To Jeremy Casselberry, public administration sophomore, the stars seemed to shine brighter on the U.S. naval ship’s flight deck as it sailed through the Indian Ocean. 

Last fall, Casselberry ended his five-year term as a U.S. Navy Operation Enduring Freedom aviation ordinance worker and enrolled at Texas State. PAWS Preview gave him a chance to meet Veterans Alliance members and register for email updates from the Texas State group. 

Casselberry, Veterans Alliance at Texas State (VATS) treasurer, helped plan the organization’s Second Annual Fun Run Saturday at Rio Vista Park. The event, which preceded the city’s annual Veterans Day parade, helped raise $435 to build an on-campus memorial for deceased Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom alumni. 

“No Mexicans Allowed” — the sign read on the bathroom door of a former San Marcos burger restaurant. It was one sign that Ophelia Vasquez-Philo, 78, was used to seeing on the bathroom doors of local public establishments as a child.

Vasquez-Philo said segregation still exists. However, opportunities are available to everyone well-prepared, despite race or ethnicity.

I’ve missed the series premiere of two of my favorite television shows, Dexter and Being Human. I missed the television season finales of Haven and The Big C. It feels like forever since I last heard Ted Mosby’s whining on the television series How I Met Your Mother. This has not been a good semester for me, at least in terms of my TV viewing habits. Lest we forget the bonding that occurred between my former roommate and I last year over actor Sam Witwer’s abs, who plays Aidan the vampire on Being Human.

The Argo was the music venue in Denton where John Cale of the 1960s rock band The Velvet Underground played and where in 1996 Joshua Zarbo first met the members of the indie-rock band Spoon.

The CW Austin is searching for the next face of the network.

Prospective CW Star applicants prepared for live, in-person auditions at The Paramount Theater in Austin earlier this week. They now await results on whether they will be named the next CW Star.

The CW Austin Star is an annual contest hosted by KNVA, the company’s Austin television station. Contestants compete for a part-time, one year paid contract to be the “face” of the station.

Alex Sanchez captured the imagination of Texas State’s College of Education with the story of a troubled teen and his probation officer.

Sanchez book Bait was honored over the weekend with Texas State’s 2011 Tomás Rivera Book Award as a result.

The young adult novel explores young Diego’s emotional transformation after he shares his secrets with his probation officer Mr. Vidas during their short sessions.

The giant metal falcon outside of Todd County High School in Mission, South Dakota greeted Reagan Pugh every morning for two years, so long as class was not cancelled because of snow.

Pugh, Texas State alumnus, taught 10th grade English on the Lakota Sioux Rosebud Indian Reservation through Teach For America, a national organization that places recent college graduates in under-resourced public schools.

Carlos Valdez, Staff Photographer

Rental homes and apartment complexes have been evacuated to make room for a multi-family housing project.

Developers plan to replace a rental house and the Balcones, Carlyle and Pat Garrison Apartments with a $28.5 million multi-family housing project called The Vistas at San Marcos.

A small-time Texas marijuana dealer gets in over his head when a $1 million worth of hashish his boss has given him goes missing in the family drama, Dance with the One.

The Texas State premiere of Dance with the One was sponsored by the Texas Independent Film Network, an Austin-based statewide coalition of film societies, universities and independent theaters. The network screens a different Texas independent film each month of the promotional tour.

I don’t drive. I don’t have a license. I choose to bum rides off my relatives and friends in protest of rising gas prices, the environmental effects of CO2 emissions, polar bears and stuff… but honestly, I’m afraid to drive.