Over the next few days, President Bush will conduct a five-country tour of Latin America to "underscore the commitment of the United States to the Western Hemisphere," according to the White House.Bravo to Bush for backpacking through Brazil, but it comes about five years too late; anti-U.S. sentiment has already gained a foothold down south.

While the current administration has ignored its Southern neighbors for almost seven years, much of Latin America has moved on to find other, local friends, such as socialist leaders Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

A professor has been appointed to a national conference dedicated to improving the greater Fort Worth area for both residents and their wallets.Larry Kitchens, director of the Center for Instructional Services, was recently appointed to the information and technology committee as part of the National League of Cities Conference.

The committee will address issues related to providing improved cable service to homes in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, electronic voting practices and the use of technology as an educational tool.

Spring Break is a time for wet T-shirt contests, road trips and women and men alike to go wild. It's an opportunity to spend all of your money on postcards you will never remember to send and knickknacks that will break before you get out of the store. Spring Break is also a chance to torture unsuspecting family and friends with countless photographs of you posing with the largest paper clip in Nowheresville, USA.

If questionable budgeting tactics arise again, the adviser to the Student Government Association said he will take steps to curb them.SGA adviser Larry Markley said he advised against the overbudgeting of SGA, the wording of the vote that raised the student fee and locking $76,500 of the budget into the student activities funding board.

Markley said he wished he would have stopped some of these past actions, and said he will step in to block them in the future.

As Spring Break approaches, students across campus are packing swimsuits, ski gear and even hiking boots as they prepare to embark on adventures across Texas, the United States and the world. Traditionally, Spring Break has sent students from kindergarten to graduate school on beach and ski vacations, but this year some students are taking different routes and spending their vacations in more exotic places and reaching out to the community by doing service projects.

After taking the play-in game from the New Mexico Lobos on Tuesday night, the men's basketball team was clinging to a possible NCAA Tournament berth. The Horned Frogs season was ended Tuesday afternoon, following a 77-64 loss to the No. 23 BYU Cougars.Odds were against TCU, but the team had won three of the last four games - including an upset over the then No. 14 Air Force Falcons on Feb. 24 - before being disparaged by the Cougars.

Picture this: Two No. 12 seeds upset the No. 5 teams in the East and South Regionals, a No. 10 seed defeats a No. 7 team in the West Regional and a No. 13 seed knocks off the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional. Brackets are busted, dreams go up in smoke and the hours spent dissecting matchups go to waste thanks to teams from schools the casual fan would have trouble picking out of a lineup. Sound familiar?

The AIDS epidemic in Africa only grows more serious.So serious, in fact, that people all over the world need to re-evaluate the tactics being used to battle the AIDS virus.

Although major progress has been made in increasing AIDS awareness across the globe, increasing actual support to deal with the illness has been less successful. Many organizations and charities have joined forces in the fight against AIDS, and one of the most effective ways people can help them is money.

Using the Internet to fight crime is a good idea and should be used more often. YouTube.com is filled with fun videos that can distract viewers for hours. But now, a handful of police departments are utilizing YouTube by posting surveillance videos for the public to watch so it can aid in identifying criminals.One problem police are facing is making the videos of criminals stand out among the thousands of others on YouTube. The more videos of criminals posted, the more people will notice them.

Most of the time, students find high-quality internships to be few and far between. In this day and age, everyone wants the paid internship at the huge company that people are familiar with.It is time we take a step back in to reality. Internships are meant to help us learn the skills that will help us find and obtain the jobs of our dreams. It is a time to form relationships with companies and people working inside those companies in order to get our foot in the door for a job.

The University Council made a good decision last week in extending the deadline to change a class to the pass/no credit grading option from the fourth week to the eighth Wednesday of the semester.At a...