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(03/30/05 4:31am)
WESTERLY, R.I. -- When Emily Steffian and Daniel Kamil moved from California with thoughts of opening their own movie theater, they wanted to show films that were off the beaten path, but they didn't expect to land there themselves.\nThey envisioned setting up shop in Providence, near the colleges and the capital city's arts community. But the business climate seemed daunting, and a search for an appropriate and affordable property brought them to the seaside community of Westerly.\nSomewhat to their surprise, the combination of a small town and an independent film-screening art house has worked.\nThe Revival House, Westerly's 1 1/2-year-old cinema pub, is one of a growing number of movie theaters nationwide that serve food and alcohol, allowing patrons to combine their viewing and dining. They're a concept that industry experts say is particularly popular in areas like the Pacific Northwest and Dallas-Fort Worth, but they only recently have begun to take off in other places.\nJim Kozak, spokesman for the National Association of Theater Owners, said theaters that serve food and alcohol have been around for years. But they mostly have shown second-run films, movies that run weeks or months after their initial theatrical release.\nThese theaters are becoming more popular, however, and many are showing newer films. As of 1997, only 14 first-run theaters in the country served alcohol. Today that figure is up to 270, said Kozak, whose organization counts among its members the owners of more than 29,000 of the roughly 36,000 to 37,000 screens in the nation.\nHe traces the trend to a theater-owner in Dallas who ran a second-run cinema pub and convinced a studio to include him in the initial release of the 1998 movie "The Waterboy."\nThe experiment was a success, and the film, a national hit, did well at the alcohol and food-serving venue.\n"That opened the floodgate," Kozak said.\nThe earliest first-run cinema pubs tended to be outside of major cities, in part because distributors wouldn't include theaters that served alcohol in initial film releases if they had competition. That's been changing, Kozak said. But in New England, most cinema pubs are located outside of urban centers.\nIn California, where Kozak is based, few venues follow the theater pub model, and just one of those that do is a first-run theater. However, Kozak said, Arclight Cinemas, located in Hollywood, seems to do tremendous business. There, a movie and a dinner entree with a glass of wine or a beer runs about $31.\n"There's a lot of consumer interest in being able to enjoy a cocktail while watching a movie," Kozak said.\nThe Revival House features a cafe with a view of Westerly's downtown and a patio that overlooks the Pawcatuck River. The walls, painted in red and gold tones, as well as a large mural, help set the single-screen theater apart from the atmosphere of large multiplexes.\nThe movie part of the dinner-and-a-movie deal has included nontraditional film offerings in addition to food and beverage service in a cafe-style theater. Movie tickets sell for $6, whereas entrees run between $6.95 and $11.95, and a beer costs between $3.50 and $7. The food also differs from the fast-food style offerings of some other cinema pubs, with a meat, olive and cheese platter replacing the cheese fries. The theater also offers lunch, minus the movies.\n"What we're doing is sort of an urban thing in a small town," Kamil said.\nSteffian and Kamil now feel comfortably established, staging showings that often sell out even though they're not wider box office hits.\nPointing to a poster in the window for "Derrida," a documentary about the deconstructionist Jacques Derrida, Kamil said screening a film about a French philosopher is part of an approach that's "risky, but it's working."\nKamil and Steffian have cut a niche with classic and short films they solicit directly from independent filmmakers, films the couple screens before the main feature.\nBut the cinema pub concept takes a variety of forms.\nAt venues in Pelham, N.H., and Haverhill, Mass., Chunky's Cinema Pubs cater to families.\nThe Pelham location has operated as a first-run cinema pub for about eight years, whereas the Haverhill location, open for about nine years, has shown first-run films for the last four years, said Al Coburn, chief executive of Chunky's.\nMany patrons arrive with time before the movie and order their food, which is brought to their restaurant-style seats inside the theater. The theater also does a brisk business in children's birthday parties, he said.\n"It's a great family atmosphere, obviously for the right movies," Coburn said. "It can be a great date atmosphere."\nTheater owners try to keep the noise down by serving meals before the movie begins, but many say they don't get many complaints about noise.\nBut the model hasn't worked for all who have tried it.\nIn 2000, Larry and Anthony Gemma transformed Providence's Castle Cinema into a cinema cafe and bar, offering "dinner in the movies." In 2004, saddled with debts, the cinema closed its doors. The owners cited a deal that allowed the theater to run movies only after they had shown at a large multiplex nearby, as well as parking problems and other issues.\nFrancisco and Adriana Sandoval, of Providence, drove to North Attleboro one recent evening to catch Nicholas Cage in "National Treasure" at the Route One Cinema Pub in North Attleboro, Mass. The second-run theater, with a menu of appetizers, entrees, beer and wine, was the right spot for a weeknight out, they said.\n"You get a chance to go to a movie, have dinner and be home by nine o'clock," Francisco said.\n"The chairs are comfortable, there's food and you can have a beer," Sharon Sullivan, of Cumberland, said after an evening showing at Route One. "I'm surprised it's not more popular"
(03/29/05 5:11am)
Punk-pop band Something Corporate and G-Unit artist Young Buck will play concerts coinciding with Little 500 at two fraternity houses in April.\nSomething Corporate will perform at 7:30 p.m. on April 11 at the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, 1100 N. Jordan Ave. Tickets cost $20 and can be bought from fraternity brothers or from Ticketmaster.\nAlpha Tau Omega fraternity, 720 E. Third St., will bring Young Buck at 5 p.m. on April 14. Tickets cost $25 and are available at Tracks Records, 415 E. Kirkwood Ave., or from fraternity members.\nThe Young Buck concert has been billed as "Hip-Hip Palooza" and features an MC battle and two opening acts. The MC battle will be judged by three talent scouts from Interscope Records. First prize is two tickets to Las Vegas.\nHip-hop acts Da Gorgeous Gangsters from Astoria, Queens, and House of H.E.M.P. from Gary, Ind., will open for Young Buck. The G-Unit artist will perform for 45 minutes, said ATO Vice President and junior Adam Goldberg. \nThe fraternity is still accepting entrants to the MC battle. Proceeds will go to the Bloomington Boys and Girls Club.\nAnother G-Unit member, The Game, was also advertised to perform in Bloomington during Little 500 week, but the show was cancelled last week. More than 500 tickets had already been purchased.\nGoldberg insisted that the Young Buck show will take place. The fraternity is not working with the same promoter, and Young Buck has already publicly discussed the IU show on radio, he said.\nPhi Sigma Kappa sophomore Jason Boo said Something Corporate will be an alternative to the Little 500 hip-hop shows. Union Board is also bringing The Roots on April 14. \nHe said the five-member band from Orange County, Calif., has created their own identity with a style called "piano rock." \n"There's no other band really like them," Boo said. "It's a rock group but they incorporate the piano."\nPhi Sigma Kappa senior Michael Palm said Something Corporate has built a loyal fan base by touring and not selling-out to "MTV, TRL or the music machine."\n"They've not gone on your typical pop route," he said. "They put on an amazing show. It's really energetic."\nThe band has released three studio albums: "Audio Boxer" (2001), "Leaving Through the Window" (2002) and "North" (2003).\nDavid "Young Buck" Brown, from Nashville, Tenn., originally recorded with Cash Money Records in the late 1990s before joining 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks in G-Unit. His first album "Straight Outta Cashville" (2004) debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Charts.\nLate last year Young Buck was charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly stabbed a man at the Vibe Awards in Los Angeles. Reports have said that Young Buck was retaliating against a man who punched Dr. Dre. Young Buck is currently free on bail and faces an eight-year prison sentence if convicted.\n-- Contact General Assignments Editor Adam VanOsdol at avanosdo@indiana.edu.
(03/24/05 5:50am)
After a student attempted suicide on campus last year by jumping from Ballantine Hall, the University asked the Health Center to hire a second psychiatrist. \nBut costs for psychiatrists are rising industry-wide. Still the center plans to pay the added expenses by increasing students' mandatory health fee, even though less than 10 percent of students use the psychiatric services, according to Health Center reports. \nIt is not uncommon for student fees to fund services used by a small minority. Mandatory fees subsidize campus child care and student legal services, for example, even though a small minority of students use them each year.\nAssociate Dean of Students Damon Sims said it makes sense to spread the cost of some critical services across the entire student body to make them more affordable. \n"It's not just as simple as, 'We have to have 50 percent plus 1 students participating in this program for it to be meritorious of a mandatory fee,'" said Sims. "There are some very good things that need to be supported."\nAccording to a plan submitted by an appointed committee of students to the University before spring break, the Health Center, Student Legal Services and Campus Child Care all would receive fee increases next year.
