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(03/08/13 2:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>HYDERABAD, INDIA -- Metal doors clicked open, and the creaky train spat crowds onto the cement platform. Akshaya tried to catch her breath as people thudded past her, knocking into her hips and shoulders. She panicked.The teenager had run away from home. Her father was a heavy drinker who beat her, her mother and her siblings. She was tired of it. Carrying a bag filled with clothes and silver anklets to sell, she boarded a train destined for Hyderabad, one of India’s largest cities.Her excitement withered as she stepped onto the cement platform. The crowds pressed closer. She was scared, and she told herself she belonged at home with her family. She resolved to catch the first train going back and scurried to the information desk near the station’s main entrance. She asked a man behind a thick glass window how to go home, and he told her the next train to her village would leave around 3:30 p.m.That was five hours away. She turned away from the window, and a handsome, well-dressed young man approached. He spoke Telugu, her first language. Hindi and English are India’s official languages, but most Indians learn languages native to their home state first, then tack on more if they are able to go to school. The man told her there was no need to wait in the hot, crowded station. He lived nearby, and she could stay with him for a few hours. He promised to bring her back in time for her train. Charmed, she agreed, and they left together in a rickshaw bound for his two-room house. At the time, she was 18 or 19, she isn’t sure.Once indoors, the man locked Akshaya in a back room. He and his friends raped her.Any IU freshman who has experienced both fear and elation arriving for the first time in Bloomington has felt echoes of Akshaya’s account. But the lives of IU freshmen unfold in a familiar pattern of classes, tests and career planning. Akshaya entered her new life with nothing but her clothes and a handful of dreams, which were shattered by the smooth-talking stranger. For the next several months, two or three men raped her each day. Afraid she would run away, they would not let her leave the house. They finally let her outside after those first few months, but only so she could start earning money for them. They told her she would become a prostitute. She said no and begged them to let her go home, so they beat her.When she wasn’t meeting customers, Akshaya was kept locked in the room with no phone. She had to ask for a drink of water or to use the toilet. She tried to run away two or three times, she can’t really remember. Each time, the man or his friends would wait at the bus and train stations nearby. They dragged her back and beat her with belts, leaving lumpy bruises and slicing into her skin. She gave up.To American readers, Akshaya's story is horrific. In India, social workers say it is wretchedly common.***A round scar from one of many beatings is visible on her wrist as she tucks a strand of smooth dark hair behind her ear. Some of the scars on her arms are pale, some dark, some lines, some circles.It has been five years since Akshaya was first enslaved, and now she sits in a chair in a small office above an ice cream shop talking about those early years.The way she is dressed today screams of her former work. Indian women call it “chamki,” the Hindi word for glitter, an equivalent of “bling” and considered gaudy. She wears delicate pink eye shadow over almond-shaped dark eyes framed with slightly arched plucked brows. Her deep red sari is sewn with quarter-sized sequins in the shape of flowers and whorls – more sequins than most middle and upper-class Indian women would wear. As she gestures, her wrists clink with dozens of red and crystal bangles.She leans back in the plastic chair when she finishes a sentence, and the tassels hemming her sari click together. She listens to others speaking, and a smile splits her face, pressing her eyes into crescent moons and showing off small dimples. Like many people throughout India and across the world, Akshaya heard about the vicious sexual assault in New Delhi in December. Jyoti Singh Pandey, a 23-year-old medical student, died in the hospital after she was gang raped and beaten by several men. Their trial is underway. In the days since her attack and especially following her death, protests sprouted throughout India. Women marched in the streets, demanding protection.Akshaya walked in one such march, more to support her friends than to confront women’s treatment in India. When pressed, she admits the Delhi rape case confuses her.There is no trace of malice in her voice, only curiosity, as she asks a question in Hindi. Why did so many people protest that young woman’s rape and beating, she wonders, but when sex workers are murdered, no one says anything?Akshaya isn’t angry, just confused. In India, many women are taught to stay indoors after dark, go out only in big groups and stay in well-trafficked areas. If they don’t follow these rules, some consider it probable that they will be sexually assaulted, possibly murdered. She simply doesn’t understand why one murder gained more attention than all the rest.She is far from the first person to notice this disparity. Jaya Singh Thomas is a project manager at a nonprofit organization in Hyderabad that helps former sex workers. “One girl was raped in Delhi, and the entire world stands up,” Jaya Singh says. “Thousands and thousands are cheated and killed every day, and no one says anything.”Some women now have power and choices. As its economy continues to grow, India is increasingly modernizing, especially in its major cities. The lives of many women in this rapidly changing society are shifting, but some, like Akshaya, are left behind.Hina Alam used to work as a journalist in Hyderabad and currently lives in Bloomington after doing postgraduate work at IU. She has a deep understanding of how women are treated both in Hyderabad and in Bloomington, and she is able to draw comparisons. In India, she says, if a woman wears jeans or a tight top, men often view her as available. Even Hina, a respected professional woman, carried safety pins while she lived there. If a man made a grab for her chest or backside, she jabbed him with a pin.Though American women have the freedom to show more skin, stay out later and become friends with more men, Hina points out that sexual violence still courses through American society. In the United States, it is a quieter suffering. In India, she says, the problem is so blatant that people are forced to face it. In a busy part of a city nearly 8,500 miles away, Akshaya is asked what she knows about American women. The question embarrasses her. She admits she’s jealous of the freedom women have in the West.In the U.S., she has heard, women don’t have to be home before dark. They can leave the house alone and feel safe. They can go with friends to see a movie, as the victim in New Delhi did, without fearing what happened to her will happen to them.American women can do whatever they want, she says. She smiles, a little sadly, and looks away.***Akshaya’s bracelets play soft music as she gestures. Her voice rises in volume and pitch, and she leans forward in the plastic chair. She’s talking about why she couldn’t escape. She’s remembering the beatings.The pimps attacked Akshaya frequently, though they never broke bones. They needed her to keep working. Her customers hit her, too, and the pimps didn’t mind. When men paid for her, she belonged to them, no restrictions. She remembers a time a man took her to a wooded area, stripped off her clothes and told her to do things to him she wasn’t comfortable with. Her voice is flat, and she rubs one hand against the opposite arm as she speaks. Akshaya refused to do what he asked, and he whipped her with his belt. He shocked her with a Taser, she says. She returned to the pimps’ house bleeding and aching. The pimps did nothing.They charged Akshaya's customers between 1,500 and 3,000 rupees, equivalent to $30-60, per customer, and she got to keep 100, about $2, of it for transportation to and from the house. She met customers everywhere from five-star hotels to dirty hovels. Some treated her like a girlfriend, buying her little gifts and food. Many others treated her like property they didn’t mind breaking.Two years passed in a long cycle of more customers, more beatings. A police officer was the first person to offer her a chance