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(12/10/07 3:45am)
BEIJING – Rights groups have called on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the International Olympic Committee to confront the organizers of the Beijing 2008 Summer Games over China’s media restrictions and human rights record.\nNew York-based Human Rights Watch said Bloomberg, who is visiting China this week, is obligated to express concern about media freedoms because of his background as founder of the global financial news service that bears his name.\n“Bloomberg should explain to the Chinese government how important media freedom is to China’s social, economic and political development,” the group said in a statement Saturday.\nBloomberg is scheduled to attend a series of meetings with government officials and business leaders in Beijing and Shanghai.\nSeparately, London-based Amnesty International said the IOC must push Beijing organizers at its Executive Board meeting this week in Switzerland for progress on reducing use of the death penalty and detentions of citizens without trial, allowing greater freedom of expression and ending harassment of human rights activists.\nWhile reforms are primarily the government’s responsibility, the IOC “can still make a significant contribution by using its influence to bring about positive change in line with the Olympics Charter,” the group said.\nChina is considered the leading jailer of journalists, with at least 29 behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based advocacy group. Most independent reporting and criticism of the ruling Communist Party is blocked, and monitors erase critical commentary on the Internet and frequently jail cyber-dissidents. Scores of Web sites carrying news and opinion are blocked within the country.\nAuthorities have relaxed rules for foreign media ahead of the Aug. 15 opening of the Olympic Games, promising unrestricted access, visa exemptions, tax waivers for equipment and other benefits. However, harassment and occasional detentions continue, according to monitoring groups and foreign journalists.\nChina is believed to execute more people for crimes each year than all other nations combined and regularly sentences petty criminals and government critics to two or more years in prison camps without trial. Activists highlighting corruption and the denial of civil, religious, medical and labor rights are frequently threatened and detained.\nChina has repeatedly claimed it upholds civil rights in conformity with its constitution, while avoiding discussion of specific cases.
(12/10/07 3:26am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A former church elder who pleaded guilty to child molestation charges has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.\nTerry Van Gorp, 59, offered a brief apology to the victim’s family but showed no remorse for his actions, said Hamilton Superior Court Judge Steve Nation.\nVan Gorp was arrested in June 2006 after he told family and other church members that he had molested the girl, now five years old, at his home in February 2006. Van Gorp pleaded guilty to a felony charge of child molesting, and two other felony charges were dropped in the plea deal.\nNation sentenced Van Gorp to 15 years, with 10 served in prison and five on probation. After being released from prison, Van Gorp will have to register as a sex offender and complete a court-approved sex offender treatment program. He will not be allowed to contact the victim, travel alone after 10 p.m. or use a computer with Internet access without permission from his probation officer.\nNation said those precautions will keep other children safe, but the victim’s family members still have concerns.\n“He deserves so much more (time in prison),” the victim’s father said. “But we didn’t want to have to put (the victim) through testifying in front of him again, when she had nightmares after the first time.”\nVan Gorp was an elder at College Park Church in Carmel, Ind. The victim’s family has since left the congregation.
(12/07/07 4:24am)
NEW YORK -Billy Joel has released a new pop single, the anti-war “Christmas in Fallujah.” Just don’t expect to hear his voice on it.\nAt 58, Joel felt he was too old to sing the song, which was inspired by letters the Piano Man received from soldiers in Iraq. So he gave it to Cass Dillon, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Long Island.\n“I thought it should be somebody young, about a soldier’s age,” Joel said in a statement on his Web site. “I wanted to help somebody else’s career. I’ve had plenty of hits. I’ve had plenty of airplay. I’ve had my time in the sun. I think it’s time for somebody else, maybe, to benefit from my own experience.”\nDillon said he was thrilled to be asked.\n“When someone of that stature, with that history of great songs behind him with such a huge catalog asks you to sing something he’s written, there’s nothing you can do but be completely honored to perform,” Dillon said in a \nstatement.\n“Christmas in Fallujah” went on sale Tuesday on Apple Inc.’s iTunes. Net proceeds will be donated to Homes for Our Troops, which builds homes for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and \nAfghanistan.
