Cruel election for lone senate primary loser

With 20 spots available for 21 potential Associated Students of the University of Arizona senators, one was going to have a pretty brutal loss. The honor went to Brian Olnick, who garnered less than 3 percent of the vote.

Nobody to complain with, nobody to mope around with. Just 20 happy people saying, "Sorry it had to be you."

We say "ouch."

2 a.m. bar closings don't create new problems

Bargoers rejoice.

When Gov. Napolitano signed into law the bill extending the time that bars could serve alcohol until 2 a.m., she asked authorities to report back whether the extra hour of drinking increased DUI arrests and complaints. Opposition leaders such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving had suggested that the extra hour could create a host of new problems.

Six months have now passed since bars started serving alcohol until 2 a.m., and two reports suggest that the change has not added to the number of problems. The only change is that the times that arrests and complaints occur has shifted back one hour.

If the trends continue, it appears that the 2 a.m. bar closings were a good decision for lawmakers. If they could just give college students an extra hour to sleep in as well ...

UA Mecca for hot female athletes

This week ESPN concluded its annual contest for hottest female athlete, and the title went to UA swimmer Amanda Beard. The secret of Beard's beauty had already been out with her appearance in Maxim magazine, and the award might not have surprised anyone. Indeed, she won by a 3-to-2 margin.

The UA already had the 2003 champion in supermodel softball player Jennie Finch, who this month finds herself in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition - as does Beard. Finch even beat original champion Anna Kournikova in a head-to-head poll.

The wins would be a laughing matter for any other female (read: Kournikova), but Beard's and Finch's beauty are actually exceeded by their play.

Finch is one of the top softball players ever, and Beard hit a world record in the breaststroke.

Now if UA athletes could just up those academic ratings ...

Unified student hoops section bittersweet

Students have been fighting for a unified student section for years, and last week UA athletics announced that it was finally here. The catch: Students overall actually have worse seats.

In order to get the unified section, the students were lumped together on one side of the arena behind the backboard and fanning out from there. This is different from having good seats behind both backboards, as students had this season.

Indeed, the university is assuring displaced alumni ticket holders that almost all will have equivalent or better seats with the new configuration.

It seems to be a case of "be careful what you wish for." What students really wanted is rows and rows of the pristine seats either behind the benches or right in front on the north side of the court, as schools like Duke, Washington and Stanford have.

Still, buried beneath the announcement was an explanation of how the new lottery for student tickets will work. Students get a weighted probability according to how many years they've had a Zona Zoo pass. In other words, seniority. This would be news on its own, and should assuage some student's complaints.

Still, we're guessing the complaints wouldn't stop unless students somehow got the entire arena.

Opinions are determined by the Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. They are Evan Caravelli, Brett Fera, Caitlin Hall, Ryan Johnson and Jesse Lewis.