1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(11/27/06 4:38am)
Indianapolis -- This is a running diary of my first media experience in the professional world of sports. It is a journal of my thoughts throughout the Indiana Pacers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers game Friday.\n6:01 p.m. -- I arrive at Conseco Fieldhouse excited and ready to go. After a challenge finding the media door, I finally get my credentials and enter the media room, a place as close to heaven as a journalist can get.\n7:01 -- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle does a small interview with just a few people (the big media reporters and me). Carlisle addresses the starting lineups and how to defend Cavs star LeBron James. I personally got a kick out of him saying that Jamaal Tinsley's goal for the year is to play all 82 games. That is about as likely as Stephen Jackson making more than half his shots tonight.\n8:06 -- I get to my seat and start looking around. Jared the Subway guy walks to a center court seat wearing a Cleveland Scott Pollard jersey. Looks like the jersey size is an XL. He must have had too much turkey.\n8:14 -- It has been a slow start since tip-off. It takes the Pacers about three minutes to finally score their first point.\n8:16 -- It's retro jersey night for both teams. The Pacers are wearing jerseys from the 1967-68 season. The Cavs are wearing some orange things. I can't find a way to describe what exactly they are.\n8:17 -- LeBron makes a sick dunk. Am I the only one who watches sporting events and grades nice plays based on how high I think they will be ranked on SportsCenter Top 10? This dunk is probably about No. 6.\n8:32 -- Jackson gets a \ntechnical foul. I'm not sure what he said to the ref, but I'm sure it's not Indiana Daily Student appropriate.\n8:37 -- The Pacers look full from Thanksgiving as they end the first quarter down 15 points (27-12). I don't know what is wrong with the team. They seem to start every game slowly, so I'm really not worried.\n8:57 -- Tinsley gets a technical foul for talking trash. First Jackson gets a tech and now Tinsley. Am I lost at Club Rio, or is this just a preview for that "Deja Vu" movie?\n9:13 -- It was quite a slow first half for the Pacers. The Cavs lead 56-44, and LeBron draws fouls every time he was touched. I know he's a superstar, but it's getting excessive. When he walks down the tunnel to the locker room, a little kid gives him a high five and immediately gets called for a flagrant foul by the refs. On a side story, the crowd erupts when it is announced that Butler won the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament.\n9:38 -- Finally something entertaining happens. Cavaliers guard Eric Snow drives the lane for a layup and is blocked badly by Jermaine O'Neal. He turns to the Pacer bench and says with a huge smile, "I should have dunked it."\n9:45 -- Snow drives the lane and actually tries to dunk it on O'Neal. He is blocked again and complains to get his technical. It's funny how things work like that.\n9:56 -- My dad finally tells me how LeBron described the Cav's uniforms: "orange sherbet." Not a bad description. The Cavs only score nine points in the third quarter, and the Pacers now lead 69-65. \n10:13 -- Sarunas Jasikevicius and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are finally on the floor together. It's nice since they are longtime friends, but this got me thinking: What if the NBA did the all-star game like the NHL use to do with the USA vs. the world? This would be a play-by-play nightmare: Jasikevicius passes to Manu Ginobili. Ginobili kicks it out to Dirk Nowitzki, who dumps it down to Ilgauskas, who alley-oops it to Wang Zhizhi for the dunk.\n10:20 -- Tinsley steals a pass from LeBron, which leads to an O'Neal layup. LeBron fouls out right after with a quiet 30 points and only one highlight dunk.\n10:40 -- The horn sounds, and the Pacers win 97-87. I go down to the media room to get the final stat sheet and then head to the press conference room.\n10:53 -- Carlisle comes to the podium and talks about the game but more about the teams' slow starts to games. In a shocking display of humor, Carlisle said, "I need to call (NBA executive) Stu Jackson to see if we can start the games in the third quarter." He continued to talk about the tough road stretch the Pacers will face as they travel west for five of the next six games.\n11:01 -- Since players don't do podium interviews during the regular season, my night is over. It has been a great experience, but I'm ready to go home to eat some Thanksgiving leftovers.