to escape, though not through legal means. The officer had been her customer two or three times, and he asked her to live with him. He would take care of her, he said, and he promised to pay the pimps each month so they would leave her alone. The pimps agreed to the deal, and Akshaya finally moved out of the locked bedroom.The officer had always been kind to her, but he didn’t stay that way. After another year or so, the officer told Akshaya he didn’t have the cash to support her.The families of Hindu women traditionally pay a dowry as part of a marriage deal, though the practice was outlawed in 1961 and is slowly dying out. When Akshaya mentioned marriage to the officer, he laughed at her. His parents could get him a wife with a hefty dowry, he claimed. Akshaya had nothing to offer.The officer made her return to prostitution. Akshaya began to work in the area around the same railway station where she’d disembarked years before and been overwhelmed by the crowds. Now she solicited them. Her clothes drew eyes, some disapproving, some curious and some interested, and she waited for men to approach her.Women from a nonprofit agency approached her while she looked for customers in that station. They were giving free HIV tests in a van outside. Akshaya didn’t know what HIV was. They explained, and she agreed to a test. Akshaya was healthy. She told them about her profession and how she’d become a sex worker.For the next few months, they tried to persuade her to abandon her work.“How long will you be able to do this?” some asked. Though she was in her early 20s, she would grow old, they argued, and she wouldn’t be able to work anymore. She would have nothing. How would she live?She didn’t have an answer.***The organization that counseled her in those days still works with sex workers in Hyderabad. Its name is Chaithanya Mahila Mandali, or CMM, a string of Telugu words that mean “light from darkness,” “women” and “group.”The words are both a message and a retelling of the founder’s story. Jayamma Bandari, called “amma,” or mother, by many of the women in CMM’s shelter, explains it calmly in many retellings. Years ago, her husband sold her into prostitution. She turned to a nonprofit similar to CMM for support and was hired to generate and coordinate plans to help sex workers. Jayamma established CMM as a clinic and shelter specifically for women and children who have been victims of prostitution. As with Akshaya, CMM employees and volunteers try to identify prostitutes throughout Hyderabad and convince them a better life is possible.It is not an easy task, as the city’s demand for sex workers remains high. Hyderabad is a crossroads. Many highways that connect north and south India intersect here. Natural disasters, like droughts and floods, drive people from the East and West into the city. Corporations have sprouted throughout Hyderabad in the last decade.The people at CMM say Akshaya is doing much better. She’s built a life that hasn’t included sex work for the last six months. Still, her friends have reason to worry. Too many people are ready to see Akshaya as a paper cup you crumple up after you’ve drained it. A used woman.***Early on a recent Tuesday afternoon, Akshaya pushes through throngs of people on the sidewalk toward the glass windows of a roadside restaurant. She is no longer overwhelmed by the crowds, as she was five years ago. Still, as she enters the dining room, she glides left and right to avoid bumping into anyone. She hunches her shoulders and keeps her head down, as if she’s afraid of being in someone’s way.No one stares at her as she heads for a back table. There is no scarlet letter marking Akshaya or her past, and today she is dressed more modestly in a red and yellow scarf and top and dark gray sneakers. Her shiny dark hair is held back by a jeweled clip. She’s wearing one purple bracelet on her left wrist and a watch on her right.She orders water but has to be convinced to eat lunch. She wants to lose weight, but she reluctantly agrees to share a few vegetarian curries and a plate of flat bread called roti. After someone else orders for her, she checks her phone a few times. She’s seeing if she has any messages from Venu, the man who fills her life now.When asked to describe Venu, Akshaya grins and looks up at the ceiling. She says he’s a little chubby and lightly smacks her stomach, laughing as she adds, “Like me.” Venu, a young businessman, met her after a friend gave her his phone number. Assuming he was a customer, Akshaya agreed to meet him at a bus stop. She got into his car, and for half an hour he asked her about her life. Akshaya grew irritated.“I have to go,” she insisted. “I have a customer.”Venu told her to forget about the other customer and gave her 1,000 rupees.Akshaya doesn’t know exactly what drew Venu to her. They met again about one month later, talking on the phone in the interim. After a few months, Venu and Akshaya moved into a rented apartment together. They plan to marry, though they haven’t set the date. They see Telugu movies together, go grocery shopping and sometimes stay home and watch television. He spoils her with gifts, such as a white scooter that gives her the freedom to explore Hyderabad alone. She cooks food with less kick than she would like because he hates spicy food. Their relationship is light-hearted and sweet.Jaya Singh and Jayamma are bothered by one aspect of it, though. Venu is already married and has a child.It is not unheard of in some areas near Hyderabad for men to marry two or three women, Akshaya says, so her family did not think this arrangement was odd. She isn’t bothered by it, either, and Venu assures her it will be legal. Marriages after the first are not recognized by the law, however. Regardless of what Venu tells her, many will consider Akshaya his mistress rather than his wife.Jayamma, Jaya Singh and her friends at the shelter are counseling Akshaya to be cautious and think about all the possible outcomes of her relationship with Venu. CMM offered Akshaya a job helping with office work or identifying sex workers in the city. But Venu wants her to stay home and gives her whatever she needs. CMM offered her a fallback, but she refused to take it.Venu and Akshaya visited CMM together early in their relationship. Jaya Singh asked him if he was planning to stay with Akshaya long-term. Venu said yes.Jaya Singh shrugs. “Well, so did the police officer.”***Akshaya says she will never be a prostitute again.She doesn’t wear makeup while she’s at home, and her dark eyes aren’t quite as prominent. Her smile dominates her features, instead. In a marked contrast to her usual shy walk – head down, shoulders up – she practically skips from the living room to the kitchen.She has reason to be happy. Venu is home early today, sitting in the living room watching television while she cooks.Baby, her three-month-old miniature Pomeranian, is still damp from a bath when Venu arrives, and Akshaya bounces from patio to tiny kitchen to living room, trying to cook and entertain all at once. Baby wriggles around her feet, nibbling her toes, and Akshaya admonishes her half-heartedly.Venu came early today to bring her groceries, but he generally visits her from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m. every day. Venu eats a late lunch with her but goes home to his wife and child for dinner and to sleep. Akshaya sleeps in a double bed alone, with Baby in a basket nearby. The walls of her bedroom are decorated with posters of babies sitting on grass, in costumes or just smiling. Akshaya loves children. She and Venu talk about having one boy and one girl.Akshaya has vague plans for her future. She has thought about opening a small business decorating and sewing parts of saris, but it’s a possibility that has barely blossomed in her mind. She is content in her domestic haven with Venu, and she has little motivation to change it. Venu has offered to supply the capital to open the shop. She plans to design and decorate fabric for a sari for herself. If people admire it, she’ll start making clothes for others.Her dream is tenuous. She has to rely on many assumptions about Venu’s intentions and her own talents to make it feasible. But even unsteady plans are better than years of not looking forward at all.Mary Kenney, a senior in the School of Journalism, is studying abroad in Hyderabad. Workers at CMM introduced her to Akshaya, who gave permission to publish her name and photo. A Hindi translator helped Akshaya and Kenney speak to one another.
