Top Stories - The Daily Lobo

A wall full of keys hangs in the lost and found room at the University of New Mexico Police Department. The UNMPD office is located at 2500 Campus Blvd. NE and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

News

Lost and found houses unclaimed items

David Lynch | November 19

Students lose things every day from water bottles to Lobo ID cards, hats to keys. But what few Lobos have in the first place is an idea of where to go to find these things. That place is the lost and found office at the UNM Police Department, located at 2500 Campus Blvd. NE. Darlene Trujeque works at the office, which is the primary one on campus, and said she is skeptical about students’ awareness of the lost and found.

Students take their bicycles onto campus on Oct. 13. UNM was recently awarded a Bronze level recognition for being a Bicycle Friendly Campus.

News

UNM declared a Bicycle-Friendly Campus

Jonathan Baca | November 18

UNM is among 100 universities recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Campus. The University’s bronze-level award, which was given out by the League of American Bicyclists, was based on evaluations of what the league calls the “Five E’s”: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and evaluation and planning.

Estevan Pina, a senior mechanical engineering student, reaches into UNM’s Formula SAE motorsports program 2014 car on Nov. 14. The program has been ranked No. 5 in the country and No. 18 in the world, according to a poll issued by the Formula Student Combustion World Rankings.

News

Motorsports club ranked in world

Tomas Lujan | November 18

One fast-moving club on campus is moving up the national and world leader boards. UNM’s Formula SAE motorsports program has been ranked No. 5 in the country and No. 18 in the world, according to a poll issued by the Formula Student Combustion World Rankings. The competition, put on by SAE International, focuses on engineering and design education.

Geetha Yedida works on a fruit sculpture during the International Cook-off event at the SUB. The cooking competition was put on by the Global Education Office with teams comprised of international students from Bangladesh, China, the Czech Republic, India, Iran, and Japan.

News

Students share cultures, cuisines at international cookoff

Sayyed Shah | November 18

UNM’s international education week started Monday with the second international cook-off competition. The event, organized by the Global Education Office in collaboration with the Department of Enrollment Management, featured teams from Japan, China, Iran, Bangladesh, India and the Czech Republic participating in the live “Iron Chef” style competition for the best cuisine.

News

ASUNM voter turnout slumps in recent election

David Lynch | November 17

Voter turnout for last week’s Associated Students of the University of New Mexico Senate elections was a fraction of that seen in previous semesters. The 682 Lobos who voted last Wednesday amounted to a meager 40 percent of those who got to the polls a year ago.

Maria Shehata performs at an Armed Forces Entertainment tour. Shehata, along with Adam Tod Brown, Jeff May and Cat Rhinehart, will perform two shows at “The Unpopular Opinion World Tour of One City In the Southwest United States” at the Guild Theater tonight and Tuesday night.

News

Cracked comedians to crack up Albuquerque

Jonathan Baca | November 17

It would be surprising to find a college student who has never read a Cracked.com article. The website’s comedic lists, like “5 Adorable Behaviors That Mean Your Dog Hates You,” and “6 Unshakable Beliefs You Develop Growing Up a Redneck,” have made Cracked one of the most popular comedy sites on the net. And now some of the site’s contributors are coming to Albuquerque.

News

School of Law fields LGBTQ legal questions

Robert Salas | November 17

For the first time in New Mexico history, volunteers from the law school’s clinical program met with members of the LGBTQ community to provide legal assistance on specific issues. In New Mexico, the LGBTQ community has made strides on their mission towards full equality with the recent legalization of same sex marriage. However, there are still challenges the community has to overcome, said John Flores, program coordinator for EQNM.

Sports

UNM finds shooting, tops Idaho State in opener

Kyle Tomasi | November 15

Shooting was an issue for the New Mexico men’s basketball team in its first two exhibition games. UNM seemed to have come out of its slump in its season opener against the Idaho State Bengals in a 79-55 win on Friday night.

Jodie Herrera works on an oil art piece for her solo art show titled “The Shape I’m In” on Thursday. Herrera combined her show with a raffle of works by local artists to benefit Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. The show will be held Nov. 22 at Tractor Brewery.

News

Charity art raffle to benefit homeless community

Matthew Reisen | November 14

A UNM alumna is organizing a charity art raffle to benefit some of Albuquerque’s neediest citizens. Jodie Herrera, a New Mexico native and 2013 UNM graduate, said the event will combine her solo art show along with a raffle of works done by dozens local artists to benefit Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless. The show, titled “The Shape I’m In,” will be held on Nov. 22 at 6 p.m. at Tractor Brewery off of Fourth Street, she said. Herrera said she wanted to address the issue of homelessness in Albuquerque as the winter season approaches.

News

Grad student one step closer to Mars

Marielle Dent | November 14

Zach Gallegos, a graduate Earth and planetary science student, is intent on being a member of the first astronaut team to establish a permanent colony on Mars. This Dutch non-profit agency has set a goal of sending the first four-person crew to Mars in 2024, and then successive crews every two years after, according to the Mars One website. There is, however, no return mission planned. The astronauts would live out the rest of their lives on the Red Planet.

New Mexico head coach Bob Davie, right, speaks with defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove during the game against Boise State on Saturday. The Lobos must win its remaining three games in order to be bowl eligible.