(11/27/06 4:37am)
The IU women's volleyball team will end its losing streak this season at 19 games. It won't end because of a Hoosier victory though. It will end because there are no more games to play.\nThe Hoosiers lost their last two games at home this weekend after being swept by No. 11 Wisconsin on Friday and No. 10 Minnesota on Saturday. The losses ended the Hoosiers' season and put the team in last place in the Big Ten at 1-19 with an overall record of 10-22. The wins helped boost both Wisconsin and Minnesota in their pushes for an NCAA Tournament bid.\nWisconsin easily swept IU on Friday by scores of 21-30, 26-30 and 16-30. Sophomore outside hitter Erica Short's 11 kills and sophomore defensive specialist Juli Pierce's 20 digs paced the Hoosiers. \nMinnesota had no trouble sweeping IU on Saturday either (21-30, 22-30, 26-30). Short again led the Hoosiers with 11 kills. Minnesota had four players tally double-digit kills, notching a 56 team total compared to IU's 32 kills.\nIU coach Katie Weismiller said she thinks the Hoosiers played well despite the outcome.\n"I thought we competed this weekend," Weismiller said in a statement. "The scores are not indicative of how we played. If you asked our players and our fans, you would know that we competed. The team played hard; we just didn't have breaks go our way." \nAlthough this season is over, the team still has hope for next season, Wesimiller said. The young Hoosier team will only lose two seniors -- defensive specialist Sara Diehl and outside hitter Anne Grabow -- and will maintain a core group of players, including Short, the team's leader in kills.\n"Erica Short is going to be a great player," Weismiller said in a statement. "The program has a lot to build on"
(11/27/06 4:35am)
TORONTO -- Andrea Bargnani is starting to show why the Toronto Raptors took a chance on the soft-shooting Italian forward with the top pick in the draft.\nChris Bosh had 17 points and 11 rebounds and four other Raptors reached double figures in scoring, and Toronto held on for a 92-83 victory against the slow-starting Indiana Pacers on Sunday.\nBargnani had 14 points for the Raptors, who never trailed. Toronto outscored Indiana 32-17 in the first quarter and began the second quarter on a 14-2 run, including eight points from Bargnani.\nThe Italian forward -- the first European taken No. 1 overall -- got off to a slow start this season, but has played better in recent games as coach Sam Mitchell has given him more playing time. The 7-footer showed a silky shooting touch, making two 3-pointers and going 5-for-11 from the field.\nBargnani also showed a quick first step, driving to the basket for a finger roll on just one dribble in the second quarter.\n"He's the first pick for a reason," Toronto's Jose Calderon said. "He's a great player. We don't have a lot of 7-footers like him, that shoot the ball like he does or take the ball to the basket like that."\nBosh says Bargnani has gotten over early season jitters.\n"It was a little bit of a shock to him coming in at first, but now he's gotten acclimated," Bosh said. "He's gotten aggressive. He's been working in the gym every day and it's paying off. He can shoot the ball and keep people on their toes. He just keeps pressure on the defender. He goes by so quick that by the time the defender reacts he's going up for a jump shot."\nBargnani said the difference is playing time. He's played more than 22 minutes in four straight games after barely playing in the first nine games.\nToronto general manager Bryan Colangelo urged Mitchell to play him more.\n"How can you compare playing in one game 30 minutes and eight in another? You can't," said Bargnani, who got into early foul trouble in his first few games. "Some things are new for me, and the kind of game is completely different to the European game."\nBosh, slowed by a right knee injury, went 6-for-18 from the field and was not a big factor as Toronto led early. Bosh had just 11 points in Friday's loss to Atlanta.\nStephen Jackson and Danny Granger each had 18 points for the Pacers, who have trailed after the first quarter in 11 of 14 games this season. Coach Rick Carlisle joked after their last game that the NBA should let them start games in the third quarter.\n"It's hard digging out of a 15-point hole with 36 minutes to play," Carlisle said. "It's something that we have addressed. We've done a lot of lineup shifting. Maybe there will be more lineup shifting, I don't know, but these kind of starts are going to get you beat on a consistent basis."\nIndiana shot just 32 percent in the first half. The Pacers trailed by as many as 27, but cut the lead to four in the third quarter with a 12-1 run capped by Jamaal Tinsley's driving layup.\nBut Toronto followed with a 17-4 run bridging the third and fourth quarters. Joey Graham and Calderon keyed the run for the Raptors with layups and tip-ins.\nGraham had 12 points and eight rebounds and Calderon had 13 points and five assists in 24 productive minutes.\nRookie Jorge Garbajosa -- Toronto's new starting center -- had 13 points and six rebounds.\n"We have a terrible way of starting off games," Jackson said. "It has been real contagious right now. It is hard to beat any team, whether it is the Raptors or not"
(11/27/06 4:34am)
The IU women's cross country team officially finished its season at the NCAA Championships on Nov. 20.\nWith only seniors Jessica Gall and Lindsay Hattendorf competing, the race marked the end of the two runners' Hoosier careers. However, the end result of the race wasn't as promising as the team had hoped as the two finished in 84th and 104th, respectively, at the 6K race in Terre Haute.\nEntering the race, IU coach Judy Wilson said she would like the two seniors to become All-Americans -- Gall for the third time and Hattendorf for the first time.\nThe race was a drop-off for Gall, who finished 35th at last year's NCAA Championships. But she and Hattendorf became the first two women in the IU cross country program to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the same season.\nEven though the two women ended their cross country careers at IU, Gall will return for the outdoor track and field season and Hattendorf will compete in both the indoor and outdoor track and field seasons.\nThe Hoosiers' less-than-impressive performance at the NCAA Championships was an appropriate culmination for a somewhat disappointing year. IU ended a season that was full of setbacks, failing to qualify for the NCAA Championships as a team and finishing seventh at the Big Ten Championships.\nInjuries to sophomore Stephanie Greer and freshman Kellee Lemcke hindered the Hoosiers' chances at becoming a dominant force throughout the season. Wilson said prior to the NCAA Championships that she is optimistic about most of the young team returning next year. Only Gall and Hattendorf will be graduating.
