YAY!

UVic’s McPherson Library aims to forgive $4,000 in library fines in its annual food drive.

From Dec. 1 to 19, students can trade a non-perishable food item for $2 off their outstanding bill. They can also choose to divert the money they spend paying fines to the Mustard Seed food bank.

Last year, 270 library users paid over $3,000 worth of fines in foodstuffs. In 2006, 216 users paid in food totaling almost $3,500.

Food donations are shared between the Mustard Seed and UVSS food banks, both of which have seen a decline in donations with the rising costs of food this year.

NAY!

Victoria council candidate Travis Dodd’s failed campaign included his scribbled name all over the city (and other people’s stuff).

The move was funny — maybe even innovative — the day after the federal election when the Work Less Party member turned plastic campaign signs inside out and spray-painted his name on them, but in the days leading up the the election, Dodd left no surface untagged.

He took a red sharpie to display covers of the Martlet, magazines and band posters around campus. He also scrawled his name on the back of other people’s signs.

Dodd could have taken a protest tip from 18-year-old Joseph Boutilier, who ran a respectable $0 campaign and pulled in almost twice the number of votes as Dodd.

NAY!

Media giant CanWest Global has cut 560 jobs from their broadcast and newspaper outlets, cutting $61 million off their overhead costs.

These reductions are in addition to several hundred jobs that have been eliminated over the last two years.

In Victoria, 18 people, including on-air personnel, are being let go at CHEK-TV.

The newspaper division will be the one to see the majority of the cutbacks, as the company pulls 350 jobs from its 38 newspapers, which includes the Times Colonist and the National Post among others.

YAY!

A University of Western Ontario researcher has developed a vaccine to protect people against HIV.

The vaccine disarmed the virus in animal trials and is now being considered for human testing.

Virologist Chil-Yong Kang used whole dead HIV-1 strands in the vaccine, the same technique used in the polio vaccine.

Western is one of four schools being considered for a full HIV vaccine-manufacturing facility, built with an $88-million grant created in 2007 with money from the federal government and Bill Gates.

In Canada approximately 58,000 people live with HIV, the fatal virus that leads to AIDS. Over 2,500 new infections are reported each year.