(02/23/05 4:02am)
KOKOMO, Ind. -- A weekend house fire that killed a woman and three children was intentionally set, police said Tuesday.\nNo arrests were immediately made and investigators were not releasing details on how the fire was started, police Lt. Don Whitehead said.\n"There are certainly people we are interested in talking to," he said.\nThe house was engulfed in heavy smoke and flames when firefighters arrived Sunday morning. Crews searched the home and found Amy Parrish, 25, along with her sons, Dacota Rasmussen, 4, and Caleb Parrish, 2, and stepson Casey Parrish, 11. They were all soon pronounced dead.\nParrish's husband was the only family member to survive the fire. His sister, Lori Teter, said in an interview that he fell from a second-story window as he tried to find an escape route for the family.\nMichael Parrish, 37, suffered 22 cuts when he fell through the window, Teter said. He was released Monday from Howard Regional Health System.\nParrish woke up about 8 a.m. to a bedroom filled with smoke and his wife telling him that the house was on fire, Teter said.\n"He couldn't see. He tried to open the window and ran into it," she told the Kokomo Tribune for a story Tuesday. "He tried to stop, to stay inside the house, but he couldn't. He landed on the ground."\nTeter said her brother tried to get back inside the house after he fell, but the fire was too intense.\n"He keeps saying, 'It should have been me. Why wasn't it me?'" she said.\nAmy Parrish and the three children all died of smoke inhalation, the Howard County coroner's office said. Caleb was the son of Michael and Amy Parrish; Dacota was her son from a previous relationship, and Casey was his son from a previous relationship.\nThe couple's 1-year-old daughter was unharmed because she was staying at a relative's home.
(02/18/05 5:17am)
Stepping into the Tudor Room restaurant on the third floor of the Indiana Memorial Union feels like stepping into a country club. The high ceilings, big open windows and delicate artwork make it easy to forget that the restaurant is located on IU's campus. But don't be fooled. The Tudor Room is rich in IU tradition. The high ceilings are adorned with flags that represent different schools of the University. The antique furniture that adds to the restaurant's atmosphere includes pieces from Herman B Wells' personal collection. \nThe Tudor Room was built in 1959 as a restaurant that would define the IMU. Originally serving a full menu at lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, the Tudor Room offered a place for students, teachers and Bloomington community members to socialize and attend business meetings, all while enjoying home-cooked food. But competition never fails to arise. As grab-and-go style meals have become more popular, the Tudor Room has suffered. \n"We did not want to stop serving quality food," said Maureen Brown, general manager of IMU Dining Services. "But business was decreasing, so we had to do something."\nIn the early '90s the Tudor Room became a buffet-style restaurant that is only open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, while Sunday brunch remains. \nBut if the Tudor Room is the restaurant that defines the IMU, why have most students across campus never eaten at the restaurant? Judy Drew, Tudor Room manager, believes it is because students are misled about the restaurant.\n"First of all, we are located on the third floor of the Union," Drew said. "A lot of students don't even know there is a third floor. Secondly, I truly believe that students are intimidated by the appearance of the Tudor Room."\nSome students might see the ambience of the Tudor Room and immediately assume that the restaurant is pricey, but there are four options for meals during lunch at the Tudor Room that vary in price, all the way from the Grand Buffet for $8.95 to the soup buffet for $2.10. \nSunday brunch at the Tudor Room can be considered expensive. The buffet is $14.95, which is a lot more than what students pay for brunch at a place such as the Village Deli. And the price for brunch increases on such Sundays as parent's weekend or holidays.\nThe Tudor Room lunch buffet offers a variety of choices. The hot lunch buffet follows a daily theme from Italian food to Asian-infused meals. Homemade soups, salad bar and fresh desserts are also part of the offerings. \n"We like to give our customers options," Drew said. "It's important for people to know that we are a buffet, but there are still many options for a variety of different meals."\nFor some students, like junior Lauren Gospin, the idea of the Tudor Room is nice but unrealistic. \n"The hours that they are open are very restrictive," Gospin said. "I have class between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., so I won't ever be able to eat at the Tudor Room for lunch." \nBut the hours won't stop junior Adam Solloway from venturing to the restaurant.\n"You will definitely see me at the Tudor Room in the future," Solloway said. "I might not always be eating the Grand Buffet, but who can pass up homemade soup for $2.10?"\nFor more information on the Tudor Room visit www.imu.indiana.edu. For reservations for Sunday brunch call 855-1620.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Monica Dix at mcdix@indiana.edu.
(02/01/05 4:47am)
'We're sorry' is an excuse both ways\nThe debate over the war in Iraq is old, but it remains unresolved largely because it boils down to ethical issues that cannot be settled by logical argument. Some people think that preemptive attacks against unproven threats are justifiable, others do not. Some people think that the removal of a dictator is worth the deaths of 15,000 civilians, others do not. There's no argument on these questions; they come down to each person's morality. \nEdward Delp, however, in his column "Target Iran," seems to choose a few facts and then illogically proceeds to extrapolate some higher "truth" from them in order to justify his own moral leanings. He calls Saddam Hussein a "monster" and marvels that anyone can think that his removal from power was a bad thing. This is a strawman argument, however. Those opposed to the war in Iraq are not trying to claim that Hussein was a good man; what is at issue is (a) the right that America had to interfere without being asked, supported or overtly threatened and (b) whether the cost of interference was worth the result. \nThe United States has killed more civilians in the name of "freedom" than the Sept. 11 terrorists did in the name of their cause. Is this justifiable? Is Iraq a safer place now than it was under Hussein's regime? Is America a safer place now that we've given the other nations of the world so much more cause to resent us? Have we reduced the threat of terrorism with this action, or have we moved a whole new generation to the cause of "revenge"? \nIf the destruction of Fallujah can be justified by saying, "I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have let the terrorists set up shop in the first place," I wonder if Delp would similarly defend an Iranian attack on the United States. After all, he is suggesting that we should attack them, so by his reasoning, they should preemptively attack us to defend themselves. \nAfterward they could apologize: "We're sorry, but you shouldn't have let the warmongers set up shop in the first place."