(11/27/06 4:29am)
Seventy and three.\nThat is Duke University's home record in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2002.\nGiven this daunting statistic, a win at Duke Tuesday night is possible for IU but (obviously) not very probable.\nIf anything -- much like last year's tilt in Assembly Hall against the Blue Devils -- Tuesday night's game against Duke will serve as a measuring stick for where IU is at this early-season juncture. \nCan the Hoosiers keep the game close? Can they compete with a quality, talented and ranked opponent? Can they perform in a hostile fan environment, or will they crumble under the pressure?\nIt will give a squad still finding its way some valuable experience and another 40 minutes to figure things out on the court.\nEven with last year's loss to the then-No. 1 Blue Devils, there still seemed to exist some sort of eternal optimism from Hoosier Nation that IU was headed in the right direction.\nAfter falling behind by as much as 14 early in the first half, IU clawed back. Once Marco Killingsworth grabbed a rebound with just under eight minutes left in the second half, drove down the court, passed to Rod Wilmont, who then kicked it back to him for perhaps the dunk of last season, IU took the lead 59-58. \nThe Hoosiers eventually lost 75-67. Still, Hoosier Nation learned on Nov. 30 of last year that IU at its best -- stress on "at its best," not the team with a sluggish Killingsworth or faltering from constant speculation on the status of its coach -- really could compete against one of the nation's top teams.\nIf IU shows up Tuesday night against Duke and plays well, even in a losing effort, IU fans just might feel the same way about this year's Hoosier squad.\nAnd for as much as everyone is hyping this matchup as a big game, it's certainly not the end all, be all for this team at such an early point in the season.\n"You've just got to play. It's just like another road game," junior forward D.J. White said during a press conference last Wednesday afternoon. "I know everyone talks about how big this game is, how tough it is playing Duke. We've got to go in focused just like we're playing here and put the crowd behind us and go with the game plan."\nBut the problem for these Hoosiers is they haven't gotten to play. After losing 60-55 to Butler on Nov. 14, IU missed out on the opportunity to advance to the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament and with it, the possibility of getting another two games under its belt this past week in New York.\n"This (past) week I would much rather (have been) in New York. No question," IU coach Kelvin Sampson said. "This team needs to play games. We need to play a lot of games. We need to play games against people where we can build our confidence up."\nBecause of the Butler loss, IU will have sat idle for nine days before its matchup with Duke Tuesday night.\nSampson said during the break from games, the Hoosiers have worked in practice on staying focused, executing on offense and guarding the ball better. \nThey are also coming off their most complete performance of the season, a 90-69 win against Chicago State University.\n"The thing about Duke is that they're going to get everybody's best shot, whoever they play," Sampson said.\nIU's best shot might not be enough for a victory, but it will be enough to keep the team moving in the right direction.
(11/27/06 4:12am)
I'm officially old. My friend Caitlin became the first of my friends to get engaged, and with that diamond, she made me old. \nDon't get me wrong. I'm thrilled. This past weekend, I attended a bridal sleepover, or a wedding pep rally, if you will. Caitlin's closest friends from home all gathered at our friend Sarah's house for smores, champagne, girl talk and "The Wedding Planner." And in the middle of this sleepover, I distinctly remember confessing, in spite of myself, "This is the most exciting thing ever!"\nMost girls have been planning weddings their whole lives. I am no exception. I played Perfect Wedding tirelessly and Barbie and Allen (better than Ken because his head moved with greater freedom for the part when they kiss) got married at least 36 times in my basement alone. As a girl, you dream about planning your wedding: the dress, the bridesmaids, the flowers, the cake, the music. And, like most, I always planned on having a real wedding of my own to plan someday.\nAmong all of this pre-wedded bliss at the sleepover, though, my friend Sarah and I, comprising the single-girl contingent, found ourselves not engaged or engaged-to-be-engaged like the other girls. As Sarah and I had our own side conversation about wedding venues, I was struck by a flash of genius. I applied the fail-safe Field of Dreams theory to marriage. While Sarah and I might not have fiances yet, it shouldn't stop us from the fun of planning. After all, I theorized, "If you plan it, he will come." \nIf this theory would work at all, Sarah and I posited that she and I would be engaged sometime between the first and second cake tasting.\nWe laughed for about five minutes, and we informed our friends of our ingenious plan, to which they responded, "You don't actually believe that, do you?"\nDuh. Of course not. But it's awfully funny to think about. Picture it: me, Sarah, two wedding dresses, a lot of champagne and no grooms. Phenomenal.\nWhat if it were true, though? I can't imagine actually doing it. Maybe I'm strange, but I think most ladies my age would agree that a wedding without a marriage would be ideal. I'm not ready to be that responsible yet. I can't even decide what shirt to wear in the morning without trying on seven of them, and even then, sometimes I change midday. How can I be expected to handle something like, "'Til death do us part?" \nAs all these thoughts ran through my head, I heard Caitlin mention the guests to be invited to the wedding. She said there would be a limited number of guests to be invited with a date. However, being a part of the wedding (I'm going to be the wedding singer, believe it or not), for the first time in my life, I have been invited plus one. And Jess plus one, not married to one, sounds pretty good to me.
