Oscar Grant Verdict | Ex-cop Johannes Mehserle was convicted this afternoon of involuntary manslaughter in New Year’s 2009 Oscar Grant BART shooting, inciting anger and city-wide exodus to avoid reactionary violence in the Oakland area and greater Bay Area region.

Back to the Books | Baseball player Drew Storen will return to Stanford as a junior in fall 2010, back from playing with the Washington Nationals, to complete his mechanical engineering degree. Storen played for Stanford for two years before being drafted.

Hot Hot Heat | A Stanford study headed by assistant professor Noah Diffenbaugh found that exceptionally long heat waves and other hot events could become commonplace in the United States in the next 30 years, which could increase heat-related fatalities and damage certain crops.

Summer Reading | Incoming freshman will get a taste of the ethics involved with privilege and lack thereof, with the Three Books program, whose titles were announced recently. The class of 2014 will read Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman and Joyce Carol Oates’ 1996 short story “The Undesirable Table.”

Overheard | “In the midst of our current malaise, we feel overwhelmed by largely short-term problems and our current inability to address them — without appreciating our long-term strengths and present bounty, or learning from past recoveries.” Senior Hoover fellow Victor Davis Hanson opines that the American conception of its national decline is simply in mind and not in fact.

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