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The University of Colorado at Boulder had to scramble this week to respond to the W32.Blaster.Worm and its attack on vulnerable computers running some of the most popular editions of Microsoft Windows software. Detecting the virus-like worm on its campus network Tuesday morning, staff with CU-Boulder's Information Technology Services department worked around the clock to limit the worm's impact on approximately 30,000 students, faculty and staff.

In celebration of the close encounter with Mars at the end of August, Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado at Boulder will host a Mars Marathon beginning Aug. 26. The planetarium will have "Mars Marathon" events Aug. 26, 28, 29 and 30. The marathon will kick off Tuesday, Aug. 26, at 8 p.m. with "Martian Skies," a live presentation about what the skies look like above Colorado and from the surface of Mars. The audience also will get tips for viewing Mars this month. Admission for the show is $5 for adults, $4 for students and $3 for children and seniors.

U.S. Rep. Mark Udall will hold a news briefing and public talk on energy and science issues in the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 20. Joining Udall for the discussion in the University Memorial Center, room 247, will be Superintendent Vaughn Baker of Rocky Mountain National Park and CU-Boulder history and environmental studies Professor Patricia Nelson Limerick. Remarks by each participant will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. The event is free and open to the public.

Mars enthusiasts will have a chance to see their favorite planet up close, relatively speaking, when Earth and Mars have a close encounter in late August, according to experts at the University of Colorado at Boulder. On Aug. 27 Mars will be roughly 34.6 million miles from Earth, the closest it has come in nearly 60,000 years. However, the planets come nearly this close to each other about every 15 years, according to Keith Gleason, manager of CU-Boulder's Sommers-Bausch Observatory.

NEWS TIP SHEET Media hype surrounding the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case raises issues of accuracy and fairness in reporting, according Meg Moritz, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Musician and entrepreneur Kevin Woelfel has been appointed director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music in the University of Colorado at Boulder's College of Music. He succeeds interim Director Michael Millar. Woelfel's diverse career in the music industry has included performance, composition and manufacturing. He has held trumpet positions with many orchestras including the Chicago Lyric Opera, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Sacramento Symphony.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and author Vine Deloria Jr. will be among the featured readers during the seventh annual "Words to Stir the Soul: Readings from the American West" events presented by the CU-Boulder Center of the American West. Deloria will participate in the Boulder event on Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Old Main Chapel on the CU-Boulder campus. Hickenlooper will read as part of the Denver event on Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the LoDo Tattered Cover Book Store at 16th and Wyncoop streets.

Harrison Shull, former chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder, died July 28 in Monterey, Calif. He was 79. Shull, a distinguished scholar, educator and administrator, was appointed chancellor of CU-Boulder in 1982 and held the position until stepping down in 1985. Later that year he became provost at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif. He retired in 1995.

Area residents are invited to observe the 40th anniversary of the civil rights march on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech by attending a parade and commemorative events Aug. 28 at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Law enforcement training and the belief among police in the United States that their lives are likely to be in danger at any moment encourages the use of deadly force in any potentially dangerous situation, according to CU-Boulder sociology Professor AnnJanette Rosga. Rosga studies police use of force and the training of police in human rights-respecting practices in emerging democracies around the world, such as Bosnia-Herzegovina where she was a Fulbright Scholar in 2002.