(12/07/12 5:12am)
When the phone rang, Dana Jones was at his desk at the mission. The caller was from Indiana parole.
(11/29/12 6:07am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Mice will battle, queens will entertain and a little girl named Clara will be rescued by a valiant Nutcracker this weekend.Hopefully, there won’t be any bats.Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” will premiere 8 p.m. Friday at the Musical Arts Center. This is the 54th year IU has produced the show.During this year’s first dress rehearsal, an uncast bat made an appearance, senior Jacob Taylor said. Taylor plays several roles, including the Cavalier.The cast was practicing the first scene of the show in which the adults dance in a circle and are meant to look sophisticated and majestic. Someone shouted, “Bat.”A black mass fluttered across the stage as the cast stared. It disappeared into the ceiling.The orchestra kept playing, and the dancers continued the steps — but they couldn’t stop laughing. “The Nutcracker,” perhaps Tchaikovsky’s most famous work, is also one he reportedly loathed.In Disney’s “Fantasia,” Deems Taylor, the film’s master of ceremonies, said Tchaikovsky “really detested” the “Nutcracker Suite.” The suite was published before the full ballet. Michael Vernon, artistic director for the production and chair of the ballet department, choreographed “The Nutcracker” this year. He said it might not have been the music Tchaikovsky despised but the original choreography and production.Taylor said “The Nutcracker” features constantly changing music — speeding up tempo and then dropping to a slower pace, building a crescendo and then falling to a whisper — that keeps audiences coming back every year.Vernon said “The Nutcracker” has become a seasonal tradition in the United States, though it is not nearly as popular in Europe.“It’s very unusual to have a ballet about Christmas, or anything about Christmas,” Vernon said. “It’s like an icon.”The story opens in 19th century Vienna as friends and family celebrate on Christmas Eve. Clara is given a nutcracker doll from her magical godfather, Herr Drosselmeyer. Clara’s brother Fritz is jealous of the gift and breaks the Nutcracker. Drosselmeyer fixes the doll, and after the guests leave, Clara falls asleep.When she awakens, giant mice threaten her. Drosselmeyer helps her escape, and she dashes to the living room. She sees the Christmas tree is now enormous, and she watches as mice and tin soldiers battle across the living room floor.It is then that her Nutcracker comes to life to duel with the Mouse King. The Nutcracker ultimately rescues Clara, and Drosselmeyer takes her on a journey that begins in the Land of Snow, finishing the act.In Act II, Drosselmeyer takes Clara to the Land of Sweets, where she meets the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Cavalier. Clara tells the fairy the story of the battle against the Mouse King, and the Sugar Plum Fairy rewards her with a dance and entertainment from her court of angels.This is not the first time performing in “The Nutcracker” for most of the cast.“If you’re a ballerina, you’ve danced ‘The Nutcracker,’” said senior Alison Koroly, who will dance as the Columbine Doll on Saturday and the Sugar Plum Fairy on Sunday.Conductor Andrea Quinn said the show is new for many members of the University Orchestra.“Actually, it’s quite a tricky piece, and so we have required some individual preparation on the musicians’ part above and beyond rehearsals,” Quinn said.Vernon said part of the show’s draw for families is the presence of child dancers. He said children love to watch their peers onstage.Clara is played by Lola Kennedy, 11, and Grace Mullins, 12.Both girls have previously played different roles in “The Nutcracker.” Mullins’ mother said her daughter dreamed of being Clara when she played the role of an angel in the past.“Each year she was able to add a little more personality to the role that she was playing,” Mullins’ mother said. “This year, it is about becoming Clara. It has been a process of learning more about her and what she is experiencing and making that come to life on stage.”Both Taylor and Koroly said of the child dancers, “To be honest, they know more about what they are doing than we do.”“And they are better behaved backstage, as well,” Koroly said.The desire to build a fantasy to draw in the audience was strong for both student and child dancers. Taylor said for his role as the Cavalier, a romantic “quintessential prince,” he must reinvent himself. He said he imagines himself as very regal in the ballet. He’s a “goofy guy,” in his words, so the transformation must be complete for him to convince the audience.“For them to be illusioned, I need to make an illusion for myself,” Taylor said.Kennedy pointed to other illusions meant to entrance the audience. She said the ringlets crowning some of the dancers look soft, but they are hard as rocks after being doused with hairspray. The same goes for the translucent, flowing costumes, which she said are heavy and scratchy.“But I love all of that about the show,” Kennedy said. “The ballet and the smoke and mirrors, and then all the many people involved in bringing it all together, backstage and onstage, and I get to ride in a boat through the snow and practice ballet, which I love.”
(11/21/12 5:10pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A warrant was served Tuesday for the arrest of convicted killer Robert E. Lee.Lee reportedly violated his parole when he got into a car with a person asking for directions. Officers considered this hitchhiking.Charles Bowen, north region director for the Indiana Department of Correction, said Lee could potentially serve up to half of the remainder of his sentence for the violation.Lee served 25 years of a 60-year sentence for the 1986 murder of Ellen Marks, a 31-year-old IU graduate student at the time. Lee was released in September and has moved at least three different times, but was initially transferred to an undisclosed location in Bloomington.Lee was also convicted of attempted rape in 1973 in New York. He has stipulations on his parole that classify him as a sex offender.“If you’re a paroled sex offender, you cannot hitchhike or get rides from strangers,” Bowen said. “We don’t allow that.”While Bowen did not have Lee’s file in front of him, he said if Lee had 34 years left of his sentence, he could serve up to 17 for the violation.St. Joseph County Jail officials confirmed Tuesday night that Lee was booked Tuesday and is currently on parole hold.Bowen said Lee waived his probable cause hearing, and he will be returned to a department of correction facility in Indiana. Bowen did not know where Lee would be placed.Lee has to be presented before the Indiana parole board within 60 days of the warrant being served, which gives the board until Jan. 20, 2013, to consider his case.
