Engineering students peel out in the back lot behind the Engineering Tower on Nov. 8. Students drove go-karts built for senior design projects from previous years.

EXHIBIT: Professor introduces library exhibition that chronicles immigration in Orange County.

UCLA Hosts Conference Celebrating Students of Color; UCI Committee Arranges Homeless Awareness Event; Scientists Find Stress Reshapes the Human Brain; Study Finds Internet Use Improves Youth Skills

INTERNATIONAL: Graduate student Esha Momeni has been prevented from leaving Iran for over a month.

RESEARCH: Scientists discover benefits of vitamin in trials with mice and look to begin a human trial.

TRANSITION: Current Irvine Mayor Beth Krom speaks to students about safety and cleanliness of Irvine.

Sun E. Boi, fourth-year biology major Russell Curry, performs at the 2008 Anstock Festival. Curry went on to win Best Instrumentation.

AFTERMATH: Though the fires are all completely contained, danger remains from air quality health risks.

The 2008 election may have been one of the most historic elections in America. Racial boundaries were torn down on both a national and local level when President-elect Barack Obama became the first black president and Irvine elected its first Asian-American mayor, Sukhee Kang.

If there is one beneficial outcome to illegal immigration, it's the creation of more jobs for the Border Patrol. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with a renewed interest in border protection, is creating a multibillion-dollar web of border security jobs. The jobs are aimed at individuals with a strong interest in working to catch terrorists, illegal immigrants and smugglers along the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBPA) primarily handle the jobs, which are based on the borders of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

As I entered the Los Angeles Area on the drive down from my hometown of Berkeley, the first thing I noticed was a curious shade of gray spanning a foot above the horizon. I turned to the friend I was traveling with, who happened to be from Los Angeles, and pointed. "What is that?" I asked, having never been to Los Angeles or to Orange County. "Oh, what? Uh, yeah, that's the smog," she replied nonchalantly. "It's whatever."

Education is a right, not a privilege. Herein lies one of the major flaws of the American system and one of the reasons there is such a wide gap between the rich and the poor. Essentially, if all people were given the same opportunities to receive an education, everyone would have an equal chance of succeeding. Equality of opportunity—it is the principle that America was built on, and the principle that can make the American dream possible.

Decency could return to politics once again. No, I don't mean decency in the sense of honesty or fewer bribes from slick lobbyists. Nor do I mean less party jockeying and sober apologies with the wife on one side and the mistress on the other. I mean decency in just one matter of the political process: finance.

In "Natural Theology," Reverend William Paley put forth the most appealing and untrue argument for creationism: All living things, Paley said, are too intricately designed to have come about by blind chance.