"Typical journo's answer..." - Billy Kwan, The Year of Living Dangerously

Just a quick note to George W. Bush: You know, I think it's great that you want to get back into the space exploration thing so badly. In fact, I think we should reward your valor with a first class trip back home to Mars...

Enough of that...no political tirades tonight...

Today was Day 2 of Camp State Press, and I must say that the face of that independent daily has changed tremendously. I had never envisioned that I would cross over to the "dark side," but I'm glad that I did. I feel that the editorial leadership is at a peak, and I anticipate this Spring 2004 semester to be one of the better ones in its history. We were privileged to have Richard Ruelas of The Arizona Republic and Mark Scarp of the East Valley (or is he with Scottsdale?) Tribune. Although I have disagreed with tons of things Mr. Ruelas has said in his column-writing past, I like what he had to say. I think Tim Agne was the most logical choice for the Opinions Editor...and mildly wish he had held the position last semester.

Some of the columnists to keep your eye on this semester:

Christian Palmer: Christian has a semester under his belt as a columnist already, and is one of the few I have seen who actually goes out and researches his topics, which we are all encouraged to do. I had him in Joe Russomanno's Media Law class this summer, and I can tell you that Christian is, indeed, a smart guy. He'll have a lot to say.

Brian Clapp: Brian wrote several guest columns last semester, and probably had the most eclectic array of columns under his belt. They were well-written and balanced. He's a Flinn Scholar for crying out loud...he'll have plenty of intelligent things to say.

Katie McCrory: Katie is a British foreign exchange student on loan from us form her university in Edinburgh, Scotland. She wrote for her paper there, and has a keen perspective on world issues. She has a desire to incormporate some humor into her writing as well, so be sure to check it out.

Lucia Bill: Chia might be young, but she's darned intelligent. I don't like her just because she's part of the Wes Clark campaign here in Arizona, but also because she's on top of things and has a great accent =). I think she's going to have a lot of great things to write about.

These are just a few of the columnists...but please do read everyone's writings. We have an awesome team, and there's going to be a lot of good, controversial, introspective things coming the reader's way.