(09/28/12 4:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Fourteen candidates sat in a half moon facing just more than 30 students and locals at the Hutton Honors College.The candidates were Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans. They were running for the first time or the third.Freshman Madeline Zook of Mooresville, Ind., said she plans to vote in Monroe County. She said she didn’t yet know many local candidates and attended the session to try to change that.Senior Margaret Christian, too, plans to vote locally. She has lived in Bloomington since 2008, and she said she wanted to learn before she voted.The candidates introduced themselves in the college’s Great Room. Among them was Cheryl Munson, who will run for Monroe County Council following the death of candidate Sophia Travis.The attendees divided into four groups randomly assigned to local candidates. Some stayed in the Great Room, and others moved, a little lost, with the help of PACE volunteers to other classrooms.Each group was assigned a member of PACE’s Student Organizing Committee to start conversations between the candidates and observers.Sophomore Catherine Krege began her group’s discussion by asking both the candidates and students if they wanted to start. No one did.“OK, I’ll start,” she said with a laugh.Her group included candidates Alphonso Manns, Geoff McKim, Nelson Shaffer and Lee Jones, along with five other students including Kae Grossman, another member of the organizing committee.Jones, Democratic candidate for the county council at-large seat, began by talking about the role of the county council and the fiscal health of Monroe County.“Ultimately what the county council does is budget money to make sure the roads are working, everything around you is working,” Jones said.Democrat and at-large county council candidate McKim spoke next.He said the county council’s party comes from the “power of the purse,” as it appropriates funds and levies taxes.Shaffer, candidate for District 2 County Commissioner, was the lone Republican candidate in the group of Manns, McKim and Jones.He said before the beginning of the forum that, as a scientist, he isn’t used to the political maneuvering carried out by candidates in an election setting.Manns, Democratic candidate for judge for the Monroe County Circuit Court, spoke quietly and was drowned out by Dave Nakarado, Libertarian candidate for commissioner, who was assigned to a group seated nearby.Nakarado told the students his children were closer to their age than him. He also cautioned them against using media such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” intended for comedy to be their sole source of news.“Don’t rule the Libertarian Party out,” Nakarado said.Nakarado was assigned to a group with candidates John Newlin, Jennifer Mickel and Teresa Harper as well as five forum attendees.Mickel, Republican candidate for county council seat at large, said as someone who was raised and attended college in Bloomington, she tries to relate to students. She said she believes students’ top priority is to have a vote that counts.“I wouldn’t want to vote here,” Mickel said. “I would want to vote in my hometown.”Mickel said, though, that it’s crucial students vote this election season, and she said even if students don’t vote here, they should be involved in local forums.Newlin, Republican candidate for county commissioner, said many students come to Bloomington and wonder whether they will stay, which might give them a reason to vote locally.“Search and look,” Newlin said. “Don’t take my word for it. Don’t take any other politician’s word for it. Find out what the truth really is.”
(09/28/12 3:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Cheryl Munson, an assistant scientist in IU’s anthropology department, will be officially appointed Friday to run in Sophia Travis’ place for the Monroe County Council.Travis, who suffered from a heart condition, died at about 11 p.m. Sept. 19 in her home on Fluck Mill Road.“While sharing our grief over the tragedy of Sophia Travis’ passing, Democrat friends asked me to consider filling her spot on the ballot,” Munson wrote in a Wednesday post on the Monroe County Democrats’ website. “No one can ever take Sophia’s place, but I am willing to take on this short campaign for the County Council as my way to honor her and to serve.”Munson called the next month a “short campaign” and she wants to promote transparency in government issues before Election Day.Munson served on the Indian Creek Township Board in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. She has also worked with the Monroe County Historic Preservation Board, Monroe County Plan Review Committee, Monroe County Extension Advisory Board and county council’s Community Services Grants Committee.In her online announcement, Munson called herself a community and environmental advocate. She said in the late 1980s she collected data to promote a safe, environmentally sensible route for a highway being planned that would cut across Monroe County. That highway was eventually called I-69.“Now, 24 years later, I’m still speaking out about the highway’s safety issues and impacts on our county’s historic districts,” Munson said. “Dedication is the cornerstone of my public service.”Munson said the cornerstones of her campaign are to tend to financial responsibilities, preserve valuable natural resources and guide growth in public safety, transportation and other areas in the community.Munson left her anthropology lab Thursday night for her first public campaign event, the candidates’ forum at Hutton Honors College titled “Why Local Government Matters to Students.” The event was sponsored by the Political and Civic Engagement Program, Department of Political Science, Hutton Honors College and IU Student Association.Munson said she appreciated the forum because she could talk to students.“I will replace Sophia Travis’ name on the ballot,” Munson said at the forum. “I will not replace Sophia Travis.”
(09/27/12 4:35am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A photo of Sophia Travis is plastered in an old plastic picture frame on the downstairs counter at Cactus Flower.In it, Travis balanced an accordion in two small hands as she played in a quartet in someone’s living room. Her mouth was slightly open, her dark brown gaze intense.There are pieces of a person that make headlines and newspapers, and there are pieces that make memories.Jill Schaffer, owner of Cactus Flower, could not speak of Travis without her voice choking and tears pooling in her eyes.Travis worked at Cactus Flower for about four years, now about 10 years ago, Schaffer said. Travis frequented the shop and was friends with the owner.She was in Schaffer’s shop just two weeks ago. Schaffer remembered she had trouble climbing the stairs.Travis had been diagnosed with a heart condition, Schaffer said. A week and a half ago, Travis and her husband traveled to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to see specialists. The following Wednesday, Travis passed away in her home. She was 46. She leaves behind her husband, Greg, and 4-year-old son Finn.Travis was a candidate for the Monroe County Council and president of the Asian Alumni Association.Democratic lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Vi Simpson released a statement grieving the loss of both a community activist and a dear friend. Rick Dietz, chair of the Monroe County Democrats, said in an email he could not believe he had to compose. “Sophia personified kindness — a dense gravitation kindness — and wielded a gentle strength that could move mountains, and move all those around her, and did many times over,” Dietz said in the email.The Monroe County Democrats have not yet scheduled a caucus to determine a person to run in Sophia’s place. Multiple stories were written in local media following news of her death. None completely captured who she was, Schaffer said.Travis loved odd hats, and in the counter photo she wore a striped, buttoned hat with no shape. She valued pieces that were pretty rather than useful, and she loved the color pink. She and Schaffer used to visit antique shops, and Travis would leave with an oversized cookie jar or a porcelain doll to place somewhere in her eclectic, comfortable home. “Everything she did, it was not done normally,” Schaffer said. “It was always whimsical.”Travis’ voice was soft and sweet – what Schaffer called a disguise for a woman with immense inner strength and will. Schaffer and Travis used to travel to Chicago together to buy clothing for the shop. Schaffer wanted to go to New York City but couldn’t figure out the finances, so Travis called a friend who worked at New York University and arranged for housing.The two lived in an NYU dorm.“I think I was way too old to live in a dorm,” Schaffer said, laughing. “We got stares. That’s for sure.”At the end of their trip, Schaffer said Travis boldly approached the resident assistants and informed them she and Schaffer no longer wanted to attend NYU. Schaffer laughed, remembering the students trying to talk them into staying and Travis politely but firmly telling them no.Schaffer remembered Cactus Flower catching fire 15 years ago. Much of the inside of the shop was covered in smoke stains. Without telling Schaffer, Travis took many pieces of clothing home to wash.“And she said, ‘Oh, look, Jill, you can save all this stuff. It’s not lost.’”Travis helped repaint the walls and window frames, taking home metal pieces that had been attached to the walls to polish and repaint before returning them.“And, of course, it wouldn’t just be painted,” Schaffer said. “It would be decorated.”Since Travis’ death, women who knew her have come to Cactus Flower and spoken to Schaffer. They’ve been heartbroken for Travis’ son and, as mothers themselves, feel her family’s loss deeply.As Schaffer tries to understand Travis’ death, she’s given advice to those who seek to remember Travis well. Listen to accordion music, she said. Buy artwork from someone of whom you’ve never heard. Involve yourself in the community. Tell your family you love them.“Do everything with passion or just appreciate everything around you,” Schaffer said. “Have fun and laugh a lot, a whole lot.”