(11/27/06 4:09am)
Ihe other day I was strolling down Kirkwood Avenue feeling pretty chipper when I gradually realized that it has little in the way of redeeming virtues. It was not the mediocre cafes and substandard bars but the "Peoples Park" mentality that aroused my aggravation. \nTake the room-temperature opinion in your choice coffeehouse, and you'll notice that the one factor which everyone uniformly lacks is the remotest sense of reality. Their idea, condensed only slightly, is that if a tree falls and no one is there to hear it, it did not make a noise. Thus, if we extract ourselves from the messy circumstances of the world, the problems will either be solved thereby or will simply go away. \nAnyone who has studied the world with any seriousness would pay short shrift to these idle "views" made idler by reoccurring pauses in order to sip from a venti latte. I myself have learned through intimate experience to chuckle rather than grow incensed and never waste too much time exposing their straw man (or is it grass?) arguments. But just this once, I will indulge myself. Latte-sippers, you have been warned.\n"Save the Planet" and "Make Poverty History." These tags are usually advocated by the same people who don't realize that they are conflicting. Few nations are doing more to accelerate environmental damage than those booming and polluting economies lifting millions out of poverty in China and India. It is those in the not-quite-developing world who are upright stewards of the environment -- by living (and dying) on a dollar a day (the international standard for absolute poverty). \n"When Clinton lied, no one died." Say about this what you like, but its advocates have a 100 percent morally rotten core. Perhaps this endorsement of lies told by a president meant to destroy women's reputations equips them to turn around to berate what was at worst a "noble lie" (though people rarely possess the courage or constancy to scream, "77 Senators lied!" in the authorization to attack Iraq) used to destroy a hellish tyranny. \n"Free Tibet." We have a little-heard-from IU Students for a Free Tibet, but the bumper sticker showing this plea is almost omnipresent. I believe I can guess what their reaction would be if former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were to draw up battle plans for the liberation of Tibet -- the only way to achieve that fleeting goal. The "Free Tibet" stickers would be scratched off from every bumper or simply plastered over with injunctions to "Think Globally, Act Locally."\nI have a better idea. Have we not learned by now to think in a less-worn and more elevated manner? Might I suggest, "Think Locally, Act Globally." Now that motto, with its call to revive confidence in our own values and to export them abroad, would be a bumper sticker worth affixing to one's vehicle. In a time where very little hard thinking is being done, this is the kind of slogan that would do no harm at all -- and might also make strolls down Kirkwood a little easier to enjoy.
(11/27/06 4:08am)
I was 11. The boys in my sixth- grade class held a copy of Britney Spears' first CD. They ogled her toned belly, her sweet, pretty face, her hair, her clothes, her body. I stood in the classroom alongside my fellow hormone-driven, confused, prepubescent girlfriends, watching the boys. At the time, we probably giggled at the boys' expressed sexual interest, not knowing any better. \nLooking back, I have to conclude that all us girls, at that time, actually felt deeply dejected.\nWe would never be as pretty as Britney. The boys would never desire us.\nFrom day one of their socialization into U.S. culture, little boys are constantly subjected to images of beautiful women's bodies, and they are conditioned -- and encouraged -- to desire that ideal projected female body. "It's natural," we seem to say.\nMeanwhile, women are taught to "desire to be desired," as Naomi Wolf puts so eloquently in "The Beauty Myth." \nBefore you call me a feminazi and blow me off as a bitter fatty fat girl, think of it this way: Many heterosexual men enjoy Playboy and pornography a lot, while Playgirl usually doesn't really "work" for heterosexual women. Women have no experience sexualizing men's bodies. When men's bodies are on display or objectified in film, it's often for humor (think "Jackass" or seemingly any Will Ferrell film).\nTherefore, I am outraged when I encounter a new media project that incorporates the blatant sexualization of women's bodies for no meaningful reason. Last Wednesday, for example, I was devastated after seeing ABC's very unoriginal and regressive "Show Me the Money." The charming creepster William Shatner hosts the game show in which contestants answer trivia questions in an effort to win money. I've had chewy corn flakes that weren't staler than that concept.\nSo where did my resentful anger come from? The dozen tall, beautifully toned and made-up women dressed alike (They're called "the dancers.") in slinky dresses who move sexily upon Shatner's request and hold up dollar amounts with shiny, lip-sticked smiles. Yeah, it's reminiscent of NBC and Howie Mandel's masterpiece "Deal or No Deal" in which Mandel's "models" reveal dollar amounts in their respective suitcases to the contestants.\nThe women in these game shows are used as objects to be desired -- and it's really not OK, especially when so many media consumers fail to acknowledge the meaning and the implications of the women's places in the shows.\nThe women are beautiful, reaching modern beauty ideals. The implications couldn't be uglier -- or more unfortunate. \nWomen's beauty is being defined with standards unreachable by women who don't have money to buy a white smile or products for soft hair or glamorous clothes. Meanwhile, portly old Shatner can host a show and be everyone's hero. More examples of this beauty dichotomy on television? "King of Queens," "According to Jim" and "Grounded For Life."\nHeterosexuality, in our culture, is better -- or at least easier -- for men.\nIt really just makes me sad.
(11/27/06 4:08am)
President George W. Bush reaches out to allies this week for help in quelling violence in Iraq and Afghanistan in a burst of diplomacy from a Baltic summit of NATO partners to Mideast talks with Iraq's prime minister. Bush was slated to leave today on another overseas trip as pressure builds at home for a change in his administration's Iraq strategy amid deepening tensions and violence in that country.
