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(08/31/10 3:53am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — The U.S. Grand Prix Racers Union is promising a review of its motorcycle racing safety rules, conceding it will never be able to eliminate the dangers in a high-speed sport where teenage competitors are the norm.One day after a 13-year-old rider was killed in Indianapolis, the union’s chief steward, Stewart Aitken-Cade, said series officials will review all safety measures, including new age limits.A formal investigation, however, is not planned.“I don’t believe there are grounds for anything drastic,” Aitken-Cade said in a phone interview. “That doesn’t mean we’re not going to look at anything that we can do to prevent something like this from happening again. This is the first accident we’ve had like this in nine years, and that’s a tremendous safety record.”Peter Lenz of Vancouver, Wash., died Sunday after he fell off his motorcycle during a warm-up lap and was run over by a 12-year-old rider from Flushing, N.Y. Lenz is the youngest driver or rider to be killed at the 101-year-old Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and series officials said he was the first rider to be killed in their series.Autopsy results released Monday confirmed Lenz died of multiple blunt force trauma.The 12-year-old, Xavier Zayat, was not injured but did not race. Aitken-Cade said the boy and his family left the pits after the crash.When Lenz fell off his bike, still photos showed him sitting on the track with his arms raised. A few moments later, Aitken-Cade and speedway officials both said Lenz stood up and started waving his arms before Zayat hit him.“You want to make yourself as visible as possible, and that’s when you hope the safety lessons kick in,” Aitken-Cade said. “Most racing schools teach that it is safer to stay down if there are bikes flying around, but there are some different schools of thought on that.”Aitken-Cade did not say either rider was at fault, and the owner of a California racing school that Lenz attended did not immediately return a message left seeking comment.The speedway does have video of the accident but will not release it. Speedway spokesman Fred Nation said Lenz was being tended within 10 seconds of being struck, and the full emergency response team was on the scene within minutes.
(07/18/10 3:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Police say eight people were shot and wounded when shootings erupted during the crowded Indiana Black Expo in downtown Indianapolis.Police spokesman Lt. Jeff Duhamell says gunfire was reported around 9:30 p.m. Saturday and sent thousands of people running from the area.Duhamell says none of the victims' injuries appear to be life threatening. He says seven people were taken to local hospitals, including two in serious but stable condition. One person was treated at the scene.Police say the shootings occurred on Maryland Street, near the Circle Centre Mall. Duhamell says no arrests have been made in connection to the shootings.Duhamell says "thousands and thousands" of people were attending the event.
(06/27/10 11:46pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>DANA, Ind. — A group fighting to preserve an Indiana museum dedicated to World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle is looking for ways to transfer the now-closed historical site into private hands.Budget cuts and low attendance prompted the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to announce in December that it intended to close the Ernie Pyle State Historic Site. The exhibits would be removed to the Indiana State Museum in downtown Indianapolis. Artifacts from the Pyle museum include state-of-the-art audio and video stations and authentic World War II uniforms, weapons and gear.The museum commemorates the birthplace and career of Pyle, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who was killed during a Japanese attack on Le-Shima on April 18, 1945.The organization, Friends of Ernie Pyle, has been working ever since to find a way to acquire the property.The state has set an Aug. 1 deadline for the group to come up with a plan. Otherwise, the state will proceed with its plan to move the exhibits and sell the property this fall.Friends spokesman Phil Hess said the group is weighing all options, including making the site a federal museum and eventually returning the museum to the state historic site system when the economy improves.He said one option that he finds unacceptable is allowing the state to take the exhibits and dispose of the real estate.“We can’t allow that,” he told the Tribune-Star in Terre Haute.The group appealed the state’s decision to close the site but lost. The state Department of Natural Resources said the site with Pyle’s boyhood home draws about 1,500 people a year.David Pippen, general counsel to Gov. Mitch Daniels, and state policy director Doug Huntsinger told the group in May that attendance does not justify continued state funding.The Friends group has enough money to run the site for a few years and is discussing ways to operate it, which could possibly involve a group of volunteers or interns, Hess said. The museum would be open from April 1 to mid-October.Evelyn Hobson has been the museum’s curator for 20 years and helped gather many of the artifacts and exhibits. Hobson said she hopes the Friends’ efforts to save the museum succeed.“I can’t believe they (the state) could do what they are doing,” she said. “Ernie Pyle is a hero of all of the veterans of World War II because he cared about them. He dug a foxhole right alongside the boys.”
