Man checks drug stash at ER\nA Bloomington man was arrested at 9 a.m. Friday after local hospital officials refused to return his bag of marijuana, according to a Bloomington Police Department report.\nJoseph Lee Taylor, 36, was arrested for possession of marijuana and resisting law enforcement when officers reported to Bloomington Hospital in response to a call by hospital security, according to the report.\nTaylor reportedly arrived at the emergency room and tried to check in .75 ounces of pot. The report states Taylor then refused emergency treatment when security guards would not return the bag, and he became combative. \n"When hospital security tried to detain him after causing a disturbance, he tried to hit them with a cane and bite them," said BPD Detective Sgt. David Drake, citing the report. "He then tried to light them with a cigarette lighter."\nSecurity guard David Arthur reported to BPD that the man refused to leave the premises without his illegal drugs.\n"I told him if I gave it back to him, he would be arrested for possession of marijuana," Arthur said in the report. "He said that was fine, but he still wanted his dope."\nBPD confiscated Taylor's marijuana upon his arrest.
Indiana's college campuses in midst of building boom\nIndiana's colleges and universities are in a construction boom period, unveiling a host of new high-tech classroom and research facilities they hope will draw top students and faculty.\nBut some worry that paying for the new buildings will consume more money meant for salaries and day-to-day operations at universities. To potential students, researchers or faculty members, the newly constructed buildings are alluring.\nIn a new classroom building at IUPUI, for example, a 200-seat auditorium features a 3-D projector, theater-quality sound and an adjustable stage for performances and lectures.\nAt Ball State University, a new music building has a concert hall with cloth panels that can be adjusted to provide perfect acoustics. Purdue University's nanotechnology center has a bioclean room that can create a germ-free environment.\nPrivate colleges, which rely on private money for construction, are doing their share of building as well.\nThe University of Notre Dame just opened a new performing arts center and is building a new science hall. Wabash College built a new home for the biology and chemistry departments. The University of Indianapolis, meanwhile, is remodeling an administrative and adult learning building.\nIndiana is following a national trend of constructing new campus buildings. Nationwide, a record $19.5 billion in college campus construction went up in 2003.\nSome university officials say new facilities have already helped them lure more talent to their colleges.\n"It's a competitive world, academically," David Goodrich, president of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a group of CEOs and college presidents, told The Indianapolis Star for a story Monday. "You are not going to attract top talent if you don't have competitive facilities. Right or wrong, that's the way it is."\nThe state Legislature approved $280 million for construction at Indiana's public universities for the 2003-05 budget, an increase of 70 percent from the 1995-97 budget.\nState-financed building projects are paid for primarily by universities selling bonds that will be repaid over a 20-year period. When payments are due, the state pays that bill through universities' annual funding.\nWith the number of construction projects growing, that tab is climbing. This academic year, the amount is $110 million. When all $280 million is spent, that will add $22.5 million a year to the repayment costs.\nStan Jones, Indiana's higher education commissioner, worries that the annual building payments are becoming too high. And he said the extra costs for maintaining new buildings and utilities could be a problem at a time when repair money has been cut back by the Legislature.\nOfficials sought $102 million for upkeep for 2003-2005, but were granted about $6 million.
\nsubh: Purdue calls off free bike program\nWEST LAFAYETTE -- Purdue University police cancelled a bicycle lending program intended to decrease theft after most of the bikes disapeared or were vandalized.\nPurdue police placed 25 bikes painted bright gold at locations around the campus at the beginning of the fall semester. The bikes, which had been recovered by campus police, were free for any student to use.\nThe Gold Bike program, similar to ones used for years at Rutgers and IU, was designed to discourage bike thefts, Deputy Chief Steve Dietrich told The Exponent, Purdue's student paper.\nTwenty bikes can no longer be used because vandals damaged them, and a few others are missing, said Dietrich.\n"It is disappointing, we saw a lot of interest early on, but I guess it was too tempting," he said.\nDietrich said Purdue police might consider the program again if a student organization proposed a way to restart it.