(12/06/07 7:52pm)
A car bomb exploded in a largely Shiite neighborhood Wednesday, killing at least 16 people, just as Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited the capital and said a secure and stable Iraq was within reach. It was the deadliest of four bombs in Iraq on Wednesday that killed a total of 25 people. Earlier, a blast went off in the northern city of Mosul, where Gates had landed on his sixth trip to Iraq. Gunfire and sirens followed the bombing in Baghdad’s Karradah neighborhood, and a plume of smoke rose in the sky.
(12/06/07 4:39am)
The trial of Indiana Pacers players Jamaal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels, both facing charges stemming from a bar fight almost a year ago, has been rescheduled for Jan. 14.\nThe trial was to begin Monday, but defense attorney James Voyles requested the delay, the second since September, because the Pacers have a road game at Cleveland on Tuesday.\n“We’ll be all ready,” Voyles told The Indianapolis Star.\nA Marion Superior Court jury is expected to hear three days of testimony.\nA grand jury indicted Tinsley on a felony charge of intimidation and misdemeanor counts of battery, disorderly conduct and intimidation in connection with a Feb. 6 fight at the 8 Seconds Saloon. Daniels is charged with battery and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.\nAccording to a police report, the manager of the bar said Tinsley threatened to kill him during the fight. The confrontation with the players followed another fight involving a person who employees thought was trying to steal coats from the coat check area, police said.
(12/04/07 4:34am)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. – A teenager pleaded guilty to killing one man and wounding another in a series of Indiana highway sniper shootings in a deal with prosecutors that relatives of the slain man say they dislike.\nZachariah Blanton, 18, of Gaston, was scheduled to stand trial next week on charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal recklessness. He pleaded guilty in Jackson Circuit Court to lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and criminal recklessness. He faces a possible sentence of 20 to 50 years in prison. A judge must still approve the deal, and sentencing is set for Dec. 27.\nProsecutors say Blanton fired his hunting rifle into Interstate 65 traffic from an overpass near Seymour, Ind., about 60 miles south of Indianapolis on July 23, 2006.\nOne of the shots went through a pickup truck’s windshield and killed 40-year-old Jerry L. Ross of New Albany. An Iowa man traveling in another pickup truck also was injured.\nPolice say Blanton later shot at cars along another highway northeast of Indianapolis, but no one was injured. Blanton, who was 17 at the time, was arrested at his home two days later.\nBlanton said very little in court, giving short answers to the judge’s questions about the shootings. His grandparents declined to comment after the hearing.\nBlanton’s defense attorney did not publicly comment after court, and The Associated Press left a message at his office.\nSeveral of Ross’s relatives wearing “Justice for Jerry” buttons gathered at the courthouse, saying they were unhappy with the plea deal.\nHis father, 70-year-old Jesse Ross, had been with his son at car races in Indianapolis the day of the shooting and they were headed back home to New Albany.\nHe said a jury should have decided Blanton’s fate.\n“Twelve people would be about as fair as it could be, it couldn’t get no better than that,” Ross said. “I don’t think this is right the way they’re doing it. All we want is a fair trial because you can’t bring nothing back.”\nJerry’s twin brother, Terry Ross, said many family members were going to stay out of the hearing as a protest.\n“He committed those crimes, he should be standing trial for them,” he said. “He didn’t give Jerry any kind of a deal.”\nProsecutor Rick Poynter said after the hearing that he understands the family’s pain but had to make a decision based on the strength of his case.\nIf Blanton was tried for murder, he could have faced 45 to 65 years in prison. But Poynter said the jury also would likely have been able to consider convicting him of the lesser charge of reckless homicide, which has a sentence of two to eight years. He also could have been acquitted.\n“I can’t tell you what a jury would or would not do, what I’m saying is there is a big risk between 45 to 65 years and two to eight years,” Poynter said.\nEvidence against Blanton included a rifle seized from his grandparents’ home that prosecutors said matched bullet fragments pulled from vehicles shot along I-65 and on I-69 near Muncie.\nBlanton confessed to the shooting and provided police with details, according to statements by Indiana State Police Sgt. John Kelly in a July probable cause hearing. Blanton told police he fired the shots to relieve pressure after he argued with fellow participants in a southern Indiana hunting trip. Blanton confirmed the motive in court Monday.