(05/30/10 10:07pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The IndyCar Series is reviewing the finish of the Indianapolis 500 after Marco Andretti says he slowed because of a caution flag that came out on Lap 199.Team owner Michael Andretti contends his son was third at the time of the caution and that Danica Patrick, another one of his drivers, was sixth.Michael Andretti says he has not filed an official protest.
(05/21/10 5:49pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana’s unemployment rate rose slightly in April, reaching 10 percent for the first time since September.Figures released Friday by the state Department of Workforce Development show the jobless rate went up one-tenth of a percentage point from the 9.9 percent level in March.The agency reports nearly 309,000 people were looking for work during April. That’s down from 321,000 listed an unemployed in April 2009, when the state’s jobless rate was 10.5 percent.Indiana’s non-farm employment grew by about 23,000 jobs in April, with the biggest increases in the leisure and hospitality and the professional and business services sectors.The Indiana unemployment rate is lower than any surrounding states, while the national rate is 9.9 percent.
(05/17/10 9:21pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Members of a community group say they’re frustrated over plans for shutting down the Indiana historic site honoring Ernie Pyle.The state Natural Resources Commission is scheduled Tuesday to consider a recommendation to close the Pyle historic site in the western Indiana town of Dana. The state Department of Natural Resources says the site with Pyle’s boyhood home draws about 1,500 people a year and that is too few to justify its costs.Pyle, a World War II correspondent, attended IU and is the namesake for the building housing the School of Journalism.Friends of Ernie Pyle board member Phil Hess says the closing is a betrayal to those who made donations or gave materials to the museum.DNR spokesman Phil Bloom says the Pyle memorabilia will be displayed at the state museum in Indianapolis and that the Dana property has been offered to local groups.
(04/05/10 1:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jesse James is “a broken man” and is hoping that rehab and some privacy will help him recover and save his marriage to Sandra Bullock, his friend and attorney said.Joe Yanny told The Associated Press that allegations of marital infidelity against James and the ensuing media “feeding frenzy” have ruined the biker businessman’s life.“This whole thing has destroyed Jesse’s entire universe,” Yanny said. “Right now, he’s a broken man.”He said James is still in love with Bullock and hopes the marriage can be saved.James checked into a rehabilitation center after weeks of reports that he cheated on Bullock throughout their marriage. Yanny declined to say what James is being treated for, but said people shouldn’t assume it is for sex addiction. He also wouldn’t rebut specific allegations lodged against the West Coast Choppers owner or say whether there are plans for the couple to get a divorce.“The allegations back and forth about what happened — those are private matters to be resolved between a husband and a wife,” Yanny said. “It’s not appropriate for a public airing.”He said the vast majority of stories about James are untrue.“Jesse is in love with Sandra,” Yanny said. “The single most important thing to Mr. James and the children is that the marriage somehow survive.”James and his camp have said little since a woman told In Touch magazine that she carried on an affair with James while Bullock was shooting the blockbuster hit “The Blind Side.”The film earned Bullock widespread acclaim that culminated with a best actress Oscar. Within days of her win, the cheating allegations broke and Bullock withdrew from the public eye.James released a statement saying he had used “poor judgment” and deserved “everything bad that is coming my way.”Bullock has not spoken publicly about the matter, and her publicist did not respond to e-mailed questions for this story. Public support for the actress has remained high as more women have stepped forward claiming they had affairs with James in recent years.Bullock and James met in 2003 and were married in 2005. It seemed like an odd pairing — the Hollywood actress often called “America’s Sweetheart” marrying the tattooed biker who designed custom motorcycles and starred in reality shows such as “Monster Garage” and “Jesse James is a Dead Man.”Yanny blasted media coverage of the case, saying the privacy of Bullock, James and his children had been repeatedly violated. “It’s nothing but voyeurism at this point,” he said. “Enough is enough.”He said the coverage of the story was overblown and that it lost its newsworthiness long ago. He said he is concerned about the media continuing to pursue James’ children and family while the 40-year-old is undergoing treatment.“There are many more significant things in the world that people ought to be talking about and delving in to,” Yanny said.He acknowledged James has made many mistakes in his life, but that he has also quietly supported numerous charities and his various businesses have created many jobs and opportunities for others.Yanny said he expects James to persevere. “He certainly will come out of this a better man,” he said. “I hope he comes out of it with the things in life that he cherishes.”
