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So you’re hearing all this and thinking: well, it’s so clearly this guy right? David Starr Jordan’s the murderer? He’s the one trying to cover up her death! I mean, what more do we need??\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And that’s what a lot of people think, except that the other stuff with Jordan doesn’t really add up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>For one thing, he’s not present at the scene of either poisoning attempt. And he definitely wasn’t anywhere near Hawaii the second time. So while he had the motive, he doesn’t actually have the opportunity to poison her himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>It’s one of those times where for David Starr Jordan, you just think sometimes you just get really lucky. He wanted her killed and she was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So if it wasn’t David Starr Jordan, who did kill Jane Stanford?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well if you’ve watched one murder mystery in your life, you’ve probably learned to watch out for that one “harmless” background character who keeps popping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so you might be wondering, what about Jane’s longtime, long-suffering companion and secretary: Bertha Berner?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bertha had been employed by Jane from a young age, ever since they met at the memorial service for Jane’s son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>And Bertha Berner, by all accounts, was both a very attractive, very smart, and very capable woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Bertha never married, which wasn’t that unusual for the time, but Richard says that was a strategic, practical decision she made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>First of all, it would give up her job that she has with Stanford, traveling around the world, the access to a society which otherwise she would have no access to. And secondly, she becomes the sole support of her mother. She really cannot afford to give up this job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And Jane knew it. Richard says this gave her carte blanche to treat Bertha like a true “frenemy,” even going so far as to sabotage Bertha’s romantic relationships when she dared to have them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Their relationship becomes incredibly rocky. Bertha Berner refuses to put up with it. And several times, which rarely shows up until I started looking at it, she leaves Jane Stanford’s employ, sometimes for years at a time. But she always comes back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Another reason that Bertha stuck around through it all … she was in Jane Stanford’s will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And this is where we come to Richard’s theory about Bertha.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the second poisoning attempt coincides with Bertha’s mother getting really sick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>When Jane Stanford asked her to come to Hawaii, says, I can’t. My mother’s dying. I have to stay here and take care of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>But Jane insisted she make the journey if she wanted to keep the job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane clearly still trusted Bertha and harbored zero suspicions she’d been involved in the first poisoning. Although she did have some dirt on Bertha:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Bertha Berner has had an affair with Albert Beverly, who’s Jane Stanford’s butler at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Yup, there’s a shady butler in this mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>Jane Stanford knows about that. And she also knows that both of them have been embezzling money from her. She can hang that over Bertha Berners head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>As all good mysteries show, a killer needs the means, the motive, and the opportunity. And according to Richard, Bertha had all three.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She had the motive: anger at her years of mistreatment by Jane, fear that her embezzlement might be exposed, and financial incentive, from being in the will.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>If she can get away with the murder, she will have money in the will. She will in fact be able to continue to take care of her mother and she can set herself up not comfortably, but well enough to last for the rest of her life, which she does do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>She also had the physical opportunity. All of Jane’s servants were suspects in the first poisoning, but Bertha was the only one who’d been present for both attempts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which brings us to the means. That first poisoning, with the rat poison, had been clumsy. But by the time Bertha left for Hawaii, Richard says she’d started a relationship with a Palo Alto pharmacist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>He becomes a place where Bertha Berner can get free, pure strychnine. Otherwise, that would be very difficult to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>Guess the Butler was out of the picture?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some time after Jane died, Bertha also did something really weird. She wrote a tell-all book about Jane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>She doesn’t mention the affairs, she doesn’t mentioned the embezzling, but what she says is Jane Stanford had money and she knew the power of money. She used it like a queen. She dominated everyone around her. She got what she wanted and she forced people to do what she want them to do because she has control over her money. Which sounds very much like the reason why, in fact, in the end, she will kill her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>So if it was Bertha, even if Stanford president David Starr Jordan wasn’t in on it, did he know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richard says he’s pretty sure the answer is yes, given how Jordan treated Bertha after the murder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>What he does, and this he does in writing, is he reassures her that we know you didn’t do it, we’re gonna take care of you, you have nothing to worry about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>And even if other people close to Jane suspected there’d been a murder and a cover-up, they didn’t want to bring that kind of smoke to Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jane was buried in the mausoleum at Stanford University next to her husband and son. As her body was carried to her final resting place, the procession was full of people who had butted heads with her while she was alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Starr Jordan — the man who led the cover-up of her murder — led the walk from the church to her tomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the final insult? Walking pride of place, behind the casket, was Bertha Berner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard White: \u003c/strong>The woman I think, murdered her.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carly Severn: \u003c/strong>When you made as many enemies in life as Jane Stanford not even your funeral is safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/strong> That was KQED’s Carly Severn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious has published many episodes over the years that get into the spookier side of Bay Area history. If you’re looking for a little thrill this All Hallow’s Eve, check out our spooky Spotify playlist linked in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, don’t forget to grab yourself a ticket to our trivia night. It’s on Thursday, November 13 at KQED headquarters in San Francisco. Come alone or with a team. It will be a lot of fun! Tickets are at kqed.org/events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is produced at member-supported KQED in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our show is made by Christopher Beale, Gabriela Glueck, Olivia Allen-Price, and me, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow. See you next week!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Journalist, Others on Second Gaza Aid Flotilla Released From Israeli Prison",
