611 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(06/10/08 12:49am)
NASHVILLE, Ind. – Thirty minutes was all it took for Debbie Guffey’s family business to go under water.\n“I’ve seen it (to the grass),” Guffey said. “But never, never to the windows of the shop.”\nSevere storms that moved through south central Indiana Friday night and Saturday morning dumped about 10 inches of water in the area, according to the National Weather Service, putting homes and businesses like Guffey’s Brown County Tire and Auto Service in Nashville, Ind. in dire straights.\nBy Sunday afternoon, most of the water that had damaged the garage belonging to Guffey and her husband had receded, but reminders of the destruction it caused remained. An oil drum that had been stored inside the building was tipped over in the course of the flood, coating everything on the premises with a fine layer of used oil. The water line reached to the windows of the garage bay doors, and almost a foot of standing water remained in what used to be the driveway to the garage.\n“I’ve never been through anything like this,” Guffey said. “I don’t know what kind of steps there are.”\nThe extent of the damage was still being determined as Guffey walked through the premises in a stunned daze. \n“We have insurance, but is it gonna do this?” she said. “Our business is probably going to be closed down for awhile.”\nIndiana Conservation Officer Jeff Atwood was on duty all day Saturday aiding flood victims in the Brown County area and stopped by Guffey’s business Sunday afternoon to see the damage. \n“This is a family business and they’ve got six foot of water in their shop, and they’re due to open tomorrow,” Atwood said. “They employ mechanics here that have families that depend on the work here, and there’s not gonna be any work tomorrow ... because they have to clean up and take everything out. It’s just a mess.”\nBusiness owners aren’t the only ones affected. Farmers are feeling the crunch from the high amount of rainfall, and according to Atwood (who owns his own farm in southern Monroe County) its reaching a “critical time” in the season where it may be too late to replant crops.\n“I think you’re gonna see an increase in costs on not only crop harvests and sales but an increase in ethanol prices,” he said. “They still have an effect on the markets in the United States and the world.”\nWorkers like Atwood have dedicated their entire weekend to clean up due to flood damage. Kevin Harrison of the Johnson County Highway Department had been out from 6 a.m. Saturday until 11 p.m. that night, and was back on the job at 8 a.m. Sunday morning assessing damage to bridges and other structures in the area. \n“With five, six, seven (structures) to do, it’ll be awhile,” he said of the amount of time needed to repair damaged areas in his jurisdiction. \nSince Saturday, 22 counties in Indiana have declared states of emergency, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Multiple roads, including portions of I-65 and Indiana 37, were closed due to high water, making travel difficult.\nDespite the extreme hardships now brought to the people affected by the spring storms, Atwood cites the determination of the rural citizens as the biggest tool in getting through these challenges.\n“The people here will get through it, the problem is its gonna take some time to recover,” he said. “The resources that are available to these people here are utilized to their fullest extent, but in a situation like this the resources are not enough and they’re never enough.\n“It’s a way of life. You deal with the things that are thrown at you. It’s not easy but that’s the way they’ve always lived and that’s the way they’ll continue to live.”
(06/05/08 8:34pm)
When going to college, it is easy to get swept up in the numerous pizza and fast-food places that line the food courts and streets of Bloomington. Going away from home allows students to try new things, experience new environments and interact with other cultures.
(05/12/08 6:01pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Three-week-old Kevin fussed in mother Melissa Lankey’s arms until she started singing softly to him, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The newborn began dozing within seconds.
(05/11/08 10:54pm)
INDIANAPOLIS – Three-week-old Kevin fussed in mother Melissa Lankey’s arms until she started singing softly to him, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” The newborn began dozing within seconds.\n“That’s kind of our little song. It usually calms him right down,” Lankey said.\nLankey did not sing the tune in the baby’s bedroom. She was behind bars at the Indiana Women’s Prison, where a new program allows some inmates to keep their newborns in their cells for up to 18 months.\nThe program debuted last month, becoming the sixth in the nation in a growing trend among state prison systems.\nNew York has had prison nurseries for more than a century; Washington, Ohio, California and Nebraska started ones in recent years, and West Virginia is preparing to launch one, too.\nThe programs come at a time when the nation’s female inmate population is rising.\nThe Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the number of women in prisons and jails jumped from more than 163,000 in 2000 to nearly 210,000 in mid-2006, fueled largely by an increase in drug convictions that carry mandatory sentences.\nMany of those inmates are mothers who experts say benefit from staying with their children, even if it’s behind bars.\nThe Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville, whose nursery program Indiana modeled, has seen 14 of its 128 participants re-offend, an 11 percent recidivism rate compared with the institution’s rate among all inmates of about 30 percent, spokeswoman Elizabeth Wright said. New York also has seen a drop-off, said Linda Foglia, spokeswoman for that state’s Department of Correctional Services.\nIndiana hopes for similar results with its program, funded through a $122,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.\nThe Wee Ones Nursery at the 136-year-old Women’s Prison is open to up to 10 imprisoned mothers who are the legal guardians of their children, have never been convicted of violent crimes, and have less than 18 months left on their sentences.\nThe nursery staff includes a pediatrician and a nurse. Inmates who serve as nannies must have committed nonviolent offenses and have reading levels of eighth grade or higher; they also must complete a parenting class.\nThe mothers receive courses on postpartum care, child development, shaken baby syndrome and other topics.\n“We hope that we’ll continue to make the family the unit that it should be and strengthen those that are going back out into the community,” prison Superintendent Zettie Cotton said.\nSome critics contend keeping a baby in prison punishes the child for the mother’s offense. When West Virginia’s House of Delegates debated creating a nursery program last year, opponents warned it might harm the children involved.\nBut studies show the children benefit from the contact, said Mary Byrne, a Columbia University nursing professor who is conducting a study of 100 children born at the adjacent Bedford Hills and Taconic Correctional Facilities in Westchester County, N.Y.\nByrne said children separated from their inmate parents run higher risks for emotional and behavioral disorders, school failure and trouble with the law. The babies born to mothers in prisons generally are better off staying there with them, she said.