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(01/26/07 5:00am)
As a young man, Bob Nellis didn't just go to the theater to see the latest flick to hit the big screen. In fact, because of a curfew, he rarely saw a whole movie start-to-finish. \nHe really went to "The Indiana" -- now the Buskirk-Chumley Theater -- in downtown Bloomington to see his friends and pass the time.\nSometimes he would go just to hear stories from Roy Hays, the theater's projectionist. Nellis' father worked with Hays in the theater, and between the two men, Nellis heard many stories over the years about life at the theater.\n"If Dad were here, he could tell you a thousand," Nellis, now 68, said.\nNellis' father was with the theater from its beginning in 1922, before television and radio became popular and when the main places to meet were theaters, schools and churches.\nHowever, as the idea of a "gathering place" has changed over the years, the historic theater has remained a focal point of downtown Bloomington and maintained its role as a place where people can meet and enjoy entertainment. With one foot in the past and one in the present, Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley Theater refuses to forsake its history -- or to be afraid of the future.\nIt has traces of the past etched in its seats, hidden in hard-to-find rooms and preserved in its European architecture. But it's not just an icon of the past; it also has its own MySpace page and continues to host film showings and live performances.\nMore than 80 years ago, on the theater's debut night in December 1922, 1,300 people packed the house to watch House Peters star in "The Storm." Before the doors opened, the crowds filled the lobby and stretched into the street, a local newspaper reported.\nThe Indiana was the baby of Harry and Nova Vonderschmitt, Nellis' great uncle and aunt. Harry Vonderschmitt opened his first theater in Washington, Ind., in 1918. With that success, he and Nova opened more theaters throughout Indiana -- including the Buskirk-Chumley and the Von Lee theaters in downtown Bloomington. The Von Lee was opened in 1948 and named after their granddaughter Barbara Lee, who has since died. Other theater locations included Bedford, Noblesville, Crawfordsville and Greencastle. \nThey also built a loyal team of caretakers for their Bloomington theaters -- men like Hays and Nellis' father. For Hays, it just took one chance encounter with The Indiana theater -- and Nova Vonderschmitt -- to literally change his life forever.\nAs his daughter Sue Ann Talbot tells the story, Hays showed up opening day before the crowds started gathering just to take a look at the theater.\n"Nova was standing there and thought he was the new usher. She said, 'Don't want you to be late tonight,'" Talbot said. \nThe 16-year-old Hays saw that as a job offer. He took it on the spot and continued working there for the next 65 years as an usher, then a projectionist and finally a general manager.\nHis projectionist room is still there, even though it is hard to find, Talbot said. \n"It was his home away from home," she said.\nShe used to go watch movies with her father, waiting after school for him to come home for dinner. She remembers The Indiana as "a wonderful place -- a magical place," she said. \nHays had only worked at the theater about 10 years, though, before a fire threatened to cut his career -- and several lives -- short. He was the first to notice a fire had started in the curtains one day in November 1933. The fire trapped two women and a baby in the second floor of the building in the "worst fire disaster here since 1924," a local paper reported. The baby was thrown from a window and caught by a young man below, and the two women jumped into nets formed by human arms and hands. \nTalbot remembers her father talking about that as a very scary day, she said, and she still has her own reminder of it -- a teddy bear made from the salvaged original curtains. It was a gift to her from another family connected to the theater.\nAfter the fire, the theater was considered a total loss, and the Vonderschmitts had to rebuild. This was the first of two major renovations to the theater since its opening night. The second renovation took place many years later -- after Harry Vonderschmitt died in 1955, after Nova operated the theater by herself until her death in 1974, after Kerasotes Theaters bought the theater in 1975 and after the theater sat unused off-and-on until the mid-1990s. \nAlthough Kerasotes restructured the building into two theaters, by early 1995 the theater was not in use and not in shape. When the community expected Kerasotes to renovate and reopen The Indiana that summer, nothing happened. Several community members became upset to the point of forming the Indiana Theater Task Force to try to pressure Kerasotes to take some action. Kerasotes donated the theater to the Bloomington Area Arts Council in December 1995.\n"I tend to think it just didn't fit in with their business plan," said Miah Michaelsen, who serves as the council's executive director.\nKerasotes' donation came with the understanding that the theater would be used mostly for live performances and not be in competition with the chain's other theaters in Bloomington.\nIn 1997, the council started to devote its efforts toward fundraising for the renovation and reopening of the theater as a community performing arts venue. Gifts came in from around the community, including from Talbot's family -- $25,000 specifically to build the sound room, where Hays' name is engraved today.\nAnother large donation gave the theater its current name. In 1999, the Chumley children, descendants of Indiana politician George Buskirk, donated $600,000 to the theater. It was renamed the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in September 1999.\nYet in spite of these generous donations, when the newly renovated theater opened with a week of performances, poetry readings and theater acts in spring 1999, only about half of the needed $3 million had been raised.\nOnce the doors were open, it became hard to raise more funds, Michaelsen said. \nWith the council more than $700,000 in debt in 2001, not including the funds needed to continue operating the theater, the City of Bloomington stepped in and retired the debt, Michaelsen said.\nSince then, the council has given up ownership of the theater, which now is officially property of the City of Bloomington. The city has established a not-for-profit called BCT Management, Inc., to manage the theater and still provides partial funding.\nIf not for these efforts -- by individuals and the City of Bloomington -- the Buskirk-Chumley Theater could be another office building, Michaelsen said.\n"It's entirely possible," she said, citing the Von Lee as reference. (The Von Lee will soon be reopened for use as office space.)\nInstead of office space, the Buskirk-Chumley hosts live performances, like the upcoming American Opera Theater's Acis and Galatea, and movie screenings like the 2007 PRIDE Film Festival taking place this weekend and movies by Spike Lee showing in February in honor of Black History Month.\nTalbot expressed hope that students would continue coming to these events.\n"(Students) should seek out the history, go to the theater, go home and talk to their ancestors," Talbot said. "I mean, this is who we were -- all of us -- and this is where we were -- all of us."\nNellis said he used to walk down to the theater and get sad to see attendance down. He wants to see people using the theater as well.\n"Then they might have some good memories there like I have," he said.