(11/27/06 4:07am)
I finally got around to watching "The Da Vinci Code" and, though I'll refrain from commenting on the movie itself for now, there was a line that has stuck in my head since: "We are what we protect." This statement, though fairly inconsequential to the plot, holds a profound message when taken in the context of government-citizen relations and human motivation. \nWe are what we protect. Since being struck by that thought while still slightly doped up on tryptophan, I've been pondering the idea of protection. My own working definition of protection is the investment of life, comfort and/or various other resources in pursuit of the well-being of something outside the conscious self. \nGovernments throw the concept of protection around with little consideration of the gravity of its meaning or the responsibility embedded in such a promise. We were hurried into a war on the grounds of protection of our freedoms. The aforementioned freedoms were subsequently taken away in order to perpetuate that war. The government watchdogs, journalists, are being punished in the name of liberty for doing their jobs. Rights guaranteed by our Constitution are continuously being chipped away in the name of protection of freedom.\nBuying into the notion of governmental protection requires a weighing of priorities. I, personally, value individual freedoms -- the choice to love who I will, ascribe to the ideas I desire, invest my money as I see fit and be privy to all the information necessary to make wise decisions -- over allowing the government to make those decisions for me in the name of protection. Others disagree and believe that the "protection" of country is paramount and worth the sacrifice of any rights. For those people, I refer back to the well-known Ben Franklin quote: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." This is a country built on freedoms. If our rights are taken away, we are no longer the America we hope to protect. When American freedoms are negated in the name of safety, it's not protection at all but rather a dangerous change to the very fabric of our country. If truly motivated by an urge to protect, as opposed to a hunger for systemic permanence, our government actors will work to preserve the Constitution, not chip away at it.\nIt's up to you to determine what protection means in the sphere of your own goals, and what's worth the sacrifice to protect, as you become who you will be. It's also your call as to what role our government should play in the protection of the electorate and what rights can justifiably be stripped from us in the name of protection. In your own personal quest for meaning, however, remember that if you love this country and value living in the "free world," then no sacrifice, including life and the status quo, will be too great in the defense of America's most beautiful founding element: the freedoms protected by our Constitution.
(11/27/06 4:06am)
If Facebook is any indication of the general sentiments of students at IU, it seems that a sizable minority of us think Ugg boots are annoying, if not outright offensive. Logically, the next step is to form a group against Uggs on IU's campus, followed by submitting a proposal to President Adam Herbert outlining how to effect a ban of such hideous footwear.\nWhat's that you say? An outspoken minority with a fiercely held position can't arbitrarily create rules that govern the whole student body as well as faculty and staff?\nIf you return to the opening paragraph and replace "Ugg boots" with "smoking," you've outlined the administration's response to an initiative by the Students' Smokefree Coalition. Just before Thanksgiving, Herbert informed the group that he had assigned a task force to investigate its proposal to ban smoking on the IU-Bloomington campus.\nOf course everyone knows about the risks to both smokers and those inhaling second-hand smoke. But while plenty of research has illustrated smoking's threat to people in enclosed areas, there is little evidence regarding the risks of smoking outdoors to passers-by. If you catch a whiff of it as you walk to class, will its harm be that much more severe than the lungful of car exhaust you'll inhale during the same stroll? In a March 1, 2000, article in the research journal Tobacco Control, Editor Simon Chapman noted that bans on outdoor smoking were predicated more on its being a nuisance than its actual risk and argued that outdoor bans could be detrimental to the anti-smoking movement as "efforts to prevent people smoking outdoors risk besmirching tobacco control advocates as the embodiment of intolerant, paternalistic busybodies, who, not content at protecting their own health, want to force smokers to not smoke even in circumstances where the effects of their smoking on others are immeasurably small." Asthmatics have a legitimate complaint, certainly -- but couldn't we accommodate their needs by simply enforcing the restrictions currently on the books (by avoiding smoking within 30 feet of campus buildings)? \nOn Oct. 3, we highlighted the ban's unenforceability; besides its logistical difficulties, we have to ask if such a miniscule risk justifies letting others control our behavior.