(12/10/04 5:26pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- With a closely shaven head, a thick goatee, a light blue sports jersey and a full smile, Matt Lawrence chatted and laughed with people beneath a tent set up in front of a large mural, roughly 20 feet tall and 30 feet across, that he and another artist had worked on earlier Saturday.\nEver polite, Lawrence, the founder and director of the Urban Artist Network, gently broke away from his conversation to greet strangers who wandered through the public art exhibition Lawrence organized.\nLawrence was quick to make them feel welcome. People on the street were drawn into an alley in Broad Ripple, a neighborhood on the north side of Indianapolis, by the click-clack of aerosol cans to watch murals come to life.\nWhat made these murals unique was not that Lawrence and his fellow muralists didn't own the canvas -- that's to be expected for nearly all muralists. The uniqueness stemmed from the fact that if these muralists did their artwork at any time other than the window they'd been allotted, they would almost certainly be arrested. \nLawrence's Urban Artist Network presented Subsurface, Indianapolis' second Midwest graffiti expo. Saturday and Sunday. More than 40 artists attended.\nWith cooperation from the Indianapolis Arts Center and the Broad Ripple Village Association, Lawrence said he designed to showcase the artists in a very positive environment. He said he hoped the event would help to alleviate the negative perception the public often has about graffiti and inform people of the beauty the art form is capable of producing.\nGraffiti, derived from the Greek word graphein, meaning "to write," has been found as far back in civilization as Ancient Rome. Graffiti art, the vandalistic kind associated with 20th-century urban environments, is sometimes known as "hip-hop" or "New York style" graffiti, and came into prominence in the New York subway system in the 1970s.\nGraffiti was initially treated as a nuisance more than a renaissance, but over the next few years, it began to crawl from bridges and buildings to galleries and museums. It spurred the interest of art scholars and academics and was simultaneously being picked up and "legitimized" by professional modern artists, such as the late Keith Haring. \nLawrence said many of the artists, who participated the expo by invitation only, come from a variety of backgrounds in the arts, including professional artists, custom sign painters, set designers and illustrators. Most prefer the comfort of pseudonyms for their graffiti.\nScribe, a tall man with horned glasses and a gas-mask hanging loosely around his neck, is one such artist who tags his work using a moniker. He paints professionally for the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.\n"Art is three-quarters motivation, not sitting around waiting for something to happen," Scribe said. "There are people who just want to be discovered, but you can't stop working."\nLargely a self-educated artist who attended the Kansas City Art Institute for a year, Scribe said being an artist involves doing any small job -- sometimes for free -- to advance your career.\nScribe's section of the mural is a vast forest scene, and his painting partners have created two trees in drastically different fashions. One tree at the far left end of the wall is large and mystical, like something from a fairy tale. Another tree is ferric and metallic, with branches like beams of steel and liquid leaves dripping off. \nOne of Scribe's painting partners sprays two quick squirts from the can into the air to bring up the sharpest paint before applying it to the wall. Each can is tipped with different nozzles, controlling the scope and amount of paint able to be sprayed.\nScribe's contributions to the forest scene -- a gigantic rhinoceros dressed as Paul Bunyan being brought down by gophers who have roped his wrists, and an obese, cartoonish beaver -- reflect his background in children's illustrations. \nHe said he has ambitions of becoming a full-time illustrator, reaching the point professionally "when people start turning you loose because they trust you."\nLawrence called the expo "public art" and a "beautification project for Broad Ripple's cultural district," and to his happiness, the public noticed.\nEllie Clapp, a resident of Zionsville, Ind., a suburb on Indianapolis' north side, said it's an art form people embrace, and she's glad the artists have an outlet for it.\n"It's pure modern art to me," she said. "They really do show themselves as artists."\nClapp marveled at the detail, coordination and time put into the mural. The color scheme particularly surprised her, she said, and she methodically took in each segment of the mural with a critic's eye.\nMontana Cans, the event's sponsor, provided a rainbow's array of colors for the mural typically unseen in darker, more common graffiti: electric blues, potent reds, vibrant oranges, neon yellows, glowing greens and phosphorescent pinks, to name a few. \n"It's nice to see it up close instead of briefly as you drive under an overpass," she laughed.\nClapp noted the overwhelming male aerosol artist presence; every mural artist for the weekend was male. Lawrence said that while there are female graffiti artists, even popular ones with followings, it is a typically male-dominated art form due to its shadier beginnings.\nFor Scribe, it's important to be showcased, but more important, he said, it's important to hang out with his fellow artist friends. He said the graffiti arts events bring him together with a few friends from Cincinnati he is able to see only a few times a year. \nSince 1999, Lawrence's organization has painted about 15 murals, including three others in Broad Ripple and one near Indianapolis' downtown region that memorializes the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.\nBy the end of the weekend, the artists created another mural, this time nearly the size of a city block, with art styles that span the spectrum. Positioned behind the Broad Ripple branch of the Indianapolis post office, each building's section says something new, something different than the next. \nAll together it forms one coherent message for the people walking on the street: forget complaining about the graffiti, it seems to say, and learn to celebrate it.\n-- Contact senior writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.
(11/29/04 4:01am)
In a world of conflicting cultural identities, confrontational religious doctrines, crippling economic disparities and fanatical national pride, international terrorist acts against civilian populations is on the rise. \nDealing with terrorism from a campus community perspective, IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger said more players are responsible for responding to terrorist attacks besides the first-response team "hands-on in the street" -- such as ambulance crews, fire and police departments, the Red Cross and government agencies. \n"In Monroe County, emergency plans were initiated years ago for weather-related disasters -- the highest probability being a tornado," Minger said. "With the Y2K scare, all the plans were revamped to include new contingencies. It's the same kind of thing from the perspective of Homeland Security. You can't plan for exact specifics; you have to plan for generalities. You deal with the specifics at the time depending on what the emergency calls for." \nUnlike many villages, towns or cities across the United States, Minger said IU could provide food, electricity and shelter for disaster victims since the University is self-contained. In addition, Minger said several locations within the campus community would serve as make-shift command centers to direct the terrorist attack relief efforts.\nHowever, the most important coping mechanisms occur on an individual level, Minger said.\nSince future terrorist strikes against the people, property and prosperity of the United States cannot be prophesied, the U.S. government has warned all citizens to be prepared for any kind of terror threat the human mind can imagine -- from the radioactive clouds of "dirty" nuclear bombs to the deployment of biological and chemical agents. Highlighted in rhetoric administered in television, radio and print advertisements, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended several steps Americans can take to prepare for the unexpected harm inflicted on civilian populations during times of war. \nAccording to a special national yellow pages insert on homeland security, alphabetically filed under "Homeland Security" in the SBC SMART Yellow Pages, the likelihood of surviving a terrorist attack is similar to surviving a house fire. Tom Ridge, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said terrorism "forces" us to make the choice between being "afraid" or being "ready."\n"Just like having a working smoke detector, preparing for the unexpected makes sense," according to the Homeland Security insert. \nAdopting a "common sense framework," the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recommends four steps all Hoosiers should follow to be prepared for a few hypothetical terrorist scenarios -- such as attacks on the water, food and/or air the community population consumes: make an emergency supply kit, make a family communication plan, be informed and remain calm.\nAn emergency supply kit should consist of: water -- one gallon per person per day; food -- canned and dried; warm cloths -- including a sleeping bags; emergency supplies -- flashlight, battery powered radio, extra batteries, first-aid kit, toilet articles, filter masks; duct tape and plastic sheeting to seal windows and vents -- heavyweight garbage bags work as well, according to the insert.\nA family communication plan should include: a phone tree to call in case of emergency; an idea of where to "shelter-in-place," -- an interior room with as few doors and windows as possible; an idea of where to go -- several destinations in different directions; and an idea of how to proceed in an emergency situation if at school or work when the terrorists strike.\nA prepared civilian is also an informed civilian who can articulate the difference between potential terrorist threats such as biological, chemical, explosive, nuclear and radiological -- this information should determine which decision to make and action to take.\nRegardless of the terrorist attack or disastrous threat, according to the insert: "Above all, stay calm, be patient and think before you act." \n"It's not like the days back during the Red Scare of the 1950s, when people were preparing for a specific threat -- a nuclear attack," Minger said. "As we have seen by 9-11 and recent terrorist activities in other countries, you can't prepare for a specific attack. Terrorists might use an airplane, an explosive device or derail a train. There is nothing specific you can tell people other than to assess the current national security level and to take precautionary measures."\n-- Contact staff writer David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.