(09/26/12 2:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The discussion about debates in the 9th District for the U.S. House continues.The campaigns announced that Democratic candidate Shelli Yoder, D-9th District, and Republican incumbent Rep. Todd Young, R-9th District, will debate Oct. 23 at Franklin College in Johnson County, but are still deciding on a date for a second debate later in Harrison County. “We chose two locations that provide geographic balance between the northern and southern ends of the district as well as balance between the old and new district lines resulting from last years’ redistricting,” said Trevor Foughty, communications director for Young’s campaign.Left out of the current schedule are Monroe, Jackson, Clark and Floyd counties.Yoder’s campaign released a statement two weeks ago decrying opponent and Republican incumbent Young yet again for not scheduling debates in certain parts of the district.Katie Carlson, Yoder’s campaign manager, said many municipalities with larger populations compared to the rest of the district have been left out of the schedule.“So it seems like they’re avoiding the more populous counties in the district,” Carlson said. “To me, that makes me wonder why they want fewer and not more people to hear both sides of these issues.”Carlson said Yoder’s campaign is still seeking more debates, but they are not targeting previously ignored counties. She said they have to bargain with Young’s campaign to add any debates.She added she thinks Young is avoiding debates because he’ll have a difficult time defending his votes during his two years in Congress. She said students, senior citizens and working families have all been affected by his actions.Carlson also discussed more technical aspects that could trouble voters: Congress’ work record.“Even more recently, Congress adjourned to have their members go home so they can campaign for reelection, and they did that before finishing so many important acts, including work on the budget, taxes and job creation,” Carlson said. “So he skipped out of work, hasn’t been representing this district well, and that’s going to make it difficult to defend his record.”The Young campaign sees the location debate as a distraction. “This debate-about-debates doesn’t tell anyone how we might get our economy moving again or how we might put Hoosiers back to work,” Foughty said. “Our campaign is committed to talking about our specific plans to do both those things.”Carlson said he is excited for the opportunity to have the debate.“We’re grateful for this host that has accepted sponsoring the debates that are set,” Carlson said. “But we want to continue to push for more.”The debate will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 and open to the public with limited seating.
(09/19/12 4:35am)
After going uncharacteristically blue in 2008, Indiana has seen few campaign stops by either presidential candidate this year. Financially, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney leads Barack Obama in donations from Hoosiers.
(09/14/12 3:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The first time Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the third most senior member of the U.S. Senate, was mentioned in a speech was not at the Republican National Convention but at the Democratic one.“Unfortunately, the faction that now dominates the Republican Party. They think government is always the enemy, they’re always right, and compromise is weakness,” former President Bill Clinton said in his Aug. 5 speech. “Just in the last couple of elections, they defeated two distinguished Republican senators because they dared to cooperate with Democrats on issues important to the future of the country, even national security.”Lugar lost in the primary by Tea Party-backed State Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who will face U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, D-2nd District, in the November election.But while Democrats decried the “extremism” they said was apparent in the struggle between Mourdock and Lugar, Donnelly stayed home.“Joe did not attend the convention because he thought it was more important to spend his time here in Indiana,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Shappell said. “He spent his week traveling the state, talking about being a common sense, bipartisan voice for middle class families as opposed to Richard Mourdock’s ‘my way or the highway’ approach that will get us nowhere.” Mourdock slammed Donnelly’s decision to stay away from the convention in Charlotte, N.C.“The president’s policies, like Obamacare, the failed stimulus plan and the bailouts of Wall Street aren’t popular in Indiana, which Joe Donnelly voted for,” said Chris Connor, a spokesperson for Mourdock’s campaign. “Donnelly ducked the DNC convention and Obama to avoid discussing such policies.”This criticism came after Mourdock decided not to attend the RNC in Tampa, Fla.“Governor Romney came into Evansville in support of Mourdock several weeks before the RNC convention, so he didn’t make the trip to Tampa,” Connor said.The latest Rasmussen poll, released in early August, named the Mourdock-Donnelly race as a “dead heat.” Telephone polls of people Rasmussen identified as “likely voters” churned out 42 percent who plan to vote for Mourdock and 40 percent in favor of Donnelly. Vaguely named “other candidates” received 3 percent of the vote, and 15 percent reported they remain undecided.