(03/31/10 12:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA says it has found major infractions involving all 14 sports at IUPUI.The NCAA said Tuesday that IUPUI allowed erroneous eligibility certification for 97 student-athletes from the 2003-04 through 2006-07 years, demonstrating a lack of institutional control and a failure to monitor by the university.A former academic adviser was cited for unethical conduct for his refusal to cooperate with the NCAA during its investigation.The school, which is Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, will receive three years probation and lose some scholarships. It will also vacate a number of wins in six sports, including 18 victories by the men’s basketball team in 2003-04; 14 wins by the women’s basketball team in 2006-07; and 40 victories by the volleyball team from 2004-06.
(03/25/10 4:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>FISHERS, IND. — Authorities found the body of a missing Purdue University freshman inside his car after it was pulled Wednesday from a suburban Indianapolis retention pond.An autopsy indicated 19-year-old Patrick Trainor of Indianapolis died from drowning, and a toxicology report will not be completed for at least two weeks.Fishers Fire Department spokesman Ron Lipps confirmed the car and body found Wednesday were those of Trainor. He had been missing since early Sunday after leaving a home near Geist Reservoir northeast of Indianapolis.Family members, friends and authorities had been searching the reservoir, retention ponds and other parts of the area since Monday after he failed to return home or arrive at the West Lafayette campus for the resumption of classes after spring break.According to the Indianapolis Star, visitation for Patrick Trainor will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday at Cathedral High School. His funeral will start at 11 a.m. Saturday, with visitation starting at 9 a.m. at the school. The family asked for memorial contributions to be made to the Indianapolis Humane Society.
(03/22/10 12:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Oprah Winfrey and several girls allegedly abused at her academy in South Africa are expected to testify in a trial over a defamation lawsuit brought by the school’s former headmistress, whose performance Winfrey criticized.When news of the scandal broke in 2007, Winfrey said she had “lost confidence” in headmistress Nomvuyo Mzamane and was “cleaning house from top to bottom.” Mzamane, who said she didn’t know about any sexual abuse, had trouble finding another job afterward.The case is headed for a two-week jury trial in federal court in Philadelphia on March 29.At a final pretrial hearing Friday, Winfrey’s lawyer Chip Babcock said minors do not typically testify in open court in South Africa. The girls, now 14 and 15, might seek to testify through videotaped depositions, especially given the sensitive nature of their testimony, Babcock said.“We’re going to see how the kids get acclimated here, and how (their) parents feel about things,” Babcock told U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno.A dorm matron at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls has been charged with abusing six students. Winfrey has called the allegations crushing given her own stated history of childhood sexual abuse.Winfrey plans to defend her remarks about Mzamane on free speech and other grounds, arguing that she merely voiced her opinions. Mzamane’s lawyers, who note Winfrey’s huge media reach, contend listeners would think they were based on facts she gleaned from the school’s internal investigation.“To this day, Ms. Winfrey admits that she has no evidence that Ms. Mzamane knew about any claims of sexual abuse at the academy while she was headmistress there, much less that she tolerated or covered up such abuse,” Mzamane’s lawyers wrote in their trial memorandum.Winfrey was not in court Friday, but as the named defendant must attend the trial. She has rearranged the taping of her Chicago-based daily TV talk show, according to her lawyers, who asked the judge to try to keep the trial from dragging beyond two weeks.Robreno agreed to hold court on Saturdays if necessary. Several witnesses are coming from South Africa on visas linked to the trial schedule.Mzamane, born in Lesotho, formerly worked at the private Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and was living in the city when she filed suit two years ago. She earned $150,000 a year as the head of Winfrey’s academy.