(11/18/04 5:58am)
Three hundred and twenty nine dollars. \nFor years, that's all that stood between Mark Brooks and his dream of exploring the underwater wonderland of coral reefs, sea animals and abandoned overgrown shipwrecks. But now, thanks in large part to a life-changing birthday present, Brooks owns and manages Southern Indiana Scuba, 1023 S. Walnut Street, helping others realize the same dream.\nBefore 1989, scuba diving was something Brooks had contemplated, considered and craved, but never something he'd dared to try. He needed to take classes to get an open water certificate and somehow the $329 price tag always held him back. That year, however, Brooks' wife surprised him with something special.\n"It was a birthday gift," Brooks said. "I'd always wanted to get certified and she said, 'Here, go do it.' That's how it all got started."\nFor a man who worked in the computer industry and spent most of his time sitting in an office typing at a bright screen, Brooks was suddenly turned on to a whole new world of underwater landscapes and adventures 80 feet below the surface. He quickly ascended the diving certification ranks, first reaching advanced open water status, then rescue diver and dive master. As a dive master, Brooks began working at SIS, assisting at the store and repairing equipment.\nBrooks continued scuba as a part-time hobby until 1998, when the owner of SIS decided to sell the shop. Brooks faced an exciting possibility: He could give up his job and buy the store, melding his career and his hobby into one. It didn't take long before he reached a decision.\n"At the time, I was in the computer industry and it was a dying industry because there were so many companies and so many people getting laid off," he said. "So, I knew my time with that company was coming to an end and my love of diving was here and exciting. So I talked to my wife and I said 'Let's try it' and she said OK. And we're here seven years later."\nAnd, despite Indiana being a landlocked state without any major bodies of water, Brooks' store appears to be here to stay. He estimates it nets between $5-10,000 a month before expenses. While expenses mount quickly at a specialty store like SIS, including rent ($1,800 a month, plus utilities), liability insurance ($8,000 a year) and replacing inventory ($10-12,000 a year), Brooks said he has never had a problem operating the store in the black. Of course, he said he values the experience his job provides as much as the money it makes. Brooks runs classes through the store that regularly take him to locales like Belize, the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Keys.\n"It's not a problem to stay profitable in a term," Brooks said. "Scuba is not a high-profit industry -- you do it for the love of the sport and the perks. As an example, here I am working in the Grand Canyon -- leading people in the Grand Canyon. Here I am in Belize, leading people in Belize. So there are perks, it's not necessarily dollars that makes it so profitable."\nBrooks' business is split four different ways -- between new divers, those in continuing education classes and courses through IU, those going on the trips Brooks runs and those setting up their own diving excursions. Mostly, though, Brooks said it is a core group of veteran divers, a tightly knit social group, who come back again and again for trips, supplies and conversation. Brooks plays host to gatherings in the store every few months where divers bring food and swap stories, and runs free trips to local diving spots during the summer. The point: Keep people excited about their hobby and make sure those core customers keep coming back. \n"Twenty percent of my business does 80 percent of my business," Brooks said. "But I realize that core 20 percent changes. Somebody has kids, they realize they won't be able to do it as much. So in comes the new guy from college who's excited to do this. I keep about a core 20 of active divers doing things and 80 percent that dive a little bit, hang out there and do some things."\nBrooks recruits new divers through the 'Discover Scuba' program -- a basic introduction to scuba diving. The hour-long course is free for IU students the first Friday of every month at HPER pool 194. That's how Bill Cain, an IU graduate and divemaster in training at SIS discovered his love for the sport.\n"I told (Mark) I couldn't swim very well and he told me he was going to teach me how to scuba dive, not to swim," said Cain, who works part-time at SIS. "... Now I love it. You can't imagine the beauty of the underwater world. Seeing sharks at a coral head as opposed to Shark Week is just night and day."\nOf course, it hasn't always been smooth sailing for SIS. Brooks said the store hit hard times post-9-11 and is still recovering. He reasons that hobbies are the first thing to go when hard times strike financially, and scuba diving is rarely a necessity. \nThe Internet also poses a small threat, though Brooks can't imagine why someone would trust a computer screen with something like a regulator, which could mean life or death down under. \n"It's life support equipment -- do you want to know the person selling it to you?" Brooks said. "When you're at 60 or 80 feet, take the regulator out of your mouth and take a deep breath. Why not? You're going to drown."\nBrooks estimates his store has taken a small hit on people who turn to the web, but those customers usually come back when whatever they ordered breaks. \nMainly, his competition isn't the Internet. It isn't the dive store in Indianapolis and it isn't Wal-Mart or the Dick's Sporting Goods opening at College Mall.\n"It's bowling, sailing, tennis, golf. It's all the rest," Brooks said. "You as a consumer have X amount of dollars to spend on your hobby. If you choose to spend it sailing, then you're not going to spend it on diving. And so my whole thing is I want to keep my people active and excited."\nAnd, for diving enthusiasts, a visit to SIS can mean just that. In addition to the exotic trips Brooks offers, a stroll through SIS is a virtual walk through a smorgasbord of diving necessities and toys. Walking into its front room, with its old-fashioned diver statue, large bay windows, glass cases of scuba gear, fish tank, plants and underwater netting hung from the ceiling, it already echoes of a descent beneath the waves. Inside the small main room, the sales floor is packed with mannequins in wet suits, masks, snorkels, T-shirts, mugs, regulators and computer screens sliding through the hundreds and hundreds of blue-tinted digital pictures Brooks has taken or accumulated beneath the surface. \nFor Cheryl Snooks, a visit to the store and a training session with Brooks turned her on to scuba. In the three years since she's been certified, Snooks has wrangled a shark ("The more docile ones -- you rub their belly just like a dog"), pet a sting ray ("It felt like velvet gliding over you") and witnessed a rare bright orange, 10-inch seahorse ("That picture I will hold in my mind forever"). She's also amassed three wet suits, two sets of boots and a slew of extras which have, all in all, cost about $4,000. \n"We were very impressed with the friendliness and the family (at SIS), we liked the atmosphere," she said. "And, just after that first trip with them and certification, I felt at home there and continued further studies with them. Scuba diving is what I truly love to do. When I go on vacation, I laughed and told my friend the other day, if I can't go stick my head in the water, I find myself not wanting to go."\nSnooks credits Brooks' teaching with helping her to develop as a diver and his store with helping her build a large repertoire of diving gear. She's not the only one -- the Professional Association of Diving Instructors gives SIS its top rating and walls at SIS are plastered with framed certificates from the organization recognizing Brooks for his teaching skills. \nBetween those, the trips and the stores, that's been enough to keep a stand-alone scuba store in business -- even in landlocked Indiana. \n"It sounds weird, but Indiana is a great place to be from as a diver," Brooks said. "We have ATA and we have the airport in Indianapolis, so it's a nice easy way to get on trips. People have heard about the Caribbean, they've heard about the ocean and now they want to go see it. It's very exciting. To me, I still love teaching open water class where people go 'I can swim, but I don't know anything else,' and then at the end of the class I give them their card and I'm going congratulations, now you can go do all of this and see them get excited about it."\nFor more information, visit www.southernindianascuba.com.\n-- Contact managing editor Gavin Lesnick at glesnick@indiana.edu.
(11/12/04 4:18am)
Man hands note to police dispatcher, shoots himself\nWHITING, Ind. -- A man walked into the city's police station, handed the dispatcher a note through a bulletproof window, then pulled out a gun and shot himself once in the head, police said.\nVictor Midkiff, 54, an electrician's assistant for the city, fatally shot himself about 11 a.m. Wednesday. A note inside the envelope read, "Call my brother," and gave his phone number, Detective Donald Greer said.\nMidkiff was pronounced dead at the scene in the city along Lake Michigan just east of the Indiana-Illinois state line.\nGreer said investigators did not know why Midkiff committed suicide.