(12/04/07 4:33am)
FORT WAYNE – A judge has postponed until early February a hearing on nine criminal indictments against defeated Fort Wayne mayoral candidate Matt Kelty.\nThe hearing scheduled for this Monday was delayed until Feb. 8, according to documents filed Thursday in Allen Superior Court.\nJudge Kenneth Scheibenberger granted a request by both sides for more time.\nSpecial Prosecutor Daniel Sigler had sought more time to respond to a defense motion to dismiss the charges that argued Kelty did not break any laws.\nKelty’s attorneys, meanwhile, asked for more time to respond to Sigler’s response.\nA grand jury issued the indictments against Kelty in August, alleging that he improperly handled campaign contributions and lied in his testimony to the grand jury.\nFive of the counts deal with how Kelty reported a $150,000 loan he received from Fred Rost, former campaign chairman and head of Allen County Right to Life, and another $10,000 he received from Steve and Glenna Jehl, his campaign managers.\nAlthough Kelty initially reported he loaned his campaign $140,000 and $8,000 in late December, after he defeated Nelson Peters in the Republican primary in May, Kelty disclosed the money originally came from personal loans from Rost and the Jehls.\nHis attorneys argue there is no Indiana law that says a candidate cannot borrow money from a personal acquaintance or friend, nor one that prohibits a candidate from loaning the proceeds of a prior loan to his or her campaign committee, according to court documents.\nKelty, a Republican, lost to Democrat Tom Henry in the Nov. 6 general election.
(12/04/07 4:32am)
FORT WAYNE – East Allen County Schools and a local branch of the NAACP both want to enlist the U.S. Justice Department to relieve racial tensions at a rural school, leaders say.\nRev. Michael Latham, president of Fort Wayne-Allen County NAACP, said he plans to meet soon with a member of the department’s Community Relations Service in Chicago to discuss complaints of racism at Heritage Junior-Senior High School.\nEast Allen County Schools has also been working to set up an appointment with the department, said Julie Labie, an aide to Superintendent Kay Novotny.\nTwo students in mid-November reported finding identical notes containing racial slurs and threatening language in their lockers at Heritage Junior-Senior High School, located in a rural area southeast of Fort Wayne.\nThe reports prompted an investigation by the school district and meetings involving the NAACP, the school board and district officials. Some parents complained of other racist incidents at the high school.\nThe school district announced Wednesday that it had concluded its investigation and determined only one note existed, and it was found in a classroom lab table, not in a student’s locker. An unidentified number of students have changed their stories, school officials said in a statement.\nBut one of the students who made the initial reports told The Journal Gazette newspaper and Latham that a school administrator had intimidated him into changing his story, and he stands by his original statement that he had received a note in his locker.\nJesse Taylor, regional director of the Community Relations Service in Chicago, said Friday his staff was assessing whether to offer a mediator to help bring closure to the Heritage case.\n“We haven’t made any determination yet,” Taylor said. “We’re still looking at what we’ve learned.”\nThe agency doesn’t have any coercive or punitive power but offers mediation and training in conflict resolution.\nLatham said he would welcome the opportunity for someone outside of the situation to provide a fresh perspective, without the focus on personalities that happens sometimes when local leaders are involved.\n“I think it’d be very helpful,” he said.
(12/03/07 5:16am)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue will play Central Michigan in the Motor City Bowl in Detroit on Dec. 26.\nPurdue (7-5) and Central Michigan (8-5) met earlier in the season, when the Boilermakers pulled off a 45-22 victory at home.\nThe Motor City Bowl, which will be played at Ford Field, will be televised by ESPN.\nPurdue coach Joe Tiller will be taking his 10th Purdue team to postseason play in 11 seasons. Tiller says the team hopes to make the bowl game its best game this year.