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"headTitle": "California Journalist, Others on Second Gaza Aid Flotilla Released From Israeli Prison | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Less than a week after Israeli forces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">intercepted a global flotilla\u003c/a> attempting to deliver aid to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> and detained hundreds of participants, a second contingent of international activists, medical workers and journalists was captured on Wednesday — including a California-based journalist reporting on the barriers to covering the ongoing war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Wilder, a Stanford University graduate and former reporter for Santa Rosa’s \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>, had joined the second flotilla as a reporter for \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, a left-leaning magazine based in New York. Israel deported her to Istanbul on Friday alongside many others from the flotilla, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JewishCurrents/status/1976650360530804938\">according to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepJimmyGomez/status/1976653231326638395\">said\u003c/a> she “is on her way home\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Wilder’s goals was to shed light on the struggle journalists are facing to report on the war and conditions in Gaza from the ground, two years after Israel blocked foreign journalists from accessing the region, \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em> associate editor Mari Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a specific call for media and medical workers to join [the flotilla] with the idea … for there to be an opportunity for journalists to cover Gaza on the ground,” Cohen said. “She went on this mission partly for the sake of this broader coverage — to cover the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her release came as Israeli forces began pulling back from Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5567998/israeli-forces-begin-pullback-in-gaza-after-government-agrees-to-ceasefire-plan\">approved phase one of a ceasefire deal\u003c/a> that would end the two-year war. Many details remain unknown, but NPR reported that as of midday Friday in Gaza, Israeli forces had retreated to an agreed-upon line and airstrikes had ceased. The deal, brokered by the Trump administration, would mean the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vessel of the Gaza-bound flotilla is tugged toward the port of Ashdod in southern Israel on Oct. 8, 2025. The Israeli Navy intercepted an international aid flotilla on its way to Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. \u003ccite>(Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilder, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, was aboard the Conscience, a 100-person boat that set sail on Sept. 30 with a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPjOfGTAB4M/?img_index=2\"> fleet of international ships\u003c/a> carrying humanitarian aid days after the high-profile Global Sumud Flotilla. Both were part of an ongoing movement to break Israel’s yearslong blockade of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Wilder’s career, much of her work has focused on social justice, including reporting on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Alana Minkler, a former coworker and close friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know her as someone who is very brave and fearless, and also just very committed to reporting about the conditions in Gaza,” said Minkler, who worked with Wilder at the \u003cem>Press Democrat \u003c/em>from 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler met Wilder when they were both interns at the Phoenix-based \u003cem>Arizona Republic, \u003c/em>covering the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.[aside postID=news_12058820 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty.jpg']“She’s always been incredibly dedicated to covering social justice and human rights issues across the world and in her own communities,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler said she wasn’t surprised to hear that Wilder would be joining the flotilla last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Emily was already aware of a lot of the backlash that a lot of journalists, including herself, have faced when reporting on these issues,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Wilder was hired as a news associate for the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> but was fired after a little more than two weeks over “violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the organization \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-journalists-797ea15c03fadff692ced0f6dfc4281c\">reported on its decision\u003c/a>, citing in its coverage a number of posts Wilder had retweeted on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, that were “sympathetic to Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict,” including a video in which demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilder’s termination came days after a student group at Stanford blasted the AP on social media, calling it biased against Israel for hiring her, since she had formerly been a “leader” in pro-Palestinian student organizations at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cohen, Wilder had brought the idea to join the Conscience to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, in part to bring attention to the difficulty and danger of reporting on the war and conflict in Gaza generally. Throughout her time on the boat, which set off Sept. 30, Wilder shared updates from the journey via social media that the outlet was re-sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until the day before the Conscience was intercepted, Cohen said they were in touch daily, discussing what reporting would come out of the endeavor. She said she last heard from Wilder the afternoon before Israeli military forces intercepted the Conscience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She went to bed and we knew that it was possible the following morning,” Cohen said. “The next time I got updates and was in communication with her family was that evening when we saw on the live feed [streamed from the ship] that they were being intercepted and that they were on the deck and wearing life jackets and putting their hands up and preparing for arrest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said the detainees were taken to Israel’s Ashdod Port and were held in Ketziot Prison, like members of the Global Sumud Flotilla were last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the more than 400 people detained as part of that fleet have now been deported, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPlhCZvAs1T/\">according to organizers\u003c/a>, many Americans remained in custody for nearly a week, where they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">reportedly went without food, water and medication\u003c/a> and had to sleep in overcrowded cells and on floors with little support from the U.S. government.[aside postID=news_12059351 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/68e5df0e9817d.jpg']San Francisco resident Sidney Hollar, whose son Logan Hollarsmith was among the American detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla, told KQED that she struggled to get support from state and federal lawmakers despite repeated attempts, and that “the U.S. Embassy offered no help [to detainees] when they were deported.