POLITICS: Presidential candidates develop their campaigns for the highly-anticipated 2012 election. By Anna Iliff

ECONOMY: The premiere presentation of the Winter Student Forum Series discussed the UCI budget. By Jessica Pratt Staff Writer

CULTURE: UCI hosts film screening about Persian artist Bobak Etminani, renowned for his abstract style. By Cyrus Oloumi

SIB: UC Irvine alumnus Ryan Bailey scored a goal for the USA Men’s National Water Polo Team that won the gold medal at the Pan Pacific Championships on Jan. 14 in an 11-10 victory over Australia.

IBARRA: Jan. 12 turned out to be more anticlimactic than UC Irvine soccer fans had hoped

GOODSON: One of the players that Juniper has raved about for the past two seasons is senior defender CoCo Goodson, who was drafted 12th overall in the Women’s Professional Soccer Draft on Friday, Jan. 13, by the Philadelphia Independence.

LOSS: UC Irvine Men’s Basketball see their Big West record drop even at 3-3 after suffering two crushing losses.

SWEPT: After a four-game win streak, UCI sees their success grind to a halt after back-to-back losses to BYU

Good news and bad news. Bad news is I just found out that Gov. Jerry Brown is a secret Republican. The good news is ... well, there isn’t any, actually. I just didn’t want to start out as such a Debbie Downer. Like a true secret Republican, Brown decided it would be in the best interest of the people of California if the educational budget was slashed. How much? Only a measly $4.8 billion. Yes. That’s right. Brown infiltrated his way into the true blue party over 40 years ago, only to cut almost a month’s worth of funding from public schools, and reveal he was a GOP ninja the entire time.

The tents have been disassembled, blankets and lawn chairs folded and crammed into cars. The “We are the 99%” signs have been tucked into the backseat along with, “Take the money out of politics” and “Government of the People.” The Occupy Orange County protest took their last stand last Wednesday, Jan. 11. The protest was arguably victorious, but certainly amicable in nature.

The UC System is broke. California is broke. You know that. I know that. The question now is what the heck can we do about it? Strikes, protests and petitions are the first things that come to mind, and while these are great tools to let everyone know what we support and don’t support, what may be working and what must change, these methods do not really produce solid, tangible results. This is where some active and innovative minds from the University of California, Riverside, come in. Over the course of nine months, students at UCR, some of whom are members of the UCR Highlander Newspaper Editorial Board and ASUCR, have developed a Student Investment Proposal which outlines a revolutionary new way to have UC students pay for school.

ANIMALS: For this heartfelt film, a box of tissues will come in handy when the tears roll down your cheeks.

WAR: Spielberg’s latest is more an appeal to the heart than it is a war movie, but that doesn’t make it out of place.

SEQUEL: The fourth installment into the “Mission: Impossible” series is entertaining, but not much else.