News

Wellsville to grapple with issue of huge annexation
04/27/01 The Wellsville City Council is preparing to hear a proposal in the next few weeks to annex almost 1,200 acres on the south end of the city, according to City Manager Don Hartle. / By Will Bettmann

Weapons ordinance affecting Green Canyon and surrounding areas
04/25/01Members of the North Logan City Council have expressed a desire to inform Utah State University students of the changes to the weapons o rdinance affecting Green Canyon and surrounding areas, including adding paintball guns to the list of illegal low-force weapons. / By Holli Gunnell

Landscape architect delivers 'Last Lecture'
04/24/01"My generation of Americans created many of the problems you will be asked to solve," Craig W. Johnson told USU students last week in the university's 26th annual "Last Lecture." / By Debbie Lamb

As the sign says: The road is closed to all westbound traffic on 700 North for the construction of a 10-foot-wide by 10-foot-deep utility tunnel. The road is expected to be closed until July. The tunnel will be routed from the new heating plant, which is being built north of the Spectrum, to the central campus. / Photo by Jennifer Pinnock

Hyde Park mothers helping Russian orphans
04/23/01Stephanie Allred and Bonnie Child of Hyde Park heard about children in need and did something to help.They are part of an organization called Mothers of Utah for the Children of Russia. / By Rachel Irvine

Hyrum crime rate up 13 percent
04/20/01"We are worried about where things are headed," Sheriff Lynn Nelsontold the council, referring to the 124 juvenile problems reported. "That's more than ten a month." / By Jamie Baer

Democrats being in short supply, Hyde Park creates other political parties
04/20/01Many towns in Cache Valley have found that most people run for their city councils unopposed. Everywhere you look you see a Republican. Because of the shortage of Democrats the city of Hyde Park came up with a new way to even out the elections. They have created two new parties for people to run under, the People's Party, or Citizen's Party. / By Rachel Irvine

North Logan makes fourth revision to the city's 2001 budget
04/20/01Five North Logan residents appeared at a public hearing regarding a fourth revision by the City Council to the 2001 budget at Thursday night's meeting to voice concerns about money for the library. / By Holli Gunnell

The Problem of Porn: USU journalism student Brian Tibbets, left, asks a panel of experts whether sexually explicit sites on the Internet could be segregated by domain name, in order to more easily screen them from the eyes of children. At right, Utah porn czarina Paula Houston says the idea has been suggested, but as she and Utah ACLU legal director Stephen C. Clark (at her right) noted, cooperation on internet structure is a global issue in which liberal countries such as the Netherlands might refuse to participate. The third member of the panel, to Houston's left, is pastor Barry Neese of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Logan, who gave a spiritual perspective on pornography as debasing the beauty of God's creation of the human body. / Photos by Mike Sweeney

Porn czarina, ACLU lawyer split over community vs. individual rights
04/18/01 Paula Houston, Utah's new "porn czarina," told a USU audience Thursday that community standards should outlaw obscene materials, while Utah's ACLU legal affairs director said basic rights guaranteed under the First Amendment should not be subjected to a majority vote. / By Steve Day

Travel author encourages USU students to see the world
04/18/01 "Eighty-five percent of Americans don't have a passport and have never left America," Hasbrouck said. "Travel can be an investment into someone's profession by gaining an international experience." / By Debbie Lamb

Amalga is a safe city to live, says Cache County sheriff
04/13/01 According to Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson, Amalga is a safe city to live in. In his annual report in front of the Amalga City Council Wednesday night, Nelson said that based on statistics, there is nothing that shows a real crime problem in the city. / By Reuben Wadsworth

Traveling abroad with the practical nomad
04/13/01 USU Study Abroad presents a travel seminar at noon Monday in the Eccles Conference Center Auditorium, Room 216, by independent travel expert, Edward Hasbrouck.