(09/13/12 4:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Pamphlets detailing same-sex rights are scattered across a table in IU’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Student Support Services office. Among them are pamphlets from President Barack Obama’s campaign. There are none from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s.The Democrats have officially adopted language supporting same-sex marriage in their platform, GLBT SSS Coordinator Doug Bauder said. Local Republicans he’s reached out to, Bauder said, don’t have any information for the LGBTQ community.“Honestly, I don’t know why anyone who’s gay would vote for Romney,” Bauder said.Randolph Hubach, an associate instructor and project coordinator in the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, said the Democrats’ inclusion of same-sex marriage is unprecedented.“Recent inclusion of what many would refer to as LGBT related issues into the official Democratic Party platform is a first, and quite extraordinary,” Hubach said. “This can be viewed as the first time that equality, which is inclusive of LGBT-identified individuals, has been adopted by a major party.” Despite low visibility, gay and lesbian Republican organizations do exist. Bauder said he’s reached out to Log Cabin Republicans, a 30-year organization that promotes gay and lesbian interests. He’s never heard back from them.Log Cabin was present at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., two weeks ago.“As the 2012 Republican National Convention comes to a close, two things are very clear,” Log Cabin Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper said in a release. “Gay conservatives absolutely have a place within the Republican Party. We also have an important responsibility to work to make our party more inclusive. Log Cabin Republicans intend to fully embrace both roles.”Local support of same-sex marriage has been split not only along party lines, but also within the Indiana Democratic Party. Gubernatorial candidates Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th District, and Democrat John Gregg have both said they do not support same-sex marriage.Same-sex marriage and civil unions are illegal in Indiana. Legislators have worked recently to include the ban in the state Constitution, and the Republican majority in both the Indiana House and Senate has helped promote the ban. The Constitutional amendment would be decided by voter ballots.Gregg’s running mate, Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington, has been outspoken about her pro-gay rights stance. At this summer’s Indy Pride festival, Simpson said she will oppose an amendment banning same-sex marriage.Bauder said the LGBTQ community was more excited about the election and, specifically, Obama’s campaign in 2008, than the rest of the country was. He said he doesn’t believe the president will lose support from the gay community.“I saw an interesting statistic about African Americans voting for Romney, and the percentage was zero,” Bauder said. “I would think the statistics for LGBT people would be pretty similar to that.”In the end, Hubach said regardless of party rhetoric, marriage in every context should be viewed as a basic human right.“For those who may be on the fence as to which candidates they are supporting in the upcoming election, the stark differences in the party platforms cannot be any clearer,” Hubach said. “Those LGBT individuals who identify as moderates will take note of the recently adopted inclusion practices, which ultimately may sway LGBT votes to Democratic candidates.”
(09/12/12 1:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>MARTINSVILLE — State Rep. Peggy Welch, D-60th District, ran her first campaign in 1998. Her consultants and fellow Democrats urged her to attack her opponent’s character.She refused.“This is who I am, and this is how I run it,” she recalled saying.Now, 14 years later, Welch has signed a pledge to combat her consultants’ urging to attack Peggy Mayfield, the Republican running for her seat in the Indiana House. Welch’s consultants have said doing so is the best way to ensure a win, she said.Again, Welch said she’s refused to engage in character attacks.Welch signed a pledge in front of six individuals, two of whom were media affiliated, at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at her campaign headquarters in Martinsville.The pledge promised members of District 60 that Welch’s campaign ads would focus on her plans and qualifications, rather than on her opponent.Welch said in July she invited Mayfield to sign the pledge with her.“When she eventually got back to me, she said she didn’t feel it was necessary because we both know how to run clean campaigns,” Welch said. “Which is fine. That’s her choice.”Redistricting will change the landscape of Welch’s campaign this year, and she said 72 percent of District 60 is new to her.“For me, it’s almost like starting over,” Welch said.Welch asked the room for questions after she had finished signing the piece of paper with her promise to avoid mudslinging. Gregg Terhune, president of the Community Taxpayers Association in Brown, Harrison and Madison townships, asked why Welch hasn’t spoken more about her position on several committees, such as the tax and budget Ways and Means Committee. He said voters should know of her power in the Statehouse, to which she chuckled.“If somebody else were to be dropped into District 60, they wouldn’t start appointed to the same positions as you. ... (They) wouldn’t be as influential as you,” Terhune said.Welch answered by saying she believes, unless the election changes the current distribution, that she’ll be in the minority in the House.“Just because you’re in the minority doesn’t mean you don’t have a voice,” Welch said.She said she’s “reached across the aisle” on several issues during her time in the legislature.In addition to her work in the Statehouse, Welch is a nurse in the cancer ward at IU Health Bloomington Hospital. Dianna Jennings, a nurse who works with Welch, said she does not known Welch that well but became interested in the campaign after she received a negative phone call from Mayfield’s office. The caller inquired after Welch’s record and after Jennings’ personal information, such as her religion. She said it made her uncomfortable.“I was just shocked,” Jennings said. “I’ve done political phone calls, and I don’t remember (them) ever being so negative.”Welch said she believes it’s her job to present herself and her issues fairly. It’s the media’s duty to provide information to the public that would expose errors or transgressions from both candidates, she said.She also said people who would make good politicians choose not to run because of the mudslinging so common in elections. Welch said every person has a story filled with both positive and negative qualities.“We have life,” she said. “We all have life, and maybe that makes us better public servants and leaders.”
(09/11/12 4:50am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In a flip-flop move that surprised some and angered others, Democrats changed their platform position concerning Israel during the party’s national convention.The Democrats had originally decided to remove a declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Last Wednesday, they reversed the decision, and both will be in the platform for the 2012 election.“I think it’s a great decision, and it’s a decision that we are proud of,” said Rabbi Yehoshua Chincholker of the Chabad House and Jewish Student Center. “The Democratic Party is supporting Jerusalem.”President Barack Obama’s campaign maintains he has been consistent in his support of Israel and Jerusalem. The president intervened before the decision was made to reinstate those parts of the platform.Chincholker was not so sure. He said, for example, when the prime minister of Israel visited Obama, the meeting was cold. It was embarrassing, he said.Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign criticized Obama and Democrats for what they called ambiguous rhetoric.“Mitt Romney has consistently stated his belief that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in a release. “Although today’s voice vote at the Democratic National Convention was unclear, the Democratic Party has acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”Chincholker said the Jewish community, who has consistently voted Democratic in the past, will not change who they vote for.University of Michigan professor Mark Tessler, an editor of the IU Press Indiana Series in Arab and Islamic Studies, said the declaration will not make any difference. “I think voters have pretty much made up their minds,” Tessler said. “The election is very close, so I think they’re hoping to tip the scales. But I don’t know if that’s very likely.”Both parties have declared support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel , but Tessler said where the city fits into the larger politics between Israel and Palestine is ambiguous.“Both parties in principle agree with the two-state solution,” Tessler said.The rhetoric of the parties leaves pro-Palestinian voters without options, Tessler said. This was reflected by thestatements of Rashida Tlaib, the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan state legislature. She objected to the Democrats’ decision to once again recognize Jerusalem.“Obviously, it makes me feel a little frustrated that this is not being truly discussed in a fair, just way,” Tlaib said.Tessler said the problem is neither party has provided specifi c plans regarding policy with Israel. Both have declared support , he said, but that’s where the party speeches end.“They don’t really get into specifics,” Tessler said. “It’s really just a political message.The question is, ‘what would be their broader policies?’”The rabbi could not say what Romney would do if elected president.Chincholker said Obama has so far treated Israel somewhat indifferently.“From the actions, not the talk,” he said. “It’s a game of mirrors and smoke.”