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said it appears the Embassy was responding more quickly to support detainees from the Conscience and had visited Wilder, who they said was safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was deported to Turkey on Friday morning and would be flying back to Los Angeles from there, according to Minkler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said that while the magazine’s decision to send Wilder on the flotilla might have been different after hearing reports of the treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla participants, “it was her decision and something she wanted to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons that Emily went on this trip was to shed light on the conditions of the free press and trying to report on these issues in Gaza,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israeli attacks have killed at least 245 media workers since the war began two years ago, according to lists published by Palestinian journalists. The United Nations has reported a similar number killed. More have been taken into captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t speak for Emily, but she really wanted to raise awareness about the need to have journalism in the ongoing conflict,” Minkler said. “Emily would not want this story to be about Emily. This is about what she was trying to cover as a journalist, which is the conditions in Palestine and about these efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Less than a week after Israeli forces \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">intercepted a global flotilla\u003c/a> attempting to deliver aid to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/gaza\">Gaza\u003c/a> and detained hundreds of participants, a second contingent of international activists, medical workers and journalists was captured on Wednesday — including a California-based journalist reporting on the barriers to covering the ongoing war.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Wilder, a Stanford University graduate and former reporter for Santa Rosa’s \u003cem>Press Democrat\u003c/em>, had joined the second flotilla as a reporter for \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, a left-leaning magazine based in New York. Israel deported her to Istanbul on Friday alongside many others from the flotilla, \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/JewishCurrents/status/1976650360530804938\">according to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/RepJimmyGomez/status/1976653231326638395\">said\u003c/a> she “is on her way home\u003cem>.\u003c/em>”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of Wilder’s goals was to shed light on the struggle journalists are facing to report on the war and conditions in Gaza from the ground, two years after Israel blocked foreign journalists from accessing the region, \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em> associate editor Mari Cohen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a specific call for media and medical workers to join [the flotilla] with the idea … for there to be an opportunity for journalists to cover Gaza on the ground,” Cohen said. “She went on this mission partly for the sake of this broader coverage — to cover the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her release came as Israeli forces began pulling back from Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2025/10/10/nx-s1-5567998/israeli-forces-begin-pullback-in-gaza-after-government-agrees-to-ceasefire-plan\">approved phase one of a ceasefire deal\u003c/a> that would end the two-year war. Many details remain unknown, but NPR reported that as of midday Friday in Gaza, Israeli forces had retreated to an agreed-upon line and airstrikes had ceased. The deal, brokered by the Trump administration, would mean the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12059497\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12059497\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/GazaFlotillaGetty-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A vessel of the Gaza-bound flotilla is tugged toward the port of Ashdod in southern Israel on Oct. 8, 2025. The Israeli Navy intercepted an international aid flotilla on its way to Gaza in the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. \u003ccite>(Jamal Awad/Xinhua via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wilder, a freelance journalist based in Los Angeles, was aboard the Conscience, a 100-person boat that set sail on Sept. 30 with a\u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPjOfGTAB4M/?img_index=2\"> fleet of international ships\u003c/a> carrying humanitarian aid days after the high-profile Global Sumud Flotilla. Both were part of an ongoing movement to break Israel’s yearslong blockade of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Wilder’s career, much of her work has focused on social justice, including reporting on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, according to Alana Minkler, a former coworker and close friend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know her as someone who is very brave and fearless, and also just very committed to reporting about the conditions in Gaza,” said Minkler, who worked with Wilder at the \u003cem>Press Democrat \u003c/em>from 2021 to 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler met Wilder when they were both interns at the Phoenix-based \u003cem>Arizona Republic, \u003c/em>covering the Black Lives Matter protests following George Floyd’s murder in 2020.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“She’s always been incredibly dedicated to covering social justice and human rights issues across the world and in her own communities,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Minkler said she wasn’t surprised to hear that Wilder would be joining the flotilla last month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Emily was already aware of a lot of the backlash that a lot of journalists, including herself, have faced when reporting on these issues,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2021, Wilder was hired as a news associate for the \u003cem>Associated Press\u003c/em> but was fired after a little more than two weeks over “violations of its social media policy that took place after she became an employee.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the organization \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-journalists-797ea15c03fadff692ced0f6dfc4281c\">reported on its decision\u003c/a>, citing in its coverage a number of posts Wilder had retweeted on the social media platform X, then known as Twitter, that were “sympathetic to Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict,” including a video in which demonstrators chanted “Free Palestine!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wilder’s termination came days after a student group at Stanford blasted the AP on social media, calling it biased against Israel for hiring her, since she had formerly been a “leader” in pro-Palestinian student organizations at the university.