Keeping public interested a key to environmental journalism, panel says
04/07/01 Journalists covering the environment and natural resources face the twin problems of making their editors and their audienes care about significant news, panelists at a regional conference of professional journalists said Saturday. / By Jennifer Brennan

Hard News Cafe named No. 2 online student paper in region
04/07/01 Utah State Univeristy students swept the awards for television feature photography, and the Hard News Cafe was named the second-best online student newspaper in the Region 9 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards.

THE THIRD ONE SURVIVES: USU Persident Kermit Hall tells his experiences of being a member of the President Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board in the Eccles Conference Center Wednesday afternoon. Hall quoted Benjamin Franklin in saying, in order for three people to keep a secret, two of them have to be dead. / Photo by Liz Hobson

Nearly all JFK documents worthy of public scrutiny, Hall says
04/06/01 USU President Kermit Hall posed a question to his audience. First, How many believe the murder of President John F. Kennedy was part of a conspiracy? A majority of the audience held up hands. Second, how many believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone killer? Three people raised their hands. / By Kevin King

Paradise questions costs of animal control, then renews contract
04/06/01 Paradise renewed its animal control contract Wednesday, but not before the control officer had to respond to concerns about whether the town was getting its money's worth. / By Allison Johnson

Harry Potter evil? No, but censoring him is wrong, panel says
04/05/01 Thomas Jefferson once stated, "Minds must be left free to choose." Tuesday afternoon a panel of educators and parents shared their feelings on J. K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series and whether it was evil. Their answers centered on the freedom to choose, and then analyze, information. / By Debbie Lamb

Innovative classes -- what is your soul? -- cut by tight Continuing Education budget
04/02/01 What is your soul? How many levels of consciousness are there and how do you attain a deeper lever of consciousness? Questions like these used to be answered in classes offered by instructor Delphine Rossi. Students could attend "Path With a Soul" and "Path With a Soul II: Exploring Consciousness" for one weekend and get one credit hour. No more, no more. / By Angela Johnson

Cub River Sports Complex nearing completion
04/02/01 Five years ago, when Mick Stokes got the idea to build a sports complex, he had no idea it would become a reality. Now, the playing fields are nearing completion at the Cub River Sports Complex, a joint project of Lewiston and Richmond. / By Curtis McInelly

REMEMBERING SELMA: Director of Conventions for the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau Jean Tracy speaks to students Wednesday night in the TSC Sunburst Lounge. Tracy shared experiences from her life about overcoming challenges, one of which was segregation. Being from Selma, Ala., Tracy was 12 when she marched in the CIvil Rights march led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. / Photo by Liz Hobson

Features

Just passing through: Tim Jenkins plays the fiddle while Kaia DeShane accompanies him on the guitar just outside the TSC Thursday afternoon. DeShane and Jenkins have traveled from Duluth, Minn., and play old-time and Celtic music to make a few dollars for food. They are on their way to Salt Lake to surprise their sister for her 40th birthday. "We like to stop in the college towns because everyone loves music," DeShane said. "We want to encourage everyone to play, it is never too late to start." / Photo by Liz Hobson

The Olympic Games have a place for you
04/25/01 The Salt Lake Organizing Committee needs 26,000 volunteers, with different talents and skills, to successfully stage Utah's historic Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. / By Jodi Petersen

The leafy glory that graces Wellsville
04/25/01If it ever stops snowing this spring, the green, leafy glory that graces Wellsville will once again be revealed. It is not nature alone that has endowed the city with so many trees. / By Will Bettmann

River Heights Elementary to raise 1 million pennies to benefit a Third World school
04/25/01 Students at River Heights Elementary are trying to raise 1 million pennies to benefit a Third World school. The project began six years ago when David Jorgensen, a fifth-grade teacher at the school, wanted to show his students what a million looked like. / By Matt Flitton

The keys to a job interview? Be prepared, and be yourself
04/23/01 Some refer to it as one of the most nervous experiences of their lives. Others enjoy the pressure and the drama. Either way, a job interview is one of the most important moments an individual will ever experience in his or her life. / By Scott Garrard