\n“The outcomes are promising, if the prison nursery programs have the appropriate resources,” Byrne said.\nSerena Garduza said the Indiana nursery, an extension of the medium-security facility’s Family Preservation Program, gives her infant son a better shot at success in life than she had.\nGarduza, 31, grew up in foster care after being taken away from her mother, with whom she has lost touch. She stayed in school only until the ninth grade. On probation for theft and receiving stolen property, she was sent to the prison last December after testing positive for cocaine and gave birth to Ramerio, her fifth child, four weeks ago.\nGarduza and Ramerio now share a cell with a lone window barred by rounds of razor wire – a stark contrast to the crib, bright white curtains and stenciled moon and stars on the powder blue cinder block walls.\n“I know I’m in prison and all that, but I kind of put my mind out of it,” said Garduza, who’s due to leave prison this summer. “When he’s with me, I really don’t feel like I’m incarcerated.”\nThe program recognizes that people make mistakes, said Jennifer Pope Baker, director of the Women’s Fund of Indiana, which picks up parts of the costs of the nursery and the Family Preservation Program. Clothing, diapers and other items are donated.
(03/18/08 4:00am)
On Dec. 6, 1977, 200,000 members of the United Mine Workers Union went on strike after contract negotiations with the Bituminous Coal Operators Association failed. As the strike surged into 1978, coal supplies began to vanish, pushing a university largely dependent on its coal supply to the nail-biting edge. State officials declared emergency energy cutbacks, and IU administrators had no choice but to close the school, giving students the first three-week spring break in IU history – and leaving the campus in the dark. Thirty years later, IU still remembers.
(01/31/08 5:00am)
The "drunk bus" driver\nMidnight Special driver Don Taylor tends to think of his job as baby-sitting. He does deal with vomit and urine, after all. \nMore commonly known as the "drunk buses," the Midnight Special buses start running at 11 p.m. and run until 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., they run three set routes. Then, from 1 to 4 a.m., they pick up people from downtown locations and take them to their desired destinations. \nTaylor is not oblivious to the purpose of his job. \n"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on," Taylor said, regarding the prevalent weekend drinking among college students around Bloomington. \nBut underage or not, his goal is to safely transport all riders.\nTaylor has a few rules for his riders, regardless of whether they are intoxicated.\n He doesn't allow fighting, and he draws the line when people are disrespectful. \n"If they call me a name and I know who does it, they're going to be walking," he said. \nHe also kicked a rider off for breaking a bus window. The police were called, and the rider ended up paying for a new window.\nTaylor hears plenty of foul language while working. He tries to ignore it, but some of the drunken riders' bad habits rub off on him.\n"I go home talking like a sailor and my wife has to correct me," Taylor said. \nOne night, a passenger used her bus seat as a toilet. Taylor left three passengers on his bus while he stopped to use the restroom. When he returned, he noticed the smell of urine. Taylor said they all denied it, so he made them walk home.\n"It was safer to kick all of them off, and I knew the other two would give her hell all the way home," Taylor said.\nTaylor can't quite decide what it is that makes his job worthwile. \n"When the tips are good, you make decent money," he said. \nBut Taylor said after decades of driving for a living, he loves people.\nThe bartender\nFor bartender Thad Thomas, there is more to his job than just making drinks. \nBartenders have to "oversee everything," Thomas said. \nAn IU graduate who majored in fitness, 24-year-old Thomas has been bartending at Kilroy's Bar & Grill for about a year. Thomas said that on busy nights, Kilroy's employs 10 bartenders. \n"There's door staff to make sure there are no fights, but we're the ones who see it first because it's happening over our bar," Thomas said.\nHe said the hardest part of his job is organizing and keeping up with orders when business gets busy. \nThomas said he encounters numerous types of customers every night. Some customers assure Thomas he'll receive a generous tip, but sometimes, they won't tip him at all. \nThe police officer\n"Any large university is going to have some problem with alcohol." said Sgt. Don Schmuhl, who has worked with the IU Police Department for 33 years. \nThe busiest time of year for alcohol complaints is from the beginning of the fall semester through November, he said, adding that Little 500 also causes an increase in alcohol-related activity. Homecoming weekend brings an "influx of people" to campus, so the police department is "stretched out to the extreme with the officers available," Schmuhl said.\nMost people he encounters who have been drinking are cooperative, but there are always the exceptions. \nOnce, while working the third shift -- from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. -- Schmuhl answered a bank alarm on Kirkwood Avenue. Everything looked fine at the front of the bank so he walked around to the rear and saw a man sitting on the curb. Schmuhl said the man had cut an electric wire to the building in order to cut off the power and was attempting to pry open the back door to enter the bank. Schmuhl assumed the man was trying to rob the bank and said the man's blood-alcohol concentration was above 2.0.\nThe brewmaster\nUpland Brewing Co. provides an alternative bar experience for college students who are interested in quality over quantity. Upland's Marketing Manager Scott Johnson believes there's no denying the stereotype that college students tend to prefer cheaper beer, but that it's "nice to leave the party, Natty Light scene sometimes." \nThere is an entire science behind brewing. 28-year-old Caleb Staton, the head brewer, has been in charge of the brew room at Upland for the past three years. His job entails the technicalities behind the beer, as he provides recipes and makes sure the taste of each new drink is consistent with the Upland style. \nUpland regularly brews five beers: Wheat, Amber, Pale, Dragonfly IPA and Bad Elmer's Porter, in addition to eight seasonal beers.\nAn Irish Imperial Red Ale, Upland's strongest beer, is being bottled for the first time this year.\nIt is a big decision to switch a beer from being sold strictly on draft to being bottled, because there is so much packaging involved.\n"Really, we start with the seasonal and see if it becomes a popular in-house hit, with the potential to grow year after year," Staton said. "Then, we go ahead and stick it in the glass (bottles)."\nThe four main ingredients in beer are water, yeast, hops and malt. The drink contains many degrees of malt, making the color vary and the taste rich and sugary.\nAccording to Johnson, about half of the brewery's customers are college students. He believes this popularity is due to Upland's rare appeal. \n"It's a unique thing to go off downtown (Bloomington) square and be at Indiana's largest brewery," he said.
