Thumbs up to Weinberg junior John Park making it within the top 24 contestants on “American Idol.”

Park has us hooked on the ninth season of the FOX reality TV show. The Purple Haze singer has garnered a lot of Northwestern support through a Facebook fan page-now it’s time to show solidarity for a fellow Wildcat by phoning in votes!Thumbs up to NU Stands with Haiti surpassing its fundraising goal to help earthquake victims.It’s an impressive sum for a campus where students are often accused of being apathetic: $28,500. Though $10,000 came from a matched donation from the Lewis-Sebring Family Foundation, NU students came together to host a series of money-making events in the weeks following Haiti’s devastating quake. With its sights originally set on $8,000-equivalent to a dollar per undergrad-NU Stands with Haiti far exceeded its expectations.Thumbs up to city firefighters practicing ice and water rescues on the NU Retention Pond this week.

Following an incident in January when an Evanston resident and her dog were pulled from the Retention Pond, it’s reassuring to see the firefighters honing their skills. Their bright yellow flotation suits made the firefighters easy to spot, catching the attention of many NU students, faculty and staff and making sure we will remember who to call in case of emergency.Thumbs up to Hot Sauce, the world’s No. 1 streetball player, and the celebrity basketball game at Evanston Township High School to raise awareness of youth violence.

Using hip-hop and streetball superstars, the Deion Branch Foundation and BAAM Youth Foundation engaged local youth last week to stop juvenile crime. Even with the goal of working toward ceasing youth violence, the event was also simply something fun for kids to do on a weekend night, Branch said.Thumbs down to Evanston social services facing potential budget cuts.

With a $9.5 million deficit, the city has been forced to make tough choices trimming the budget to get back in the black. There aren’t good places to pull funding, but cutting social services puts important city offerings in danger: Affordable housing and other human services may fall under the knife. An area already under-funded by the state and made particularly essential in times of economic hardship, social services need to receive minimal budget reductions, if any.Thumbs down to Evanston officials getting bleacher seats at Sunday’s NU men’s basketball game.

So much for a Valentine’s Day of town-gown bonding-after hosting a luncheon with Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz and Evanston aldermen, University President Morton O. Schapiro ditched the city officials for his usual aisle seat in section 104. The City Council members cheered from section 206 (Go Cats!), but it’s odd Schapiro couldn’t score them better seats closer to him. After all, what’s a better way to forge relations than rooting for the home team-together? Thumbs down to damaged NCAA Tournament dreams.

NU’s men’s basketball team controlled its own destiny midway through Big Ten play. The Wildcats survived a brutal schedule without suffering any bad losses, and even upset then-No.6 Purdue. But NU lost at Iowa on Feb. 10, then lost big at home to Penn State on Wednesday. Anything short of winning the Big Ten Tournament won’t cut it anymore if the Cats want to dance.