(12/03/07 5:15am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Five Indianapolis Colts fans won Super Bowl rings at halftime of Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.\nRaffle tickets for the “Quest for the Ring” cost $5 each and were sold through Nov. 20. Twenty-five finalists were chosen, a number that was knocked down to ten on Saturday. The remaining contenders gathered on the RCA Dome’s field at halftime.\nFive of 10 treasure chests contained a Super Bowl XLI ring. Ten cheerleaders lined up on the field with the boxes, and each contestant chose one in hopes of receiving a $23,000 piece of jewelry.\nWinners were Chris Carr of Indianapolis, Ed Ressler of Avon, Ind., Jeff Haggard of Indianapolis, Jay Williamson of Franklin, Ind., and Bryan Snyder of Indianapolis.\nThose finalists who didn’t win a ring received tickets for the opening game at Lucas Oil Stadium next year, part of what the Colts called a “VIP Experience.”\nTeam owner Jim Irsay first announced the promotion at a pep rally on Oct. 30, during the week leading up to the game against the New England Patriots.
(12/03/07 5:14am)
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Clippers chose to leave Jamaal Tinsley alone on the perimeter because Jermaine O’Neal was enough trouble in the low post.\nThey made the wrong choice.\nTinsley capitalized on the open looks, scoring 10 of his 29 points in the final 4:09 and leading the Indiana Pacers to a 101-95 victory on Sunday.\n“I’m always confident when the ball is in my hands. I don’t care if I miss eight or nine shots, I feel like the next one is going to go in,” Tinsley said. “I’ve got to credit my coaching staff for leaving me out there when I miss a lot of shots so that I get an opportunity to take another one. They were doubling down on Jermaine, the guys made the extra pass, and they just went in today.”\nO’Neal had 20 points and 15 rebounds despite a sore right shoulder. The six-time All-Star was forced to sit out the final 2:19 of Friday night’s 95-93 loss at Seattle after hurting himself setting a screen.\n“Yesterday morning he wasn’t able to get his arm above his shoulder, but we kept on working on it,” coach Jim O’Brien said. “He was doubtful today, and I was actually planning on going without him. But I found out he could go, and he had a great game.”\nO’Neal was more concerned about his left knee Saturday morning than his shoulder. He missed five games prior to the Seattle contest because of swelling in the knee and his lower leg.\n“Obviously, my knee has been a concern over the last two months, and I’ve been struggling to make moves, make shots, rebound and block shots,” O’Neal said. “The Seattle game was actually the first time I didn’t have pain in my knee in almost a year and a half, and today I didn’t have any pain in my knee at all.\n“My shoulder was about 85 percent,” O’Neal added. “We iced it a lot yesterday, I took some Advil, iced it again this morning and was ready to go.”\nChris Kaman had 22 points and 22 rebounds for the Clippers, who are 2-9 since a 104-89 win at Indiana on Nov. 7 that capped their 4-0 start. Sam Cassell, who scored 35 points that night, missed his second straight game with a strained left calf.\nThe Clippers’ injury woes grew a bit worse when No.1 draft pick Al Thornton sprained his left ankle and left the game with 1:22 to go in the first half.\n“It seems like it’s one injury after another for this team,” said Kaman, the only player to start all 15 games for the Clippers. “We can’t make excuses, because every team in the NBA goes through that. But it has been ridiculous.”\nTinsley hit a 3-pointer and a 19-footer 44 seconds apart to put the Pacers ahead to stay, then drained another 3-pointer with 1:56 remaining to put them ahead 96-90 and added a pair of free throws in the final minute.\nLos Angeles used an 8-0 run to turn a four-point deficit into an 88-84 lead with 7:08 to play. Tim Thomas’ nine-foot jumper capped the rally, but it would be the Clippers’ last field goal until Corey Maggette’s 3-pointer with 6 seconds left in the game.\nDanny Granger beat the buzzer with an 11-footer in the lane to give the Pacers a 77-76 lead entering the fourth.