(01/30/08 5:47am)
The Minnesota Twins reached a tentative agreement Tuesday to trade Johan Santana to the New York Mets.\nAfter months of deliberation, the Twins agreed part with two-time Cy Young Award winner to the Mets for outfielder Carlos Gomez, and pitchers Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey, two people familiar with the deal said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no announcement had been made.\n“If it’s true, obviously, you’re getting arguably the best pitcher in the game,” Mets third baseman David Wright said.\nThe next step is for the Mets to negotiate a contract extension with Santana, who is eligible for free agency after this season. Santana is owed $13.25 million this year and likely will seek an extension of at least five years worth $20 million annually.\nTeams are given 72-hour windows to reach agreements on contracts in tentative trades. If the Mets and Santana reach an agreement, the players being traded would have to pass physicals.\nThe Mets emerged as the top candidate for a trade after the winter meetings, when the New York Yankees withdrew their offer, which included pitchers Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, and the Red Sox refused to improve their proposals, which included pitcher Jon Lester or outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and prospects.\nTwins general manager Bill Smith called teams last weekend and asked them to make their best offers. Smith informed the Mets on Tuesday that he was accepting their proposal.\nA left-hander who turns 29 in March, Santana gives the Mets a replacement for Tom Glavine, who left New York to return to the Atlanta Braves. New York’s rotation also includes Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Orlando Hernandez and Oliver Perez.\nSantana is 93-44 with a 3.22 ERA in eight major league seasons, winning the AL Cy Young Award in 2004 and 2006. He has been less successful in the playoffs, going 1-3 with a 3.97 ERA.\n“For our younger pitchers to develop under a guy like Pedro, a guy like Johan, you can’t ask for any better situation,” Wright said. “He’s going to go out there and he’s going to give you seven or eight innings every five days and he’s going to get you a win. That’s just what it comes down to. I’ve gotten a chance to get to know him a little bit the past couple years. He seems like a great clubhouse guy. He’s going to fit in perfectly with the chemistry that we have.”\nWith Santana gone, there is a big opening in the Twins’ rotation. Francisco Liriano is on track to return after missing last season following elbow surgery, but Carlos Silva signed with Seattle as a free agent, leaving youngsters Scott Baker, Boof Bonser and Kevin Slowey as the starters with the most experience.\nHumber, a 25-year-old right-hander, has made one start and four relief appearances for the Mets during the past two years, and went 11-9 with a 4.27 ERA last season for Triple-A New Orleans. The 22-year-old Gomez batted .232 in 125 at-bats with New York last year and .275 with 19 steals in the minors.\nThe tentative agreement was first reported by USA Today on its Web site.
(11/29/07 5:54am)
Suggestive sculptures personify a slippery subject today at IU’s second annual Latexhibition in observation of World AIDS Day, which will be held Dec. 1. \nAn internationally recognized clinician will join the condom-laden art exhibit on campus, which recognizes the day that raises awareness of the AIDS epidemic and how to prevent the spread of the disease. \nDr. Brian Dodge, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion, said World AIDS Day began in 1988. Events throughout the world, including those on campus today, are held this week to commemorate the day. \n“With the mission of our center being education, research and \ntraining, this is a great opportunity to share the work we do with community,” Dodge said.\nTo promote sexual health and education, the IU Center for Sexual Health Promotion is hosting the Latexhibition art contest from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today in the Dogwood Room of the Indiana Memorial Union. Artists from the community create displays for the art exhibit that includes latex barrier devices to promote preventing sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Dodge said the event attracts people from across the country, as well as the community, to be creative with latex to commemorate the event. \nCenter Research Coordinator Christopher Fisher, who organized Latexhibition, said the purpose of a condom-laced art show is to “promote sexual health through art.”\n“We invite students, faculty, staff and community members in Bloomington to design some kind of artistic piece out of latex, condoms, dental dams, anything made out of latex,” he said. \nWhile the Latexhibition’s Web site has photos of the winners’ entries from last year, Fisher said some entries were especially memorable. \n“One entry was a window box piece that had an all-American hotdog stand, with fries, soda and a hot dog wrapped in a condom,” he said. “The message of the piece was ‘Don’t forget to wrap your wiener!’”\nAlso featured that year was a Christmas tree made entirely out of condoms, a Magic Eye picture spelling the word “Safe” and a snowman made out of multiple latex products.\nA panel of judges will review the artwork and award monetary prizes to the best displays.\nIn addition to Latexhibition, the Center for Sexual Health Promotion is sponsoring a speech from Dr. David Malebranche, a sexual health researcher and clinician from the Emory University School of Medicine. \n“We usually just have one speaker a year, and this year we were really fortunate to have Dr. David Malebranche,” Dodge said.\nDodge said Malebranche is a professor in general medicine and only one of the few researchers sponsored by the National Institute of Health to conduct research on black bisexual men. He will deliver his speech, “Black Bisexual Men and HIV: Time to Think Deeper,” at 7 p.m. today in the Dogwood Room of the IMU. \n“He also has a clinical practice in which he routinely works with HIV-positive people in Atlanta on a diverse spectrum,” Dodge said. “He embodies everything I think of about the day: researching, treating people (and) educating about HIV/AIDS.”