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Cohen, Wilder had brought the idea to join the Conscience to \u003cem>Jewish Currents\u003c/em>, in part to bring attention to the difficulty and danger of reporting on the war and conflict in Gaza generally. Throughout her time on the boat, which set off Sept. 30, Wilder shared updates from the journey via social media that the outlet was re-sharing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Up until the day before the Conscience was intercepted, Cohen said they were in touch daily, discussing what reporting would come out of the endeavor. She said she last heard from Wilder the afternoon before Israeli military forces intercepted the Conscience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She went to bed and we knew that it was possible the following morning,” Cohen said. “The next time I got updates and was in communication with her family was that evening when we saw on the live feed [streamed from the ship] that they were being intercepted and that they were on the deck and wearing life jackets and putting their hands up and preparing for arrest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said the detainees were taken to Israel’s Ashdod Port and were held in Ketziot Prison, like members of the Global Sumud Flotilla were last week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the more than 400 people detained as part of that fleet have now been deported, \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DPlhCZvAs1T/\">according to organizers\u003c/a>, many Americans remained in custody for nearly a week, where they \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058820/ca-families-officials-call-for-release-of-us-citizens-detained-with-gaza-aid-flotilla\">reportedly went without food, water and medication\u003c/a> and had to sleep in overcrowded cells and on floors with little support from the U.S. government.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>San Francisco resident Sidney Hollar, whose son Logan Hollarsmith was among the American detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla, told KQED that she struggled to get support from state and federal lawmakers despite repeated attempts, and that “the U.S. Embassy offered no help [to detainees] when they were deported.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said it appears the Embassy was responding more quickly to support detainees from the Conscience and had visited Wilder, who they said was safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She was deported to Turkey on Friday morning and would be flying back to Los Angeles from there, according to Minkler.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cohen said that while the magazine’s decision to send Wilder on the flotilla might have been different after hearing reports of the treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla participants, “it was her decision and something she wanted to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the reasons that Emily went on this trip was to shed light on the conditions of the free press and trying to report on these issues in Gaza,” Minkler said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Israeli attacks have killed at least 245 media workers since the war began two years ago, according to lists published by Palestinian journalists. The United Nations has reported a similar number killed. More have been taken into captivity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t speak for Emily, but she really wanted to raise awareness about the need to have journalism in the ongoing conflict,” Minkler said. “Emily would not want this story to be about Emily. This is about what she was trying to cover as a journalist, which is the conditions in Palestine and about these efforts to deliver humanitarian aid.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/jlara\">\u003cem>Juan Carlos Lara\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "joshua-tree-national-park-nonprofit-concerned-about-latest-government-shutdown",
"title": "Joshua Tree National Park Nonprofit Concerned About Latest Government Shutdown",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, October 2, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the last federal government shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, national parks here in California were greatly impacted. Some shut down completely, meaning a significant loss in potential revenue. Others remained open, but were not fully staffed. That includes \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/12/29/680787463/fallout-grows-as-partial-government-shutdown-drags-on-into-new-year\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Southern California. Vehicles drove off-road, causing major damage to sensitive areas, and trash piled up, scattered around the park. Volunteer groups helped maintain and clean up the park during and after the shutdown.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Santa Clara County prosecutors have secured \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">a grand jury indictment\u003c/a> against 11 pro-Palestinian Stanford University protestors who barricaded themselves in the campus president’s office in 2024.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Joshua Tree National Park Remains Open, But Shutdown Raises Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Once the federal government shutdown took effect, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/national-parks-service\">National Park Service\u003c/a> shared a last-minute contingency plan that would keep many park sites open, but without full staffing. According to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">internal NPS memo obtained by KQED\u003c/a>, national park sites that \u003cem>can\u003c/em> be made physically inaccessible to the public will be closed off. But all other NPS sites, including those with roads and trails that are accessible to the public, will now remain open according to the memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Tree National Park will remain open, with law enforcement and maintenance staff on hand. But as the shutdown goes on, it’s unclear how long the park will be staffed. During the last shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, the park struggled with vandalism, trash and overall, a lot of destruction. “The visitors centers are closed,” said John Lauretig, executive director of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://www.friendsofjosh.org/\">Friends of Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/a> said at the time. “All the bathrooms are still open, but they’re not being maintained right now by the Park Service. So the local community has rallied together and started cleaning the bathrooms and restocking the toilet paper.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of Joshua Tree is once again watching the shutdown closely. Kenji Haroutunian is executive director of the nonprofit. “I think that will require some of the community to step up, including Friends of Joshua Tree, to support the skeleton crew that’s likely to be in place for the foreseeable future until there’s a funding bill that’s passed,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">\u003cstrong>Stanford Pro-Palestine Protestors Indicted For Barricading President’s Office\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Santa Clara County grand jury has indicted a group of pro-Palestinian Stanford University students on felony vandalism and trespassing charges, stemming from a June 2024 incident in which they broke into the campus president’s office and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989050/pro-palestinian-stanford-protesters-detained-after-occupying-presidents-office\">barricaded\u003c/a> themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors with the District Attorney’s office secured the indictment against 11 students on Sept. 29, pushing the case toward a trial and rankling defense attorneys who say the move shunts key elements of a thus far public prosecution into secrecy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made this a very public case. They decided to charge felonies, they decided to hold a press conference, they decided to seek national media coverage of this charging decision,” Jeff Wozniak, a defense attorney in the case, told KQED on Wednesday. “And now to hold a secret non-public hearing to secure an indictment is just outrageous to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of students were previously arraigned on identical felony charges from the DA’s office in the spring, a little less than a year after their action, which marked one piece of a broader campaign pushing Stanford to divest from companies or industries supporting Israel’s military offensive of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cb>Here are the morning’s top stories on Thursday, October 2, 2025…\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During the last federal government shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, national parks here in California were greatly impacted. Some shut down completely, meaning a significant loss in potential revenue. Others remained open, but were not fully staffed. That includes \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2018/12/29/680787463/fallout-grows-as-partial-government-shutdown-drags-on-into-new-year\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> in Southern California. Vehicles drove off-road, causing major damage to sensitive areas, and trash piled up, scattered around the park. Volunteer groups helped maintain and clean up the park during and after the shutdown.