(11/30/07 5:29am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Team doctors have given strong side linebacker Tyjuan Hagler the OK to resume a full practice schedule, and he could be back in the Indianapolis Colts defensive lineup in time for Sunday’s big AFC South matchup with Jacksonville.\nBut veteran wide receiver Marvin Harrison, who hasn’t played in a game since the Colts and Jaguars met on Oct. 22 due to a bruised left knee, may not be available to play when the teams meet again.\nHagler has missed four games after suffering a pinched nerve in his neck against Carolina on Oct. 28, but practiced Wednesday and Thursday and expects to play this weekend.\nColts coach Tony Dungy, however, is taking a wait-and-see attitude.\n“He’s getting better,” Dungy acknowledged.\n“It’s been tough,” he added. “We’ve had a few guys like that, that have been itching to get back and haven’t been able to.”\nHarrison hasn’t played in six of Indianapolis’ last seven games and has not gone through a full practice in more than a month.\n“I thought that he’s going to need a couple of good practice days to really be ready to go. So we’ll see what happens,” Dungy said.\nSitting out Thursday’s practice were Harrison, offensive tackles Ryan Diem (ankle) and Daniel Federkeil (concussion), middle linebacker Gary Brackett (illness), weak side linebacker Freddy Keiaho (illness) and safety Bob Sanders (team decision).\nBrackett, Keiaho and Sanders are all expected to play Sunday. The status of Harrison and Diem will be updated before the game.\nOffensive tackles Tony Ugoh (neck) and Charlie Johnson (hamstring) and cornerback Tim Jennings (upper leg) practiced Thursday. A final decision on their ability to play against Jacksonville will likely be made after Saturday’s workout.\nCornerback Dante Hughes (shoulder) has been placed on injured reserve and is done for the season. Meanwhile, the Colts have signed former Cincinnati and Tampa Bay cornerback Keiwan Ratliff. Ratliff was a second-round draft pick by the Bengals in 2004 and was released on Sept. 26. He was signed by the Buccaneers on Nov. 12 and was waived on Wednesday.\nIndianapolis also signed second-year cornerback Darrell Hunter to the practice squad. Hunter, out of Miami of Ohio, played in three games with Arizona last year.
(11/29/07 3:30am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A prosecutor said Wednesday he would seek life sentences without parole for the mother of a 3-year-old girl and the woman’s live-in boyfriend, who are charged with murder and neglect in the girl’s death.\nCharity Bailey and Lawrence Green, both 20, were arrested Tuesday, hours after Tajanay Bailey was found dead in her mother’s apartment. Both were being held without bond in the Marion County Jail and had initial court hearings set for Friday.\nAn autopsy found Tajanay died of blunt force trauma to her head, neck and abdomen. Police said she had suffered abuse that included being left hanging on a hook by her T-shirt, beaten with a belt and knocked in the chest for wetting her pants.\n“She was systematically tortured over the week of Thanksgiving by her mother’s fiance and by the mother,” Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said. “We believe both of the defendants actively participated in the abuse.”\nThe Indiana Department of Child Services had returned Tajanay to her mother last month after she had lived much of her life with a foster mother.\nHer former foster mother, Janice Springfield, said in an interview that she saw evidence of physical abuse and repeatedly warned a child welfare case worker.\n“I told child services that mom was no good, and that boyfriend was no good,” she said. “The system failed Tajanay.”\nDepartment of Child Services spokeswoman Susan Tielking said the agency was investigating the case.
(11/29/07 3:28am)
LAPORTE, Ind. – LaPorte police said they will not charge a motorist who drove his pickup truck into a snowman, sending its head flying through a nearby vehicle’s window. \nPolice said 33-year-old Thomas Ross agreed to pay the $600 cost of repairing the shattered window.\nTwenty-eight-year-old Amanda Boes says she saw the gray Ford pickup truck accelerate into the snowman Saturday. The head of the snowman landed on the back window of a parked car belonging to Boes’ mother.\nPolice found the truck parked nearby and said Ross admitted to being the driver.\nAfter Ross promised to pay for a new window, police ordered him to provide a written copy of the cost estimate.
