Around The Region

Terre Haute residents searching for missing ISU student\nTERRE HAUTE -- Family members and close friends continue the 24-hour search for Scott Javins. However, they fear the worst since the disappearance of the 20-year-old nearly a week ago. He was last seen on Friday morning at 2 a.m. in Terre Haute at the corner of 22nd Street and First Avenue.\nAuthorities went door-to-door on Wednesday in search of clues. Javins, a student at Indiana State University, is known to be very conscientious about his whereabouts. When he didn't return home after leaving a friends house on Friday, family members immediately became alarmed. The search effort began but so far to no avail. \nHe was last seen driving a 2002 silver Honda Civic, a car he had bought less than two weeks before his disappearance.\nSouth Bend student qualifies for Spelling Bee finals\nWASHINGTON -- Erik M. Bolt, 14, survived the first round and qualified for today's final round of the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. Bolt, an eighth grader from South Bend, reached the finals for the fourth time on Wednesday outlasting kids from around the country, ages 9-15. \nThe national competition began early Wednesday with a record 250 finalists. Fewer than 200 were expected to proceed to Round 2 in the early afternoon, taking a written, 25-word test designed to cut the number of competitors in half.\nLaPorte's Morgan Whiteaker, 11, was eliminated on "daven," on Wednesday. \nThis year's winner takes home $12,000 and the chance to shake hands with President Bush.\nThe 250 spellers, sponsored by their local newspapers, hail from every state except Vermont and Utah, and from several U.S. territories.\nUniversity of Michigan names first female president\nANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Iowa President Mary Sue Coleman was chosen Wednesday to become the first female president of the University of Michigan.\nColeman, a biochemist, will replace Lee Bollinger, who left to become president of Columbia University.\nThe vote by the Michigan board of regents was unanimous.\n"I am passionate about public university education," said Coleman, 58. "That is why it is such a great thrill for me to be at the best public university in the country."\nThree Big Ten conference schools are now headed by women. In addition to Coleman, Nancy Cantor is chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Sharon Stephens Brehm is chancellor here in Bloomington at IU.