(10/25/04 5:41am)
More than 1,400 potential sorority members were out in full force Saturday and Sunday participating in 19 party, the first phase of the greek recruitment process. \nThe women donned matching black long sleeve shirts highlighting the 19 reasons to go greek on the back, and starting at 11 a.m. Saturday and Sunday could be seen trekking from house to house. They visited 10 houses the first day, and the remaining nine the second.\nGroups of 70 to 80 potential pledges, chosen alphabetically, were accompanied by four or five recruitment counselors. The counselors, also called Rho Gammas, are sorority members who disaffiliate themselves from their houses to help women through the process. They do not reveal anything about themselves that would give away the house they belong to, including last names and sometimes even first names. \nRho Gammas are usually in charge of one floor of a dormitory, and have between 10 to 30 women in each group.\nEach group spends a half-hour at each of the 19 houses, talking to members and sometimes taking a tour. Members welcome groups into the house by banging on windows and doors while clapping and chanting their house cheer. Much of the rest of the day is spent traveling between houses and waiting for the next party to begin. Sororities use this time to prepare for the next party, while Rho Gammas take attendance for their group. Women must attend all 19 parties to be eligible for a bid.\nOne traditional responsibility of Rho Gammas is to make name-tags for all the women in their group, and they take this job seriously. Many times the creative tags are elaborate, using glitter and unique themes to set the groups apart. Pink elephants, sparkly flamingos, Polar Pop cups and snowmen were some of the tags recruits wore this year.\nWomen either walked or rode special recruitment buses that shuttled the potentials to different sorority houses. Many said they were grateful for the ride Saturday when it rained for much of the day; but even the uncooperative weather couldn't ruin the event.\n"The weather was horrible this morning," said Michelle, one of the Rho Gammas who declined to give her last name, as she waited outside Delta Gamma with her group Saturday night. "We're all wet, our feet are wet ... but everyone is hanging in there. If we get through today, then tomorrow will be easy."\nJamie, another recruitment counselor, was impressed with the way the women in her group handled the inconvenience.\n"They kept their morale up even though the weather was bad," she said. "They were all so positive and happy."\nThe women were rewarded Sunday with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s. \nRain or shine, most women saw their experience during 19 party as a positive one, and planned on continuing with the process.\nFreshman Jaclyn Goldman said although she was getting tired by the end of the first day, she was still having fun.\n"I thought it would be stressful, but the (sorority members) are really nice," she said. "It's laid back ... except for when they pound on the door before we go in."\nGoldman said she thinks she will like being in a sorority because "there is always something to do, and always someone to go out with."\nSophomore sorority members are also going though a new experience; this year they are on the other side of the recruitment process.\n"It's very different, but interesting," said Libby Hiple, sophomore member of Delta Gamma. "It's just as nerve-wracking because I want to portray a positive image for my chapter."\nHiple also said the days seemed to go faster for her this year because she didn't have any waiting to do.\n"Things go on (in the house) in the 20 minutes between parties that I didn't know about last year," she said.\nFor her, one of the most challenging aspects of the parties is keeping up good conversation with the potential members she meets.\n"At times it can be difficult because everyone is kind of nervous, and so it sometimes seems forced. The little awkward silences can get weird," she said. "But other times it just flows, it really depends on the person."\nDespite this, Hiple said she is having a great time hearing everyone's story, and encourages women to join a house.\n"On the whole, the greek community is a very unifying force," she said. "In my chapter specifically, we have people from all over. We have women with 4.0s, women who like to stay in, some who like to go out ... you can't have that many people in one house and not learn to appreciate everyone's differences."\nJunior member of Alpha Omicron Pi Ashley Ray also said she was enjoying recruitment this year.\n"There are a lot of good women coming through this year," Ray said Sunday morning. "The house is energetic and excited to continue today."\nRay said the best part of the process is meeting potential members, but it is sometimes difficult to get to know the person in such a small amount of time.\n"It's hard because you want to give all the women the same amount of attention as you gave the first person," she said. "It's also a long weekend on little or no sleep."\nSorority members sometimes stay up till the early hours of the morning after the parties are finished. Alpha Omicron Pi members were not finished until nearly 2 a.m. after the first round of parties.\nFreshman Julia Huber, a Bloomington native, said the whole experience has given her a different view of the houses she used to drive by and think of as pretty mansions.\n"I now know the (women) that live in the houses," Huber said. "It gives them a whole new perspective and meaning."\n-- Contact staff writer Haley Beck at habeck@indiana.edu.
(10/19/04 5:25am)
Fire damages restaurant in Fort Wayne\nFORT WAYNE -- Fire swept through a century-old downtown building on Monday, heavily damaging a longtime restaurant.\nFirefighters were called to Henry's Restaurant about 9:30 a.m. and found flames and smoke coming from the windows of a second-floor apartment in the two-story brick structure. No injuries were reported, and three people who were inside the restaurant at the time escaped unharmed.\nRestaurant manager Chris Vasquez said he smelled the smoke before he saw any flames and that it appeared the fire started over the restaurant and bar.\nThe restaurant has been owned by John Freistroffer for 27 years, and his family has owned the building for nearly 50 years.\nFreistroffer and Vasquez were visibly distraught as they watched the flames and thick smoke pour from the building.\n"It's hard to watch this," said Vasquez, who's worked at Henry's for nearly three decades. "You've got so much in it, and it's gone so quick."\nIt took firefighters about 30 minutes to bring the blaze under control. Investigators did not immediately know the fire's cause.
(10/07/04 4:25am)
Columbus council votes down proposed smoking ban\nCOLUMBUS, Ind. -- The City Council rejected a proposed ban on smoking in most public places, surprising the mayor, Fred Armstrong, who said he planned to continue pushing for the measure.\nThe council voted 4-3 on Tuesday against the ban, after it had been amended to remove an exception for bars and private clubs that the council members had approved two weeks earlier.\nThe vote came after nearly two hours of public comments on the proposal, with about three dozen speakers divided almost evenly between supporters and dissenters. More than 250 people attended the council meeting, which was held in the Columbus East High School auditorium after previous discussions of the smoking ban drew capacity crowds at City Hall.\nCouncilman Tom Hodek, who voted against the ban, said he was still struggling to make a decision and hoped to come up with a more balanced compromise for the city about 40 miles south of Indianapolis.\nArmstrong said he would bring the ordinance back to the council, but did not know when.\n"We're not going to let this fall by the wayside," he said. "I think this is a loss for the community."\nBan supporters spoke during the meeting about the health dangers of second-hand smoke, while those against the proposal talked about individual rights and the effect on businesses.\n"I think the board made a great decision for the community," resident Marty Sutton said. "I believe that all smokers have rights."
(10/05/04 4:48am)
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Insurgents unleashed a pair of powerful car bombs Monday near the symbol of U.S. authority in Iraq -- the Green Zone, where the U.S. Embassy and key government offices are located -- and hotels occupied by hundreds of foreigners. Three other explosions brought the day's bombing toll to at least 24 dead and more than 100 wounded.\nMore than three dozen car bombings since the beginning of September illustrate the militants' seeming ability to strike at will despite recent pledges by the United States and Iraq to intensify the suppression of insurgents, and the morale-boosting recapture of Samarra over the weekend.\nThe day's violence also included assassinations of three Iraqis, and U.S. attacks against targets in insurgent-held Fallujah. In the latest hostage developments, kidnappers freed two Indonesian women, but a separate militant group claimed to have killed a Turkish man and a longtime Iraqi resident of Italy.\nNo coalition forces were wounded in either of Monday's blasts in Baghdad, said Maj. Phil Smith, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division. But the U.S. command reported two of its soldiers were killed at a Baghdad traffic checkpoint Sunday.\nIn the first car bombing Monday, insurgents detonated a four-wheel drive vehicle packed with explosives at the western entrance of the heavily fortified Green Zone about 8:45 a.m., said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.\n"I was thrown 10 yards away and hit the wall," said Wissam Mohammed, 30, who was visiting a nearby recruiting center for Iraqi security forces. His right hand broken, his head wrapped in bandages and his clothes stained with blood, Mohammed lay in a bed at Yarmouk Hospital.