(09/07/12 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Party politics ring loud. Power doesn’t have to.Reverend Maria Hanlin feels power coursing strongly through the pews and aisles of churches, synagogues and mosques scattered around Charlotte, N.C.She feels it most forcefully in the quiet moments, gazing at sunrises, flowers and rainbows. And she sees it in the people made in the divine image of God.Both a show and a plea for power were apparent in the Queen’s City on Thursday as President Barack Obama prepared to accept his nomination, Republican Candidate Mitt Romney prepared to rebuke him and the outlying party candidates prepared to ask for attention.Hanlin is the executive director of Mecklenburg Ministries, an interfaith group that brings Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other congregations together in worship. During a week wrought with protests of every faith and moral ideal, she had her hands full.During her seven years at the ministry, she’s seen the struggle between religion and politics. She knows how it can tear apart. She also knows it can unite.
(09/07/12 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — IU history professor Michael Grossberg had a ticket and a plan. He was going to drive to North Carolina to watch President Barack Obama’s speech.The Democratic National Convention didn’t have room for him. “It’s a disappointment, but it’s not an earth-shattering thing,” Grossberg said.The president was scheduled to speak at Bank of America Stadium, which could house about 74,000 attendees. It was announced Tuesday the president would instead speak in Time Warner Cable Arena, which could squeeze in only 20,000. This number was quickly filled once delegates, volunteers and press were accounted for.Grossberg is both an Obama supporter and director of the Political and Civic Engagement Program at IU. Though he has never attended one, he studies the importance of events like political conventions. He said he was curious to see what they were like in person. He couldn’t satisfy that curiosity this year.“I think they’re very important gatherings even though they’re no longer a place where the candidate is chosen, since that’s done in the primaries,” Grossberg said.The official reason for the venue change, given by Steve Kerrigan, CEO of the convention’s organizing committee, was a forecast of thunderstorms. Skeptics were more cynical about the move, saying the committee had trouble trying to fill the stadium. In 2008, Obama’s convention speech in Denver’s Invesco Field at Mile High was packed with 84,000 attendees.Grossberg said the more muted energy may be in part because this campaign is less historic than in 2008, when Obama campaigned to become the first African-American president.Whether enthusiasm for the campaign was the true reason for the change of venue, the excitement was palpable in the smaller setting.The crowd had already been galvanized by guests, such as Vice President Joe Biden, his wife, Jill, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and actresses Eva Longoria and Scarlett Johannson. They’d held signs that thanked the troops, praised the vice president and fired them up.By the time the president took the stage, the crowd, many of whom had arrived hours earlier for a good seat, was ecstatic.It wasn’t signs printed with a name on cardboard that the quiet, quick volunteers in yellow vests handed out for Obama’s speech. It was American flags.His wife introduced him as the love of her life, a father and the president.“Thank you,” he said several times after the crowd quieted. They didn’t stay that way long.“Four more years!”He declared his love for his wife, informed his daughters they’d go to school the next day and accepted the Democrats’ nomination.He talked about his start addressing the convention as a U.S. Senate candidate in 2004. He joked about the long road that brought him here.“If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I,” Obama said.Obama discussed the different visions of the future kept by Republicans and Democrats, and he told the story of his grandparents to send home the message that everyone should have a chance when they play by the rules.“I ran for president because I saw that basic bargain slipping away,” he said.He said the Republicans have so far analyzed all that’s wrong with America. They just haven’t said how they’d make it right.The rest of his speech mirrored the entire convention, outlining his successes in national security, health care, manufacturing, education and tax cuts.“You didn’t elect me to tell you what you wanted to hear,” Obama said. “You elected me to tell the truth.”He asked Americans to choose his vision for the future.As he listed his past success and insisted he needed four more years to accomplish even more, he said the same thing after every assertion and plea.“You can choose that future,” he said.
(09/06/12 5:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rick Dietz and the other Indiana delegates were settled off to the side in the Time Warner Cable Arena. Despite the crowds, they had a clear line of sight as former President Bill Clinton took the stage.It was far from the first time Dietz, chair of the Monroe County Democrats, heard Clinton speak. The last time they met in person was in Bloomington four years ago. The former president was endorsing his wife, Hillary.This is the first time Clinton has supported President Barack Obama from the beginning of his campaign. Many analysts considered the speech the most important of the three-day convention, apart from Obama’s expected acceptance tonight.The crowd surged to its feet, even in the nosebleed seats.“Mr. Mayor, Democrats, we’re here to nominate the president,” Clinton opened. “And I’ve got one in mind.”He discussed the positive points of Obama’s track record, saying he has already overcome adversity.“I want to nominate a man who’s cool on the outside, but he burns for America on the inside,” Clinton said.He continued, “After last night, I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.”The crowd exploded.Clinton said the Republican narrative, or the “alternate universe,” says all who are successful are self-made.“You see, we believe we’re all in this together,” Clinton said. “It’s a far better philosophy than ‘You’re on your own.’”He asked the crowd who they believed. Nearly as one, they screamed, “You!”Dietz said Clinton’s speech and the Tuesday video speech from former President Jimmy Carter showed one of the many differences between Democrats and Republicans in this election cycle.“I think one of the things that separates the Democratic convention from the Republican is that we’re very proud of our former presidents,” Dietz said.Some critics have countered this view, saying Democrats focus on past success rather than the party’s future.“It doesn’t really make sense to me, from what we’ve seen at the convention,” Dietz said.Dietz mentioned the mayors from bigger cities, such as keynote speaker Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, as examples of why that sentiment is wrong.“From what I’ve seen just the first day, the Republicans are totally outclassed,” Dietz said.
