Read their platforms in the Senate Race section of this week's paper, and read 'em thoroughly -- you'll be choosing the next Whyville Senator from this group! The Senate Debate will be held in a week or two. Please post your suggested questions for the debate in the BBSes attached to the candidates' platforms, or in this article's BBS.

Don't know what's up with this whole Senate thing? Check out this article to get all the explanations you could want!

The Senate Debate will take place at the Greek Theater in the week of February 21-27, to help make your decision easier -- or maybe harder! Official voting will begin shortly after the debate, with the Senator announced in an early March issue of the Times. (Our three candidates are encouraged to Y-mail Bigfoot to schedule the debate.)

The official election will start after the debate. City Hall tells me there's a slightly new format for the voting, though I'm not sure if that will affect what you see or just help the City Workers (CWs) keep track of the votes more easily. Either way, bonus!

Now, as you may know, Whyville Senators now have notes in their City Records, just like Y-mail Helpers and Safety Patrol members, letting you know they are official Senators. Look for it just under their faces, not in the lower window (where anybody can write anything).

EXTRA! EXTRA! To report a bug, ymail CW Neutral. Title your ymail 'BUG REPORT'. Make sure the problem you are reporting is really there, and you might get a big bug bonus from Neutral.

Bug Detection Bonuses worth 250 clams each were awarded last week to:

pegs45: For finding a bug in the Whyology Survey #3.
TOWaway: For reporting a bug in the Alien Rescue game.
biddygurl: For a lot of good observations about bugs.

The big news from the last several weeks, aside from the move to a new kind of WhyPasses (and away from Lifetime ones -- so if you want one, get it this month before they're no longer sold!), has got to be the resurgent outbreak of the dreaded WhyPox!!! Read up in this weeks' issue to learn how some disreputable lame-o's are trying to get clams and accounts through sweet promises of freedom from the sneezing and the pockmarks. You'll also see sneezers sneezing and read about sufferers suffering!

On a happier note, Why-Pass holders can look forward to on-the-grass seating in the near future! Yes, the latest promised Pass perk is on-the-grass seating at the popular Greek Theater. A new Pass perk is provided by City Workers every few weeks -- the previous one was 50 free face parts, direct from Grandma. Wear 'em, share 'em, donate 'em right back, do whatever you want with them! It's just Grandma's way of saying thank you for showing how much you value your time on Whyville.

City Workers also added value to Whyville through a beta version of the Getty Museum Treasure Hunt, now in Club Why's Beta Testing Room. Club Why members, have you checked it out yet? I hear the artwork you find in the hunt will be stuff you can put in your rooms and homes in Myville! Somebody write a review of the game and send it in to the Times!

Speaking of treasures, let me take a moment to remind you that Lifetime Passes last longer than any other kind of Pass -- let alone any other kind of lifetime membership! Compare Whyville's WhyPass to any of the major sites that also offer special passes. Disney's site for young kids costs $50 a year, last I heard... that sure ain't lifetime! So think about it. You've got two weeks left!

Okay, enough shilling. Back to the news. ;-)

Whyville was down for an hour or two last Wednesday; City Worker mark says too many "unimportant files" clogged up the database, but he's cleared them out. Sounds like a bug exterminator!

The Land Office has officially changed its time for opening any available plots to Wednesday afternoon. The change from Saturdays helps us in many ways, and also accomodates the needs of our Jewish citizens, who observe the Sabbath on Saturday.

Oh yeah, Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you all have a great time today, whether celebrating the love of family, friends, or a special someone. My wife-to-be and I celebrated earlier, so I hope she'll forgive me if we can't have a Valentine's lunch together -- I think I'll be sleeping in late tomorrow, as I'm finishing up this last Times article well past my bedtime... *yawn*!

I hear there's an unofficial Valentine's Day dance at the AF Rec Room, hosted by Bonjour4u. She's asked that partygoers wear pink or red, something to honor the day. Bring a friend, bring a date, just bring the fun....

Oh, right... in less fun news, remember to go to the CDC to check out the progress of the epidemic known as the WhyPox. How does it travel through Whyville's population? Are there more infections today than yesterday?? When will it end? Ask these questions, pose possible answers and test them out using the CDC simulators and help on the CDC Bulletin Board System (BBS)!

The SunSpot Puzzle is in for repairs, starting back on January 28. City Workers aren't sure when it will be back for use by the general population. Could be a while!

In the interest of being more clear and helpful, Akbar made some changes to the templates he posted to the Face Factory, and CWs have made the link to the templates more obvious -- if you're a designer, check them out ASAP! Links are duplicated on the page twice now; one of the links is at the top right corner.

Another addition to Whyville happened over at the Getty, where information about the paintings hosted there were included with each piece of art. You now can see the name of the artist, title of the art, date it was made, and a link to the Getty's website. Great!

Oh! Oh! Yeah! You've probably noticed the new Y-mail to a Friend feature at the bottom of every Times article! That's linked to the new tool at the top left of the Times' front page. Hey, somebody write an article or three explaining how this thing works! Yay! (I'm sleepy!)

City Worker neutral declared that the Trivia Hour he held on January 28 was "the best one by far!"

"First of all, I ran an info session where I updated kids with Whyville news: WhyPass prices, fixes to Alien and Treasure Hunt games, Grandma's WhyPass perk, Ymail to Friend in the Times, and Social and Challenge Hour." Editor's Note: Oh, there's another one! Social and Challenge Hour -- what a perfect, weekly event for people to report on! :-) City Hall tells me there will be four Challenge Hours each week, four games, in four time slots for different time zones.

Then, the trivia started. "It all started with dartanian failing on a huge, 800 clam question," says neutral. That's when he issued the first challenge: beat dartanian's record of 400 clams, or she gets the clams.

The crowd responded, but lured who is normally a very strong trivia player, failed to get the 50 clammer right. Gold837 was more successful, and answered a very difficult 800 clammer correctly.

Then neutral issued the second challenge: if someone could get to 400 clams and get it right, dartanian would also get 400 clams.

"Save dartanian!" became the slogan, and brave haphbaked and zodiac101 tried but failed to accomplish the mission (at 400 and 200 clams correspondingly). Figuring that no one was able to save dartanian today, neutral says he had to "save her myself," and he awarded her 400 clams.

In all, dartanian got those 400 clams, gold837 won a whopping 800 clams, and JasmineK snuck away with 50.

The February 2 Trivia Hour did not go as well as the previous week, says neutral. The audience just didn't seem as engaged. However, "the performance by koko14 was very impressive," he says. "She was able to answer very difficult questions and she was fast."

Koko14 earned a total of 400 clams. Booyaa and Madfin each netted 100 clams, while gold837 and cobd (trivia veterans) took home 50 clams each.

Good night!

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