(10/12/07 3:11am)
Neon Wrigleyville and Budweiser signs on the walls shine through the windows of Bloomington’s newest addition to the dining scene. The signs are the only way to spot the restaurant since its outdoor sign was stolen last week. \nA cluster of triangular red and white banners celebrating IU championship basketball teams hang on the walls, and dark wooden tables and chairs line the room, leading up to a window that opens up to the kitchen. Six high definition televisions are mounted high on the walls.\nWelcome to Billy’s Chicago Place.\nOn Monday the restaurant, located at 208 S. Dunn St., opened for business. Owned by 23-year-old IU graduate Billy Fenton, the menu of this Windy City-inspired restaurant features items such as burgers, Italian beef sandwiches and gyros. The main feature is the Chicago-style hot dog, which is covered with mustard, relish, onion, tomato, pickle and peppers.\nWith his brown hair sticking out of a Cubs baseball hat and clad in khaki shorts, a white sweatshirt and blue and white flip-flops, Fenton doesn’t dress like a businessman. But he certainly is one. \nAs an IU student, Fenton realized that many students come from Chicago, but Bloomington didn’t have any restaurants that served food from the city. Because Chicago is about four hours away from Bloomington, Fenton knows many people haven’t tried Chicago-style foods.\nFenton, who studied telecommunications and Spanish, said he has wanted to open a restaurant since his freshman year at IU. He said he is not drawn to a stereotypical office job, which is why he wanted to open a restaurant and bar. He likes working with people and is attracted to the excitement and “craziness” of the business.\nThe restaurant is open Sunday through Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 a.m., and until 3 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. With only 15 employees, Fenton knows he will be working long hours.\nMost of the employees are students, waitress and senior Amy Larson said. \nAs a recent graduate, Fenton thinks being open late is an attractive feature. Billy’s Chicago Place serves beer from both the Chicago-based Goose Island and the local Upland breweries, as well as several other types of beer. The bar will offer daily specials, including $1 Old Style and Pabst Blue Ribbon on Tuesday nights.\nThe restaurant has about 115 seats, 60 outside and 55 inside. The inside is split into two parts, with one side for all-ages and the other for a bar. In order to thwart underage drinking, no beer will be allowed in the all-ages side after 10 p.m. It will, however, be permitted in the bar and outside areas. After 10 p.m., underage patrons will not be able to sit outside.\nFenton has been planning to open the restaurant since August 2006. He originally hoped to be open the restaurant this August, but construction and permits set him back. The building that houses the hot dog and burger joint used to be the location of Amused! clothing. Because it wasn’t a restaurant before, Fenton said the whole kitchen had to be installed, along with new bathrooms.\n“Everything has blown me away,” Fenton said. “You need a permit to get a permit in this town.”\nWhile the official grand opening won’t take place until Homecoming weekend, Larson said the business is “doing well.” Fenton said between 80 and 100 people visited the restaurant on Monday evening.\nSo far, the only Fenton’s marketing tactics have been flyers and word-of-mouth advertising. He may advertise more later, but for now he’s not worried. \n“There’s no better word of mouth than a college town like Bloomington,” Fenton said.
(09/06/07 2:58am)
On Sep. 1, alarmed that there were Arabic-speaking men who “looked mean” on her late night flight from San Diego to Chicago, Leigh Robbins demanded to get off the plane in order “to protect her kids.” Her commotion forced the men to be questioned and searched by American Airlines and airport security, with no probable cause other than Robbins’ unsubstantiated panic. \nNever mind that these seven Iraqi and Iraqi-American men were working as consultants at Camp Pendleton helping to train U.S. Marines. Never mind that one of the men said his mother was killed by Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime. Never mind that the airline and airport police officers probably violated these passengers’ Fourth Amendment rights.\nInstead, I’d like to focus momentarily on Leigh Robbins, the 35-year-old homemaker who raised the “alarm.” What made her do it? It’d be easy to chalk up her response to xenophobia, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. Robbins is trying to contact the seven men to apologize and seemed genuinely frightened for her children, who were with her at the time. \nRather than Arab-hating, Robbins represents the fear-driven world that Americans inhabit these days. As she said, “I can’t describe how afraid I was. … How can you overreact when it’s your children?” This gut-wrenching fear caused her to toss all reason out the window and caused the airline to illegally search seven men for flying while Arabic. The same fear has caused our elected officials to strip us of our First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendment rights without so much as a peep of discontent. \nThe specter of 9/11, which has loomed for nearly 6 years, has brought our public discourse to a standstill. We can all relate when Robbins says, “All I could think of was 9/11.” I admit, it’s hard not to think about the risk of catastrophe on the horizon.\nAt the same time, think about all that this bunker mentality has cost us. All the goodwill the world showered upon us has evaporated after two bungled wars and a prickly foreign policy that is all stick and no carrot. We’ve lost all the aforementioned rights, along with any semblance of the rule of law. In six years, we’ve lost what it ever meant to be an American.\nAfter all this, the spirit of America still lives on in this story, but not in Leigh Robbins. It lives on in David Al Watan, one of the “very frightening” men who so scared Robbins. Born in Nasiriyah, Iraq, he fled the country, first to a refugee camp then to the United States, where he now works as a consultant for the Marine Corps. Humiliated, he did what a good American should do: he filed a complaint in a court of law. Al Watan stated, “I am an American. I love this country. I would die for it.” As long as Al Watan is willing to die for a country too scared to sit next to him on an airplane, there’s hope for us yet.
