TO CLIPS INDEX - Clips for April 5, 6, & 7, 2008

Robb: Senate gets it wrong on economics
The Arizona Republic - April 6, 2008 12:00 AM
From the political notebook:
• The U.S. economy is trying to work through an overinvestment in housing. So, what does the U.S.
Senate decide to do on a bipartisan basis? Enact a variety of new incentives for additional
investments in housing. Our politicians have an almost unerring instinct for the wrong thing when
confronted with an economic problem. If members of Congress don't want people to lose their
homes in the housing downturn, they should enact a subsidy program for existing mortgagors.
Other than that, they should stand aside and let the market corrections run their course.• The most
sensible thinker on tax policy at the Legislature these days may very well be a Democrat, Ken
Cheuvront.

Professors study healing potential of clay
The Arizona Republic - April 7, 2008 12:00 AM
Two Arizona State University professors are trying to dig up new medical cures, studying the use
of clay to combat some of the planet's deadliest bacterial infections. The researchers, geochemist
Lynda Williams and microbiologist Shelley Haydel, already have demonstrated that certain clays
are able to wipe out microbes responsible for MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus),
as well as intestinal bugs such as E. coli and salmonella. But they remain stumped as to how it
works. "We know they kill bacteria, but we don't know why," Williams said. "The 'eureka' moment -
we haven't had that yet."

ASU engineers study Valley's heat island
The Arizona Republic - April 4, 2008 05:57 PM
By helicopter, by automobile, even by Pedi cab, Professor Harindra Fernando's researchers covered
the Valley Friday in an intense investigation of an intensely uncomfortable phenomenon called the
"urban heat island." Fernando and his Arizona State University engineering colleagues are trying
more exactly than ever to define the heat-trapping effect that in the summer months turns much of
the Valley from a place that was once hot but habitable, to something of a hell-on-earth. The point is
to help government and private enterprise slow and even reverse the central-Valley heating trend.

Overruling voters OK - up to a point
The Arizona Republic - April 6, 2008 12:00 AM
I agree with state Rep. Russell Pearce that the entire budget should be open for cost-cutting when
the state faces a deficit ("To balance budget, Legislature hopes to overrule voters," Republic,
Wednesday). Voter-mandated programs, however, should not be cut any deeper than the average
of the entire budget, preventing a round-about dismantling of those programs disliked by the
Legislature.

Colleges wait in admissions game
The Arizona Republic - April 5, 2008 12:00 AM
Students' decisions worry selective schools
Another year of record-breaking competition for slots at elite colleges is over. Now, it's time for the
colleges to sweat. Continuing a long-term trend, the acceptance rate at many of the country's most
selective colleges inched down to ever-more agonizing levels for parents and students. Harvard
(7.1 percent), Yale (8.3 percent) and Stanford (9.5 percent) were among the growing number of
schools where more than nine in 10 applicants are denied. Middlebury (18 percent) and Duke (19
percent) are among the many others reporting record selectivity. But now, the pressure switches
to colleges, which generally give students a month after April 1 admissions notifications to make
up their minds whether to attend. If colleges admit too few students, they can end up with empty
spaces. Too many, and they could get stuck housing extra freshmen in trailers on the quad.

Money for hard-hit students is being readied
The Arizona Republic - April 5, 2008 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is seeking to ease worries that tight
credit markets will make it hard for students to get college loans. Spellings said Friday that her
department had reviewed the law and concluded that she has the authority to quickly free up
money from the U.S. Treasury, if needed, to finance student loans. She said the money would
be provided so that guarantee agencies, non-profits that traditionally back student loans issued
by banks, can offer loans directly in a pinch.

Commentary: Charting Arizona’s economic future
East Valley Tribune - April 6, 2008 - 2:27AM
With the state facing a significant budget deficit, Arizona is at a crossroads. The decisions our
elected officials make to get us out of this fiscal crisis will determine whether Arizona improves
its competitive position in the global economy by encouraging enterprise and a healthy business
environment. The alternative is stifled economic development and perpetuated financial strain.
As a percentage of the overall budget, Arizona’s 2009 deficit is projected to be the largest in the
U.S., according to a new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. To break it down,
Arizona’s current year deficit is $1.2 billion, with 2009 estimated to come in around $1.9 billion.
Unfortunately, growth in state revenues is expected to remain slow through 2010.