(11/27/06 4:04am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders called for an end to Iraq's sectarian conflict Sunday and vowed to track down those responsible for the war's deadliest attack.\nBut as they went on national television to try to keep Iraq from sliding into an all-out civil war, fighting between Iraqi security forces and Sunni Arab insurgents raged for a second day in Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad.\nBy the end of the day, the province's latest casualty figures were a microcosm of the brutality in Iraq: 17 insurgents killed, 15 detained, 20 civilians kidnapped, three bodies found, one U.S. Marine killed and two wounded. The mayor of a municipality also narrowly escaped an assassination attempt that killed one of his guards and wounded three.\nDuring Saturday's fighting in Baqouba, police had killed at least 36 insurgents and wounded dozens after scores of militants armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades attacked government buildings in the city center, police said. The fighting raged for hours in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.\nOn Saturday, officials including Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obaidi and Gen. George Casey, Iraq's top U.S. commander in Iraq, met and decided to fire Diyala's police commander, saying he was unable to stop infiltration of the force by Sunni insurgents, two Iraqi officials said on condition of anonymity as is often the case in areas subjected to widespread fighting and revenge killings.\nOne of the main challenges for U.S. and British forces in recruiting and training Iraqi military and police forces is that soldiers and police often are attacked by insurgents and militias, which also have infiltrated some security forces to kill and kidnap in disguise.\n"We promise the great martyrs that we will chase the killers and criminals, the terrorists, Saddamists and Takfiri (Sunni extremists) for viciously trying to divide you," Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Sunni Parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and Kurdish President Jalal Talabani said in their joint statement on state-run TV. In addressing "the great martyrs," they were referring to the 215 people who died when suspected Sunni insurgents attacked Sadr City, the capital's main Shiite district, Thursday.\nAl-Maliki also urged his national unity government of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds to end their public disputes and curb sectarian violence.\n"The crisis is political, and it is the politicians who must try to prevent more violence and bloodletting. The terrorist acts are a reflection of the lack of political accord," al-Maliki said.\nHe is facing strong criticism from top Shiite and Sunni Arab leaders alike as he prepares for a summit in neighboring Jordan with President George W. Bush on Wednesday and Thursday.
(11/27/06 4:04am)
Lights -- Fireworks light up in the sky Friday during the 44th annual Circle of Lights at Monument Circle in Indianapolis.
(11/27/06 4:03am)
JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as an unexpected truce took hold Sunday, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.\nThe rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting cease-fire, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes. The rockets landed in open fields and caused no injuries.\nPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ordered his security chiefs to send their forces to the Gaza border area to prevent further rocket attacks, Palestinian security officials said.\n"The instructions are clear. Anyone violating the national agreement will be considered to be breaking the law," said Lt. Gen. Abdel Razek Mejaidie.\nIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered the army to show restraint in the face of the rockets.\n"Even though there are still violations of the cease-fire by the Palestinian side, I have instructed our defense officials not to respond, to show restraint and to give this cease-fire a chance to take full effect," he said.\nA senior Israeli official said Israel would wait a few hours to see if the attacks were isolated breaches or a full-scale violation of the agreement before deciding whether to respond. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.\nThe truce, if it holds, would be a coup for Abbas, who has been trying for months to end the violence in Gaza. He has also been working to end crippling international sanctions imposed on the Palestinian Authority when the militant Hamas group won January parliamentary elections and formed a Cabinet.\nAbbas, a moderate from the Fatah Party, was elected separately last year.\nThe two sides announced the truce late Saturday after Abbas telephoned Olmert with an agreement from Palestinian militant groups to halt rocket fire and other violence from Gaza.\nOlmert pledged to end the military offensive in Gaza, launched in June after Hamas militants in Gaza conducted a cross-border raid on a military outpost, killing two soldiers and capturing one other.\nThe violence has claimed the lives of more than 300 Palestinians and five Israelis. Most of the Palestinians killed have been militants, but scores of civilians have been killed as well, including 19 members of an extended family killed earlier this month in a botched Israeli artillery attack.\nAhead of the new agreement, which took effect at 6 a.m. Sunday, Israel pulled all its forces out of Gaza, the army said. Dozens of tanks and armored vehicles were parked just over the border in a military staging ground in southern Israel early Sunday.\nBut Israeli police reported at least four rockets fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and an Associated Press photographer in the border town heard at least two more strikes. Another AP photographer in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun heard several rockets fired throughout the morning.\n"Let's hope that's just the problems of the beginning," said Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin. "But if Israel is attacked, we will respond. If there are Palestinian factions that are not part of the cease-fire, it's hard to see how the cease-fire will hold."\nPalestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said he had contacted the leaders of all the Palestinian factions Sunday, and they reassured him they were committed to the truce.\n"There is a 100 percent effort to make this work, but there is no guarantee of 100 percent results," said Ghazi Hamad, a spokesman for the Hamas-led government.\nHamas' own militants claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel after the truce took hold, clouding prospects for the truce's longevity. The Hamas militants said they continued their attacks because some Israeli troops remained inside Gaza, an accusation Israel denied.\n"(We) reiterate that our attacks against the enemy continue," the group said in a statement posted on its Web site.\nIslamic Jihad also claimed responsibility for firing rockets into Israel and a spokesman, Abu Hamza, denied his group had signed on to the truce, contradicting statements from Islamic Jihad leaders.\nIsraeli forces originally entered Gaza to try to recover the soldier captured in a June 25 cross-border raid, but they soon widened their objectives to target militants firing rockets into Israel.\nThe violence cut short efforts by Olmert and Abbas to restart peace talks. A truce could help create momentum for new talks.