(08/29/07 1:14am)
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Colonial Williamsburg is more than costumed interpreters in tricorn hats making speeches about revolution or craftsmen demonstrating silversmithing and other trades.\nThe restored 18th-century capital of Virginia also features the nation’s first folk art museum, now in a new, roomier home.\nThe Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum reopened earlier this year after being closed during a two-year, $6.1 million expansion project that gave it 11 galleries in 11,200 square feet of exhibition space that can be adjusted to display a wide range of pieces.\nIts former location had 10,800 square feet of exhibition space divided among small, cutup rooms, making it much less flexible. \nAbby Aldrich Rockefeller, a driving force in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, was one of the first collectors of folk art. She began buying work from non-academically trained artists in the early 20th century, when folk art was considered beneath collectors’ notice, said Ronald L. Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg’s vice president for collections and museums.\nShe gave her 424-piece collection to Colonial Williamsburg in the 1930s. Her husband, John D. Rockefeller Jr., was a principal benefactor in the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg, and she saw folk art “as a complement to what was going on here,” Hurst said.\nAbby Rockefeller died in 1948, and her husband built the folk art museum to honor her. It opened in 1957 in what was then a state-of-the-art facility.\nFive decades later, change was sorely needed.\nThe small rooms couldn’t accommodate large exhibits and the fluorescent lighting made paintings look washed out. And attendance had fallen as fewer people were willing to make their way to the museum, two blocks away from Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Area, Hurst said.\nThe new museum was built in what had been a walled outdoor garden adjoining the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, one of Colonial Williamsburg’s more popular offerings. The DeWitt museum is close to the Historic Area and to the downtown Williamsburg shopping district, Merchants Square.\nThe new space has more vibrant colors on the walls and better lighting that makes the artworks glow. In one room featuring landscapes and cityscapes, louvers on the windows adjust automatically to retain the ambiance of natural light.\n“Again and again, people have walked in, seen their old favorites and said, ‘Have you cleaned all the paintings?’ “ Hurst said. “The answer is ‘no.’ They are simply properly lighted now.”\nThe new space also has room to show off more of the museum’s collection, which has grown to more than 5,000 objects from the 18th century, when Virginia was a British colony, as well as the 19th and 20th centuries. Currently, about 510 pieces are on view.\nThe exhibits show off a wide variety of the museum’s holdings, including silhouette portraits, quilts, sculptures, stoneware and musical instruments such as a carved combination rhinoceros and hippo –“Hippoceros” – that has a phonograph embedded in its body.\nA gallery of painted furniture shows how artisans painted cheap materials like pine and poplar to look like more expensive wood, such as mahogany.\nAn exhibition on mourning art explores honoring deceased loved ones and heroes. It includes paintings, medals and quilts created to honor President George Washington after his death in 1799 and memorial pictures done in needlework by schoolgirls.\nOne exhibition, “Down on the Farm,” is focused on children. It follows the story of Prince, a carved wooden dog, as he explores the countryside. The story is told in verse in book pages mounted at kid-level and is illustrated by pieces such as wooden horses and weather vane roosters.\nThe biggest piece in the museum is an entire room saved from an 1830s North Carolina country house that was falling apart.\nAnother gallery features portraits. Most of the subjects are not famous. One of Hurst’s favorites shows a woman named Deborah Glen, painted in 1739, just before her marriage with a wreath symbolizing her virtue.\n“The staff all tease me because they know whenever there’s a portraiture exhibit, they have to put Deborah in,” Hurst said. “Or I come in and say, ‘Where’s Deborah?’”
(05/25/07 1:58am)
IU security guard Bryan E. Kern, 39, was arrested May 11 for a misdemeanor battery charge and impersonating a law enforcer.\nOn May 8 at 2:22 a.m., Bloomington Police DepartmentBloomington Police Department Officer Walter Harris was dispatched on a call for an assault. Harris was told two suspects in a silver Jeep were leaving Steak ‘n Shake, 1919 N. College Ave., going southbound on northbound College Avenue.\nHarris stopped the Jeep at 17th and College. IUPD Officer Brian Oliger informed Harris that both suspects in the silver Jeep were IU security guards. Oliger stated Kern was wearing a black uniform with the security patch on shoulder, a black duty belt and a shoulder microphone.\nAccording to police reports, Kern stated he pulled into the drive-through at Steak 'n Shake and asked the employee at the window for two separate orders. The employee explained company policy allows only one order per vehicle. Kern stated he pulled up to the window where they talked again, and when he refused to make an order, she slammed the window closed.\nKern then parked his vehicle and walked into the restaurant, where he walked up to the employee and asked her why she had an attitude.\nKern said that while speaking with her, another employee intervened and she began bumping him with his body. After she told him to leave the serving line, Kern said she pushed him and he left the establishment.\nHarris went to Steak 'n Shake to speak with the employees who were there. The employee who had been at the drive-through window said Kern refused to place an order and came into the establishment, pointing his finger in her face.\nThe victim said another employee intervened and told Kern to leave the service area, and if he didn’t, she was going to call the police. Kern reportedly replied, “I am a police officer.”\nAfter Kern stated he was a police officer, he put his hands on her chest and pushed her away.\nA witness stated she saw Kern come into the restaurant and place his finger in the victim’s face, saying he was a police officer and she should never be rude to him.\nThe witness also said Kern yelled at the employee who intervened and he did shove her.\nIUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said Kern was suspended immediately with no pay.
