This weekend many UA students put down their books and picked up 99-cent Coronas to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but few knew what they were celebrating.

Cinco de Mayo does not honor Mexican Independence Day, as many students think; rather, it marks the anniversary of the Mexican victory in 1862 over Napoleon III's French army at Puebla, Mexico.

But some students said they don't pay much attention to the history behind the celebration. [Read article]

Trial resumes today after jurors break for weekend

The jury has yet to come to a decision in the case of a former UA student who lost his eye when he was shot with a beanbag round after a riot broke out on North Fourth Avenue.

Jeff Knepper, 21, and his lawyer have suggested an award of $2.1 million for medical costs, pain and suffering after he was shot on April 2, 2001, moments after the UA men's basketball team lost to Duke in the NCAA championship game. [Read article]

Like many other children growing up, Peter Bowman caught chicken pox. Unlike other children, however, the virus left him with more than a few scars.

At the age of 2, Bowman lost more than half of his total hearing capacity because the virus damaged several of his auditory nerves. The doctors said the damage was irreversible.

Now a physiological sciences senior, Bowman said he has relied on hearing aids, lip-reading and front-and-center seats in class to make it through four years of college. [Read article]

Nestled in the newspaper between advertisements for acne cream and "hot singles" is an ad addressed to pregnant women looking to place their child with an adoptive family.

Couples who cannot conceive due to fertility or medical issues place ads as an alternative, or in addition, to more conventional approaches to adoption in an attempt to reach as many women as possible.

"It's like fishing in a lot of different fishing holes," said Lisa Pain, 44, a Phoenix woman who placed an ad in the Daily Wildcat with her husband John, 44, in an attempt to find a baby, as well as working through an agency and with an attorney. [Read article]

Info commons employee isn't monitoring the Web sites you visit

WILDCAT: What do you really do here?

PILLILLI: Help people here to get to the software and if they have any problems.

WILDCAT: Well, do you ever have to chase some of the more unmentionable people out of here? You know, the weirdos, transients and stuff?

PILLILLI: Not exactly.

WILDCAT: Because I remember at the old place up there, they were swept out on a daily basis like mice from a Turkish prison. What's the craziest thing you've seen students try and do? [Read article]

· Motley Crue was kicked out of Germany in 1984. The band was in trouble for throwing mattresses out of hotel windows and watching them bounce of off cars.

· Elvis was awarded an honorary Narcotics Bureau badge in 1970 by President Nixon. Elvis visited him at the White House and told the president that he had been studying drug culture for 10 years.

· If you were to rub garlic on the heel of your foot, it would be absorbed by the pores and eventually show up in your breath. [Read article]

Today

· 1945 ÷ In the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the pregnant wife of a minister and five children.

Tuesday

· 1994 ÷ Former Arkansas state worker Paula Jones filed suit against President Clinton, alleging he sexually harassed her in 1991.

Wednesday [Read article]