Students preparing experiments for space shuttle
04/23/01 Students from Shoshone-Bannock and Moscow high schools in Idaho and Box Elder High School in Utah gathered recently at Utah State University to prepare their science experiments for travel on a space shuttle mission. / By Kevin King

Skyview students and Smithfield residents compete for parking
04/23/01 Summer is here and so are sophomores with cars -- and the Smithfield City Council doesn't like it. / By Katherine Romney

Lori Tillotson, of the student alumni association, climbs at A-Day in the Field House. / Photo by Steve Day

Vandalism, rain put a bit of a damper on A-Day
04/20/01 The rain moved A-Day activities off the Quad and into the Field House. Outside, someone put vegetable shortening and a toilet on the "A" that is the traditional site of the True Aggie kiss. / Photos by Steve Day and Jennifer Brennan

Aggie makes documentary of small Utah town
04/18/01 Black and White. Day and Night. Young and Old. Rocket Scientists and Farmers. What a difference! Or is it? According to Elizabeth Lester, a Utah State University undergraduate studying American History, these two extremes exist right in our own back yard. / By Melissa Woods

Bryce gets in touch with his Celtic roots at the Miltown Malbay music festival.

At the end of your search, you learn Ireland is in you, always, always
04/06/01 Conclusion -- Part Seven a series: Fergus rolls another cigarette, and one for Assu, and wishes for a joint or a flagon of cider. Assu dreams of the day she can take a bus ride to the country. She dreams of the day she will see a cow. Fergus says he'll show her a cow, though he hopes she won't be disappointed. She almost made it once, she tells us, but she had to work. / By Bryce Petersen Jr.
MISSED THE REST OF THE SERIES? Catch up, below

Part One	Going home, to a place he'd never been before
Part Two	Nearly broke in Dublin and calling out the devil
Part Three	Careful, you eejit, and mind the tight skirts, smoke and beer
Part Four	Hurry up, please, it's time
Part Five	Who are you, brother, and do you say 'Derry' or 'LONDON-derry'?
Part Six	To clean up the old man's bed . . .

What, chromium in milk?
04/06/01 You have to watch what you eat every day, you have to exercise at least three times a week and you can't gain too much weight because it might worsen the life-threatening disease you have. Why worry? Maybe, it is because you have type II diabetes. / By Julie Sulunga

Changing names or changing lives of LDS institute women
04/04/01 Aimee Hyde, looked out over the top of the podium. She couldn't ignore the 500 faces staring at her, waiting for her to say something. She didn't want to say anything. The fear of knowing everybody would be listening was almost too much. But it was her job, she had to say something. After taking a deep breath she was ready to begin. / By Kalleen Kidd

Students find good-paying jobs rare in 'No Cash Valley'
04/03/01 Mindy Hammer, a junior at USU, has seen the problem first hand. Hammer said, "Even highly qualified students have a hard time finding a job that pays more than minimum wage, and the only jobs that pay more are working at a factory or telemarketing. Who needs three or four years of college for that?" / By Mike Grubbs

Newgarden Cemetery, Carlow, Ireland, a Quaker cemetery where the author's great-great-great-great-grandfather was buried in 1849. Four years later, the old man's daughter left for Utah, and that's how people end up being born where they're born. / Photo by Kenna Dyches

To clean up the old man's bed, it's good to get your name in the paper
04/02/01 Part Six of a series: I asked Mick. First: Can I clean up that graveyard? No. The plants are too wet. The farmer is protective. The caretaker is old. The situation requires delicacy. He would handle it. I should just help him with a few other projects while we wait. Second: Can I have some food and a place to rest? / By Bryce Petersen Jr.