(05/24/07 12:57am)
A man exposed himself on 10th Street and Indiana Avenue on May 19 at approximately 10:47 p.m, BPD Sgt. Jeff Canada said, reading from a police report. The complainant was walking east on 10th Street going toward Indiana Avenue when a man pulled down his shorts and began to dance in front of her, Canada said.\nShe screamed, and he ran behind Yogi’s Bar and Grill. Police officers did not locate anyone afterward.\nThe man was described as being in his mid-40s, 5 feet 7 inches tall, extremely skinny with a light-colored beard, short blonde hair on the side of his head and balding.
(05/17/07 4:00am)
Instructor: WEEKEND
OBJECTIVE: Arm you with a quick list of what's hot (and cool) this summer.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: We know it's not fancy. And we know it's not everything there is to do this summer. But hey, what else have you got that will help keep your feet moving and your stomach full all summer long?
DON'T FORGET: IU takes a strict stance on plagiarism. To review these policies feel free to consult the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct at:
http://dsa.indianan.edu/Code/
(05/14/07 6:07pm)
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The image most people have of Kevin Sterne is harrowing: a photo showing a tourniquet wrapped around his wounded leg as rescue workers rushed him out of Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall.\nBut on Saturday, there was a new image of the 22-year-old former Eagle Scout, jubilant and full of life as he limped across the stage at the university’s Cassell Coliseum using a crutch and displaying a grin to accept his degree in electrical engineering.\nThe crowd rose to its feet and cheered Sterne in one of the most poignant moments of the morning commencement ceremony at the College of Engineering.\nIt was one of several campus ceremonies in which individual colleges and departments handed out diplomas to students, including posthumous degrees to those killed in the April 16 attack at a dormitory and classroom building.\nThe College of Engineering was hit particularly hard, with 11 students and three professors killed in the shooting.\nEngineering Dean Richard Benson was overwhelmed, his voice breaking at times, as he spoke about the slain. \n“Forgive me,” Benson said quietly as he paused to collect himself while commemorating professor Kevin Granata, who was shot in a hallway as he tried to save students during the rampage in which 33 people were killed.\nThe widow of G.V. Loganathan accepted a teaching award in honor of her husband, a man Benson said students fondly regarded as the best professor they ever had, the kindest person they ever met and incredibly wise.\nAnother slain professor, Dr. Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, was remembered by the dean for his “profound courage” in blocking his classroom door so his students could escape out the windows. He was among those killed by student gunman Seung-Hui Cho, who took his own life.\nProfessors, students, their families and friends wept openly as those attending the political science department’s ceremony were asked to remain silent while a bell chimed for each of their nine slain students as their posthumous degrees were awarded.\nProfessor Edward Weisband said he has vivid memories of each of them in class, “attentive, bright, caring.”\nHe promised their families that their children’s empty seats “shall always remain in any class I teach.” \nAs the overflow crowd rose to honor several of the department’s six injured students who were able to attend, Weisband said, “We take inexpressible joy in your survival.”\nAt an English department ceremony, nearly all of the 135 graduating students and many faculty members stood when asked if they knew someone killed or injured in the shooting spree. The crowd of several hundred rose and applauded loudly as posthumous degrees were awarded to sophomore Ross Abdallah Alameddine and senior Ryan Clark who was one of two students killed in a dormitory before the gunman moved to the classroom building.\nEnglish professor Nikki Giovanni read “We are Virginia Tech,”a poem she penned hours after the rampage that infused a campus convocation with strength the day after the shootings. She was inspired, she said Saturday, by the desire to convey that “what we do is more important than what is done to us.”