\u003c/span>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Santa Clara County prosecutors have secured \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">a grand jury indictment\u003c/a> against 11 pro-Palestinian Stanford University protestors who barricaded themselves in the campus president’s office in 2024.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Joshua Tree National Park Remains Open, But Shutdown Raises Concerns\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Once the federal government shutdown took effect, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/national-parks-service\">National Park Service\u003c/a> shared a last-minute contingency plan that would keep many park sites open, but without full staffing. According to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058137/government-shutdown-2025-national-parks-planning-memo\">internal NPS memo obtained by KQED\u003c/a>, national park sites that \u003cem>can\u003c/em> be made physically inaccessible to the public will be closed off. But all other NPS sites, including those with roads and trails that are accessible to the public, will now remain open according to the memo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Joshua Tree National Park will remain open, with law enforcement and maintenance staff on hand. But as the shutdown goes on, it’s unclear how long the park will be staffed. During the last shutdown in late 2018 and early 2019, the park struggled with vandalism, trash and overall, a lot of destruction. “The visitors centers are closed,” said John Lauretig, executive director of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"http://www.friendsofjosh.org/\">Friends of Joshua Tree National Park\u003c/a> said at the time. “All the bathrooms are still open, but they’re not being maintained right now by the Park Service. So the local community has rallied together and started cleaning the bathrooms and restocking the toilet paper.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends of Joshua Tree is once again watching the shutdown closely. Kenji Haroutunian is executive director of the nonprofit. “I think that will require some of the community to step up, including Friends of Joshua Tree, to support the skeleton crew that’s likely to be in place for the foreseeable future until there’s a funding bill that’s passed,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 class=\"routes-Site-routes-Post-Title-__Title__title\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058280/stanford-pro-palestine-protestors-indicted-for-barricading-presidents-office\">\u003cstrong>Stanford Pro-Palestine Protestors Indicted For Barricading President’s Office\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A Santa Clara County grand jury has indicted a group of pro-Palestinian Stanford University students on felony vandalism and trespassing charges, stemming from a June 2024 incident in which they broke into the campus president’s office and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989050/pro-palestinian-stanford-protesters-detained-after-occupying-presidents-office\">barricaded\u003c/a> themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors with the District Attorney’s office secured the indictment against 11 students on Sept. 29, pushing the case toward a trial and rankling defense attorneys who say the move shunts key elements of a thus far public prosecution into secrecy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made this a very public case. They decided to charge felonies, they decided to hold a press conference, they decided to seek national media coverage of this charging decision,” Jeff Wozniak, a defense attorney in the case, told KQED on Wednesday. “And now to hold a secret non-public hearing to secure an indictment is just outrageous to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of students were previously arraigned on identical felony charges from the DA’s office in the spring, a little less than a year after their action, which marked one piece of a broader campaign pushing Stanford to divest from companies or industries supporting Israel’s military offensive of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A Santa Clara County grand jury has indicted a group of pro-Palestinian Stanford University students on felony vandalism and trespassing charges, stemming from a June 2024 incident in which they broke into the campus president’s office and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989050/pro-palestinian-stanford-protesters-detained-after-occupying-presidents-office\">barricaded\u003c/a> themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors with the District Attorney’s office secured the indictment against 11 students on Sept. 29, pushing the case toward a trial and rankling defense attorneys who say the move shunts key elements of a thus far public prosecution into secrecy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made this a very public case. They decided to charge felonies, they decided to hold a press conference, they decided to seek national media coverage of this charging decision,” Jeff Wozniak, a defense attorney in the case, told KQED on Wednesday. “And now to hold a secret non-public hearing to secure an indictment is just outrageous to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of students were previously arraigned on identical felony charges from the DA’s office in the spring, a little less than a year after their action, which marked one piece of a broader campaign pushing Stanford to divest from companies or industries supporting Israel’s military offensive of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wozniak and a group of other attorneys representing the students were seeking a preliminary hearing regarding those charges in open court, where a judge and defense attorneys can hear and question the validity of evidence from prosecutors before a case can head to a trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Deputies stand guard outside Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s indictment, however, supersedes the prior charges, and allows the DA’s office to circumvent the preliminary hearing process. In indictment proceedings, prosecutors are the only people presenting evidence and witness testimony to a grand jury panel, which then privately deliberates to reach a decision on whether to bring charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that they’re scared to have a public hearing and to be held accountable for what they’re alleging in this case. I think they’ve overcharged it. I don’t think that these are felony cases,” Wozniak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Baker, a deputy district attorney heading up the case, disagreed with Wozniak’s characterization, and said the decision to use an indictment was for efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We presented the case to the grand jury to get the case to trial as soon as possible and conserve judicial resources,” Baker told KQED. “We feel confident that the evidence is strong and that we can prove our case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said trying to coordinate the schedules of 11 defendants and several defense attorneys for the preliminary hearing process would cause significant “logistical issues” and could take weeks of a courtroom’s time.