Sports

Aggie appreciation: USU point guard Thomas Vincent rebounds for a young fan during Aggie Community Night at the Stan Laub indoor training facility on Monday night. Vincent was on hand with athletes from all 15 varsity sports to show appreciation for fans who supported them throughout the year. In addition to basketball, the athletes played golf, T-ball and volleyball with the fans. / Photo by Casey Hobson

STEPPIN' ON THE BAG: USU shortstop Heather Curtis forces the runner out at third base in the second game of USU's double header against BYU on Wednesday. The Aggies lost to the Cougars, 8-0 and 4-1. USU faces Big West opponent Cal Poly this weekend in California. / Photo by Liz Hobson

Four Aggies to run in Boston Marathon
04/13/01 Four Utah State University students are flying all the way to Boston to participate in a Patriots' Day activity. That activity just happens to be the Boston Marathon. / By Reuben Wadsworth

Life after sports: Words that terrify the typical student athlete
04/02/01 It's why old men still cry 40 years after they missed a basket in their last college basketball game. It's why athletes go through numerous surgeries to repair something just to prolong the pain they'll feel when it's all over. It's why football player still play even with the knowledge their life expectancy will be considerably less the average. It's the chase of a dream. / By Brandon Boone

Utah State left fielder Markean Neal misses a pitch during the second game of USU's doubleheader against Long Beach on Saturday afternoon. Long Beach swept USU, winning all three games last weekend in Logan. The Beach outscored the Aggies 18-4, including a 5-0 shutout in Game 2 on Saturday. The losses dropped the Aggies to 5-23 on the season (1-5 in the Big West Conference). / Photo by Casey Hobson

Softball team drops three to Long Beach State
04/02/01 Despite a close hitting contest, the USU softball team fell to Long Beach State, 6-1, Sunday at LaRae and LeGrand Johnson Field in Logan in the final of a three-game series. The Aggies' 0-3 performance against LBSU drops them to 5-23 on the year and 1-5 in the Big West Conference. / By USU athletic media relations

Opinion

How to use the computer: Start with the most basic of basics
04/27/01 I have never been able to stay near a monitor, be it a television or computer monitor. Outside is the place for me. I would rather be surfing the ocean than surfing the virtual world. / By Kris Nielson

Three Pagodas and an Aggie in China: The San Tasi or Three Pagodas stand on the hills of Dali, a small historical city in Yunnan Province, southwest China. For much of the five centuries during which Yunnan governed its own affairs, Dali was the center of operations. The pagodas were originally erected in the mid-ninth century by Xi'an engineers. They are among the oldest standing structures in southwestern China. This photograph was taken at the Yunnan Nationalities Village. The pagodas in the picture are replicas of the San Tasi. USU student Leon D'souza has been wandering the Chinese countryside for several weeks.

Trouble in the land of snows
04/11/01 I learned about the Tibetan crisis largely through newspaper accounts. Most of the agencies that reported on the situation were headquartered in the West. I had read that the Chinese had convinced themselves that in holding on to Tibet, they were in fact acting selflessly for the greater good of the Tibetan people. / By Leon D'souza and Chen Jianwu

Senioritis: Don't let this happen to you, even if you are a L.O.S.E.R.
04/02/01 Senioritis may simply be a classification of several graduation-related diseases that could threaten the grade point average of every graduating senior. The results of this can be severe, possibly a rash of fitth-, sixth- and possibly even seventh-year seniors. / By Scott Garrard

Lifestyles

Credit card debt eating students' lunch
04/11/01 Jamie is supposed to be gloating in her graduation glory. Completing her bachelor's degree in graphics and web-design in August 2000, Jamie had great ambition and hope for the future. But It is holding her back. It is $33,000 in debt. / By Lindsay A. Robbins

Grandpa still rocks
04/04/01 "Yeah, he climbs really hard. He does like 5'12s for warm ups and he sent Slugfest last summer." . . . "No way, dude, he's a grandpa." / By Lizzy Scully

Ice climbing makes other sports seem tame, especially when the rule about falling is ignored
04/02/01 In some dark recess of his brain, Jim probably knows that what he is about to do is not a good idea. He is going to climb a 60-foot frozen waterfall, by himself, with no ropes, in a cul-de-sac three miles down a battered and seldom-traveled road. The day before was only the third time in his life he had been ice-climbing. / By Will Bettmann