(01/26/07 1:40am)
As a young man, Bob Nellis didn't just go to the theater to see the latest flick to hit the big screen. In fact, because of a curfew, he rarely saw a whole movie start-to-finish. \nHe really went to "The Indiana" -- now the Buskirk-Chumley Theater -- in downtown Bloomington to see his friends and pass the time.\nSometimes he would go just to hear stories from Roy Hays, the theater's projectionist. Nellis' father worked with Hays in the theater, and between the two men, Nellis heard many stories over the years about life at the theater.\n"If Dad were here, he could tell you a thousand," Nellis, now 68, said.\nNellis' father was with the theater from its beginning in 1922, before television and radio became popular and when the main places to meet were theaters, schools and churches.\nHowever, as the idea of a "gathering place" has changed over the years, the historic theater has remained a focal point of downtown Bloomington and maintained its role as a place where people can meet and enjoy entertainment. With one foot in the past and one in the present, Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley Theater refuses to forsake its history -- or to be afraid of the future.\nIt has traces of the past etched in its seats, hidden in hard-to-find rooms and preserved in its European architecture. But it's not just an icon of the past; it also has its own MySpace page and continues to host film showings and live performances.\nMore than 80 years ago, on the theater's debut night in December 1922, 1,300 people packed the house to watch House Peters star in "The Storm." Before the doors opened, the crowds filled the lobby and stretched into the street, a local newspaper reported.\nThe Indiana was the baby of Harry and Nova Vonderschmitt, Nellis' great uncle and aunt. Harry Vonderschmitt opened his first theater in Washington, Ind., in 1918. With that success, he and Nova opened more theaters throughout Indiana -- including the Buskirk-Chumley and the Von Lee theaters in downtown Bloomington. The Von Lee was opened in 1948 and named after their granddaughter Barbara Lee, who has since died. Other theater locations included Bedford, Noblesville, Crawfordsville and Greencastle. \nThey also built a loyal team of caretakers for their Bloomington theaters -- men like Hays and Nellis' father. For Hays, it just took one chance encounter with The Indiana theater -- and Nova Vonderschmitt -- to literally change his life forever.\nAs his daughter Sue Ann Talbot tells the story, Hays showed up opening day before the crowds started gathering just to take a look at the theater.\n"Nova was standing there and thought he was the new usher. She said, 'Don't want you to be late tonight,'" Talbot said. \nThe 16-year-old Hays saw that as a job offer. He took it on the spot and continued working there for the next 65 years as an usher, then a projectionist and finally a general manager.\nHis projectionist room is still there, even though it is hard to find, Talbot said. \n"It was his home away from home," she said.\nShe used to go watch movies with her father, waiting after school for him to come home for dinner. She remembers The Indiana as "a wonderful place -- a magical place," she said. \nHays had only worked at the theater about 10 years, though, before a fire threatened to cut his career -- and several lives -- short. He was the first to notice a fire had started in the curtains one day in November 1933. The fire trapped two women and a baby in the second floor of the building in the "worst fire disaster here since 1924," a local paper reported. The baby was thrown from a window and caught by a young man below, and the two women jumped into nets formed by human arms and hands. \nTalbot remembers her father talking about that as a very scary day, she said, and she still has her own reminder of it -- a teddy bear made from the salvaged original curtains. It was a gift to her from another family connected to the theater.\nAfter the fire, the theater was considered a total loss, and the Vonderschmitts had to rebuild. This was the first of two major renovations to the theater since its opening night. The second renovation took place many years later -- after Harry Vonderschmitt died in 1955, after Nova operated the theater by herself until her death in 1974, after Kerasotes Theaters bought the theater in 1975 and after the theater sat unused off-and-on until the mid-1990s. \nAlthough Kerasotes restructured the building into two theaters, by early 1995 the theater was not in use and not in shape. When the community expected Kerasotes to renovate and reopen The Indiana that summer, nothing happened. Several community members became upset to the point of forming the Indiana Theater Task Force to try to pressure Kerasotes to take some action. Kerasotes donated the theater to the Bloomington Area Arts Council in December 1995.\n"I tend to think it just didn't fit in with their business plan," said Miah Michaelsen, who serves as the council's executive director.\nKerasotes' donation came with the understanding that the theater would be used mostly for live performances and not be in competition with the chain's other theaters in Bloomington.\nIn 1997, the council started to devote its efforts toward fundraising for the renovation and reopening of the theater as a community performing arts venue. Gifts came in from around the community, including from Talbot's family -- $25,000 specifically to build the sound room, where Hays' name is engraved today.\nAnother large donation gave the theater its current name. In 1999, the Chumley children, descendants of Indiana politician George Buskirk, donated $600,000 to the theater. It was renamed the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in September 1999.\nYet in spite of these generous donations, when the newly renovated theater opened with a week of performances, poetry readings and theater acts in spring 1999, only about half of the needed $3 million had been raised.\nOnce the doors were open, it became hard to raise more funds, Michaelsen said. \nWith the council more than $700,000 in debt in 2001, not including the funds needed to continue operating the theater, the City of Bloomington stepped in and retired the debt, Michaelsen said.\nSince then, the council has given up ownership of the theater, which now is officially property of the City of Bloomington. The city has established a not-for-profit called BCT Management, Inc., to manage the theater and still provides partial funding.\nIf not for these efforts -- by individuals and the City of Bloomington -- the Buskirk-Chumley Theater could be another office building, Michaelsen said.\n"It's entirely possible," she said, citing the Von Lee as reference. (The Von Lee will soon be reopened for use as office space.)\nInstead of office space, the Buskirk-Chumley hosts live performances, like the upcoming American Opera Theater's Acis and Galatea, and movie screenings like the 2007 PRIDE Film Festival taking place this weekend and movies by Spike Lee showing in February in honor of Black History Month.\nTalbot expressed hope that students would continue coming to these events.\n"(Students) should seek out the history, go to the theater, go home and talk to their ancestors," Talbot said. "I mean, this is who we were -- all of us -- and this is where we were -- all of us."\nNellis said he used to walk down to the theater and get sad to see attendance down. He wants to see people using the theater as well.\n"Then they might have some good memories there like I have," he said.
(11/06/06 3:17am)
A 79-year-old man died Thursday after his wife accidentally ran over him in her car, Bloomington Police Department Lt. Janelle Benedict said, reading from a police report.\nPolice received a call at 1:45 p.m. Thursday from Rama Alminauskas, 75, for assistance at 604 E. Moss Creek Drive. \nAfter Rama and her husband, Antanas Alminauskas, returned from grocery shopping, they decided to back the car into the driveway to make it easier to get the groceries out of the car, Benedict said.\nAntanas got out of the car to guide Rama as she was backing up the car, Rama told police. She said she saw him waving her to back up, but the next time she looked back, Antanas wasn't there. She felt the car stop and then she heard Antanas' voice outside of the car.\nWhen Rama got out of the car, she saw her husband lying underneath the car, and she called 911, Benedict said, reading from the police report. \nBloomington Hospital ambulances and Bloomington Fire Department arrived before BPD officers and had already lifted the car and pulled the man out from underneath the car by the time police arrived.\nAntanas was then transported to Bloomington Hospital and later died of internal injuries after being flown to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Benedict said.
(10/27/06 3:20am)
MARTINSVILLE — The defense began building its case Thursday in the murder trial of John R. Myers II, the man accused of abducting and killing IU sophomore Jill Behrman in May 2000. \nThursday was the first day defense attorneys for Myers could begin their case since the prosecution rested Wednesday. Myers is accused of abducting and murdering Behrman while she was on a bike ride May 31, 2000. \nThe defense submitted into evidence Thursday a bag of 27 condoms, seven books on health and sex, a urine pregnancy test, a piece of paper with Brian Hollars' IU username and his home and work phone numbers and a pill bottle for birth control pills in Behrman's name — all of which the defense asserts were found in Behrman's room.\nThe defense has concentrated on Hollars as a possible suspect in the murder. In earlier testimony, Hollars said he hired Behrman at the Student Recreational Sports Center but denied ever working out with her, sending her e-mails or even knowing her phone number.\n"I absolutely had nothing to do with Jill Behrman's death," Hollars testified last week.\nBehrman's entire diary was also admitted into evidence Thursday at the insistence of Chief Deputy Prosecutor Bob Cline, who said the contents of the diary, which the jury will be able to read, would be very important to the case.\nIndiana State Police crime scene investigator Sgt. Jason Fajt brought and identified the items. The evidence has been held by the state police for several years, much of it submitted by Bloomington Police Department and collected by Bloomington officer Tammy Harty, who has not yet confirmed she collected the items in Behrman's bedroom. \nOther items admitted Thursday include a bungee cord and rusted knife recovered from Salt Creek in September 2002 and Behrman's printed class schedule for the first semester of 2000-2001.\nThursday morning started with a motion to release Fox 59 news reporter Kimberly King from subpoena, meaning she will not testify in the trial. Once released, King picked up where she left off and reported on the trial the remainder of the day.\nBaker called retired FBI investigator Gary Dunn to testify Thursday morning, spending most of his time grilling Dunn about initial suspects in the Behrman case. \nDunn, lead investigator of the Jill Behrman case until his retirement in 2003, became involved in the case early in June 2000 when working as an FBI investigator out of Bloomington. He volunteered the FBI's assistance to Bloomington police with a computer system for tracking information and eventually became chief investigator, he said.\nDunn testified that investigators received about 1,300 leads for the case, most in the first weeks after Jill's disappearance, and investigators developed a list of more than ten suspects they concentrated on, including Myers.\n"There were any number of suspects," Dunn said, clarifying for the jury that some were strong suspects and others weren't.\nBaker also questioned Dunn about evidence found in the draining of Salt Creek in September 2002. Dunn confirmed that a retractable knife, about 1 inch wide and 4-5 inches long, and a bungee cord were found in the creek. Dunn said investigators uncovered industrial plastic, but not a tarp. When Owings told police she murdered Behrman, she mentioned using a knife, a bungee cord and a tarp - all thrown into the creek.\nAfter Baker suggested someone claimed to have knowledge that the body was moved, Cline cross-examined Dunn about the reason for draining Salt Creek and Dunn answered it was for the safety of the divers.\nCline then asked Dunn if he had ever, in his 28 years as an investigator, heard of a body being moved and then shot. Dunn answered he had not. Dunn also said he found no scarring on Behrman's bones in her chest area, where Owings told him she had stabbed Behrman.
