Looking to erase the memory of last season, the men's basketball team sent the home crowd home with a smile and a 72-66 victory against the Centenary Gents in Saturday night's season opener at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. Coming off a disappointing 2005-06 campaign that saw the Frogs go 6-25, the team set the tone on offense with five players scoring in double figures and on defense by holding the Gents to 37% shooting.

The recent revelation of sexual misconduct and drug abuse on the part of Rev. Ted Haggard is a tragedy - not only for him and his family but also for American Christianity as well.Though many Christians - including myself - disagreed with his political beliefs, that doesn't mean his fall was any less calamitous. His fall is an unfortunate example of lofty spiritual ideals being toppled by the sordid reality of the dark side of life.

It is often said the war in Iraq is comparable to the Vietnam War, but there is one thing that is noticeably different -- where are all the protest songs?Many of today's musical artists are so worried about having a radio-friendly hit that they forgo writing any songs that have actual messages. Thankfully, some artists are willing to take that risk.

Now that the mid-term elections have come and gone, let's take a look back at some of the most politically-charged songs to come out in the past year.

Reformed University Fellowship's former leader is in critical condition after he fell off his bicycle Wednesday evening, said RUF's current leader.Dustin Salter, the previous RUF leader, started the RUF program at TCU eight years ago, said the Rev. Rob Hamby, the current leader for RUF.

Salter was riding his bike, without a helmet, with his two sons, Jacob, 9, and Nathan, 7, when he fell off his bike one block away from his house, Hamby said.

"His sons ran home to tell their mother," Hamby said. "He was immediately life-flighted to Greenville Memorial Hospital."

Cell phones. As much as I hate them with every fiber of my being, they are a necessity in today's world.On-the-go college students are constantly shuffling classes, study dates and time with friends. As...

The final team race of the season is on the horizon for the Horned Frogs.Both the men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Waco this weekend for the NCAA South Central Regional Championships.

"We were improving every week until the Oklahoma State meet," said head coach Eric Heins.

Since that meet, the runners have had good individual races but haven't been able to pull together as a whole team on race day, Heins said.

"We haven't had everybody have a good race on the same day since Oklahoma," Heins said. "We want to finish on a good note."

Eight Starpoint School students shot paint from bottles, carved clay with toothpicks and created wood sculptures to show parents, teachers and classmates at their art exhibit Thursday.Art education coordinator Amanda Allison, said three TCU art students from her art curriculum class developed the Starpoint art curriculum, called "Process of the Artist," which she said gave her students the real-world experience of teaching art.

The up-and-down fall season for the men's golf team came to a close Tuesday as it shot 10-ver and finished 16th at the CordeValle Classic in San Martin, Calif. Playing at an unfamiliar course and going up against a talented pool of nationally ranked competition such as UCLA, Coastal Carolina and tournament champion Stanford proved to be too much for the top-25 ranked Horned Frogs.

Though the team finished with a season-worst 16th place, the Frogs were fewer than 10 shots away from their third top-10 finish of the five-event fall season.

The chimes of a piano can echo through the ears of classical music audiences worldwide this weekend, thanks to a new program allowing TCU's music department to broadcast concert events online. TCU alumni Adam Golka, and Jose Feghali, artist in residence and professor of piano, will perform a Beethoven sonata Sunday, which will be broadcast live online using Internet2, a new high-speed Internet program.

Working along with network engineers, TCU network engineer Tony Fleming said Feghali has used the Internet2 program to aid with some of the online musical computing.

Each semester, Greeks pay their chapters hundreds of dollars in dues, used for everything from philanthropies to recruitment, Greek officers say.Will Sager, Interfraternity Council president, said chapter dues range from $450 to $800 a semester and many chapters have summer dues.

Amanda Ziehme, Alpha Chi Omega treasurer, said active members of the sorority paid $440 in dues this semester and new members paid $741.

Responsible consumerism, the act of buying items with the producer in mind, is on the rise among people between the ages of 13 and 25, according to a 2006 poll conducted by Cone Inc., a public relations and research company, and the AMP Agency, a youth-focused marketing agency.In today's world of liquidation sales, buy-in-bulk, reduced prices and buy-one-get-one-free deals, sometimes it's worth it to spend a bit more.

Recyclable items are a start.