Maybe it is because I am a Texan, but I have never had a problem with the death penalty. I have never shed a tear when a murderer-rapist was put to death. I have been known to stifle a cheer when I hear that someone who killed a convenience store clerk during a robbery has been shot and killed by police.The idea seems so perfect: If you take someone's life, yours will be taken as punishment. It speaks to that basic need for justice that is hammered into the mind of all children when they are forced to give their friends equal time to play with a toy.

The director of finance for Programming Council resigned last semester after university officials discovered he had mixed student government monies with his personal account, said an assistant dean of campus life.Sebastian Moleski, a senior economics major, said he stepped down from PC after running student government funds through his own account in an effort to create an online payment option for programs and items related to Family Weekend.

These Winter Olympics were full of surprises, but at least one thing wasn't a shocker - how easily the men's Olympic hockey team was, well . iced.And you know what? I'm glad. I'm relieved, even. In a Winter Olympics that saw Michelle Kwan tearfully drift to the wayside - and Bode Miller drift pretty much everywhere - it may be safe to say that the squad Don Waddell built is the biggest disappointment so far.

Dr. Pamela Stuntz was hanging up the last of the balloons in a colleague's office at Whitley Penn and Associates accounting firm for the next day's 40th birthday celebration when the phone rang. "Your...

The first step toward achieving a more peaceful society is for adversaries to begin talking and stop fighting, a religion professor and biblical scholar said Monday.The professor, David Gunn, took part in a panel discussion that covered political, social and religious issues surrounding the peace process. The discussion was part of International Week, which aims to raise awareness and encourage students to think globally.

Gunn said he is concerned with how religion relates to violence and the number of people using the Bible to advocate violent causes.

Peering down from his aerial perch aboard a red Cessna, J. Michael Fay surveyed the African continent in panoramic splendor.To the untrained eye, the digital images he captured from several hundred feet in the air seem to reveal a breathtaking utopia, nature at its most pristine: rolling desert dunes, jagged mountain ranges, spreading plains dotted with antelope and bison and rivers teeming with hippopotamuses.

From Fay's experienced vantage point, however, the human footprint was evident everywhere. And it's growing by leaps and bounds.