\nThe hospital took in 15 bodies and 81 wounded from the explosion, said Sabah Aboud, the facility's chief registration official.\nAn hour later, across the Tigris River, a pickup truck packed with dates and explosives plowed into a three-vehicle convoy as it left a parking lot shared by several high-rise hotels housing hundreds of foreign contractors and journalists.\nAs people rushed to help, gunmen began shooting from the rooftops and police returned fire, said Tahsin al-Kaabi of the Facility Protection Service, a U.S.-trained civilian guard force.\nAt least six people were killed and 15 wounded, said Tahsin al-Freiji, another guard force member.\nOne of the four-wheel drive vehicles was destroyed and the pickup truck carrying the explosives was ripped in half, with one part left dangling from a shop sign on the opposite side of the street.\nAt least five other cars were charred, including one of the targeted vehicles, which had a burned body in the front passenger seat. A head and other body parts were strewn in the road amid shards of glass.\n"I was on my way to work. We heard a big boom and I briefly passed out," said Razaq Hadi, 36, who was in a minibus that was damaged by the blast. "I saw seven of the passengers who were seriously wounded being taken out through the broken windows."\nThe driver was killed. "I saw his body torn apart," said Hadi, who was covered in the man's blood.\nBoth the Green Zone and the area around the hotels have been targets of previous attacks that have killed dozens of people.\nLast month saw at least 39 car bomb attacks in Iraq -- the highest number in any month since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. On Sept. 30, insurgents set off a series of vehicle explosives that killed at least 35 children and seven adults at a government ceremony in Baghdad.\nTwo more car bombs exploded Monday in Mosul, 225 miles northwest of Baghdad.\nOne of the blasts killed a civilian bystander and two people believed to be transporting explosives, said Capt. Angela Bowman, a military spokeswoman. Hospital officials said they treated 11 wounded. The second bomb targeted a U.S. Army convoy, wounding one American soldier, Bowman said.\nIn Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of the capital, a police commander was assassinated in a drive-by shooting, police said. Insurgents also fired mortar rounds at a municipal building, killing one person and wounding seven.\nThere were also assassinations in Baghdad, where gunmen killed a senior official of Iraq's Sciences and Technology Ministry and a female employee near the southeastern Zayona suburb, Abdul-Rahman said.\nMonday's violence came despite promises by U.S. and Iraqi officials to crack down on insurgents ahead of elections slated for January and wrest key parts of the country from their control.\nIn Fallujah, American warplanes unleashed strikes against suspected terrorist hideouts and weapons caches early Monday. At least 11 people, including three women and four children, died in the attacks and 12 others were wounded, hospital officials said.\nThe military, which regularly accuses hospitals of inflating casualty figures, said the strikes targeted followers of Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.\nThe military said a "precision strike" hit a building where about 25 insurgents were moving weapons on the outskirts of Fallujah. Intelligence sources said insurgents were using the site to store weapons and conduct training, the military said in a statement.\nCoalition forces also struck a site where members of al-Zarqawi's network were believed to be meeting, another military statement said.\nIt was the latest in weeks of strikes in the city 40 miles west of Baghdad aimed at groups with links to terrorists, particularly al-Zarqawi's network. Followers of the Jordanian militant have claimed responsibility for a string of deadly bombings, kidnappings and other attacks across the country.\nIn Samarra, 60 miles northwest of Baghdad, U.S. troops patrolled in tanks, armored personnel carriers and Humvees as sporadic gunfire broke the relative calm Monday. U.S. soldiers, accompanied by Iraqi translators carrying lists, entered houses asking about specific people.\nIraqi National Guard forces have captured 40 foreign fighters, including Egyptians, Sudanese and a Tunisian, since entering Samarra early Friday, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan told Arab TV network Al-Arabiya.\nIn other developments:\n-- U.S. Marines, patrolling the militant stronghold of Ramadi, killed two insurgents and wounded a third while two civilians were also wounded during the gun battle Sunday, a military spokesman said. Dr. Dia'a al-Haity at the Ramadi General Hospital said five men were killed and five wounded, including one woman, in the incident.\n-- Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said Monday he sees the end of 2005 as a possible date for ending the country's mission in Iraq, the first time the key United States ally has indicated when it might pull its soldiers out of the country.\n-- The headless body of a police officer, still in his uniform, was discovered in the area of Kirkuk, north of Baghdad.
(09/07/04 4:38am)
Legacy of the empty McDonald's\nJoetta Hinton's Sept. 2 article "Chipotle comes to Kirkwood," while accurate, omitted quite a lot about the closed store's story. \nTrue, McDonald's was a place to meet friends or family while it was open, but it did not cease to be such a place when it closed. In fact, it was the meeting grounds for several groups. Food not Bombs gave food to the hungry every Sunday and chess players could often be seen at the tables. A guerilla garden had sprung up complete with tiny angel figurines and a mint plant, which was perfect for tea. And the boarded-up windows had been covered in murals. \nWhat was once a hallmark of corporate capitalism had been transformed into a community autonomous zone. \nThe old McDonald's was a place to sit and chat in the shade and a place to run to when it began to rain. Replacing it with another chain that exploits its workers, pollutes the environment, attempts to drive out local business and destroys family farms by maintaining industrialized agriculture will be the true eyesore. \nWe can only hope that Chipotle will soon meet the same fate as its predecessor.
(09/07/04 4:20am)
The third anniversary is a mystery. \nIn 2001, I was sitting in my high school U.S. government and politics class when, at 9 a.m., our principal asked every classroom to turn on their TVs. The weeks following were unforeseeable and unscripted, yet somehow Americans knew what to do. We tuned into the news, said hello to strangers and hoisted American flags.\nIn 2002, the distance between my family and I was difficult enough for my first couple weeks as a freshman. Though the first anniversary wasn't easy, it was predictable enough that I knew how to spend the day. I sat on the steps of Showalter Fountain, listening to the voices of IU students who lost their parents in the World Trade Center. And I read The New York Times' special remembrance edition that published a picture of every victim.\nLast year as the Nation & World editor for the Indiana Daily Student, I was in charge of the "Two Years Later" edition. I was too busy with planning, editing and producing the section that I couldn't take a moment to personally reflect.\nBut what will I do on Sept. 11 this year? As of right now, my only plans are to work 5 to 11 p.m. delivering ice cream. But somehow I feel this is a cheap way of remembering the worst day in our nation's history. \nIn the last few years, the meaning of the phrase "September 11th" has become blurred with the political aftermath. Politicians use it to advance their agendas and spark fear or resentment in the American people. \nWhen I Googled "9-11," the first Web site that popped up was about Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11." Now, close your eyes. Imagine it's Sept. 12, 2001. Would you have imagined this phrase - this day - would become such a source for political divide?\nThe shock has worn off and most Americans have returned to pre-9-11 tendencies. And at the risk of quoting a country singer: Have you forgotten?\nThe image of people jumping out of the burning World Trade Center still crosses my mind - and not just once in a while. The flag I displayed in my Louisville, Ky., home that day now drapes my dorm room window. I'm not a New Yorker, nor did I know anyone who died that day. But Sept. 11 is tattooed on my heart as much as it's tattooed in American history. \nI'm afraid this Saturday and future Sept. 11 anniversaries will be celebrated in the likes of Labor Day and Memorial Day. Sadly, Patriot Day will become just another hollow mark on the calendar. Most people will probably spend this Saturday like any other weekend. Both the Kerry and Bush campaigns will go on, claiming their initiatives are the best for a post-Sept. 11 world. Democrats will still claim President Bush didn't do enough to protect America, and Republicans will still claim Democrats are inherently unpatriotic. \nI don't want people to wake up Saturday morning and pretend this country is united. But could we all, for just one sacred day, forget about the bipartisan bickering instead of forgetting that more than 3,000 Americans were murdered? \nMy challenge for everyone on this campus, in this country and around the world is to pause from their weekend activities for 11 minutes. Don't think about the war on terror. Don't think about the Bush administration. Think about the mothers, fathers, husbands, wives and children who died terrible deaths. Then think about their families and how they will remember Sept. 11.\nRemembering 9-11 is not defined by politics, nor should it be associated with them in any way. Hopefully, after your 11 minutes is up, you will think the same way.