(10/26/06 2:33am)
Some IU students will spend their whole college careers trying to understand the U.S. court system. A group of Ukrainian judicial officials will try to do it in one week, with one of those days spent observing court procedures in Bloomington and Nashville, Ind.\nThe group arrived in Washington, D.C., last week as part of a program sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, created and funded by Congress. The program has brought more than 11,000 emerging leaders from post-Soviet countries, including Russia and Ukraine, since it started in 1999.\n"The main goal (of the program) is mutual understanding. It breaks down stereotypes," Open World Leadership Center program manager Vera DeBuchananne said. \nWednesday, before chomping into a local food special, square donuts, the group of eight men and women answered questions during a press conference. The group members, all of whom hold various judicial positions in Ukraine, spoke about their trip and gave their initial thoughts after seeing Washington, D.C., the Juvenile Detention Center in Indianapolis, the Indiana Women's Prison, and, of course, Sunday's Indianapolis Colts game against the Washington Redskins.\n"The legal court system in the U.S. is different than Ukraine as soccer is different than American football," said Artem Filipyev, 24, the president of a legal services charity fund in the Ukraine, through translator Yuliya Zoricheva.\n"We hope to use the experience we have seen here and put it to practice in Ukraine," Filipyev said.\nOther members of the group spoke Wednesday about what they have seen and would like to implement in their country and gave suggestions of ways the U.S. courts could improve, such as requiring more experience for higher court appointees.\nOne feature that left an impression with the Ukrainian guests was the process of jury selection.\nJury selection is a sign of a strong democracy, appellate judge Tetyana Kutova said. \n"Perhaps we will change our views on having such a system," Kutova said\nKutova also spoke about their impressions after visiting the Indiana Women's Prison.\n"We were very impressed with the conditions the inmates are kept in," Kutova said. "These are not the kind of conditions we, unfortunately, have in Ukraine."\nKutova said the group was interested in the rehabilitation, educational and vocational programs they had seen. \n"We intend to bring these things back to the attention of our colleagues in Ukraine," Svitlana Sharenko, a district court judge, said.\nOther points of interest mentioned during the press conference included the United States' "faith in adolescents" and the use of legal precedence, and the group suggested that the United States place more emphasis on victim's rights and require judge appointees at higher court levels to have some prior experience as judges at lower court levels.\nMonroe County judges David Welch and Elizabeth Mann hosted the delegation for the day, leading the group through the Justice Building to observe civil law proceedings. In the afternoon, the delegation ate at IU's School of Law; later that night, Welch and Mann took the Ukrainian guests to see the Brown County Courthouse and to shop in the city famous for its fall tourism. The group had spent Saturday to Tuesday in Indianapolis. The plan was to let the group observe courts in counties ranging from large to small and see the differences at each level.\n"It was a very informative, enjoyable day," Welch said in a telephone interview, while the group shopped in Nashville, Ind. "I found their comments and observations very insightful, and I appreciated their suggestions."\nWelch said one effect of the Open World program could be stabilizing the business environment in post-Soviet countries, so businesses can do commerce with those countries. However, he said that the program's main goal is informational exchange, since any changes from visits will take time.\nThe goal of the program is to let people in different countries get to know Americans on a personal level, DeBuchananne said. "It's just really eye-opening." \nDeBuchananne encourages those who have gone through the Open World program to go home and see if what they have seen is applicable in their lives.\n"Coming out of communism, they think the government should do everything," she said, adding that she encourages them to take ideas from America and improve their lives.\nAs far as changes on a national level, the country has only been a democracy for a short time, Welch said, and the kinds of changes discussed Wednesday take time to implement.\n"Change often takes years," Welch said, "but if you don't start, it never happens"
(10/24/06 3:18am)
An 18- to 20-year-old man died in an apparent attempted burglary of a late model Mustang convertible a half-mile south of Bloomington at about midnight Sunday.\nThe Monroe County Sheriff's Department received a call reporting a crashing sound from the 4700 block of Old S.R. 37 South. Responding officers found a garage door destroyed at a residence on the road, Detective Sgt. Brad Swain said, reading from a report on the incident.\nIt appears the man robbed a house on Old S.R. 37, then destroyed the garage door by ramming through it to get the vehicle out. The man then drove down the road and died on impact after hitting the security rail of a nearby cemetery, Swain said. \nAn Ellettsville police officer later reported passing the vehicle shortly before the crash, unaware the car was stolen. Seeing the squad car might have scared the driver into pulling into a church parking lot and trying to force his way through the steel pole that acted as a security gate to the church's cemetery, Swain said.\nThe driver had the convertible's top down and apparently the windshield gave way enough for the steel pole to come over the top and directly hit the driver, Swain said.\nThe Mustang was registered to the residents of the house with the destroyed garage, and officers found five shotguns and one handgun in the car, stolen from the same house, Swain said. Bloomington Police Department officers also assisted in searching the home, Swain said.\nAlthough Swain was not aware what action the owners of the vehicle would take, he said: "At this point, it's probably one of the many reasons people have insurance"
(10/06/06 4:06am)
A man was ready to jump off the railroad overpass crossing Ind. 37 between Ind. 45 and Ind. 48 Thursday, police said, but an officer talked him off the ledge to safety.\nThe process blocked north and southbound traffic on Ind. 37 for more than 20 minutes, said Bloomington Police Department Detective Sgt. David Drake.\nAt 10:25 a.m., a motorist called 911 to report a man walking around and waving his arms on the overpass, Drake said, reading from a police report.\nOfficer Brian James arrived first on the scene, got on the overpass and tried to talk to the man, while other officers blocked traffic on the highway below, Drake said. \nAt first, the man, 41, did not respond to James, but the officer eventually got him to talk. The man told James he wanted to jump and didn't want to live anymore, Drake said.\nJames said he was concerned several times the man would jump, but after about 15 minutes he convinced the man away from the ledge, the report said.\nDrake said the man was taken to Bloomington Hospital for a mental health evaluation, and no criminal charges were filed.\nThough the Bloomington Police Department does have specially trained negotiators, James is not one of them. He had no more training than that which officers receive at the police academy in dealing with emotionally disturbed people, Drake said.
