Newsroom Stories

More than 120,000 people from the St. Louis area are expected to attend the annual Thurtene Carnival from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. April 21-22 on the North Brookings parking lot. Already the oldest and largest student-run carnival in the nation, this year Thurtene aims to reach further into the St. Louis community while expanding on last year’s pledge to remain environmentally friendly.

Photo by Kevin LowderPrintmaker Koichi Yamamoto, assistant professor of printmaking at Utah State University, conducts a printmaking lecture/demonstration for students and faculty in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Born in Osaka, Japan, Yamamoto is known for creating etchings and large-scale monoprints inspired by natural forms.

The Community Service Office has announced three student winners of the Social Change Grants. Presented annually to students seeking to better their community, the three grants have a total value of $18,000.

More than 120,000 people from the St. Louis area are expected to attend the annual Thurtene Carnival from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on the North Brookings parking lot April 21-22. This year’s theme is “Wish. Dream. Live. Play.”

Joe Angeles/WUSTL Photo Services Wedding gown by Yehua Yang Media photo downloads for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art’s 78th Annual Fashion Design Show, which takes place May 6 at Saint Louis Galleria.

NO BYLINEGerald Early’s “Unpopular Answer to a Popular Question.”As Major League Baseball prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary on April 15 of Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the “color barrier,” there’s been a groundswell of dire warnings about the diminishing ranks of African-Americans on big-league rosters. Some say young urban blacks are isolated from the game by racism, poverty and little access to facilities, but Gerald Early, Ph.D., a noted essayist and black culture expert at Washington University in St. Louis, has a much simpler explanation: “Black Americans don’t play baseball because they don’t want to.” More…

Bottles without original labels pose risk.With spring comes cleaning — the house, the yard, the basement and the car. And with cleaning comes potential hazards. People use them every day, but if common cleaners and pesticides are stored or applied incorrectly, they can have fatal consequences, say experts in environmental safety and emergency medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. More…

Urban American Indian community centers help keep traditions alive.Urban American Indian community centers in the United States can look to their neighbors to the north for an example of how to create a strong national voice, says Dana Klar, J.D., founding and interim director of the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Today, nearly 60 percent of American Indians reside off-reservation, and because of that, the majority of American Indians do not have ready access to the cultural and financial services provided by tribal and federal agencies on the reservations. “We have more recently realized that a national organization can aid the individual centers in advocacy and policy development efforts that affect all urban American Indians,” Klar says. More…

Science on Tap, Washington University’s monthly informal science colloquium, is cited in Wired magazine’s April issue. The program is noted along with seven similar forums across the country that promote science conversation in a pub-like setting. Established in fall 2005, Science on Tap highlights topics developed by Danforth Campus scientists through public discussions at Schlafly Bottleworks at 7260 Southwest Ave. in Maplewood.

For the first time in the United States, the presidents of 12 premier universities from Asia and the Middle East will gather at Washington University in St. Louis May 4-7 to discuss ways their institutions are addressing global energy and environmental concerns. The International Symposium on Energy and Environment is sponsored by Washington University’s McDonnell International Scholars Academy.