[aside postID=news_12058155 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/GettyImages-2220045842-2000x1334.jpg']In this case, the grand jury heard testimony from two Stanford employees, including Caesar Campos, a public safety lieutenant, and Mitchell Bousson, the director of facilities. One other witness, John Richardson, was not a student but took part in the action in June 2024, but has since testified for the prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson pleaded no contest to both felony charges earlier this year under a deferred judgement program for young people, and if he completes a probationary period without any other legal trouble, the charges against him will be dismissed, Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035346/santa-clara-da-charges-12-pro-palestinian-protesters-took-over-stanford-university-presidents-office\">announcing\u003c/a> the initial felony charges in April, said the students crossed a line with their actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” Rosen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-profile case is being prosecuted as the university itself has come under investigation by the Trump administration’s Department of Education, along with dozens of other schools, for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment, putting pressure on the schools to quell pro-Palestinian Gaza War protests on their campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian demonstrations roiled college campuses across the country last year, and while thousands of students were arrested, many saw charges dropped or faced misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, when asked if he has been pressured at all in the case, said “absolutely not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The decisions in this case were made entirely by the district attorney’s office without any outside pressure from Stanford, the Stanford Police Department or any other federal or state agency,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007721\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007721\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march through the Stanford University campus in Stanford on April 25, 2024, calling for the university to divest from Israel. The rally took place during Stanford’s Admit Weekend, a time for incoming students to tour the university. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The university levied its own sanctions against the students, including two-quarter suspensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wozniak said the students engaged in a “direct action” in line with many that have come before them at Stanford, and that the university’s claim for restitution of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the felony charges from the DA’s office, are purposefully overblown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are trying to chill the student’s speech and trying to scare other students from demanding divestment from genocide, divestment from apartheid,” he said, “and they’re not going to accomplish those goals of chilling these students’ political actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students are set to be arraigned on the indictment on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m. at the Hall of Justice in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A Santa Clara County grand jury has indicted a group of pro-Palestinian Stanford University students on felony vandalism and trespassing charges, stemming from a June 2024 incident in which they broke into the campus president’s office and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989050/pro-palestinian-stanford-protesters-detained-after-occupying-presidents-office\">barricaded\u003c/a> themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors with the District Attorney’s office secured the indictment against 11 students on Sept. 29, pushing the case toward a trial and rankling defense attorneys who say the move shunts key elements of a thus far public prosecution into secrecy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made this a very public case. They decided to charge felonies, they decided to hold a press conference, they decided to seek national media coverage of this charging decision,” Jeff Wozniak, a defense attorney in the case, told KQED on Wednesday. “And now to hold a secret non-public hearing to secure an indictment is just outrageous to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group of students were previously arraigned on identical felony charges from the DA’s office in the spring, a little less than a year after their action, which marked one piece of a broader campaign pushing Stanford to divest from companies or industries supporting Israel’s military offensive of Gaza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wozniak and a group of other attorneys representing the students were seeking a preliminary hearing regarding those charges in open court, where a judge and defense attorneys can hear and question the validity of evidence from prosecutors before a case can head to a trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11989124\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11989124\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/06/240605-STANFORD-JG-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Deputies stand guard outside Building 10 at Stanford University, where pro-Palestinian protesters broke into the university president’s office and occupied it before being arrested on June 5, 2024. \u003ccite>(Joseph Geha/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This week’s indictment, however, supersedes the prior charges, and allows the DA’s office to circumvent the preliminary hearing process. In indictment proceedings, prosecutors are the only people presenting evidence and witness testimony to a grand jury panel, which then privately deliberates to reach a decision on whether to bring charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that they’re scared to have a public hearing and to be held accountable for what they’re alleging in this case. I think they’ve overcharged it. I don’t think that these are felony cases,” Wozniak said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robert Baker, a deputy district attorney heading up the case, disagreed with Wozniak’s characterization, and said the decision to use an indictment was for efficiency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We presented the case to the grand jury to get the case to trial as soon as possible and conserve judicial resources,” Baker told KQED. “We feel confident that the evidence is strong and that we can prove our case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker said trying to coordinate the schedules of 11 defendants and several defense attorneys for the preliminary hearing process would cause significant “logistical issues” and could take weeks of a courtroom’s time.