(09/23/06 12:22am)
Children at Childs Elementary School reported seeing a man with a gun in the woods by the school's playground yesterday.\nBy the time school professionals were notified, about five minutes had passed, and the man had disappeared, said Bloomington Police Department Detective Sgt. David Drake. BPD, the IU Police Department, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department and the Indiana State Police Department responded to a call for police at the school, located at 2211 S. High St. \n"We took it very seriously," Drake said.\nThe responding officers surrounded the area and searched the woods and surrounding neighborhoods, but no one found the man who the children said was a white male wearing a green shirt.\nTeachers said the children who reported seeing the man were trustworthy and not known for causing trouble, Drake said. \nMost of the responding officers left at the end of the school day Thursday, and Drake was not sure if officers would be present at the school tomorrow.
(09/15/06 2:56am)
Two men broke into a 56-year-old man's house and robbed his home Wednesday night but ran away mid-robbery when he pulled a handgun from a hiding spot in the house, police said.\nThe man told police he heard noises outside his back door, in the 800 block of West Fourth St., and headed outside to find the source, Detective Sgt. Drake said, reading from the police report. Brothers Dustin R. Bright, 23, and Russell R. Bright, 24, confronted him outside. When the man asked them why they were on his property, they attacked him, entered his house and started looting his home. \nWhen the victim pointed his 9mm handgun at one of the men, the two men bolted — one broke through the bedroom window, and the other ran out the back door, the report said. The homeowner then fired five shots after the men, apparently to scare them, Drake said.\nThe homeowner reported a laptop computer, a watch and a Walkman stolen. \nPolice officers outside the police station heard the shots and were en route to the area when they received the homeowner's call, Drake said.\nThe brothers were arrested not far from the man's home on preliminary charges of burglary, theft, possession of stolen property, battery and criminal mischief.
(08/31/06 4:13am)
Activism by local politicians and community members might have deterred government plans to detonate 700 tons of military explosives in a southern Indiana quarry.\nAfter a Nevada newspaper reported the Department of Defense was considering conducting the largest non-nuclear blast in U.S. history at a site it has tested before, like the quarry in Mitchell, Ind., the word spread and spurred residents to make sure the possibility never becomes reality in Indiana.\nJust 45 minutes south of Bloomington, the Mitchell Crushed Stone quarry was a site of U.S. military testing without public knowledge in 2004 and 2005, The Associated Press reported this month.\nThe explosion under debate, tagged "Divine Strake," would test potential damage to deep-underground targets, a Department of Defense statement said.\nThe Department of Defense pulled its plans to conduct the blast in Nevada earlier this summer.\nIf conducted at the Mitchell quarry, though, the explosion would contaminate groundwater and damage the extensive limestone cave systems in the area, Bloomington resident and part-time scientist for Argonne National Laboratory Russell Boulding said Monday.\n"What's being tried has never been done before," said Boulding, who signed a petition to stop the testing. "Words fail me in saying how insane it is."\nMitchell residents and groups opposed to the explosion — including Bloomington-based "Hoosiers Against Divine Strake" — have spent the last several weeks making phone calls to politicians and organizing their opposition to the explosion. After a press conference Monday in Mitchell, the city's mayor, Butch Chastain, received a letter from the vice president of Rogers Group, Inc., the company that owns and operates the quarry. According to Chastain, the letter said Rogers Group would not allow an explosion of that size in its quarry.\nAn e-mail from Rogers Group spokeswoman Margaret Angell also confirmed that the Department of Defense has no public plans for the quarry.\n"The probability that a large military test blast with 700 tons or more of explosives would ever take place at Mitchell is extremely remote, virtually zero," Angell said. "Rogers Group has not been contacted about the possibility of a 700-ton blast, and we do not expect to be contacted."\nAfter another press conference Wednesday in Mitchell, David Keppel, member of "Hoosiers Against Divine Strake," said Republican Senator Richard Lugar received word from the Department of Defense that there are no plans to use an Indiana location for the test explosion. \nEarlier this week, calls to Lugar were met with replies that the senator had spoken with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the issue and was awaiting a response, according to Timothy Baer, also a member of "Hoosiers Against Divine Strake." \nThe Department of Defense confirmed in an e-mail to the Indiana Daily Student that the agency has no plans to conduct the explosives testing in Indiana.\nThis isn't the end of the story for the Hoosiers that organized opposition to the rumored explosion, though. They want a guarantee for the future — namely, an amendment to the military appropriations bill, H.R. 5631, coming to the U.S. Senate floor Sept. 5, Keppel said. \nIf an amendment prohibiting the explosion is approved by the Senate, the explosion would be prevented from occurring in the U.S. for at least one year, Keppel said. And he's hoping an Indiana senator takes the initiative, he said. \nThe bottom line, Keppel said, is that Rogers Group is a private company dependent on government contracts. \n"I'm not trying to undermine their credibility, but they could be overridden by the federal government," he said.\nFurthermore, he and "Hoosiers Against Divine Strake" aren't just opposing the explosion happening in Indiana. They're opposing the explosion happening anywhere, Keppel and Baer said.\nThe city of Mitchell is also preparing for the future. Community members passed a resolution Monday expressing that the community was opposed to having the explosion in Mitchell, Chastain said. His office will also send a letter and petitions to the governor's office Friday opposing the blast, he said.
(08/23/06 3:18am)
The Monroe County Health Department confirmed the first evidence of the West Nile virus in Monroe County on Monday.\nA community member asked the Health Department to pick up a dead bird found near Rose Hill Cemetery, near the west side of Bloomington, on Aug. 7. The bird was sent to Indianapolis, where the Indiana State Department of Health tested the bird for the West Nile virus.\nThe confirmation of the disease in this community "re-emphasizes" that people should be careful about being outside in the early evening through dawn, Monroe County Health Department Administrator Bob Schmidt said. \n"That's when the mosquitoes are most vicious," he added.\nSchmidt recommended wearing long sleeves, long pants and plenty of mosquito repellent during August, September and October, when mosquitoes are most aggressive. Eliminating stagnant water around homes is another necessary precaution, he said.\nThe very young, very old or physically weak are most at-risk for having serious cases of the virus, but that doesn't imply that college-aged people are risk-free, Schmidt said. \nThe Monroe County Health Department will not send more birds up for testing, he said, but community members should continue to call and report dead birds for tracking purposes. \n"Chances are it's throughout the community. Since it's carried by birds and it's an avian disease, it could certainly be anywhere," Schmidt said.\nAlthough this is the first evidence of the disease in Monroe County, cases of the West Nile virus are actually decreasing from year-to-year throughout the state, he said.
(12/09/05 4:55am)
IU students from a local church will take volunteering to the next level this holiday season, sacrificing their last week of winter break to work in the New Orleans area aiding the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.\nStudent members of University Lutheran Church will kick off the new year by helping rebuild four damaged churches in the New Orleans area, as well as assisting in other ways as needed. \nWhen University Lutheran Rev. Richard Woelmer heard Indiana Lutheran churches had been assigned by the denomination's leadership to adopt three Louisiana churches, he jumped at the chance to organize a group from his student congregation to head to New Orleans and help. \nWoelmer, who will also be going on the trip, said he is looking forward to the opportunity to lend a helping hand.\n"It's a chance to show some compassion and concern," he said. "You can't really get more hands-on than this."\nWoelmer said he expects people in New Orleans won't be the only ones impacted by the volunteer group's decision to help. \n"I think that everyone will come away with the sense of receiving more than they've given," he said.\nThe group of six Bloomington volunteers, which is sponsored by Faith Lutheran Church, will leave Jan. 1 and return Jan. 7. During the trip, they will stay in tents in a soccer field next to one of the churches in Metairie, La, which is just west of New Orleans-- their "home base," Woelmer said. From there, they will travel to the sites of the churches the group is assigned to help -- one of which had 400 members before the hurricane hit the city.\nThe trip's funding is completely covered by money raised working the concessions stand at IU's Memorial Stadium. \nMichael Amlung, a junior at IU, signed up for the trip after wanting to take part in a service event for a long time, he said. He said he hopes to offer support and a listening ear to those in New Orleans and also wants to build relationships with others from University Lutheran who go on the trip.\n"It seems like a great opportunity to go down and help people that desperately need the help," Amlung said. \nHe said he also expects it will be a difficult time for people recovering from the hurricane damage because many will face the typically happy season after losing possessions and loved ones.\n"I think it'll probably be like no other Christmas they've ever had," Amlung said. "It won't be much of a holiday season for them."\nWoelmer said he hopes the efforts of the Bloomington group will brighten the season for the people they have the chance to impact, though.\n"When they're in a time of trial and great need, we can, as a body of believers, help a part of the body that is hurting," he said.