Arts

Disco Billie, by Bryan Beach

BFA exhibition lets undergrads put spotlight on best work
04/13/01 Graduating seniors with BFA degrees hold an annual exhibition. In the BFA Exhibition students show two or three selections of their best work from the program. The exhibition covers all of the studio of arts areas of emphasis. They include art education, ceramics, drawing, graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture. / By Kevin King

USU's own baritone opera singer
04/11/01 As one of the winners of the 2001 Student Concerto Competition, Nicholas Pallesen performed in a "Concerto Evening" Monday in Kent Concert Hall. Pallesen was the only featured vocalist and sang an English opera piece from Handel's Samson titled "Honor and Arms." / By Liz Hobson

Bassoon player gets noticed -- because it's hard not to hear him
04/09/01 The deep notes resonate through the still room and echo 100 yards down the hallways and through closed doors of Utah State University's Kent Concert Hall like a whale's song in the ocean. "We could hear you in there," one of the orchestra members coming from the stage chides. "Somebody was right in the middle of their solo." Joseph "Joey" Jones apologizes. It's hard not to hear a bassoon. / By Natalie Larson

Italian pianist, who'll play Rachmaninoff, is living out her family's dream
04/06/01 Practicing eventually began to wear out a much younger Alessandra Volpi. She wrote her mom a note saying, "I want to quit. I don't want to do it anymore. I don't think this is what I'm supposed to be doing." She put it under mom's pillow, trying to be be sneaky. "She got it and read it. She came to talk to me after, and she said, 'I have this vision and I know you are supposed to be doing this. I know you'll be sad if you don't keep on doing this now.' So I kept going." / By Jill Zweifel

30 hours of practice a week, usually starting at 7 a.m., keeps Newton pianist A-sharp
04/06/01 Benjamin Salisbury, youngest of the performers for Monday night's USU Concerto Concert, enjoys his piece of music so much "I almost want to laugh out loud, it makes me so happy." / By Angela Johnson

Pianist graduates from 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' to Beethoven's Emperor Concerto
04/06/01 Marianne Oldham is the second-youngest in a family with seven children. Everybody in her family plays the piano and at least one other instrument. Not all of her siblings have completed their education, but among those that have are an engineer, an investment banker, a lawyer and an orthopedic surgeon. "Music helps you to develop the attributes that make people successful," says Oldham. / By Kalleen Kidd

Carry that weight: Cellist with a lime green case packs a wallop in her playing style
04/05/01 Emily Price, not much taller than her cello, demonstrates "the fun musical stuff" that she does after she memorizes the notes of a piece, such as Saint-Saens' Concerto No. 1 in A minor, which she will perform Monday night at Kent Concert Hall. Her fingers glide down the strings in a continuous motion that makes the sound of the note more drawn out, instead of fast and choppy. It sounds, la-a-a-a-a, instead of a plain laaaaa. "It adds personality to the piece and shows the audience how I feel," she says. / By Jennifer Pinnock

Music, poetry and dance of Calyx explore what it means to be a woman
04/02/01 Alycia Scott, Calyx director and performer, said she had an idea to combine many art forms to create an awareness of the beauty of being a woman. She wrote a proposal in November to the Utah State University Women's Center to support talented women and fund the event. "There are phenomenal women in Cache Valley," said Scott. / By Jennifer Pinnock

Peabody Trio performs with notable emotion
04/02/01 The award-winning ensemble The Peabody Trio performed at the Eccles Conference Center on Friday. The Trio put on a very good performance, playing with the emotion that.Beethoven or Brahms might have played with. / By Steven Day

Expanding Horizons: Dreaming of Africa, by Lindsy Dean, is on display at the USU Bookstore as part of the sixth annual Student Art Show. Hurry, the show ends Friday afternoon. / Photo by Kevin King