(09/06/04 6:01am)
BESLAN, Russia -- Wails of mourning echoed through the streets of this southern Russian town Sunday, and the region's top police officer offered his resignation in the wake of the school hostage-taking that left at least 350 people dead.\nFamilies were beginning the first of what will be a long and wrenching series of funerals -- with the death toll still uncertain and liable to rise. Some 180 people remained missing after the chaos that ended the standoff at the school. At the same time, many bodies remained unidentified, and it was unclear whether some of the missing were among the unnamed dead.\nThe number of dead forced a dramatic expansion of the cemetery in the industrial town of 30,000. Dozens of men dug graves in a football field-sized tract next to the cemetery Sunday morning, while surveyors across the road marked out new plots with wooden stakes and string.\nA shaken President Vladimir Putin went on national television Saturday to make a rare admission of Russian weakness in the face of an "all-out war" by terrorists. He told the Russian people that they must mobilize against terrorism and promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and root out corruption.\n"We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said in an address aimed at responding to the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of terrorist attacks that have killed some 450 people in the past two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya.\nAs a light rain fell, funeral processions snaked through the streets of Beslan on the way to the cemetery. Weeping mourners placed flowers and wreaths at the graves, including one where two sisters were being laid to rest together.\nAt the school at the center of the tragedy, windowsills were strewn with red and pink roses, and abandoned children's shoes littered the floor. People clutched photos of their relatives whom they had not found among neither the living nor the dead.\nCoffin lids stood outside the entrances to apartment buildings, and wailing could be heard from courtyards where families were cutting up meat for ritual meals.\n"I lost my boy," cried Svetlana Debloyeva, 42, whose rounds of hospitals and morgues have turned up no sign of her 11-year-old son Zaur. The two became separated during the chaotic, bloody end of the hostage crisis.\nThe regional health ministry said 180 people were missing after the three-day hostage crisis, which ended in a bloody wave of explosions and gunfire Friday when militants set off bombs rigged in the school gymnasium and commandos stormed the building.\nRussian media speculated that some of the missing could be among the wounded who were brought to various hospitals in the southern Russian region, unconscious or in too deep a state of shock to be able to identify themselves.\nAlso, many of the dead still had not been identified. The Interfax news agency said 184 bodies had been matched with names by mid-afternoon Sunday.\nThere were conflicting official reports of the death toll -- in part because of the large number of body fragments collected at the school. A duty officer at the North Ossetian health ministry said Sunday that 350 victims had been killed, but the region's deputy health minister, Taimuraz Revazov, later said only 324 were confirmed dead. Interfax quoted North Ossetian government spokesman Lev Dzugayev as saying the toll stood at 338.\nMore than 540 people were wounded -- mostly children. Medical officials said 423 people remained hospitalized Sunday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.\nEmergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev said Saturday that 35 attackers -- heavily-armed and explosive-laden men and women who were reportedly demanding independence for Chechnya -- were killed in 10 hours of battles that shook the area around the school with gunfire and explosions.\nHowever, Russian Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said Sunday that according to the latest information, 32 terrorists had been involved in the hostage-taking, and the bodies of 30 of them had been found, Interfax reported.\nIncluding the militants, more than 350 people died in the tragedy.\nPutin took a defiant tone in his speech, acknowledging Russia's weaknesses, but blaming it on the fall of the Soviet Union, corrupt officials and foreign foes seeking to tear apart Russia. He said Russians could no longer live "carefree" and must all confront terrorism.\nMeasures would be taken, Putin promised, to overhaul the law enforcement organs, which he acknowledged had been infected by corruption, and tighten borders.\n"We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats," he said.\nRussian officials said the final bloodbath began when explosions were apparently set off by the militants -- possibly by accident -- as emergency workers entered the school courtyard to collect the bodies of hostages killed in the initial raid Wednesday.\nHostages fled during the blasts, and the militants opened fire on them, prompting security forces to open fire and commandos to move in, officials said.\nThe explosions tore through the roof of the gymnasium, sending wreckage down on hostages, killing many. Many survivors emerged naked covered in ashes and soot, their feet bloody from jumping barefoot out of broken windows to escape.
(09/02/04 5:12am)
JERUSALEM -- Israel holds Syria responsible for a double suicide bombing that killed 16 people, a senior Israeli official said Wednesday in a warning that implied possible retaliation.\nThe militant Islamic group Hamas claimed the attack Tuesday in the desert city of Beersheba, when two bombers from the West Bank city of Hebron blew themselves up seconds apart in two buses.\nRaanan Gissin, a senior aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, pointed to neighboring Syria Wednesday, saying Hamas leaders are permitted to work out of the Syrian capital, Damascus.\n"The fact that Hamas is operating from Syria will not grant it immunity," Gissin told The Associated Press. Last year Israel attacked targets in Syria after a Palestinian bombing.\nIsraeli security sources said earlier that Sharon and his military commanders had decided to stage more strikes to eliminate militant Palestinian leaders in response to the bus attack.\nThe twin bombings in Beersheba shattered hopes in Israel that the period of suicide attacks -- more than 100 in four years -- was over. "The nightmare is back," the newspaper Yediot Ahronot said Wednesday in its main headline above a photo of a burning bus.\nThe last suicide attack was in March, and many Israelis believed the militants had been defeated, or at least suffered a serious blow.\nIsraeli leaders had boasted of increasingly effective means in fighting bombers, including a large network of Palestinian informers, mass arrests and an expanding barrier to separate Israel from the West Bank. Sharon pledged Wednesday to speed up construction of the barrier.\nTuesday's bombers came from the West Bank city of Hebron, about 15 miles north of Beersheba. Ahmed Kawasmeh, 26, and Nassim Jabari, 22, had known each other for years and were members of a secretive Hamas cell led by Kawasmeh's cousin, Imad, a top fugitive.\nThe Kawasmeh clan is one of the largest in Hebron and had dispatched five suicide bombers in recent years. Israeli troops destroyed Ahmed Kawasmeh's family apartment, arrested three of his brothers and sealed off Hebron.\nSharon consulted with his defense minister and army commanders late Tuesday and decided to step up military raids in Hebron, including targeted killings of militant leaders, security sources said. No large-scale military operation was planned, the sources said.\nSharon also said he is determined to go ahead with a planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements next year. "(The attack) has no connection to disengagement," he said, referring to his program.\nIsraelis have pointed to the barrier as the main factor in the drop-off of attacks in Israel, and residents of Beersheba, a normally quiet city of 200,000 people in the Negev Desert, clamored for completion of the barrier around the West Bank's southern end to protect them.\nSpeaking to reporters Wednesday after a meeting with Israel's president, Sharon pledged to act. "The fence will be completed according to the Cabinet decision, and we are doing all we can to speed up the process as much as possible," he said.\nThe barrier has been widely condemned internationally because of the hardships it causes for Palestinians. Completion has been held up by Israel's own Supreme Court, which ordered route changes to ease conditions of the Palestinians.\nThe bombs went off just seconds apart on the No. 6 and No. 12 buses, on opposite sides of a busy intersection Tuesday afternoon. The buses lay stricken in the street, their windows blown out, roofs buckled outward, interiors gutted by flames. Forensic workers picked up body parts, including a woman's severed hand with a silver ring.\nNissim Vaknin, a passenger on the No. 6 bus, said he was sitting behind the driver, next to a man he later realized was the bomber. Vaknin described the bomber as a "young guy, quiet, not tense." When an elderly woman with shopping bags boarded, Vaknin gave up his seat to her and walked to the back, a gesture that saved his life.\nThe elderly woman was killed in the blast several seconds later. Vaknin said he was plagued by guilt. "If it weren't for me, she'd still be alive today," he told Israel Army Radio.\nA 3-year-old boy was also among the victims. More than 80 people were wounded, including 19 school-age children.\nHamas said the attack was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, earlier this year.\nIn Gaza, thousands of Hamas supporters celebrated in the streets, with Rantisi's widow, Rasha, calling the attack "heroic" and saying her husband's soul was "happy in heaven." She threw candies to the cheering crowd around her house.\nPalestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in a statement that "the Palestinian interest requires a stop to harming all civilians so as not to give Israel pretext to continue its aggression against our people."\nThe U.S. State Department brushed aside Arafat's comments and said Hamas must be put out of business.\nThe delayed Hamas response -- Yassin was killed in March and Rantisi in April -- was a sign of the group's increasing difficulties in carrying out attacks.\nAlong with the partially completed barrier, the military said it had foiled dozens of suicide bomb plots, arrested hundreds of terror suspects and crippled the Hamas leadership with assassinations of Yassin and Rantisi.\nPalestinian analyst Hani al-Masri agreed. "But now, the military operations (attacks) are a way for Hamas to increase its popularity among Palestinians," he said.\nTuesday's attack was the deadliest since a female suicide bomber killed 21 people on Oct. 4, 2003, in the northern city of Haifa.\nThe last suicide bombing in Israel was March 14, when two Palestinian attackers killed 11 Israelis in the southern port of Ashdod. Since then, 338 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli troops. In the same period, 29 Israelis were killed, including soldiers who died in attacks in Gaza and Israeli motorists shot by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