Editorial: Governor and state lawmakers share blame for failing to focus on state's budget crisis
East Valley Tribune - April 6, 2008 - 2:48AM
Arizonans should be fuming mad about the lousy leadership from our elected leaders at the state
Capitol when it comes to resolving the looming multi-billion dollar budget crisis. With less than
three months left until the end of this budget year, the Arizona Legislature and Gov. Janet Napolitano
have failed to stop the bleeding and adopt a plan that would match spending with tax revenues. They
didn’t act in October, when budget experts for both branches of the government first sounded the
alarm that taxes were coming in much slower than predicted. They didn’t act in early January, when
lawmakers held special meetings intended to focus their attention like a laser beam on the problem.
And they didn’t act in late February, when a private think tank, the Center for Budget and Policy
Priorities, estimated Arizona faces the largest shortfall in the country when measured as a
percentage of a state’s general budget.

Bordow: ASU sports experiencing more than wins
East Valley Tribune - April 6, 2008 - 1:00AM
Arizona State athletic director Lisa Love is on the phone and talking fast. Every third word out of her
mouth is a superlative. Incredible. Awesome. Marvelous. Exciting. She even throws a gosh into the
conversation. From a woman who usually is so careful with her pronouncements, Love’s enthusiasm
is palpable. And with good reason. These are heady times for the ASU athletic department. The
marquee programs — football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball — are thriving, donations
are on the rise, and the Sun Devils currently rank eighth in the Director’s Cup standings, which
measure the overall success of the athletic programs.

No body, no crime
Arizona Daily Sun - April 5, 2008
Without a body, the Coconino County Attorney's Office says it cannot charge a Northern Arizona
University student with discarding the stillborn baby she said she gave birth to in her dorm last
fall. The 21-year-old woman told authorities that she wrapped the body in a trash bag and put it
in a garbage bin beside the Pine Ridge Village residence hall on Oct. 30. She said the infant,
born at 7 months gestation, was not breathing. Police learned about the case the next evening,
when the woman went to the hospital with severe bleeding. Officers searched campus trash
bins and later, with the assistance of a cadaver dog on loan from the Phoenix Police Department,
the Cinder Lakes Landfill in Doney Park. Nothing turned up.

Conference talks up Native American languages
Arizona Daily Sun - April 5, 2008
Indigenous people who want their language heard in future generations will have their say at an
upcoming conference at Northern Arizona University. The university is hosting the Stabilizing
Indigenous Languages Symposium May 2 and 3 at Flagstaff's High Country Conference Center.
"We gather to share our work, dreams of language and culture and challenge the limits affecting
the survival of Native linguistics around the world," said Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie, a professor
of Navajo at NAU and co-chair of the conference.

UA working to help grow economy in Tucson area
Arizona Daily Star - April 7, 2008
Growing the local economy has been Bruce Wright's focus for 20 years.
Wright serves as the University of Arizona's associate vice president for economic development,
and he is the founder of the Arizona Center for Innovation, the local high-tech business incubator
at the UA's Science and Technology Park. Wright is working on plans to build a new 65-acre
biotech park at East 36th Street and South Kino Parkway, and he is hoping the project will break
ground by late 2009 or early 2010. He spoke about the UA's economic development efforts in an
interview Friday.

Report cites UA med school crisis
Arizona Daily Star - April 7, 2008
'Verge of desperation' blamed on lack of time for faculty to do research
Widespread turmoil causing extremely low morale within the University of Arizona College of
Medicine "could destroy the fabric of the college," says a new report on the situation. The
problems plaguing the medical college have pushed many of the UA's top senior physicians
and scientists to "the verge of desperation," said UA faculty Chair Wanda Howell.

2-century math problem no match for Tucsonans
The Arizona Daily Star - April 7, 2008
A retired Tucson physicist and a UA mathematician have solved a problem in mathematics
that had gone unanswered for more than 200 years. In 1772, Leonhard Euler stated that in
equations with an exponent greater than one, the number of variables would have to equal
the exponent. Of course, the famous Pythagorean theorem, a2+b2 = c2 was proved, but
Euler, one of the greatest mathematicians ever, theorized that this would apply to other
exponents as well.