(12/07/05 4:41am)
Normally, a food fight is a waste of food. But that's not the case for IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the Kelley School of Business, which have competed against each other to see which school can collect the most food this holiday season. The event is titled "Food Fight!"\nIU graduate student Jill Marshall, community coordinator for the SPEA Service Corps non-profit program, had the idea for the competition and also organized the first-time event.\n"I thought it would be a great way to get people jazzed," Marshall said. "There's sort of this natural underlying rivalry that exists between the two schools, so I thought, why not play on that?" \nThe two schools are collecting food items until Dec. 9 and the winner of the "Food Fight!" will be the school that collects the most pounds donated by its graduate and undergraduate students. \n"It's good that it's a competition, because it gets more people involved," said Jamie McIntosh, a non-profit management major in SPEA who helped organize the food drive. "(The food drive) brings you to the reality of the holiday season -- giving."\nPeople can also make money donations and dedicate their monetary gifts to friends, McIntosh said. All donations will go to Hoosier Hills Food Bank and Monroe County United Ministries to meet needs in the Bloomington-area community. \nMarshall said the idea for the food drive came to her after talking to a friend who worked at the Monroe County United Ministries food bank and said the pantry was "ridiculously low." MCUM had already paid an extra $1,000 to supply for the shortage in donations to the pantry. \nCurrently, the Kelley School of Business is winning the competition, Marshall said. Between the two schools, she expects nearly 2,000 pounds of food will be collected. She hopes food drive competition will continue next year, although she will not be at IU to lead it again, she said. She expects one of the schools will want a rematch. \nTony McGovern, a volunteer coordinator at Hoosier Hills Food Bank, said food drives like "Food Fight!" during the holiday seasons often bring in enough food to stretch for several months.\n"Unfortunately, hunger is a year-round problem," McGovern said.\nMany public schools and various groups in the community are also planning to hold food drives during the holiday season, he said.\n"We're trying to encourage people to do food drives," he said. "It's great, because we can get all that food in, then get it out again"
(12/06/05 5:26am)
The first time Li-Ling Jia came to America from China, she stepped off the airplane without a penny. She said she wasn't afraid of not having any money, though. Money wasn't a priority for her then and it's not today, either, Jia said.\nTwenty-five years ago, Jia came to the United States through an exchange program. Now, she is the owner of the largest Oriental grocery store in Bloomington. For her, running Obo's Oriental Grocery, 2556 E. Third St., is important because of what the store offers to the Bloomington community, not the money it brings her.\n"I feel that I have brought a gift to the people of Indiana University," she said. "(The store) has opened an avenue for the students because not many of them can afford to go to a restaurant everyday."\nOr, students who enjoy Oriental food become tired of restaurant food and want to make something different, she said.\nIn that case, Jia can supply all the cooking needs from the aisles of Obo's. She will even begin to provide the cooking skills by starting a program at Obo's that helps people cook Oriental meals in traditional styles. The program will begin this month. Jia will provide a detailed recipe, help customers find all the ingredients and answer any questions. The first instructions will cover how to cook stir-fried greens Shanghai style, Canton style and Szechuan style.\nFor Jia, operating the grocery store and teaching Chinese cooking isn't guesswork.\n"I grew up in China and I just knew what kind of food people wanted," she said.\nBesides spending almost 30 years in China, she also brings 12 years of experience in the restaurant business, after being cook and owner of a Chinese restaurant in town. Jia and her husband Zhi-Qiang Zou opened Beijing Chinese Restaurant in Bloomington and operated it until the restaurant building was demolished to make room for a new store, she said.\n"There was a choice to relocate or do something else," Jia said. \nThat "something else" was opening Obo's, which Jia named after her son Aobo Zou, a business student at IU. Aobo said when his mother first suggested naming the store after him, he wasn't quite sure. As a family, they agreed to change the spelling to "Obo" to cut confusion about how to pronounce the name. He respects his parents for all they have done for the family, he said.\n"Our family is so close and strong," he said. "We feel like we can do anything we put our minds to." \nJia said the grocery store is meeting a growing demand as the Asian population in Bloomington, and in all of America, increases. \nShe noted the changes she has seen over the years. In the early 1980s, after Jia had received her undergraduate degree as an English major at a university in Beijing, she received a scholarship to study at the University of Connecticut through an exchange program. At the time, no direct air route between America and China existed, she said. She flew from Beijing to Paris to Boston on her first trip to America. Jia also remembers being one of only three Asian students on campus at the University that year. \nIn less than 10 years, Jia had completed her master's degree in political science and moved to Bloomington to continue her graduate studies at IU. Her husband and Aobo joined her in America during that time. The Asian population at IU was very small compared to now, she said.\n"We were like pandas. Now we are like squirrels," she said, laughing. "You see Asian faces all the time. It was not like this before."\nWith a larger Asian population, Jia knew an Oriental grocery store would be well-received. \n"I knew there was a need and I could put my English skills and cooking skills together," she said. \nAlso, since she orders her groceries from Chicago and New York, which offer greater ethnic food supplies, people can easily find the items they need at her store.\nObo's has a very diverse clientele, she said. Customers are Japanese, Thai, Chinese, American, Philippine and Vietnamese. In just one hour, an Asian family, an American woman and college students of different nationalities came into the store. Depending on who asked her questions, Jia answered in English or Chinese.\n"Business is good. We don't have all bright days, but look at the size," Jia said.\nShe is pleased because Obo's has been open less than one year and is still larger than the other Oriental grocery stores in the area, she said. Obo's is also the only Chinese-run grocery store in Bloomington. The store is located in Eastland Plaza between Movie Gallery and Tavel David OD, an eyeglasses shop.\nNo matter the size or revenue of Obo's Oriental Grocery, though, Jia insists the money is not the key to her happiness or success.\n"I'm rich in inner resources," she said. "I own a rich inner world"
(11/28/05 3:53pm)