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In this case, the grand jury heard testimony from two Stanford employees, including Caesar Campos, a public safety lieutenant, and Mitchell Bousson, the director of facilities. One other witness, John Richardson, was not a student but took part in the action in June 2024, but has since testified for the prosecution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richardson pleaded no contest to both felony charges earlier this year under a deferred judgement program for young people, and if he completes a probationary period without any other legal trouble, the charges against him will be dismissed, Baker said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>District Attorney Jeff Rosen, in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12035346/santa-clara-da-charges-12-pro-palestinian-protesters-took-over-stanford-university-presidents-office\">announcing\u003c/a> the initial felony charges in April, said the students crossed a line with their actions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Dissent is American, vandalism is criminal,” Rosen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high-profile case is being prosecuted as the university itself has come under investigation by the Trump administration’s Department of Education, along with dozens of other schools, for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment, putting pressure on the schools to quell pro-Palestinian Gaza War protests on their campuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pro-Palestinian demonstrations roiled college campuses across the country last year, and while thousands of students were arrested, many saw charges dropped or faced misdemeanors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baker, when asked if he has been pressured at all in the case, said “absolutely not.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The decisions in this case were made entirely by the district attorney’s office without any outside pressure from Stanford, the Stanford Police Department or any other federal or state agency,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12007721\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12007721\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/10/240425-StanfordGazaProtest-009-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march through the Stanford University campus in Stanford on April 25, 2024, calling for the university to divest from Israel. The rally took place during Stanford’s Admit Weekend, a time for incoming students to tour the university. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Stanford did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The university levied its own sanctions against the students, including two-quarter suspensions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wozniak said the students engaged in a “direct action” in line with many that have come before them at Stanford, and that the university’s claim for restitution of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the felony charges from the DA’s office, are purposefully overblown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are trying to chill the student’s speech and trying to scare other students from demanding divestment from genocide, divestment from apartheid,” he said, “and they’re not going to accomplish those goals of chilling these students’ political actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The students are set to be arraigned on the indictment on Oct. 6 at 9 a.m. at the Hall of Justice in San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "california-banned-legacy-admissions-at-private-schools-stanford-is-sticking-with-it",
"title": "California Banned Legacy Admissions at Private Schools. Stanford Is Sticking With It",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> will continue to use legacy and donor status in its admissions process by opting out of the state’s Cal Grant financial aid program, a move that would allow it to skirt a statewide ban on legacy admissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a few weeks before \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1780\">Assembly Bill 1780\u003c/a>, which was signed into law last year, takes effect Sept. 1. The law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/10/college-admissions-2/\">prohibits legacy or donor-driven preferences\u003c/a> in admissions at any university “that receives, or benefits from, state-funded student financial assistance or that enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance,” including private institutions like Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that receive state funding and continue to give legacy preference risk an increased burden of reporting requirements to the state government, as well as being publicly listed as noncompliant on the California Department of Justice’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By withdrawing from Cal Grant, the state-funded financial aid program that provides millions of dollars a year to support hundreds of its students, Stanford will be able to continue those admissions practices without being subject to the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement posted \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/07/admissions-criteria-application-period\">online\u003c/a> July 29, university officials said Stanford will use university scholarship funding instead of state financial assistance programs, including Cal Grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Stanford told KQED that the university will continue to evaluate how legacy status is considered in its admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052037\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052037\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1513\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-1536x1162.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the entrances to the Main Quad on the Stanford University campus on April 9, 2019. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 1780, has said he was inspired to target legacy admissions by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13887290/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">Varsity Blues scandal\u003c/a>, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children into elite schools, including Stanford, USC, UC Berkeley and UCLA through side doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student organizers, meanwhile, have also taken aim at university admissions policies that they say favor the children of wealthy and influential parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cieslikowski, a Stanford alum who benefited from financial aid for students from less privileged backgrounds, said his experience there led him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.joinclassaction.us/\">Class Action\u003c/a>, a nationwide nonprofit of students, alumni and faculty members who advocate for tackling classism and inequality within higher education.[aside postID=news_12050989 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2019/03/GettyImages-1135386368-1020x679.jpg']Now a lead organizer for the nonprofit, he said his research showed schools like Stanford accept “more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than the entire bottom 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His fellow Stanford organizers traveled to Sacramento three times to testify before the state Legislature when AB 1780 was still in the process of becoming law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the various students whose children stand to benefit from legacy admissions in the future,” Cieslikowski said. “Even the people who stand to benefit from it disproportionately don’t think that their institution should practice it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that while the Trump administration is “exploiting America’s mistrust” of elite education for political purposes, universities should be striving to demonstrate that they serve the public interest, but “Stanford’s decision to continue legacy and donor preference does the exact opposite of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university’s legacy admissions statement was posted just two days before it announced sweeping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050989/stanford-university-lays-off-363-employees-citing-trump-cuts\">layoffs\u003c/a> of over 350 employees and a $140 million budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Stanford has decided that accepting the disproportionately privileged children of Stanford alumni and Stanford donors is