2 Ariz. students Truman Scholars
The Arizona Daily Star - April 5, 2008
Two 2005 University High graduates, one at ASU and the other studying at Lewis & Clark --
have won Truman Scholarships, the nation's highest undergraduate leadership award.
Devin Mauney and Ben Brysacz are among the 65 Truman Scholars for 2008 who will each
receive up to $30,000 for graduate school. Mauney, a Flinn Scholar and junior studying
economics and political science at Arizona State University, plans on getting a law degree
and a public policy master's degree at Harvard. Mauney found out about the award last week,
when ASU President Michael Crow and the honors dean came into his economics class to
make the announcement.

Robb: Big spenders win in Arizona budget battle
Tucson Citizen - April 7, 2008
This legislative session is shaping up as a rout for fiscal conservatives. State revenues are
basically stagnant. Ordinarily, tight revenues provide the opportunity to trim creeping
governmentalism. For state government, that doesn't seem to be in the cards. The Napolitano
administration has succeeded in running out the clock on significant budget cuts for this fiscal
year, which ends in June. As state Treasurer Dean Martin has documented, there has been no
slowdown in the pace of state spending, and now there isn't enough remaining to cut in any
meaningful way. So, there's not much left to do but cover over the general fund deficit with debt,
fund sweeps and accounting gimmicks and pretend it's balanced.

Editorial: Textbook legislation misses shot at honor roll
Tucson Citizen - April 7, 2008
You don't need a doctorate in economics to realize that the rising cost of books is pushing college
students' budgets to the breaking point. An average Wildcat, Sun Devil or Lumberjack student,
already stretched by tuition increases, pays about $900 a year on books and supplies. That adds
about 20 percent to the cost of in-state tuition. A 2006 Government Accountability Office report
shows that prices for textbooks are rising at twice the rate of inflation. You would think the books
were printed with gasoline. That's why the Arizona Legislature did right to pass bills that will move
toward making textbooks more affordable. Unfortunately, the lawmakers did not go far enough.

Our Opinion: Big undertaking for UA law prof
Tucson Citizen -April 7, 2007
Indigenous people around the world have gained a passionate advocate in S. James Anaya.
Anaya, a professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, was
appointed United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples. It's a mouthful of a title and an awesome
responsibility.

UA-led Mars mission stays on schedule
Tucson Citizen - April 7, 2008
The Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft is operating flawlessly as it zips through space at 46,500
mph toward a May 25 landing. "The vehicle is behaving absolutely perfectly," said Barry Goldstein,
Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's been a real
champ." By Monday, the spacecraft will have covered about 370 million miles since blasting off Aug.
4, with 53 million miles to go. Wednesday the craft will make a small trajectory correction maneuver
to get a better fix on its 100-kilometer by 40-kilometer target landing area on the Martian surface,
Goldstein said.

State gun bill will likely face changes
ASU Web Devil - April 7, 2008
Sponsor to add school-safety endorsement requirement
The Senate bill to allow concealed weapons permit-holders to carry guns on campus will likely be
amended on the floor in an attempt to scrape up enough votes to be approved. The bill's sponsor,
Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, is working with legislators who are on the fence regarding the
legislation and is prepared to propose a floor amendment to gain the necessary votes, said Amy
Bjelland, legal counsel to the Senate majority, on Friday. The amendment Johnson plans to propose
would allow people with permits for concealed carry weapons, or CCW, to carry guns on campus
only if they receive a school safety endorsement by a certified CCW instructor, Bjelland said.

Investing in the nation's future
The Boston Globe - March 31, 2008
IN MUMBAI last November, I addressed a conference of India's leading CEOs. Their interests had a
single focus: What makes the American system of higher education such a powerful force for US
prosperity? It was not an idle question, as India builds economic momentum. From 12,000 miles
away, they understood something easy to lose sight of here at home, that this country's distinctively
open, varied, and competitive system of higher education has served both as an escalator of
individual social mobility and as an engine of our country's economic growth. Can we afford not to
continue to invest in the future of our people and our nation?