(11/27/06 4:02am)
HAMMOND, Ind. -- Firefighters contained an aluminum plant blaze that had produced dense black clouds of smoke but were still struggling Friday to douse lingering flames being fed by an unknown fuel source, a fire official said.\nHammond's chief fire inspector, Jim Walsko, said 40 to 50 firefighters from three agencies remained on the scene at about 3 p.m. trying to extinguish remaining flames at Jupiter Aluminum Corp. But officials were having trouble contacting company officials to discuss the hot spot, he said.\nNo one was injured, and workers on duty when the fire began left safely, he said.\nWalsko said firefighters from Hammond, East Chicago, Ind., and Calumet City, Ill., were able to contain flames rising from a pit filled with a kerosene-like light oil. BP Amoco workers also helped by dumping fire-suppressing foam on the material used in the aluminum-finishing process.\n"We've got that under control, but we still have an adjacent area that's being fed by something," he said. "The problem apparently is that there's some form of a leak, and we're not sure where if it's natural gas or what it is."\nHe said that aerial ladders continued to pour water on the blaze and have contained the remaining flames.\nBlack clouds of smoke that had rolled off the plant Friday morning, slowing traffic along the Indiana Toll Road, had dissipated by 3 p.m., Walsko said.\nThe fire began about 5:45 a.m. at the factory that makes aluminum rod coils, plates, sheets and foil.\nMorning footage from television station helicopters showed several buildings engulfed in flames with black smoke rising from collapsed roofs at the plant in the R & R industrial park about 20 miles southeast of Chicago.\nAn area about 300 feet by 400 feet was consumed with flames at the fire's peak, sending smoke generally upward and to the north and posing no immediate threat to nearby residential areas.\nHe said the fire might have started when an aluminum furnace used in making the company's products became overfilled, causing the flames inside to spread and reach the building's roofline. An automatic furnace-extinguishing system apparently didn't work, he said.\nState Fire Marshal Roger Johnson said a Hammond fire official told him that the smoke rolling from the fire was not toxic.
(11/27/06 4:02am)
NEW AMSTERDAM, Ind. -- The newest addition to the forest land the state owns includes dozens of acres where a decade ago the owner planted some 30,000 trees.\nThe Indiana Department of Natural Resources paid $340,000 this month for the 183 acres near the Ohio River, using revenue from state timber sales in the first such use of the money, said John Seifert, director of the agency's forestry division.\nThe land borders a southern section of the Harrison-Crawford State Forest, and district forester Mike Coggeshall recalled finding landowner Norman Wooten cutting cedars and clearing brush on the property's rugged slopes a decade ago.\nWooten, who died in the late 1990s, owned an Ohio River fuel supply business and had put the property in the state's Classified Forest Program, which gives private landowners a tax break for timber production. The state bought the land from his estate.\nThe trees Wooten planted -- mostly white and red oaks, yellow poplar and white ash -- covers about a third of the tract. It will be decades before the trees grow into a substantial timber stand, Coggeshall said, but that's clearly what Wooten envisioned.\n"He looked at it more as a legacy," Coggeshall said.\nThe fund used for the purchase is made up of money the state receives from selling timber on public lands. That money is dedicated to tree planting, some forest research and a statewide cost-sharing program for private woodland management.\nSeifert said state officials had no plans to develop the Wooten property, about 25 miles west of Louisville, Ky.\nThe state agency is working on five other land-acquisition projects involving more than 700 acres, using money from the timber sales fund, Seifert said.
(11/27/06 4:01am)
EVANSVILLE -- Two computers containing health records on people in the state's Breast and Cervical Cancer Program were stolen, leaving more than 7,500 Indiana women at risk of identity theft, officials said.\nThe computers were taken earlier this month from a health center in Jeffersonville, Ind. The center contracted with the Indiana Department of Health to manage information in the state's Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, said department spokesman Erik Deckers.\nData stored on the computers might include a person's name, address, Social Security number or medical or other information, Deckers said. Two passwords protect the data, and the stolen computers can no longer access the information.\nThe department mailed 7,700 letters to those who might be vulnerable to identity theft. The department recommends requesting credit reports, watching for unusual activity and placing fraud alerts on credit records.\nThe Jeffersonville Police Department is investigating the theft. Officials say someone smashed a window to get inside the Family Health Center of Clark County in Jeffersonville, located across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky.\nEvansville resident Sharylon Douglass, 50, said she was scared and angry when she learned that she could be open to identity theft. The 13-year cervical cancer survivor said she did not know her health information was part of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program until she received a letter from the state health department.\n"My information has been given out to a location that I've never even heard of," she said. "Where was their security system when this took place?"\nDeckers said the Family Health Center has installed a new security system and said new security measures for electronic data will be implemented statewide.\nMedical providers that are part of the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program offer free or discounted exams and provide information to the state department of health to receive reimbursement, Deckers said. The Indiana BCCP is part of the national BCCP public health program.
