While construction has forced a number of parking lot closures around campus, the TCU Police Chief says the university is not simply taking away spaces without providing suitable alternatives."We're not ever taking spots away without adding more," said Steve McGee, TCU Police Chief.

Since summer 2006, one-third of the lots around campus have been changed, and TCU is planning more changes in the near future, said Don Mills, vice chancellor for student affairs.

A political correspondent and legal affairs consultant from National Public Radio will visit campus today to discuss current Supreme Court cases. Bonnie Melhart, associate provost for academic affairs, said the exact cases NPR analyst Nina Totenberg will address have not yet been determined.

"We do know that she will be talking about upcoming cases that are currently being brought before the Supreme Court," Melhart said.

Totenberg, who has been with NPR since 1975, said she hopes students will gain a lot from her speech.

Imagine yourself driving down a quiet highway. Maybe you're coming back to TCU, maybe you're going to visit family or maybe you're going to a Dairy Queen out in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, nothing beats a country-style hamburger followed by an equally delicious brownie earthquake.So, you are enjoying your serene drive through the wide-open spaces of rural Texas, when all of a sudden, things go terribly wrong.

The legacy of America is the blending of black, white and Native American into a whole greater than its individual parts. The music of America is perhaps its greatest export.

It was built upon the foundation of slaves, poor southern whites, Native American rituals and aristocratic European immigrants. Jazz is America's classical music and it was the first export to give the rest of the world a sense of what America is and what it could potentially represent for the rest of the world.

The Undergraduate Council discussed a proposal Friday that increases the number of members on the University Appeals Committee and shortens the amount of time students have to file appeals but ultimately decided to table the decision until the February meeting.David Whillock, chairman of the University Appeals Committee, and Bonnie Melhart, associate provost for academic affairs, have been working with a faculty task force and the rest of the committee since the fall to revise the current system students use to appeal received grades.

Strong showings in doubles competition, including a victory over an opponent from a major conference, was one of the promising spots from this past weekend's Met Collegiate Indoor Invitational hosted by Rice University.The duo of sophomore Kriegler Brink and freshman Mike Donovan were able to pull off an 8-4 win against a Clemson team.

Although the team would fall the next day in the round of 16 to Southern Mississippi, 9-7, head coach Dave Borelli said the team has a major upside to its individual games, Donovan said.

Woes on the court continue for the Horned Frogs (10-7, 2-3 conference) as they are facing a three-game losing streak in Mountain West Conference play.Saturday night, the Frogs' ball-handling problems left them in a bind as the UNLV Rebels (16-4, 3-2 conference) scored 36 of their 75 points off TCU turnovers. Dribbling mishaps and heavy pressure from the Rebels' defense ended up being a cancer to the Frogs' offense.

The Rebels managed to score 20 first-half points off turnovers, leaving the Frogs at an 11-point deficit before retreating to the tunnel at halftime.

The Flying Frogs had a soaring performance at the Razorback Invitational indoor track meet last weekend in Arkansas.Returning to Fayetteville, Ark., for the second weekend in a row, individual athletes of the Frogs performed at their best.

Training for the meet was minimal due to last week's weather, but even with a sparse practice schedule, the Frogs were able to get light workouts in, head coach Darryl Anderson said.

"During the bad weather, we had the little things to look forward to in practice," Anderson said.

With the new year in full swing, many orders of business fall upon our shoulders. Aside from resolutions we may not keep and weather predictions from a groundhog, the heaviest of those orders are high-fashion handbags.A fashion accessory trend that began with designer labels and recognizable patterns has snowballed into a larger-than-life craze. Handbags that used to designate an extreme awareness of fashion, such as Dooney & Bourke and Coach, are now worn by a large number of women.

One thing worse than getting a bad grade in a class is getting that bad grade when you don't think you deserved it.Addressing that discrepancy between whether a student's perceived academic performance in a class and the actual letter grade he or she received are one in the same has been an issue in a recent discussion topic for the Undergraduate Council.