(09/06/12 4:57am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Not all the vendors selling buttons, stickers and T-shirts outside the Democratic National Convention brought memorabilia of President Barack Obama. One brought music.Tiffany Lewis, the Virginian owner of All That Jazz and More, “jumped through hoops” to plunk down a booth across the street from the Time Warner Cable Arena. Now, though, Lewis and other licensed vendors are concerned they could lose business to competition that did not register with the city or pay for licenses.“I do support our president, but this,” she gestured to her booth, “is my life.”It was hard to wander through the cramped space under her awning, but she invited passersby, though there were few, to gaze at and fall in love with her novelty gifts. There were painted miniature figurines of women singing into microphones and men puffing into saxophones. A 24-carat gold and crystal statuette of a treble clef stood near the back. Below it were tiny replicas of violins and clarinets, magnetic keyboards and violins. T-shirts asked passersby, “Got jazz?”Lewis did not start her career as an entrepreneur. Her thick, red business cards read “Tiffany Lewis, Ph.D.”She earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering, master’s in mechanical engineering and doctorate in systems engineering. That was back when the Fortune 500 company she worked for paid for education. Shortly after she earned her last degree, they decided they didn’t need her, and she was laid off, she said.Lewis had been stressed as she worked full time and taught part time. When she found herself without a job, the idea occurred to her.She decorates her house in jazz and music novelty items, and she said they’re hard to find. Why not set up a kiosk in a mall?“Let’s not just sell music,” Lewis said. “Let’s sell music stuff.”Lewis has been in business for a little more than a year. She said she had her biggest sales boom last Christmas, but the DNC has been a little slower.Carolinafest, on Monday, was fantastic, she said. Since then, vendors just outside the convention have stopped foot traffic from venturing across the street to legal booths like hers.The paperwork she filed and fees she spent to make it here made it all the more bitter, she said, when the unlicensed vendors set up tables along the sidewalks directly outside the convention. Nobody has tried to stop them, and they’re taking business from legal vendors, she said.A man running the booth next to hers, who asked to be called Jim, said he and other vendors paid $3,000 to set up booths at the event. They had to obtain licenses and insurance from the City of Charlotte.The Charlotte business license alone was $200, Lewis said.Both wondered why city officials aren’t trying harder to keep out illegal street vendors, since the city and the DNC were adamant about licensing and insurance.“A lot of the people here don’t realize, but the life of a street vendor is hard,” Lewis said.
(09/05/12 5:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Few choose politicians as heroes. Hoosier George Hornedo did.Tuesday night, his hero, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, stood before a crowd during the opening day of the Democratic National Convention as its keynote speaker. Castro set the tone Democrats had emblazoned on banners across the city that the Republicans might have built it, but the Democrats made it possible. First lady Michelle Obama continued the message to the end of the first day.Hornedo, a page for the Indiana delegates, watched from the floor, squeezed in with delegates, the press and the public. Hornedo said he has looked to the mayor for possibilities since he was 11 years old. Hornedo, who moved to Indianapolis before high school, was originally from San Antonio. He said he won the spelling bee in sixth grade and was eventually a finalist in the national competition. Castro, then a city councilman, wrote him a letter of congratulations. Hornedo remembered. It was April 23, 2002. Hornedo’s parents had always encouraged him and his brother to look up to Castro and Castro’s brother, also a prominent Texas politician, as Latino role models. The letter gave Hornedo a concrete reason to do so.“He’s the definition of the American promise,” Hornedo said.Castro is the first Latino chosen as the keynote speaker of the DNC. Many of the last few DNC keynote speakers, including Barack Obama, John Kerry and Al Gore, returned during the following presidential cycle as the Democratic presidential nominees. Political analysts so far have said Castro could aim for a nomination as Texas governor, but only a few have asked whether he will be the 2016 presidential nominee and, possibly, the first Latino president.Castro opened with the story of his family and the struggles through immigration and education that led them, and him, to the keynote post at the DNC.Castro’s speech waxed and waned, eliciting laughter when he poked fun at his home state, Texas, and dropping to a quieter tone when he continued about differences in opportunity that divide students.“We know that you can’t be pro-business unless you’re pro-education,” he said.When he admitted he’d watched the Republican National Convention last week, the crowd booed. Castro made a face and continued, saying Obama is the president who will provide further opportunity.He gave the Democrats scattered around the floor a chant, “Mitt Romney says no.” He applied it to same-sex couples, rebuilding the middle class and protecting education.“So here’s what we’re going to say to Mitt Romney in November,” Castro said. “We’re gonna say no.”The crowd rallied even more enthusiastically behind Michelle Obama, who has enjoyed high approval ratings even among independents. Michelle Obama’s moment began with a video outlining her past before her marriage, her time as first lady and her family. The video focused heavily on her work to promote exercise and nutrition for children.The first lady was greeted by chanting, which didn’t cease even when she started speaking.The beginning of Michelle Obama’s speech focused on her time visiting families across the family and the life she and her nuclear family led before the 2008 election.
(09/04/12 11:17pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The city is hidden.Under clouds that are white up close but gray far away, Charlotte is flat and sprawling. Delegates, protesters and other visitors see little as their planes touch down at the airport in the city’s west side. The host city of the Democratic National Convention is hidden on the ground, too, by beautification projects designed to impress the entire country.By Tuesday, traffic was light with just a few cars dotting the highways. The airport wasn’t busy by then, either.Distinguished guests to the city, such as first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, arrived Monday and throughout the weekend.The houses are tall, and the buildings are squat. The tallest building downtown, which locals insist on calling “Uptown,” is the Duke Energy building. It looks like an elongated metal bucket complete with a handle on top.As the planes touch down, the city’s first greeting is a display of orange tubes and trucks sprawled alongside dirty hills. The sight of construction is familiar to Hoosier delegates.Everyone flying into Charlotte during the weekend had to figure out where to go once the planes spat them into the city. The airport responded to the influx of visitors by shutting down parts of the facility and rearranging entrances and exits.Outside, a tall statue of a queen bent over a fountain grimaces at the newcomers. Queen Charlotte.Uptown is dotted with parks, and many who enter comment on the loveliness of the city. Some of the parks are permanent, but many are temporary, hastily erected for a week of trying to inspire a more muted DNC crowd than the one in Denver in 2008.Welcome to Charlotte.
(09/04/12 11:15pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The city is hidden.Under clouds that are white up close but gray far away, Charlotte is flat and sprawling. Delegates, protesters and other visitors see little as their planes touch down at the airport in the city’s west side. The host city of the Democratic National Convention is hidden on the ground, too, by beautification projects designed to impress the entire country.By Tuesday, traffic was light with just a few cars dotting the highways. The airport wasn’t busy by then, either.Distinguished guests to the city, such as first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, arrived Monday and throughout the weekend.The houses are tall, and the buildings are squat. The tallest building downtown, which locals insist on calling “Uptown,” is the Duke Energy building. It looks like an elongated metal bucket complete with a handle on top.As the planes touch down, the city’s first greeting is a display of orange tubes and trucks sprawled alongside dirty hills. The sight of construction is familiar to Hoosier delegates.Everyone flying into Charlotte during the weekend had to figure out where to go once the planes spat them into the city. The airport responded to the influx of visitors by shutting down parts of the facility and rearranging entrances and exits.Outside, a tall statue of a queen bent over a fountain grimaces at the newcomers. Queen Charlotte.Uptown is dotted with parks, and many who enter comment on the loveliness of the city. Some of the parks are permanent, but many are temporary, hastily erected for a week of trying to inspire a more muted DNC crowd than the one in Denver in 2008.Welcome to Charlotte.