(11/27/06 4:00am)
SHELBYVILLE, Ind. -- Some local officials have plenty of questions about Gov. Mitch Daniels' proposal for a 75-mile tollway bypass of Indianapolis.\nThe plan the governor announced Nov. 9 calls for a tollway to run from Interstate 69 northeast of Indianapolis and loop east and south of the city to link up with I-70. Many people living in the five counties through which the highway would run are waiting for details about its route.\nDave Mohr, who will take office in January as a Shelby County commissioner, said he had heard talk of at least three possible routes the tollway could take through Shelby County, southeast of Indianapolis, where it would cross I-74.\n"This road will change the character of Shelby County for generations," said Doug Warnecke, president of the Shelby County commissioners. "It will be like a gigantic 'X' right through Shelby County. People need to study this thing and look at the impact. It will be much more pervasive than they may think."\nPendleton Town Council President Don Henderson, whose town is near the projected northern end of the tollway, said he saw many possible benefits from the project.\n"I think it creates a venue and a road system that will accommodate additional industry that otherwise wouldn't come here," he said.\nThe governor's plan calls for a private company to pay for the estimated $1 billion to $1.5 billion cost of building the tollway, as well as the costs of designing, maintaining and managing it. The proposal, which needs legislative approval, would have private investors collect toll fees and pay the state a concession fee.\nMadison County Commissioner Paul Wilson said he had concerns about the environmental impact of building the new tollway and of the state government using eminent domain for a privately operated highway.\n"When you do a project like this, there are some people who want to sell but other people who don't," he said.\nShelby County Councilman Kermit Paris said while he expected many residents to be upset over the tollway, he thought more would ultimately support its construction.\n"It will help the infrastructure of our county and will help attract factories, which will then bring jobs to our county," he said. "I've got to see more of the proposal and study it a little harder, but I don't think it's a terribly bad idea"
(11/27/06 4:00am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Democrats who control the Indiana House want to eliminate the state's sales tax on gasoline, but Republicans who control the Indiana Senate are skeptical.\nSenate Republicans say it's unlikely the proposal would become law. Exempting gasoline from the state's 6 percent sales tax could cost the state as much as $300 million a year, according to Republicans, while saving drivers only a few cents at a time.\n"It could be looked at," said Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, chairman of the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee. "But I don't see that it's on the table right now at all."\nHouse Democrats first suggested eliminating the sales tax on gas in August, when gas prices were about $3 a gallon.\nIndiana charges the 6 percent sales tax on the base price of gas, not including the state and federal excise taxes. Democrats said eliminating the state sales tax would save drivers about 16 cents per gallon if the pump price is $3 a gallon. Democrats estimated the average driver would save about $150 a year.\nBut Republicans say gas prices have since fallen. Kenley said reducing property taxes would make a bigger impact on most families.\nBut House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said gas prices could increase if international instability continues. Although all states impose an excise tax on gasoline, Indiana is one of only seven that charge an additional sales tax.\n"You shouldn't run your state on proceeds from gouging," Bauer said. "We want to see what we can do to help the average person."\nGov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, also opposes the Democrats' plan. He said there is no evidence to show that tax revenues increase because of higher gas prices. He said as people have to pay more for gas, they spend less on other things, which cancels out any tax gain for the state.\nBauer said that if the sales tax on gas is eliminated, Hoosiers will pay less to drive and can spend more money elsewhere.
(11/27/06 3:59am)
ELKHART, Ind. -- A prosecutor is considering seeking the death penalty against a mother charged with strangling her four young children.\nAngelica Alvarez, 27, of Elkhart, was ordered to be jailed without bond on four counts of murder during a court hearing held Wednesday just hours after she was released from Elkhart General Hospital. She had been in the hospital since being found unconscious with a faint pulse Nov. 14 next to the bodies of her children, ages 2 to 8.\nElkhart County Prosecutor Curtis Hall called the case one of the worst he could recall because four children from the same family were killed.\n"That is particularly troubling, and I think a circumstance of this nature requires an appropriate response," he said.\nAuthorities allege that Alvarez strangled her children, Jennifer Lopez, 8, Gonzalo Lopez, 6, Daniel Valdez, 4, and Jessica Valdez, 2. Fernando Valdez, the father of the two youngest and Alvarez's husband, came home from work and found their bodies in the basement of their home in Elkhart, 15 miles east of South Bend. The charges came a day after 300 people attended the children's funeral.\nHill would not give specifics on how the children were killed and does not know whether investigators have a theory on motive, saying Indiana law does not require it to try the case.\n"I don't think there's anybody on this earth that can suggest to me a reason for killing children. So I'm not too concerned about what motive might be there," he said at a news conference.\nHill said he would not describe the case as a murder-suicide attempt.\n"I would not consider this as anything other than a murder at this time," he said.\nElkhart Circuit Judge Terry Shewmaker ordered Alvarez be jailed without bond and that she be examined to make sure she is competent to stand trial. Hill said earlier he had no reason to believe she wasn't.\nGonzalo Lopez, father of the two oldest children, has said Alvarez was depressed after losing her job and had been hospitalized for 12 days. Officials at Norco Industries, where Alvarez had worked as a housekeeper for three years, said she quit in mid-September.\nLopez earlier told the South Bend Tribune that he met Alvarez in Mexico and that they lived in Lazaro Cardenas, a port city in the state of Michoacan. A decade ago, Lopez and Alvarez moved to Goshen, Ind., a town near Elkhart, where Lopez had family.\nShewmaker asked Alvarez through a translator Wednesday at the courthouse in Goshen whether she was in the country legally. She said no. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for Dec. 21.\nHill said the Mexican consulate has been in touch with his office about Alvarez and said U.S. immigration officials also have inquired about the case. He said her citizenship status was not a concern.\n"I don't think that really matters," he said. "I don't care if she is an American citizen; I don't care if she's a Mexican national; I don't much care if she is from the planet Mars. When you commit a murder of a child in Elkhart County, you will commit a steep price"