(03/14/10 8:06pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Purdue University police are keeping an even closer eye on campus activities through new surveillance cameras designed to increase safety and deter crime.Cameras are being placed at 54 sites, mostly parking garages, through May. Purdue Police Chief John Cox says he plans to have 133 exterior cameras in place by fall to enable police dispatchers to monitor public spaces."This is not being used so we can be Big Brother," Cox said. "The two things we want is to deter crime and to solve crime."Cox says the camera system helps alert police when they're needed at a scene and can help deter theft and vandalism. Purdue police received reports of 184 cases of vandalism and criminal mischief in 2009, with losses of nearly $86,000. More than 400 theft cases were reported."Our staff only has so many people that can be out on the street," Cox said. "We are hoping that this system will be another tool."Some cameras will have magnification capabilities and can be remotely controlled if dispatchers need to zoom in on an area for more information.Surveillance cameras have been in place at Purdue for years.Ross-Ade Stadium has 12 cameras installed to monitor areas around the facility. Another camera keeps watch over the parking garage at Purdue's Visitor Information Center.Cox said police are often called to the center, where parking tickets are paid, for unruly patrons."It is highly emotional over there, and we can monitor the situation and know if we need to put on the sirens to get there or not," he said.The cameras are being installed in three phases. About $1.4 million has been spent so far.
(02/26/10 6:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ATLANTA — After days of controversy over a white group’s win in a step competition, sponsor Coca-Cola said Thursday the second-place team will share top honors.Coca-Cola said in a statement that a review of the scoring from Feb. 20’s national contest revealed a “scoring discrepancy” that it declined to explain. This is the first year of the Sprite Step Off, but step contests are typically dominated by black sororities and fraternities.Step is a historically black art form of rhythmic stepping and clapping. A YouTube video of the winning performance by a group of Zeta Tau Alphas from the University of Arkansas generated hundreds of comments, some of them inflammatory.Coca-Cola said Thursday the Alpha Kappa Alpha team from IU, whose members are black, would share first place and would also receive the same $100,000 in scholarships that the Zeta Tau Alphas won.“Because the scoring discrepancy cannot be resolved and due to the extremely narrow margin between the first and second place winning sororities,” the company decided to declare co-winners, the company statement says.The national offices of both sororities said they were proud of their members and declined to comment on the Internet controversy.The Sprite Step Off was created to award scholarships, Coca-Cola said. The tournament began in September with a series of regional qualifying rounds around the country. Six sororities competed in the national final in Atlanta on Saturday. Six fraternities also competed among themselves.
