Recyclemania starts again at Portland State
Recyclemania 2007, a national recycling competition among universities and colleges across the country, has begun again at Portland State. The competition includes a variety of contests, including which school can recycle the most, produce the least amount of waste, and achieve the highest recycling waste.
To help Portland State win, students can put recyclables into the proper receptacles that are placed in buildings all over campus. The school recycles paper, newspaper, empty plastic bottles, metal cans, glass bottles and cardboard.
Last year, Portland State achieved a 27 percent recycling rate to place 19th in the Overall Recycling Category. Portland State also placed in the Waste Minimization Category and was fourth in the nation for least amount of waste generated per person on campus. The school averaged 28 pounds of waste per community member on campus over a span of 10 weeks.
The competition began Jan. 28 and will continue for 10 weeks until the first week of April. The Office of Sustainability says that last year was an impressive showing, but wants Portland State to do better this time around.
For more information on the competition, visit www.recyclemaniacs.org.
-Julia Person
PSU students working with OPB
PSU students will be answering phones for Oregon Public Broadcasting on Sunday, March 11 from 7 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.
OPB–the station that brings nature, news and people with British accents to the Oregon community–is a nonprofit, locally owned public broadcast network. Also known for incessant fundraising, volunteers are being requested to help with their latest membership drive.
The School of Extended Studies is organizing a team of students to participate. Those interested in answering phones, getting free snacks and possibly being shown briefly on TV can contact Shelly Rude at mrude@pdx.edu or 503-725-8091.
-Eva Fitzsimons
Lawmakers consider bill to legalize some prostitution in Hawaii
The idea may not catch on this session, but a bill to legalize some prostitution in the islands already has the backing of at least 14 lawmakers and many women’s rights advocates.
Supporters say they mainly want to start debate of the sensitive topic and explore ways to offer alternatives to decades of selling sex on Honolulu streets. The proposal has the endorsement of 13 co-sponsors in the state House, one sponsor in the Senate and the influential Hawaii Women’s Coalition, whose members represent more than 200 organizations.
The prostitution decriminalization bill would permit sexual favors traded in private, and it would designate areas where prostitution is allowed.
-The Associated Press
Study shows marijuana could ease HIV-related pain
Smoking marijuana eased HIV-related pain in some patients in a small study that nevertheless represented one of the few rigorous attempts to find out if the drug has medicinal benefits.
The study, conducted at San Francisco General Hospital from 2003 to 2005 and published Monday in the journal Neurology, involved 50 patients suffering from HIV-related foot pain, known as peripheral neuropathy. There are no drugs specifically approved to treat that kind of pain.
Three times daily for nearly a week, the patients smoked marijuana cigarettes machine-rolled at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the only legal source for the drug recognized by the federal government.
Half the patients received marijuana, while the other 25 received placebo cigarettes that lacked the drug’s active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol. Scientists said the study was the first one published that used a comparison group, which is generally considered the gold standard for scientific research.
-The Associated Press
Study examines road to get a college degree for Hispanic students
Hispanics aspiring to college see themselves as facing more roadblocks than their white counterparts, a study led by a University of Oregon professor concluded.
Professor Ellen Hawley McWhirter of the U of O School of Education said many of the problems are not subject to a quick fix.
The study, which appears in the February issue of the quarterly Journal of Career Assessment, involved 436 Mexican-American and white students in the Southwest and Midwest. McWhirter said preliminary findings from research under way in the Northwest have found similar results.
While aspirations for a college degree were equal between Mexican-Americans and whites who participated in the study, 10 percent of Mexican-Americans got a degree against 34 percent of whites, even though more Hispanics than ever are attending college.
-The Associated Press