more important than taking free money from the state of California in order to provide financial aid for their low-income students,” Cieslikowski said. “Especially in the face of massive layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stanford spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question seeking to specify whether the decision to substitute university funding for Cal Grant was a factor or point of discussion in the budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cieslikowski referenced Leland Stanford’s quote upon founding the institution in 1885: that “The children of California shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By clinging to legacy preference, the university is sending the exact opposite message,” he said. “Saying that the children of wealthy alumni and donors come first, they shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/stanford-university\">Stanford University\u003c/a> will continue to use legacy and donor status in its admissions process by opting out of the state’s Cal Grant financial aid program, a move that would allow it to skirt a statewide ban on legacy admissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes just a few weeks before \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1780\">Assembly Bill 1780\u003c/a>, which was signed into law last year, takes effect Sept. 1. The law \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2024/10/college-admissions-2/\">prohibits legacy or donor-driven preferences\u003c/a> in admissions at any university “that receives, or benefits from, state-funded student financial assistance or that enrolls students who receive state-funded student financial assistance,” including private institutions like Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colleges that receive state funding and continue to give legacy preference risk an increased burden of reporting requirements to the state government, as well as being publicly listed as noncompliant on the California Department of Justice’s website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By withdrawing from Cal Grant, the state-funded financial aid program that provides millions of dollars a year to support hundreds of its students, Stanford will be able to continue those admissions practices without being subject to the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement posted \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/07/admissions-criteria-application-period\">online\u003c/a> July 29, university officials said Stanford will use university scholarship funding instead of state financial assistance programs, including Cal Grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesperson for Stanford told KQED that the university will continue to evaluate how legacy status is considered in its admissions process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12052037\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12052037\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1513\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-160x121.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/StanfordUniversity-1536x1162.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One of the entrances to the Main Quad on the Stanford University campus on April 9, 2019. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Phil Ting, who introduced AB 1780, has said he was inspired to target legacy admissions by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13887290/lies-money-and-cheating-the-deeper-story-of-the-college-admissions-scandal\">Varsity Blues scandal\u003c/a>, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their children into elite schools, including Stanford, USC, UC Berkeley and UCLA through side doors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Student organizers, meanwhile, have also taken aim at university admissions policies that they say favor the children of wealthy and influential parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ryan Cieslikowski, a Stanford alum who benefited from financial aid for students from less privileged backgrounds, said his experience there led him to \u003ca href=\"https://www.joinclassaction.us/\">Class Action\u003c/a>, a nationwide nonprofit of students, alumni and faculty members who advocate for tackling classism and inequality within higher education.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now a lead organizer for the nonprofit, he said his research showed schools like Stanford accept “more students from the top 1% of the income distribution than the entire bottom 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His fellow Stanford organizers traveled to Sacramento three times to testify before the state Legislature when AB 1780 was still in the process of becoming law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the various students whose children stand to benefit from legacy admissions in the future,” Cieslikowski said. “Even the people who stand to benefit from it disproportionately don’t think that their institution should practice it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said that while the Trump administration is “exploiting America’s mistrust” of elite education for political purposes, universities should be striving to demonstrate that they serve the public interest, but “Stanford’s decision to continue legacy and donor preference does the exact opposite of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university’s legacy admissions statement was posted just two days before it announced sweeping \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050989/stanford-university-lays-off-363-employees-citing-trump-cuts\">layoffs\u003c/a> of over 350 employees and a $140 million budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11956028\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11956028\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"An ornate sandstone-colored building with a series of arches sitting on a brick plaza.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1320\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-800x528.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1020x673.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1536x1014.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/230719-STANFORD-GETTY-DM-KQED-1920x1267.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The arches of the Main Quadrangle buildings on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto on Oct. 2, 2021. \u003ccite>(David Madison/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Stanford has decided that accepting the disproportionately privileged children of Stanford alumni and Stanford donors is more important than taking free money from the state of California in order to provide financial aid for their low-income students,” Cieslikowski said. “Especially in the face of massive layoffs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Stanford spokesperson did not respond to a follow-up question seeking to specify whether the decision to substitute university funding for Cal Grant was a factor or point of discussion in the budget cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cieslikowski referenced Leland Stanford’s quote upon founding the institution in 1885: that “The children of California shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By clinging to legacy preference, the university is sending the exact opposite message,” he said. “Saying that the children of wealthy alumni and donors come first, they shall be our children.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
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"info": "Tech Nation is a weekly public radio program, hosted by Dr. Moira Gunn. Founded in 1993, it has grown from a simple interview show to a multi-faceted production, featuring conversations with noted technology and science leaders, and a weekly science and technology-related commentary.",
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