Some children dream of having their own Santa Claus, but just 10 years ago IU students didn't have to dream. IU had its own Santa Claus -- a jolly man who made believers out of those who met him. \nHis suit still hangs in the Woodburn House on College Avenue, where he once lived. A life-size cardboard cut-out of this Santa hides in the University Archives. It was found in the attic of the Chancellor's House on 10th Street across from the Herman B Wells Library three years ago, although those who knew him do not know how or why it was made.\nThis story is not just a legend, though. \nSoon after becoming IU president in 1938, Herman B Wells started taking on the role of Santa Claus around Christmas time. He dressed in a red suit, passed out candy and visited groups both on and off campus until the few years before his death in March 2000. Those who knew him say that people believed in Jolly Old Saint Wells because he believed in them. \n"He loved being around students, so this was always \nsomething he looked forward to," said Linda Bucklin, secretary to Wells from 1988 to 2000 while he served as University chancellor. "He had an outgoing personality and enjoyed it."\nHis first appearances as Santa Claus date back to his first years as president -- the late 1930s, said Brian Kearney, who works with the IU School of Law and once worked for Wells as a member of his personal care-giving staff. The tradition began with Wells inviting students to Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union for a send-off before their winter break. Wells would come in a Santa suit, wish the students a good break and pass out candy canes his "elves" -- costumed student leaders -- handed him.\nAfter retiring as IU president in 1962, he continued to dress as Santa Claus, spreading his holiday spirit by visiting with students and faculty.\n"I think he put a very human face on administration that sometimes seems separated," Bucklin said. "The University can seem very large and overwhelming. To be able to put a face with someone very familiar, I think it makes it seem not so intimidating."\nWells also began giving away baskets of apples and boxes of chocolate candies as part of the tradition. As the holidays approached, he would become excited about giving his gifts away, Bucklin said. He would begin asking her, "Have you ordered the candy? Have you ordered the boxes?" \nThen, before the students left for winter break, the goodies would be delivered to several groups on campus, including the switchboard operators and the IU Police Department -- close to 30 boxes of candy in total, Bucklin said. He also sent apples from Melton's Orchard to several campus groups.\nBut Wells also wanted to deliver some of the treats himself, as Santa Claus.\n"Santa Wells" made special visits to various groups over the years. The visits went under the radar at first, but as the tradition's fame grew, so did Wells' schedule of appointments as Santa Claus. Wells made a speech in 1948 as Santa and appeared at Union Board Christmas parties in the '50s and into the '80s. Wells even traveled to Indianapolis to play Santa at a Christmas party for Riley Hospital for Children in 1950. Today, a research center connected with the hospital bears his name. Wells always made a special point to visit the Indiana Daily Student newsroom, where he worked shortly as an undergraduate. Marge Blewett, a former IU student who graduated in 1948 and worked at the IDS for three years, said Wells began stopping by the IDS informally to visit with the staff and bring candy in the late 1930s. \nBlewett returned to do administrative work in the journalism school in 1965, at which time she began arranging Wells' visits to the IDS with his secretary. Wells called Blewett 'Mama Claus.' She would alert the staff, and on the decided day, Wells would come to the IDS office bearing gifts. \n"They would be the nicest, reddest apples you ever saw in brand new bushel baskets," Blewett said. "And then there would be these big boxes of candy chocolates."\nWells also brought cigarettes in earlier years, but Blewett eventually explained to him that students smoked less than before and he might want to stop bringing them.\n"After that, he would tell them, 'Well, I used to bring cigarettes, but Marge told me not to,'" Blewett said, laughing.\nWells spent time talking with the students, asking questions about the semester and their experiences with the paper, which surprised many students. \n"They just couldn't believe he would care this much about them," Blewett said. \nBlewett said Wells wore a Santa suit the Union Board had tailor-made for him in the 1960s, and he also started jingling antique sleigh bells over his shoulder when he visited. He always prided himself on still fitting into his Santa suit, she said.\nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis also remembered this about Wells.\n"He wore a Santa suit every year, and at one event shortly before he died, I mentioned the suit, and he called out during my remarks, 'And it still fits,'" Gros Louis said. "He was an extraordinary man, to whom everyone working for IU was equally important, and he made that clear by making friends with custodians as well with the most senior professors."\n"Santa Wells" continued to pass out candy canes even in the 1990s in a wheelchair in the IMU lounge. He visited the IDS until his health would not allow him.\n"People really cared about him because he always really cared about us," Blewett said.
(11/18/05 4:16pm)
Fans filling Memorial Stadium and flocking to the grass between the Alumni Center and Indiana Avenue Saturday will have two things on their minds: beating Purdue and having a good time doing it.\nBut what about the day after that? \nForgotten in the intensity of the day, soda bottles, candy wrappers and leftover tailgating food will sit until Sunday morning when a crew of community members will tackle the mess left after more than 50,000 fans flood IU's north side.\n"Well, we take care of it," said Prentice Parker, IU athletics outdoor events coordinator. \nFor more than 20 years, Parker has headed the Sunday morning clean-up crew, made up of an assortment of groups including restitution workers, Bloomington High School South's wrestling team, Monroe County Fire Co. and other groups on various weekends. Except for the restitution workers, the workers make money to contribute to their groups. \nThe job takes about five hours, from 7 a.m. to noon, and afterwards, Hoosier Disposal hauls away a total of 6 tons of trash collected from the grounds during the weekend, Parker said.\nIU Assistant Athletics Director Kit Klingelhoffer said IU has been taking steps to encourage fans to clean up their own messes by handing out free trash bags in the tailgating areas.\n"We've been trying to be very proactive," he said.\nKlingelhoffer said he believes giving away trash bags has helped, and the amount of trash left on the ground has decreased. He still hopes people will be more diligent in picking up their trash, though.\nKaren Freeman, a firefighter and assistant medical officer with the Clay Township Monroe County Fire Co., has helped clean the grounds with her volunteer fire company after several games. Sunday will make her fourth game. She suspects this game's aftermath might be more difficult to clean than others, considering the hype of the rivalry and the large amount of people.\n"I've got a feeling it's going to be a doozy, this one," Freeman said. "We kind of expect quite a bit, but that's OK."\nShe and the other firefighters make the best out of their time cleaning up, she said. "There's always a lot of food laying around, and we always joke, 'Hey, here's an extra hot dog, you want one?'" \n"We make it a fun time," she said, "but it is hard work. It's hard on your back."\nFreeman is amazed at the things she and her group have found in the grass by Indiana Avenue where people usually tailgate, she said. They have found a gas grill, coolers and a box of uneaten turkey legs, to name a few.\nShe has also noticed the trash bags that have been handed out.\n"There's always empty trash bags laying around," she said. "It's like, 'Put that stuff in the trash bag. It's right there.'"\nParker expressed his annoyance at different items he finds when cleaning up.\n"Everybody's going to go to a football game and they're going to enjoy themselves," he said. "The only problem I see that I don't like is when people are drinking, I wish they'd either use cans or plastic -- I hate the glass bottles when they get broke on the grounds. It's just difficult to pick up."\nOn game day, though, with the rest of the IU fans, his mind will be on another matter.\n"The main thing is that we beat Purdue," he said.
