Voter turnout highest in more than a decade

Nearly 4,000 students voted online in the ASUA general election, the most since 1990, producing one of the closest elections in UA history with less than 1 percent of the vote separating the winners from the losers in some offices.

President-elect J.P Benedict maintained his primary election lead over opponent Jered Mansell, winning 50.9 percent of the vote, while his campaign partner Melanie Rainer also came out on top in the executive vice president race, defeating Scott Cheney by only .8 percent. [Read article]

Ten elected senators will test out the ASUA waters this fall, but after a close election, they will first have to learn to work with each other.

Last night, Freshman Class Council member Jacob Reuben brought in the most votes in the senatorial race with 33.3 percent of the total vote. Kara Harris trailed him by only 14 votes.

The other eight senatorial positions went to Blake Buchanan, Morgan Kisler, Sara Birnbaum, Nicholas Bajema, Ben Weiss, Kartikeya Kejriwal, Matthew Harris and Soral Karim. [Read article]

A $50 increase in the cost of parking passes and the loss of 800 parking spaces to construction projects could make parking on campus a stressful ordeal in the fall.

Effective this August, people who want parking permits can expect to pay 20 cents more per day, or roughly $50 more per year, parking and transportation officials said.

Parking and Transportation Services said the increase is necessary to offset the cost of a new parking garage to be built north of East Speedway Boulevard at the North Highland Avenue underpass. [Read article]

As Laura Conklin stepped inside Maloney's on Fourth on a bustling Saturday night, she contemplated not only how long it would take to catch the bartender's attention, but where the nearest exit was in case of an emergency.

For many UA students, this safety concern has come as a result of a string of recent nightclub disasters.

On Tuesday, 10 people were injured in the ensuing panic after one man opened fire on and another man slashed clubgoers in a New York City nightclub. On Feb. 20, a deadly fire ripped through a Rhode Island nightclub, taking 99 lives. A few days before that, a stampede in a Chicago nightclub killed 21. [Read article]

Flutist dialogues on music,the '80s, nudity and feeling good about himself

WILDCAT: What brings you to perform at UA?

WIESSER: Well, the people are nice and the acoustics are great.

WILDCAT: How long have you been playing?

WIESSER: Five years.

WILDCAT: Did you teach yourself how to play the flute?

WIESSER: Yeah. I'm pretty obsessed with it. I practice two to four hours a day. [Read article]

· In Czechoslovakia, there is a church that has a chandelier made out of human bones.

· The chance of contracting an infection during a hospital stay in the USA is 1 in 15.

· The shopping mall in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada has the largest water clock in North America.

· The world's widest road is the Monumental Axis in Brazil, where 160 cars can drive side by side. [Read article]

Memorial service honors former UA administrator

Patricia E. Hutton, former assistant vice president for human resources, died on Feb. 27 after a two-year illness. She was 49.

A memorial service was held yesterday to honor Hutton, who came to the University of Arizona as director of employee services in 1996. She was appointed director of human resources in 1997 and became assistant vice president for human resources in 1999. [Read article]