(04/30/07 4:00am)
The IU softball team’s hopes of making the postseason took a huge hit this weekend when they dropped a pair of doubleheaders to Big Ten foes Penn State and Ohio State. \nThe matches were opportunities for IU to knock a team like Penn State out of position and propel the Hoosiers into one of the final eight spots needed to qualify for the Big Ten tournament.\nIU softball coach Stacey Phillips was said that even though IU has struggled, the season is still not over.\n“We still have a week left in our season,” Phillips said. “There has been a lot of ups and downs this season. Lots of ups early.”\nPenn State pitcher Ashley Esparza allowed only four hits and struck out 11 as she led the Nittany Lions (23-18, 4-5 in Big Ten) to a victory in Game 1 of the doubleheader. \nIn the second game of the series, walks and home runs were the theme as Penn State defeated IU 14-1. \nThe Hoosiers ran into Big Ten leader Ohio State in the second doubleheader and discovered why the Buckeyes are one of the elite teams in the conference. \nOhio State used strong pitching to sweep the Hoosiers 5-2 in the first game and 9-0 in the second. In Game 1, Ohio State’s Kim Reeder allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits in 5 2/3 innings of work to get the victory. In Game 2, Buckeye pitcher Jamee Juarez showed no letdown after earning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week accolades. Juarez allowed only one IU hit and walked one batter in shutting out the Hoosiers. It was a day when the Buckeyes’ pitchers were hitting their spots and the Hoosiers were caught fishing.\n“Good pitchers get ahead so they can throw their pitches, not the batters’ pitches,” Phillips said.\nThe Hoosiers hopes of making the Big Ten tournament were all but dashed with the doubleheader sweep. All the Hoosiers can do now is look forward to a pair of games with arch-rival Purdue to end the season. \n“We’ve got nothing to lose right now,” Phillips said. “We’ve got a competitive group of players. You can throw the records out the window when it’s IU and Purdue.”\nThe lone bright spot during the weekend was sophomore Monica Wright’s etching her name into the IU softball record books. Wright entered the top 10 in single-season rankings in both games started (30) and innings pitched (231). She also moved into a tie for fifth with 45 appearances on the season. \n“We were fortunate Monica wanted to be a Hoosier,” Phillips said. “She filled a large void; we really needed her. Her work ethic is one of a true competitor. She has meant a great deal to us.”\nThe Hoosiers travel to West Lafayette to face Purdue on Saturday before wrapping up the season Sunday at home against the Boilermakers.
(04/20/07 4:00am)
The historic Bloomington restaurant where tables and chairs once sat quickly became a blank canvas for nine Master of Fine Arts printmaking students.\nNoel W. Anderson, Paul Bohensky III, Joshua Brennan, Lee Busick, Julian Hensarling, Nate Herman Kuznia, Young Suk Lee, Dora Lisa Rosenbaum and Jeremy Sweet embarked on their journeys with little more than tools, paint and open minds when they started work on their exhibit, “Pre-Demolition Installation Exhibition,” just a few weeks ago.\n“It’s a show with the graduate printmaking department in conjunction with our graduate seminar class, based around installation and printmaking,” Hensarling said.\nTheir exhibition is set to open Friday at Ladyman’s Cafe, 122 E. Kirkwood Ave. The cafe is a historic restaurant that was closed last December after more than 50 years of business and will soon be torn down.\n“We are having the freedom of a space that is going to be destroyed to do whatever we want, which is kind of a unique opportunity in the art world,” Sweet said. “Most galleries don’t want you cutting into their walls and painting directly all over their floor.” \nThe artists are completing the exhibition as a requirement for their seminar course. Their professor, Althea Murphy-Prize, organized the event. Although this is the first year anything like this has been done, Murphy-Prize said she hopes it will become a trend that will continue for years.\n“I think it is an exciting opportunity. Any opportunity to have a space not only to make an installation piece, but to react to the space and allow your work to interact with and react to the space is always exciting,” Murphy-Prize said. “What I’ve enjoyed that they’ve done is a lot of them have thought about the history of the space and tried to incorporate that into their own conceptual ideas.”\nThe graduate students found out they would be working with the former cafe just three weeks ago and have been there only two. About a week and a half was spent cleaning, clearing out the space, repainting walls and tearing up carpet to create a clean area the artists could work with.\n“We came in here with a pretty blank slate. We had a couple general ideas of things we would have been interested in trying, but for the most part the majority of the work in here started the moment we walked in the door,” Hensarling said.\nBefore they could begin, permission to use the space had to be granted. Murphy-Prize contacted Heartland Group owner Travis Vencel, who Murphy-Prize said has an appreciation for the arts and was excited to see the space put to use.\nEach of the artists have individual pieces at the cafe. One titled “Pie in the Sky” features various figures drawn by Bohensky alongside a hanging piece of pie that when viewed from the outside of the window can be seen within the figures. Busick contributed a piece focusing on the former cook of the cafe and the struggles he had when it closed. \nBrennan’s piece focuses on the perspective of what the actual cafe looked like and how different people interpret it. Kuznia used the idea of Ladyman’s famous pie to create a piece portraying 290 pieces of feces symbolizing the death of the cafe, along with the death of food in general. \n“I hope to create a unique visual experience that people don’t traditionally get to see, based on scale and technique and taking it out of the context of the newspaper and making it larger than life,” Sweet said about his piece, a blown-up comic strip drawn directly on the wall, inspired by the large number of people that would sit in Ladyman’s and read the paper.\nThe artists are eagerly anticipating the opening and reception, taking place from 8 to 11 p.m. tomorrow evening.\n“We are on the strip where everyone is going to be hanging out for Little 5. Stop by,” Anderson said. “We are the best artists in town. I guarantee it.”
(04/19/07 4:00am)
The nicest thing I can say about "Disturbia" is that I might have liked it more had I seen it when I was 11, but even at that age I think would have been hesitant to admit that I was at all entertained by such a lame cinematic offering. Other than the absolute climax of the film, "Disturbia" is not suspenseful, let alone scary. \nThe plot consists of the tired "the guy living next door hitting on my mom is an alien/psycho/vampire" stock story line used by countless films and young adult novels. \nBut it has what I am sure was meant to be a fresh, "contemporary" angle in that the protagonist (Shia LaBeouf from "Even Stevens") is confined to his home and spends most of his time spying on the neighborhood through a pair of binoculars. Of course, when you remember how long ago Hitchcock's "Rear Window" came out, the freshness of the concept really starts to wilt. \nI couldn't shake the feeling that the dialogue was slightly too forced, the acting a little less than good and the overall look and feel of the entire production a little too much like something I would expect to find on the Disney Channel. And that was even before I recognized it was former Disney star LaBeouf in the lead. I understand that every actor has to start somewhere and I get excited when I see a young actor grow. The problem is that with "Disturbia," LaBeouf has not grown and the worst part is it looks like he was really trying. There are a couple of moments in the film where LaBeouf tries to showcase his acting, moments in which the shot focuses in on his face and lingers just a bit too long as he attempts to express an emotion.\nThere is a bit of gore but very little action. Apparently it is OK for a PG-13 film to get to show the serial killer's workshop and his dead victims as long as the kids don't get to see any actual killing. There is really no action of the sexual kind either, though it is certainly promised throughout the film as the relationship with the girl next door develops. Ultimately, I'm hesitatant to recommend "Disturbia" even as a film to see with a younger sibling. It seems too nasty for really little kids and contains too little entertainment for anyone else.