(11/15/05 4:07am)
Rhino's All-Ages Music Club in Bloomington recently moved into a new building to accommodate the growing number of people involved in the nonprofit's after-school programs and its weekend music venue.\nBehind the scenes, a group of young people makes that growth possible, working to develop those programs and run the weekend shows, but even behind those young people, one man -- Brad Wilhelm -- has helped Rhino's see its vision come alive. \nWilhelm, who has been Rhino's program director for the past 13 years, said he finds his position part job, part mission and part enjoyment. He works with youth and community members to promote Rhino's purpose: to provide a unique, drug-free environment for high-school age people to express their ideas and interests using their talents.\n"What I want a kid to take away from here is a sense of self," Wilhelm said. \nHe said teenagers can find their sense of self through playing music on the weekends, writing for Rhino's print publication, The Antagonist, seeing their work on the television program, "Rhinoplasty," hearing their voices on Youth Radio or seeing the murals they helped create.\n"There are very few opportunities for young people to take control of their lives, and that's what I want Rhino's to be," he said.\nRhino's was started in 1992 by the Harmony Education Center. Its name symbolizes the importance of public art, community service and cooperation, after Harmony Middle School students worked to restore a vandalized sculpture of a rhinoceros for the Bloomington community. \nWilhelm came on the scene soon after Rhino's began. Steve Bonchek, Harmony Education Center's executive director, hired him in 1992, and Wilhelm became program director in 1993.\n"Basically he has been there from the beginning," Bonchek said. "It's really been through Brad's dedication and commitment that Rhino's has been able to grow and expand."\nBonchek decided to bring Wilhelm on staff at Rhino's because of his experience with music and his ability to relate to teens, Bonchek said. \nBefore working at Rhino's, Wilhelm volunteered with Bloomington Playwrights Project. Through his volunteering, he noticed he worked well with the teens coming to the workshops, he said.\nAlso, Wilhelm had background in music from working as the concert director for IU's Union Board while in college, from playing in his own band and from booking bands at Jake's, a venue previously located in what is now Axis.\nAt the time, he didn't know it, he said, but lessons learned about handling difficult situations as the concert director would help him later.\nOne example, he said, came in 1994, when Rhino's had an out-of-town, female, punk rock band whose members were openly lesbian, come play. Wilhelm had no issues with them being lesbian, he said, but problems arose when one member took off her shirt to make a statement about male-female equality. Wilhelm told her to put her shirt back on, and the show ended, he said.\nA reviewer at the show wrote about the incident, and Rhino's received intense criticism from some members of the community -- "really ugly criticism about the kids that come here," Wilhelm said. "It was really very ugly and very, very disheartening." \nThe experience, however, also opened his eyes to the positives and negatives of his position at Rhino's, he said.\n"It was a turning point for me," he said. "I decided it was absolutely imperative we were here for the kids with green hair."\nNow Rhino's has a large base of community support. It is a member of Monroe County United Way, where Wilhelm is the president of the director's association, and has partnered with Bloomington Parks and Recreation.\nWhile that experience helped Wilhelm realize the necessity for Rhino's in the community, the teens coming to Rhino's had already shown him his position would be more than an ordinary job.\nSoon after becoming program director, Wilhelm noticed teens coming to him for advice with how to deal with parents, friends, school and other issues that concerned them.\n"I realized very soon that this is what this job should be about," he said. "I listen to their problems without judging them and help them if need be. People come back saying, 'You may not remember, but you said this to me once and it was true.'"\nWilhelm said he would like to see more parental involvement at Rhino's, but it doesn't happen very often because Rhino's is viewed as a parent-free zone for some youth.\nSome young people might want Rhino's to be parent-free, but Wilhelm is more concerned with making it drug and smoke free. \nHis strong position on keeping Rhino's smoke-free stems from losing his grandmother, whom he was very close to, to lung cancer when he was 19.\n"I care about every single one of these kids," he said. \nCaren Stohll, youth services manager at Bloomington Parks and Recreation, has known Brad for eight years and said she has seen that concern as Brad works with the youth.\n"He just really cares about those kids," she said, "and he is totally dedicated to really trying to help those kids. He believes they have great potential."\nWilhelm doesn't want to leave Rhino's until he has to -- "I'd like them to throw me out when I'm 70," he said, but he hopes Rhino's continues without him when that happens.\n"I want to promote Rhino's, but not me, because hopefully Rhino's would exist without me," he said. "I want this to be my life's work, my legacy"
(11/08/05 5:29am)
Nine-year-old Dallas Fox came close to death's door less than two years ago when lesions formed on his brain -- a reaction to treatment for the kidney transplant he received when he was only 4. \nLast week, Dallas played in his first basketball game, running toward whomever had the ball like the rest of the players and leaving Bloomington's Boys and Girls Club gym with his first assist.\nYou would never know he had already relearned how to walk twice, his grandmother, Cynthia Moories, said, referring to the two life-threatening medical situations -- a kidney transplant and a surgery for his brain lesions -- from which Dallas has recovered.\nOnly in third grade, Dallas has had plenty of scares and the scars to prove it, but he doesn't think about where he's been as much as where he is going. In fact, in his eyes, even last week's game was only the first step toward playing professionally someday -- one of the many goals he said he plans to accomplish in his lifetime.\n"I never give up," he said. \nDallas's mother, Hillary Fox, said she can't help thinking about her son's close calls, though, especially because she was his kidney donor. \nWhen Dallas was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, which occurs when kidney filters don't function properly, Fox was concerned about having to wait too long for a transplant operation. \n"You give your child life, and you don't want it ending at 4 years old," she said.\nFox moved Dallas from Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, determined to do everything possible to help her son.\nHer next step was to find out if she or her husband, Andrew Fox, a produce manager at O'Malia's, were donor matches for Dallas. They both matched and decided Hillary would be the donor. In August 2000, doctors at Cincinnati Children's performed the transplant.\nFor his other surgeries, Hillary said, she had been there with Dallas, which is probably why he remembers she wasn't with him. She was recovering from her own operation.\n"The only thing I hope is that my son knows how much I love him."\nShe can't imagine that other mothers wouldn't donate for their children as well; "you can't take it with you," she said.\nThis mother and son are a life-saving team. Before the transplant, Dallas had already helped save her life, Hillary said. Dallas answered the phone one day when Moories called, and he told her his mother could not go to work and was not feeling well. \nMoories, who works at T.I.S. Bookstore with Hillary, her daughter, left to check on Hillary. When Moories arrived, she found Hillary so dehydrated from a preliminary surgery for the transplant that her organs were shutting down, Hillary said. Moories took her to the hospital, where she recovered.\nAfter the transplant, Dallas and his family thought they were clear of any major problems for the next four years, until his birthday last summer when he developed an extremely bad headache.\n"He said it felt like aliens were eating his brain," Moories said.\nThose "aliens" turned out to be lesions that had developed on his brain after being exposed to mononucleosis, which reacted to the anti-rejection drugs Dallas took. His immune system was too weak to fight the infection, Hillary said.\nDallas remembers being disappointed that it ruined his birthday. \n"I didn't hardly eat any of my cake or my ice cream," Dallas said. Plus all his friends had to go home. Fox, more worried than ever, she said, took Dallas back to Cincinnati Children's where Dallas earned another scar -- this one on his head -- during a surgery to determine the cause of his headaches.\nToday, the lesions are shrinking with treatment, and Dallas might as well have never been sick, judging from his long list of activities. Not only is he a student at Summit Elementary School, but he is also involved in Cub Scouts, a volunteer group called "The Joes," Soul's Harbor Apostolic Church and his basketball team.\nHe regularly returns to Cincinnati Children's for checkups, but his predictions give no hint of future limitations.\n"Let's see ..." he began, mentally pulling up the list of things he wants to do when he grows up: a NASCAR driver, a soldier, the president, an archaeologist, a movie star, a professional basketball player and "a very good hunter, like Daddy."\nMoories said she looks forward to what her grandson's future might hold. \n"He has a will to live," she said. "He's been on death's door so many times. Dallas is here for a reason, and we're sure glad he is."\nFox also maintains her hope for the future.\n"I think things are just going to work out for us," she said. "For some reason, it always does."\nDallas Fox has a campaign through the Children's Organ Transplant Association to assist with raising money to cover his medical expenses. Currently, Dallas needs close to $80,000, according to Hillary, who is managing her son's campaign. Contact Hillary Fox at 330-9212 or at hillaryfox2000@yahoo.com.
