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Photo Illustration by Rod Guajardo / PHOTO EDITOR

Auburn Gets a Makeover and Replaces Street Signs

New street signs are popping up all around Auburn.Public Works Department, which is responsible for providing engineering and construction services for the city of Auburn, is in the process of removing the white concrete street markers and replacing them with new, standard street name signs.The sign replacement project will proceed outward from downtown Auburn until all of the old concrete street markers have been replaced, according to the City of Auburn Web site.City crews will begin installing the new reflective signs on streets in the downtown area."The signs are being changed to improve day and night visibility and legibility," said Brandy Ezelle, City of Auburn traffic engineer.The installation of the new street signs is a project of the traffic engineering division of Auburn's Public Works Department.The Traffic Engineering Division investigates complaints regarding traffic problems and monitors traffic volume information in order to improve safety and efficiency.It also maintains Auburn's traffic signals, signs and pavement markings and is responsible for the design and implementation of bike paths.All of the concrete street markers at city intersections will be replaced with more visible standard street signs."The standard sign will be dark blue with a white border and white letters," Ezelle said.There will also be black signs in historic parts of Auburn with the former name of the street on the sign in smaller print.Two hundred new signs will be installed throughout the city and will cost approximately $300 each."Prior to the cement markers, the street names were not even marked," Ezelle said.


The State Press

HIV vaccine study offers new promise

A clinical trial of an HIV vaccine regimen was shown to have some effect in preventing HIV infection.The trial was conducted in Thailand on more than 16,000 participants."The results are encouraging," said Mitchell Warren, executive director for the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition.


The Auburn Plainsman

Youth unemployment rate increases in August

This past August saw yet another drop in the national unemployment rate. However, one group that was hit especially hard was the teenage population.According to the Labor Department almost 1.7 million people ages 16 to 19 are without a job. This computes to almost 21 percent of teenagers.This is more than 6 percent higher than the teen unemployment rate last year."This is a tough time for everyone economically," said Sarah Haley, the press secretary for Jeff Sessions. "The employment rate is the highest it's been in 25 years."

The Auburn Plainsman

New skate park planned for early 2011

Plans for a skate park in the Auburn area were approved by the Auburn City Council Tuesday.The park will be located on a four acre plot of land at 1901 East Glenn Avenue, near the new Samford intersection and the airport, said Greg Darden, authorized representative for Design Plaza LLC and development coordinator for Donald H. Allen LLC, who is overseeing the project.The park will include a skating area of about one acre. The skating area will provide BMX ramps as well as traditional skateboarding equipment, Darden said.

Morgan Thacker / ASSOCIATE PHOTO EDITOR

Blasting Off at Auburn Public Library

Auburn schoolchildren watched E.T., crawled inside a stardome and got creative with space-related crafts during the Auburn Public Library's Space Week.Space week started Oct. 4 and runs through Oct. 10.The week began with a screening of "E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial" Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Ellison Langford / NEWS EDITOR

Auburn City Council Approves Skate Park

The City Council approved the proposed East Alabama Skate Park during its Tuesday night meeting.The park, which will be part of the East Glenn Avenue Comprehensive Development District, is expected to be large enough to accommodate skates, skateboards and BMX bikes, said Design Plaza representative Greg Darden."I'm nearly 50 and I skate twice a week," said Auburn resident Timothy Burt.However, Burt said he has to drive all the way to Columbus, Ga., to skate.The council also approved renaming Bent Creek Road, north of East Glenn Avenue, to Mike Hubbard Boulevard."We probably need a policy and some guidelines in place for any sort of public improvement," said Councilman Gene Dulaney.

The Auburn Plainsman

Study Says Foreclosures Affect Tax Base

Auburn's Center for Governmental Services released a study Sept. 29 which warned local governments to be wary in distributing funds for developments during the recession.The study also examined the effects on local tax bases of high foreclosure rates in housing and developments."With foreclosure there could be a delay or even a non-payment of property taxes," said David Hill, associate director for the Center for Governmental Services.

The Auburn Plainsman

Annual Safety Report Reviews Crime on Campus

The campus Annual Security and Safety Report made available by the Clery Act shows crimes like burglary and motor vehicle theft are becoming less common on campus, but more students are being arrested for liquor law violations.The statistics divided the University into three sections.One is on campus, which refers to all buildings owned by the University located within a specific perimeter.Another is non-campus, which refers to University- owned buildings located outside that perimeter.The third is public property, which are places within the perimeter that do not belong to the University.The report statistics available on the University Web site are from 2006, 2007 and 2008."What we've tried to do is a combination of technology, manpower and education to highlight safety and security on campus," said Melvin Owens, executive director of public safety and security.Owens said he thinks the reason for the decrease in campus crime is partially because of increased security presence on campus, but he also acknowledges an increase of students advocating for their own safety.When compiling the statistics, Owens said the safety department takes note of any anomalies or sudden increases.The department will discuss what could have caused them and how it should deal with them.The University has worked to make campus more secure by extending the use of the campus shuttle system, increasing the amount of surveillance cameras on campus as well as partnering with AlliedBarton to place officers in places like parking lots and residential areas to provide additional eyes and ears for campus safety, Owens said."What we have tried to do is there is increased police presence with emphasis on crime prevention," Owens said.

The Auburn Plainsman

Alabama Child Support Laws Change

The Alabama Supreme Court set a new legal precedent in the state, ruling a parent may still be required to pay child support payments even if his or her parental rights are terminated.In the ruling, the Alabama Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the Alabama Appeals Court case, M.D.C.