Sports

Football: Team needs every win for shot at the bowl

Thomas Romero-Salas | November 14

New Mexico’s bowl game chances are slowly slipping away. The Lobos sit at 3-6 (1-4 Mountain West) on the season and must win its remaining three games in order to be bowl eligible for the first time in seven years. The last time UNM made a bowl game was in 2007 when it won the New Mexico Bowl 23-0 over Nevada. First, UNM must win at Utah State this Saturday in Logan, Utah. The Aggies are 7-3 (4-1 Mountain West) on the year despite losing their top three quarterbacks this season. Utah State is an 18-point favorite over UNM.

Nick Gannon, a biochemistry major, cultures cells in the Biomedical Research Facility on Tuesday afternoon. Gannon, among other researchers, is looking into anti-cancer agents produced naturally by the body.

News

Lab studies the body's tactics against cancer

Lauren Topper | November 13

In the face of cancer, the human body is often portrayed as helpless, requiring the aid of countless hours of chemotherapy and, most likely, surgery to defeat it. However, a combination of long-standing evidence and new advances in the field is painting a potentially different story — one suggesting that a lot of what you think you know about cancer is wrong.

News

GPSA funds for graduate research increase

David Lynch | November 13

The Graduate and Professional Student Association at UNM has awarded its funding grants for the fall semester, and the sum is higher than it has ever been. According to GPSA Grants Committee’s Fall Summary, $131,632 in funds was awarded this semester — more than GPSA has ever given out. For comparison, $23,140 was awarded over the summer. This fall 245 students applied for the grants, and as of Tuesday 129 have received funding, whereas only 50 students received grants last fall. Awardees were notified on Nov. 3, according to the GPSA’s website.

UNM mechanical engineering sophomore Jorge Guerrero, mid center, reacts after he learns he has the most votes in the election for Senator of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico at the SUB on Wednesday night. Guerrero will be announced as the new senator at ASUNM’s last meeting of the semester.

News

STRIVE team strides onto ASUNM floor

David Lynch | November 13

Ten senate spots for the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico were up for grabs, and one team had almost all of its candidates elected. Of the nine members of the STRIVE team, eight were elected to serve as ASUNM senators after 682 Lobos voted Wednesday. One STRIVE member who made the cut was Bryce Matanis, a sophomore political science major. “It shows that the team as a whole actually put forth the effort to get elected,” Matanis said. “The fact that we got eight out of nine is incredibly, incredibly awesome.”

Principal dancer Marisol Encinias performs her solo for the event Yjastros: Vivimos! on Friday night at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Yjastros: Vivimos! is the first full theatre performance of Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company since a fire devastated their flamenco studio last December.

Culture

Flamenco group rebounds after fire guts studio

Moriah Carty | November 12

Not even a fire can put out the passion of New Mexico flamenco dancers. The non-profit organization, National Institute of Flamenco, and dance company Yjastros held their biannual show at the National Hispanic Cultural Center last weekend after a fire of unknown cause destroyed the institute last December. Marisol Encinas, a fourth-generation flamenco dancer, said Yjastros performs “Vivimos” every spring and fall, but after the fire, the company was unable to hold their spring performance because they lost most of their costumes and practice space.

UNM Hospital received a D in safety based on the Fall 2014 update to Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score website, which assigns a standard letter grade to hospitals based on their ability to prevent medical errors.

News

UNM Hospital receives a D in safety score rating

Marielle Dent | November 12

UNM Hospital received a D in safety from an industry watchdog group, but a spokesman for the hospital said the numbers are not what they seem. The D rating came from the Fall 2014 update to the Leapfrog Group’s Hospital Safety Score website, which assigns a standard letter grade to hospitals based on their ability to prevent medical errors. But UNMH spokesman John Arnold said the hospital doesn’t accept the assessment.

News

Event showcases local researcher's various projects

Tomas Lujan | November 12

The College of Education is set to host the fourth annual IFCE Research Showcase, an event bringing together a diverse group of UNM researchers to present their work in the spirit of collaboration. More than 45 different research projects will be on display demonstrating the efforts of some of the brightest students and faculty at the UNM COE in an event that is free and open to the public.

News

New Mexico college graduates struggle with loan debt

Sayyed Shah | November 11

New Mexico colleges have the highest number of student loan defaults in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The recently published Cohort Default Rate shows New Mexico’s student loan default rate was the highest in the country at 20.8 percent in the financial year 2011, whereas the national average percentage was 13.7, according to the press release.

UNM biomedical engineering sophomore Lynne Tucker, left, German senior Nate Webb, center, and political science junior Torin Hovander, right, destroy a cardboard replica of the Berlin Wall outside the Humanities Building on Monday afternoon. Sunday, Nov. 9 commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall being brought down.

News

German Club commemorates fall of Berlin Wall

David Lynch | November 11

“Freedom is for everyone.” “No more walls, no more wars.” “Forbidden.” These phrases and others were scrawled in German and English on a replica of the Berlin Wall erected by the UNM German Club on Monday in front of the Humanities building.

News

Professor studies perils of mixing medications

Lauren Topper | November 11

Start with daily allergy medicine. Then throw in something stronger for cold and flu season.Add a helping of painkillers for that splitting headache or your lingering sports injury. Each of these things by itself may be harmless enough, but together they could be a recipe for disaster.