(11/01/05 5:01am)
Unless you know someone who has been to the area, you won't find Paul Smith's martial arts training center -- the Yobushin Dojo near Lake Lemon in Unionville, Ind. \nMapQuest won't tell you that after winding through roads lined with fall-colored trees then landing on a gravel road, you will have to find an unmarked drive to find the small, unmarked wooden building.\nSmith, 50, who has been practicing martial arts for over 30 years and teaching for more than 15, opened the Yobushin Dojo four years ago. He had lived next to the location since 1990, but when Smith purchased the property, he transformed it into a place to practice and share his obsession with Japanese martial arts, primarily a style called aikido. \nIn 1985, he first heard about aikido, which means "harmony energy way," in an airplane magazine. Aikido techniques are designed to use an attacker's weakness against them in a way that leaves no one seriously injured. The idea fascinated Smith. \nHe was already physics-minded -- a technician with IU's Department of Physics from 1976 to 1979, when he was promoted to a position as an electronics engineer designing electronics for subatomic particle research experiments.\nHis interests in physics and engineering piqued his interest in aikido, he said.\n"It was these ideas of using the attacker's balance," he said. "There are other possibilities than fighting or running away."\nHe joined an IU club in 1986 and practiced aikido there until he began teaching it in 1989 at Harmony School and Lynda Mitchell Yoga Studios.\nToday, he is a third degree black belt in aikido and a second degree black belt in iaido, a sword-based art. He also practices jodo, meaning "way of the stick," which involves using wooden poles. He practices the arts about five hours every week.\nSaturday, Smith had three students practicing aikido at the Dojo. Matt Feldmeyer, who works for Tabor Bruce Architecture and Design in Bloomington, said the physical release is the main reason he enjoys practicing aikido. \n"I sit in an office eight hours a day," Feldmeyer said, "so the physical release is a major draw. I'm just not thinking about work at all. I just let it all go." \nHe has been practicing aikido three months. Heather Beery, an aikido student for two years, gave a more general reason.\n"I mostly come just because it's fun," she said.\nSmith agreed, laughing.\n"Where else do you get to knock people down and they just laugh?" he said.\nThey practice one-on-one, the "attacker" making a move and waiting for the "defender" to evaluate the move for weakness, like a chess game, Smith said. Once they find a weak point, the defenders try to take their attackers to the floor. \nFor those practicing aikido, getting comfortable with falling down is a major battle, said Smith and his students.\n"I think it's a natural fear," Smith said. "You have to de-synthesize yourself to it. You do it so many times, it doesn't push your buttons anymore. We're also trying de-synthesize ourselves from the idea of being attacked."\nIf he had to, Smith said he feels confident he could use what he has learned in real-life situations, but "it hasn't come up." He isn't looking for fights, though. Extremely relaxed, he doesn't seem he would ever raise his voice, but he insists he does -- even if it's only to call his 12 cats.\nSmith and his students said aikido also teaches relaxation techniques, which Smith said has helped him stay calm and not get stressed about work or other issues.\nIn a fast-paced aikido spar, "if you're stressed out, you lose every time," he said, and he has learned to apply the concept in his life. \n"Almost, really, nothing stresses me out anymore," he said.\nAlex Dzierba has known Smith 20 years through the physics department, where they now work together in the IU Light Quark Physics Group.\n"He's a very friendly guy," Dzierba said, "and an extremely confident electronics engineer."\nAnd Smith still isn't quite sure whether his electronics and physics side is influencing his aikido skills or vice versa.\n"It's more of a synergy I guess," Smith said. \nIn the same way, he has embraced aikido's principle of "maximum benefit from minimal effort," or efficiency, in many areas of his life -- from exploring ways to maximize benefits from the smallest pieces of matter to his environmental concerns about the amount of waste in the world.\nHe met his wife, Linda Greene, in 1986, while both were fighting against placing a Polychlorinated Biphenyls incinerator in Bloomington. Now, he is concerned about a general overpackaging -- too much use of plastic he sees as bad for the environment, he said. \nHis main hobby remains practicing aikido and other martial arts, though, and he has no plans of giving it up.\n"It's an obsession, you know," Smith said. "If I can't do it for some reason, it just feels like something's lacking. I just want to keep on doing it as long as I can." \nFor more information about Yobushin Dojo, visit http://dustbunny.physics.indiana.edu/~paul/yobushin/
(10/25/05 4:26am)
Ann Marie Thomson sees untapped potential everywhere in Africa's war-torn Congo, where she grew up. \nIt's teeming in the Congo River, which could provide enough energy to power the whole continent, as well as in the country's people, most of whom can't receive the educational training they strongly desire, Thomson said.\nAn adjunct professor in IU's School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Thomson has started to make a way for these people, by forming a nonprofit organization to fund education for the Congolese she grew to love as the child of missionaries in Congo's Ubangi province.\nShe didn't really have a choice, she said. \n"To not respond would be unethical and I couldn't live with myself," she said. "I feel compelled. The reason we are doing it is (because) it is an obligation for me to give back to Congo all that Congo gave me -- it gave me so much and formed who I am. It's the least I can do."\nThe name of the organization captures her attitude -- Giving Back Africa.\nThe organization's purpose is to fund the education of Congolese men and women in order for them to return and use their training to improve the quality of life in the Congo, particularly in the rural areas, through specific projects. The nonprofit is designed to form a link between Thomson and the partners of GBA, who will give back to Africa by providing funding, and the people of the Congo, who will give back to Africa by using their training to help their own struggling country.\nIt's not easy to request an educated person in Congo to stay and work for little or nothing, Thomson and her partner, Jim Calli, said. \nCalli, a Bloomington cardiologist, went to Congo with Thomson in January.\n"You don't make any money (in Congo)," he said. "Teachers make $5 a month. Doctors make $200 a month." \n"It's just mind boggling," Thomson said, "and to stay in the Congo when you are educated and it's full of uncertainty is a lot to ask. But that's what we're asking, because it's the only way the Congo is going to find its way out of the war."\nCurrently, Thomson is compiling possible "pilot projects" -- ways to get GBA's feet off the ground in Congo for 2006. \nGBA board members will choose one of the projects in December and Thomson will return to Congo in January to receive feedback on plans and organize ways to implement those plans.\nThe only way to make a difference is to let them help themselves, Thomson said. \nHer desire to see Congo's people succeed and her love for the country grew even amid war and conflict. Twice, while she lived in Congo, she and her family had to evacuate their home, she said. She knew one missionary who stayed and was killed by Congolese rebels.\nThomson didn't dwell on those tense situations. She "absolutely loved" growing up in the Congo, she said.\nWhen she was 18, Thomson graduated from a Congolese high school and moved to America to attend college.\nAt Chicago's North Park University, she obtained her bachelor's degree in international studies. She then became a nurse's aide and practiced nursing for almost 15 years. But the whole time, she said, she wanted to go back to school and focus on African studies. \nIn 1986, she came to IU to pursue that desire. She now has her master's in public affairs and her Ph.D. in public policy. In the middle of her IU experience in 1990, Thomson found the vision for GBA on a return trip to Congo to visit her parents and friends.\nWhile staying in rural Congo with her best friend, she asked her friend's son what he wanted to be when he grew up. "A doctor," he answered, astounding Thomson with his optimism and vision. She said at that point she found herself determined to do everything she could to help him accomplish his goal.\nWhen she told Calli about her plans, he challenged, "Why not for other young people in Congo also?"\nSo she rose to the challenge, went through all the necessary red tape and in September 2003, GBA officially reached nonprofit status in Indiana.\nNo one said it would be easy, though.\n"There's nothing that's not an obstacle," Calli said, after reviewing a list of problems GBA will face. \nBut Thomson interjected quickly, "Except the human capital -- the people waiting there. The people are certainly not an obstacle."\nThomson's father, Bob Peterson, a missionary and educator in Congo for 38 years, knows the difficulties better than most from his own experiences. Those experiences allow him to say GBA will make "a small drop in the bucket of need" while expressing how proud he is of his daughter.\n"As her father," he said, "I've been very thrilled to see what she, by her determination, actually has accomplished"
