A Sampling of Clips for 
February 18, 2004

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Mysteries of Sleep: Can We Someday Trick a Drowsy Brain Into Staying Awake?
Associated Press, Feb. 17-An estimated 70 million people in the United States suffer from sleep problems, either because of disorders such as apnea and insomnia or just a lack of time devoted to slumber, the federal government says. Sleep deprivation leads to reduced productivity, poor performance in school or the workplace, and possibly medical problems like high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and reduced resistance to viruses. Scientists are interested in finding out what causes the brain to know it needs sleep in the hopes that someday we will be able to trick a drowsy brain into staying awake. (Quote by Daniel Kripke M.D., a physician at the UCSD School of Medicine.)
* No link available online.

UCSD Students Governor's Proposed Budget
TheSanDiegoChannel.com, Feb. 17-University of California, San Diego students Tuesday spoke out against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget. A coalition of students held a rally on campus to protest cuts in funding. The governor's proposal would increase in-state student fees by 10 percent and out-of-state student fees by 20 percent. Many students said the cuts will prevent low-income students from attending the universities as well as deplete the diversity of the student body.
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/education/2853954/detail.html

World's Coral Reefs are Collapsing
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 15-People who study coral reefs like to say that they are the rain forests of the sea, and Discovery Bay in Jamaica, with its abundance of life in the mid-1970s, was one of those aquatic jungles. In 1975, Nancy Knowlton, who studies marine biodiversity at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, was among the American scientists exploring Discovery Bay's reefs. Today, most coral reefs in the Caribbean, besieged by extreme weather, disease, overfishing, pollution and warmer ocean temperatures, are reduced to piles of rubble strewn across the sea floor.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/sun/news/news_1n15coral.html

Report Finds Little Benefit in Urban Rail
San Diego Union-Tribune, Feb. 17-Toll roads and express bus services would work better to relieve traffic congestion than the San Diego Trolley and other urban rail systems, says a report from a Los Angeles policy group. The trolley system is building an extension from Mission Valley to La Mesa, projected to cost $496 million and open in May 2005. An extension from Old Town to UC San Diego and University City is on the drawing boards and last week was recommended for funding by the U.S. Department of Transportation in fiscal 2005.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/tue/metro/news_1m17rail.html