(02/23/10 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Residents of three Indiana communities are mourning the deaths of three Marines killed in Afghanistan. Their bodies arrived back in the United States during the weekend.The deaths represent the state’s most concentrated losses in that war since four Indiana National Guard soldiers died in a 2005 explosion.The military didn’t immediately release details on the deaths of 22-year-old Cpl. Gregory Stultz of Brazil and 24-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Birchfield of LaPorte. Their bodies arrived Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.A third Indiana Marine — 27-year-old Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary of Columbus — was killed during combat in Afghanistan on Thursday. His body arrived in Dover on Saturday.McQueary’s mother, Deborah Kleinschmidt, said he survived two other attacks from homemade bombs before the explosion that killed him. Both times he had been in protected vehicles.“This time he was on foot patrol,” she said.McQueary is survived by his wife and 5-month-old son. He married his high school sweetheart, Rae, in 2004. The couple’s son, Hadley, was just 1 month old when McQueary was deployed to Afghanistan in October.He didn’t much like high school, his family said, and graduated early from Columbus East so he could get into the Marines sooner.“He felt they were the best of the best,” said McQueary’s stepfather Dave Kleinschmidt.In northwestern Indiana, a sign reading “We Will Miss You Birch — God Bless” hung outside the Blackhawk Inn in Westville, where Birchfield grew up.Mike Siddall recalled Birchfield’s generous side.“He’s a good ol’ country boy — take the shirt right off his back for you,” said Siddall, who fought back tears. “He will never be forgotten.”Bartender Mindy Michaels said the bar was taking donations for an ongoing donation drive Birchfield had started to aid military support organizations.Stultz, meanwhile, had returned a few months ago to his western Indiana hometown and visited with his Northview High School guidance counselor, Scott McDonald.“He was out at the school and I talked to him for a bit,” McDonald said. “He looked great. He was pretty much the same kid, except for a lot of ‘yes sirs’ and ‘no sirs.’”Stultz reached the state high school wrestling regionals as a senior in 2006.“He got on the straight and narrow because of wrestling,” said Northview wrestling coach Dan Mikesell. “It’s something that kept him focused.”
(02/11/10 10:00pm)
NEW YORK — Former President Bill Clinton had two stents inserted in one of his heart arteries after being hospitalized with chest pains, an adviser said Thursday. Clinton,
63, "is in good spirits and will continue to focus on the work of his
foundation and Haiti's relief and long-term recovery efforts," said
adviser Douglas Band.
(01/28/10 5:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON – Declaring “I don’t quit,’” President Barack Obama fought to recharge his embattled presidency with a State of the Union vow to get jobless millions back to work and stand on the side of Americans angry at Wall Street greed and Washington bickering. Defiant despite stinging setbacks, he said he would fight on for ambitious overhauls of health care, energy and education.“Change has not come fast enough,” Obama acknowledged Wednesday night before a politician-packed House chamber and a TV audience of millions. “As hard as it may be, as uncomfortable and contentious as the debates may be, it’s time to get serious about fixing the problems that are hampering our growth.”Obama looked to change the conversation from how his presidency is stalling — over the messy health care debate, a limping economy and the missteps that led to Christmas Day’s barely averted terrorist disaster — to how he is seizing the reins. He spoke to a nation gloomy over double-digit unemployment and federal deficits soaring to a record $1.4 trillion, and to fellow Democrats dispirited about the fallen standing of a president they hoped would carry them through this fall’s midterm elections.With State of the Union messages traditionally delivered at the end of January, Obama had one of the presidency’s biggest platforms just a week after Republicans scored an upset takeover of a Senate seat in Massachusetts, prompting hand-wringing over his leadership. With the turnover erasing Democrats’ Senate supermajority needed to pass most legislation, it also put a cloud over health care and the rest of Obama’s agenda.Obama implored lawmakers to press forward with his prized health care overhaul, in severe danger in Congress. “Do not walk away from reform,” he said. “Not now. Not when we are so close.”Republicans applauded the president when he entered the chamber and craned to welcomed Michelle Obama. But bipartisanship disappeared early, with Republicans sitting stone-faced through several rounds of emphatic Democratic cheering and as Obama took a sharp jab at GOP congressional strategy. “Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it’s not leadership,” he said.The president devoted about two-thirds of his speech to the economic worries foremost on Americans’ minds as recession persists. “The devastation remains,” he said.Obama emphasized his ideas, some new but mostly old and explained anew, for restoring job growth, taming budget deficits and changing a Washington so polarized that “every day is Election Day.” Such roots of intense voter emotions once drove supporters to Obama but now are turning on him as he governs.Declaring that “I know the anxieties” of Americans’ struggling to pay the bills while big banks get bailouts and bonuses, Obama prodded Congress to enact a second stimulus package “without delay,” urging that it contain help for small businesses and funding for infrastructure projects. Also, fine tuning a plan first announced in October, Obama said he will initiate a $30 billion program to provide money to community banks at low rates, if they boost lending to small businesses.ey would come from balances left in the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund — a program “about as popular as a root canal” that Obama made of point of saying “I hated.”