(11/28/07 5:35am)
PITTSBURGH – Sports in America start with a the national anthem. The Dolphins-Steelers game was an exception.\nRushing to begin the nationally televised matchup following a 25-minute weather delay, the NFL chose to skip the anthem Monday night before Miami played Pittsburgh. The game started without any of the traditional pregame ceremonies, except the coin toss, and neither team was introduced on the public address system.\nAccording to the Steelers, the NFL wanted the game to begin as soon as possible following the delay. Several more minutes would have been needed to set up a microphone and sound equipment at midfield, where the anthem is traditionally performed at Steelers games.\nThere was no apparent fan reaction to the omission, which occurred as many fans were scrambling to get back to their seats for the kickoff. The fans were ordered to leave the lower seating bowl at Heinz Field when lightning and a heavy rain resulted in both teams being waved off the field during pregame warmups.\nThe teams warmed up for an additional nine minutes before the game began at 8:55 p.m. EST. Pittsburgh won 3-0 on Jeff Reed’s 24-yard field goal with 17 seconds remaining.\nNational anthems are rarely televised during NFL games, with the Super Bowl being an exception.
(11/28/07 5:34am)
What a difference two weeks make.\nIt’s been two weeks since New York coach Isiah Thomas decreed that he didn’t think his point guard was worthy of starting. Now, he can’t stop gushing about him.\nStephon Marbury continued his turnaround with a season-high 28 points, and the New York Knicks beat the Utah Jazz 113-109 on Monday night.\n“I thought Marbury was great,” Thomas said. “His leadership throughout the game, during the course of the game, his decision-making, his defense, his shot-making ability. Just from start to finish he was great.\n“Overall a good team effort, but No. 3 was really good tonight.”\nMarbury was still hearing pregame boos along with Thomas after ditching the team for a game in Phoenix when the coach told him of plans to remove him from the starting lineup. Marbury regained his starting spot last week, and on Monday he keyed one of the Knicks’ best offensive performances of the season.\nThomas stressed it was his disappointment in Marbury’s defense and leadership that led to the demotion, but Marbury has shown his offense is rounding into shape. He scored 19 points Saturday against Chicago, and followed that by going 9-for-14 and making all three 3-pointers Monday.\n“When I have the ball more and I’m able to create and make plays, I can get into a nice flow,” Marbury said. “Coming into this year I was trying to pick up from last year from the end of the season, but that didn’t happen. But with time, everything might happen. The season is still young, it’s November. I’m not panicking at all. I’m not worried, I have no worries as far as how I’m going to play.”\nZach Randolph had 25 points and 14 rebounds. Jamal Crawford added 22 points for the Knicks, who have won two in a row following an eight-game losing streak. Randolph, who grabbed a huge offensive rebound in the final seconds, has eight double-doubles in the 10 games he has played this season.\n“Right now we feel like we beat anybody,” Randolph said. “We got a lot of talent in here and guys have got to be ready to play. Like I said to the guys, when we compete we can play with anybody in this league. I really mean that.”\nCarlos Boozer scored 16 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, but the Jazz had their three-game winning streak snapped. Deron Williams added 26 points and eight assists for Utah, which played Sunday in Detroit and seemed a step slow on defense, allowing the Knicks to shoot 53 percent from the field.
(11/28/07 5:33am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Defensive end Simeon Rice, signed two weeks ago to fill in for injured Pro Bowler Dwight Freeney, was released Tuesday by the Indianapolis Colts.\nRice, who played one season for Colts coach Tony Dungy at Tampa Bay, was claimed off waivers from Denver after Freeney suffered a season-ending foot injury at San Diego. Rice played the past two games, both as a reserve, and had one sack.\nDungy and other team officials were not available for comment, Colts spokesman Craig Kelley said.\nThe team also re-signed running back Luke Lawton, who played the first six games mainly on special teams, but was released last month.