(04/17/07 4:00am)
BLACKSBURG, Va. – A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.\nThe bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.\nInvestigators gave no motive for the attack. The gunman’s name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.\n“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”\nBut he was also faced with difficult questions about the university’s handling of the emergency and whether it did enough to warn students and protect them after the first burst of gunfire. Some students bitterly complained they got no warning from the university until an e-mail that arrived more than two hours after the first shots rang out.\nWielding two handguns and carrying multiple clips of ammunition, the killer opened fire about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of West Ambler Johnston, a high-rise coed dormitory, then stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building a half-mile away on the other side of the 2,600-acre campus. Some of the doors at Norris Hall were found chained from the inside, apparently by the gunman.\nTwo people died in a dorm room, and 31 others were killed in Norris Hall, including the gunman, who put a bullet in his head. At least 15 people were hurt, some seriously.\nAt an evening news conference, Police Chief Wendell Flinchum refused to dismiss the possibility that a co-conspirator or second shooter was involved. He said police had interviewed a “person of interest” in the dorm shooting who knew one of the victims, but he declined to give details.\n“I’m not saying there is someone out there, and I’m not saying there is someone who is not,” Flinchum said. Ballistics tests will help explain what happened, he said.\nSheree Mixell, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the evidence was being moved to the agency’s national lab in Annandale. At least one firearm was turned over, she said.\nMixell would not comment on what types of weapons were used or whether the gunman was a student.\nStudents jumped from windows in panic. Young people and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive. Many found themselves trapped behind chained and padlocked doors. SWAT team members with helmets, flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed over the campus. A student used his cell-phone camera to record the sound of bullets echoing through a stone building.\nAlec Calhoun, a 20-year-old junior, said he was in a 9:05 a.m. mechanics class when he and classmates heard a thunderous sound from the classroom next door – “what sounded like an enormous hammer.”\nScreams followed an instant later, and the banging continued. When students\n realized the sounds were gunshots, Calhoun said, he started flipping over desks for hiding places. Others dashed to the windows of the second-floor classroom, kicking out the screens and jumping from the ledge of Room 204, he said.\n“I must’ve been the eighth or ninth person who jumped, and I think I was the last,” said Calhoun, of Waynesboro, Va. He landed in a bush and ran.\nCalhoun said that the two students behind him were shot, but that he believed they survived. Just before he climbed out the window, Calhoun said, he turned to look at the professor, who had stayed behind, perhaps to block the door.\nThe instructor was killed, he said.\nTrey Perkins, who was sitting in a German class in Norris Hall, told The Washington Post that the gunman barged into the room at about 9:50 a.m. and opened fire for about 1 1/2 minutes, squeezing off about 30 shots.\nThe gunman first shot the professor in the head and then fired on the students, Perkins said. The gunman was about 19 years old and had a “very serious but very calm look on his face,” he said.\n“Everyone hit the floor at that moment,” said Perkins, 20, of Yorktown, Va., a sophomore studying mechanical engineering. “And the shots seemed like it lasted forever.”\nStudents said that there were no public-address announcements after the first shots. Many said they learned of the first shooting in an e-mail that arrived shortly before the gunman struck again.\n“I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident,” said Billy Bason, 18, who lives on the seventh floor of the dorm.\nSteger defended the university’s conduct, saying authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.\n“We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur,” he said.\nSteger emphasized that the university closed off the dorm after the first attack and decided to rely on e-mail and other electronic means to spread the word, but said that with 11,000 people driving onto campus first thing in the morning, it was difficult to get the word out.\nHe said that before the e-mail went out, the university began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms and sent people to knock on doors. Students were warned to stay inside and away from the windows.\n“We can only make decisions based on the information you had at the time. You don’t have hours to reflect on it,” \nSteger said.\nSome students and Laura Wedin, a student programs manager at Virginia Tech, said their first notification came in an e-mail at 9:26 a.m., more than two hours after the first shooting.\nThe e-mail had few details. It read: “A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning. Police are on the scene and are investigating.” The message warned students to be cautious and contact police about \nanything suspicious.\nJunior Everett Good said of the lack of warning: “Someone’s head is definitely going to roll over that.”\nEdmund Henneke, associate dean of engineering, said that he was in the classroom building and that he and colleagues had just read the e-mail advisory and were discussing it when he heard gunfire. He said that moments later SWAT team members rushed them downstairs, but that the doors were chained and padlocked from the inside. They left the building through an unlocked construction area.\nUntil Monday, the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard plowed his pickup truck into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.
(04/04/07 3:00pm)
He’s a son. He’s a brother. He’s ridiculously good at basketball. More than anything, he’s proof that potential comes from somewhere.