(12/10/09 7:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>STOCKHOLM — IU professor Elinor Ostrom was one of a record five women awarded Nobel Prizes on Thursday, becoming the first woman to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. A total of 13 awards were given in the Swedish capital.Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf handed out the prestigious $1.4 million awards in chemistry, physics, medicine, literature and economics during a glitzy ceremony at Stockholm concert hall. Hour earlier, President Barack Obama received the peace prize in Oslo.In total, only 40 women have won the prestigious prizes, including Marie Curie who took the 1903 physics prize and the 1911 chemistry prize.Ostrom, 76, made history by being the first woman to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, sharing it with fellow American Oliver Williamson for their work in economic governance. That prize is not one of the original Nobels, but was created in 1968 in Nobel’s memory by the Swedish central bank.The prizes also include a a diploma and a gold medal. They are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896. The Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite died in San Remo, a link that the Italian city marks by sending flowers to decorate the ceremony in Stockholm.
(08/05/09 11:57pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>LAFAYETTE – Police say an intoxicated Lafayette man put his 9-year-old daughter behind the wheel of a minivan while he rode in the passenger seat.The 32-year-old man was arrested Saturday after a 911 caller reported a child was spotted driving a minivan in Lafayette.An officer stopped the vehicle and found the girl buckled in and crying in the driver’s seat.Police said the man acknowledged taking pain medication, and several containers of alcohol were in the vehicle.Court documents stated the man told the officer he put his daughter behind the wheel so she would learn how to drive.
(08/05/09 11:53pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The cleanup of toxic PCBs at a former electrical components factory in Bloomington is in its second month.Tom Alcamo, remedial project manager for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, said about 25,000 tons of soil at the site likely will be removed by late November.The Bloomington Herald-Times reported CBS Corp. and ABB Inc. are paying the estimated $5 million cost of the cleanup. CBS assumed responsibility for the site when it acquired Westinghouse Electric Corp. ABB became sole owner of the site in 1990.The EPA said Westinghouse used PCBs – polychlorinated biphenyls – in manufacturing operations at the Bloomington capacitor factory.Alcamo said the site was cleaned up in the 1990s, but additional PCB contamination was found after the factory was demolished in 2007.
(08/05/09 11:52pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>NEW ALBANY – Authorities were investigating a shooting at a home in southern Indiana on Wednesday morning when the gunman crashed a vehicle through a Pillsbury plant’s security gate nearby and then fatally shot a man, officials said.“When he went through the gate, that’s where the incident occurred,” New Albany Police Capt. Keith Whitlow said.No other people were injured in the shooting at the plant or at the home less than a mile away.Several Pillsbury workers saw the fatal shooting, which was reported at about 7 a.m., because it unfolded during a shift change and the parking lot was filled with people, Whitlow said.“There were all kinds of people coming and going, night shift to day shift making that transition, and there was also a lot of deliveries being made, truck drivers in the area,” he said.Authorities declined to release the identities of the dead man or the gunman.
(08/05/09 11:51pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>ELKHART – A three-year strike at a musical instrument plant in northern Indiana has ended with the union being decertified.About 130 union members were pulled off the picket line Monday in Elkhart at Conn-Selmer’s Vincent Bach plant, which specialized in manufacturing student-level trumpets and trombones. Members will no longer receive $200 weekly assistance checks or insurance paid by the union.The National Labor Relations Board handed down a decision last week officially decertifying United Auto Workers Local 364.About 230 workers at the Elkhart plant went on strike after rejecting a contract in April 2006. Since then, several members have crossed the picket line and gone back to work, but others remained on strike.