(11/26/07 5:00am)
In this image released by Entertainment Weekly, the recent issue of the entertainment magazine features on its cover, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who was named entertainer of the year. (AP Photo/Entertainment Weekly) ** NO SALES **
(11/26/07 3:12am)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Mike Green and Butler rode the 3-point shot all the way to a championship in the Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout.\nGreen scored 23 points and No. 22 Butler made 16 3-pointers to beat Texas Tech 81-71 Saturday night and set a record for 3-pointers in the tournament.\n“Sixteen for 24 probably sums it up. I’d like to say we hit timely shots, but I think that probably sums it up,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said about his team’s success shooting 3s in the final.\nA.J. Graves was 6-of-8 for 3-pointers and had 18 points, and Green made all four of his shots from beyond the arc for Butler, which set the tournament record with 47 3-pointers in three games, smashing UC-Irvine’s mark of 34 set in 1990.\n“They play extremely smart basketball, they take advantage of what they can do and they do it really well,” Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. “The best compliment I can give them is that I wish we played as smart as they do.”\nLeading by two at the half, Butler (6-0) made four 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second frame to open a 48-36 lead. But the Red Raiders rallied behind Alan Voskuil’s three 3s, cutting the lead to 55-50 with just under 12 minutes left.\n“Their offense is run as quick as any time I’ve seen in a long time,” said Knight, entering his 42nd season. “They shot it extremely well. We didn’t really get hurt rebounding, we ended up with just one or two turnovers in the second half. That is a really, really well put together team.”\nOver the next five minutes, Butler added five more 3-pointers, pushing the lead to 71-57. Texas Tech never got closer than nine after that.\n“We’re not a very big team, so we’ve got to use our strengths. Our strengths are playing motion basketball, penetrating, kicking, setting screens and just being patient and looking for the open shot,” Graves said. “More times than not, when we run it around, it’s just coincidence, to be honest, that we just get a lot of 3s.”\nZeno Martin led Texas Tech with 17 and John Roberson added 15.\nBoth teams got off to a slow start. Texas Tech (4-2) scored only two baskets in the first seven minutes and turned the ball over six times.\nButler built a 31-19 lead with 3:55 to go in the first half behind four 3-pointers, but Voskuil made a 3-pointer with six seconds left in the half to cut the lead to 34-32.
(11/26/07 1:58am)
WADESVILLE, Ind. – A 29-year-old woman was fatally shot Thursday while trying to coax her dog from a neighbor’s yard and was hit by a bullet that ricocheted off the ground and under a plastic fence before striking her shoulder.\nThe bullet from a .357-caliber Magnum pierced both the lungs and heart of Nicole Stroud, Vanderburgh County Coroner Don Erk said. The Evansville woman was leaning down, trying to get her shih tzu dog out of a neighbor’s yard through a hole in the bottom of a fence when she was shot.\nThe neighbor accused of firing the gun, Melinda Lindauer, 41, was arrested on preliminary charges of involuntary manslaughter and reckless homicide. She was still being held in Posey County Jail on Saturday.\nPosey County Prosecutor Jodi Uebelhack said she believes Lindauer fired from a back window of her house at a dog that was loose from a neighboring house, where Stroud was visiting her grandmother.\nThe Lindauers live directly behind Stroud’s grandmother. Wadesville is about 15 miles northwest of Evansville.\nThe prosecutor said Lindauer might not have seen Stroud and probably didn’t intend to kill her, but criminal charges were still warranted. Indiana law states that a person can fire a gun at a dog only if it is threatening an individual or livestock.\n“After we got all the statements, it was pretty clear this was a criminal act,” Uebelhack said. “It’s never an accident to pick up a gun and shoot it.”\nUebelhack said a statement given to police by Lindauer’s husband, Lonnie Lindauer, indicated there was an ongoing dispute between the neighbors over the dog. She said he told authorities the dog had previously dug up a cat that was buried in the Lindauer’s backyard.\nMelinda Lindauer’s attorney, Nick Hermann, said he could not comment on the specifics of the case. But he said the Lindauers are distraught over what happened.\n“Their thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the lady who died in this incident,” he said.