The Auburn Plainsman

Survey Measures Suicidal Thoughts in Young Adults

A 2008 report by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health said approximately 8.3 million adults aged 18 or older had serious thoughts of suicide, 2.3 million made a suicide plan and 1.1 million attempted suicide in the past year.Young adults 18 to 25 were more likely than older adults to seriously contemplate committing suicide, according to the report.Of adults who attempted suicide in the past year, 62.3 percent received medical attention and 46 percent stayed overnight or longer in a hospital."The survey is actually very broad," said Joseph Gfroerer, director of the populations survey.

The Auburn Plainsman

Lawmakers Meet to Discuss Distractions Facing Drivers

Nearly 6,000 deaths and 500,000 injuries can be attributed to secondary tasks while driving in 2008, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's database.Policy makers are attempting to lower those numbers. Last Wednesday U.S Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood called to order a summit comprised of transportation officials, academics, safety advocates and law enforcement representatives to assemble in Washington, D.C, and address the dangers of distractions behind the wheel.

Contributed

Auburn ROTC Cadets Rank Among the Best

Two Auburn University Army ROTC Cadets have ranked in the top two percent of all Army ROTC Cadets in the nation.Cadet Amy Lou Farris and Cadet Timothy Presley ranked 51st and 48th out of 4,072 candidates who will graduate and commission. These rankings were based on academic, physical fitness and leadership success in the Army ROTC program.

The Auburn Plainsman

Auburn City Schools Get Festive for Fall

Couples pushed their face-painted babies, and dads crouched to show their sons how to hold a golf club "just right" to the sounds of local bands and giddy high school girls at the Auburn City Schools' Fall Festival at Duck Samford Sports Complex Tuesday night.Whiffs of buttery popcorn and blue cotton candy wafted through the air while families exchanged their orange tickets for the chance to cast a fishing pole for a prize on the other side of a wall or to pet a pair of brown and white goats.Faith Ball, 5, did both.

Ashlea Draa / ASSISTANT PHOTO  EDITOR

Auburn Youth 'Pass, Punt and Read'

The "Pass, Punt and Read" program at the Auburn Public Library is now under way. Registration ended yesterday and students ages 3 to 11 will be reading their way through the fall.There are four reading programs held annually: spring, summer, fall and winter."Parents love this because they want their children to read and anything that's an incentive is a good thing," said Stephanie Taunton, a library assistant for youth services.Eve Engle Kneeland, head of youth services, said the summer reading program is by far their largest each year, with more than 400 students reading more than 2,000 books.However, she said the summer program also includes high school students.

The Auburn Plainsman

Xbox Detects Heart Defects

The Xbox 360 has won the hearts of millions of teenagers the world over.But a computer scientist may have found a way to use the popular gaming system to detect defects in those hearts."While this is an exciting medical development, this effort was not driven by Microsoft," said Katie Abrahamson of Edelman for Microsoft Xbox 360.Simon Scarle, a computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England, has discovered a way to turn the Xbox 360 into a device known as a "heart model."A heart model delivers detailed information on how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells.Doctors can use this information to identify heart defects and abnormal conditions.The heart models currently used in hospitals often cost millions of dollars and are incredibly complicated, said Dr. Fred Kam of the Auburn University Medical Clinic.Scarle, a former software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, found a way to use the Xbox 360 to recreate the more expensive, more complicated, heart models work.Before hired at Rare, Scarle worked as a researcher using computers to model the activity of the heart, a process called cardiac computational modeling.Scarle rewrote a code for the Xbox's graphic processing unit to mimic heart models, using a technique called general programming on the graphic processing unit.The Xbox has a powerful graphics processor, which is why so many people are enamored with this generation of video games, Scarle said.But it is because of its GPU that the Xbox 360 can be used for this process."If you can rewrite your simulation calculations in a form that the GPU can understand then you can use this power to do more general stuff, hence (general programming on the graphic processing unit)," Scarle said.He said the idea for using the Xbox GPU as a heart model came when he was asked to produce a small game demo using Rare's code-base, fusing cardiac computational modeling and game coding into one system."I produced a gameified version of my cardiac research code," Scarle said.

The Auburn Plainsman

More Freshmen With Higher ACTs

ACT scores and student enrollment are at an all-time high for Auburn University this year.Enrollment at the University increased from 24,530 students in fall 2008 to 24,602 in fall 2009.This year's freshman class earned an average ACT score of 26.2, surpassing last year's average of 25.9.Director of University Recruitment Cindy Singley said the freshmen at Auburn had the highest average ACT score in the state."We were looking for a well-rounded class," Singley said.

The Auburn Plainsman

'Fake' Abortion Clinics Take Heat

A feminist group in California claims some pregnancy clinics lure women with advertisements about performing abortions, but promote adoption and motherhood instead.Holly Tomlinson of the Feminist Majority Foundation said women's clinics like the Women's Hope Medical Clinic in Auburn are fake pregnancy clinics.Meaning, they are clinics which pose as comprehensive sexual health pregnancy clinics, which advertise options such as abortion, but when women arrive they try to talk them out of having an abortion.The Feminist Majority Foundation has not investigated Women's Hope, Tomlinson said, so Tomlinson won't say what Women's Hope does or doesn't do."The reason why these clinics would be against abortion is because they're generally affiliated with a religious organization," Tomlinson said.