(09/01/04 6:03am)
BEERSHEBA, Israel -- Palestinian suicide bombers blew up two buses in this Israeli desert city Tuesday, killing 16 passengers and wounding more than 80 in the deadliest attack in nearly a year.\nThe blasts ended a six-month lull in violence that Israel had attributed to its separation barrier, arrest sweeps and widespread network of informers.\nThe buses exploded into flames just seconds apart and about 100 yards away from each other near a busy intersection in the center of Beersheba.\nThe Hamas militant group claimed responsibility, issuing a leaflet in Hebron, Israel, in the West Bank -- the closest Palestinian city to Beersheba -- saying it was avenging Israel's assassinations of two of its leaders earlier this year.\nIsraeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with his security advisers to plan a response, expected to include a military operation in Hebron. Just hours before the attack, Sharon presented his hardline Likud Party with the most detailed timetable yet for Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.\nDespite the bombings, Sharon promised to push forward with the Gaza pullout, while insisting Israel would keep fighting terrorism "with all its might."\n"(The attack) has no connection to disengagement," he said, referring to his program to separate Israel from the Palestinians.\nIsraeli officials said the bombings proved the need for the barrier now under construction between Israel and the West Bank. The section between Hebron and Beersheba has not been built.\n"We should go ahead speedily now and finish construction of this fence," government spokesman Avi Pazner told The Associated Press.\nThe barrier, which Israel says is necessary to keep out suicide bombers, has been widely condemned internationally because of the hardships it imposes on Palestinians.\nPalestinian analyst Hani al-Masri agreed with the Israeli assessment of the lull in suicide attacks. He told The Associated Press that it resulted from Israel's assassination of Hamas leaders and the difficulties of infiltrating posed by the barrier.\n"But now, the military operations (attacks) are a way for Hamas to increase its popularity among Palestinians," he said, noting that until Tuesday, the Islamic group had not carried out its promise to avenge Israel's killing of its founder and his successor.\nIt had been nearly six months since Israelis last experienced the scene of charred buses, mangled bodies and screaming sirens that played out in Beersheba on Tuesday. The last suicide bombing in Israel took place on March 14, when 11 people were killed at the port of Ashdod.\nTuesday's attack was the deadliest since a female suicide bomber killed 21 people nearly a year ago in the northern city of Haifa, Israel -- an attack that prompted Israel to assassinate Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, and his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi.\nIsrael's rescue service said 30 of the wounded in Tuesday's attack were in serious condition. Police said the death toll of 16 did not include the bombers.\nThe two buses lay smoldering in the street, their windows blown out, roofs buckled outward, interiors gutted by flames. Forensic workers picked up body parts, including a woman's hand with a silver ring still attached.\nOne of the bus drivers, Yaakov Cohen, opened his doors and ordered passengers off after hearing the first blast, apparently saving a number of lives.\n"I don't know why I thought to open the doors," Cohen told reporters, still dazed, "but at least some of the people were able to escape."\nIn Hebron, the Israeli army surrounded the homes of the two suspected bombers, Ahmed Qawasmeh and Nasim Jaabari, and questioned their relatives.\nIn Gaza, thousands of Hamas supports took to the streets to celebrate, with Rantisi's widow, Rasha, calling the attack an "heroic operation" and saying her husband's soul is "happy in heaven."\nPalestinian officials condemned the attack, however, and called for an immediate cease-fire and resumption of peace talks.\n"The Palestinian interest requires a stop to harming all civilians so as not give Israel pretext to continue its aggression against our people," Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said in a statement.\nIn Washington, the State Department brushed aside Arafat's comments and said Hamas must be put out of business. Department spokesman Richard Boucher said action, not words, was needed.\nSecretary of State Colin Powell condemned the bombings in a telephone call to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom.\nIn a development clearly related to the bombings, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman canceled a visit to the West Bank, set for Wednesday. Suleiman has been leading a yearlong Egyptian effort to negotiate an end to Palestinian attacks.\nThe past year has seen a sharp reduction in the number of bombings in Israel -- from 18 in 2003 that killed 167 civilians to four this year that killed 42, including Tuesday's toll.\nIsrael has attributed the slowdown to its success in fighting militants and the West Bank barrier, not to a lack of effort by armed Palestinian groups.\nIsrael has arrested or killed dozens of militants in recent months, maintains dozens of roadblocks in the West Bank and placed security guards near busy bus stops in Israeli cities. It also operates an efficient intelligence network in the Palestinian areas.\nBut Israeli officials Tuesday repeatedly cited the barrier, which the world court at The Hague, Netherlands, recently ruled to be illegal, as the No. 1 reason for the lull in violence.\n"What we have learned in the past six months ... is that in the place where there is a fence there is no terror, and where there is no fence there is terror," said Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi.\nSeveral Israeli officials have privately complained that the barrier project has been unnecessarily politicized, saying Israel should have built it closer to the country's pre-1967 frontier. That, they say, would have saved lives by heading off legal challenges that have repeatedly delayed construction of the 425-mile structure.
(08/26/04 3:48am)
BUCHALKI, Russia -- Russian emergency workers searched heaps of twisted metal and tall grass Wednesday for clues about what caused two airliners to plunge to earth within minutes of each other, killing all 89 people aboard. Officials said one jet sent a hijack distress signal.\nFlight recorders from both planes were found and taken to Moscow for investigation, ITAR-TASS, a Russian news agency, reported, indicating the question of what caused the twin disasters soon could be answered.\nRussian security authorities said explosives specialists were still working at the scene of the crashes. They reported that terrorism remained a possible cause, although there was no evidence so far that terrorists were behind the tragedies.\nFederal Security Service spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said investigators were still questioning airport officials and airline and security employees at Domodedovo Airport, from where both flights left 45 minutes apart.\nFormer National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman Bob Francis said coincidence was always possible but seemed highly unlikely.\n"There are obviously things that can lead to accidents. ... The likelihood that you can have things lead to two accidents ... at the same time ... that's a pretty heavy coincidence," said Francis, who was involved in investigating the 1996 crash of TWA flight 800 off the Long Island coast.\nThe former director of security of the Israeli Airport Authority said the time of the crashes suggested terrorism.\n"The timing indicates that this is probably a coordinated attack," Rafi Ron told The Associated Press. "There was probably something on board that led the pilots to push the distress signal or submit a verbal signal. In my assumption, that must have been the result of a terrorist being on board."\nNeither Francis nor Ron had independent information about the crashes.\nThe airport on Moscow's far south side operates a single terminal that serves both international and domestic flights. Both flights were serviced at and left from the domestic section.\nThe service, known as the FSB, is a successor agency to the KGB. Officials there said they were investigating other possibilities such as technical failures, the use of poor quality fuel, breaches of fueling regulations and pilot error. Rain and thunder was reported in the regions where both crashes occurred.\nRebels fighting a protracted war for independence for Chechnya, the troubled southern Russian province, have been blamed for a series of terror strikes that have claimed hundreds of lives in Russia in recent years. Rebel representative Akhmed Zakayev told Russia's Radio EKHO Moskvy from London that Chechen forces and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov were not connected to the crashes.\nRussian officials claim the Chechen rebels have al Qaeda connections.\nRussian officials had expressed concern that separatists in the war-ravaged republic might carry out attacks ahead of a regional election Sunday to replace its pro-Moscow president who was killed in a May bombing.\nA Sibir Airlines Tu-154 jet, carrying 46 people, took off from Moscow's newly redeveloped Domodedovo Airport at 9:35 p.m. Tuesday, and the other plane, a Tu-134 carrying 43 people, left 40 minutes later, according to state-run Rossiya television. The Tu-134 was headed to the southern city of Volgograd, while the other plane was flying to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where President Vladimir Putin is vacationing.\nPutin returned to Moscow Wednesday evening and met with chief prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov, who told him authorities were considering terrorism, technical problems or human error as possible causes of the crashes. Putin announced that Thursday would be a day of mourning, the Interfax news agency reported.\nThe planes disappeared from radar screens about 11 p.m., and by early Wednesday morning, the wreckage of both had been found. Domodedovo Airport said in a statement that both planes "went through the standard procedure of preparation for flight ... (and) the procedures were carried out properly."\nUncertainty over the cause of the crashes came after Sibir (which means Siberia) said that it was notified that its jet had activated a hijack or seizure signal shortly before disappearing from radar screens. Officials said the crew of the other plane gave no indication that anything was wrong, but witnesses on the ground reported hearing a series of explosions.\n"There were three loud bangs on the window, like someone knocking," said Nikolai Gorokhov, a local resident who was in his home at the time of the crash.\nPutin ordered an investigation by the FSB, and security was tightened at Russian airports, where extra security officers and sniffer dogs were called in to check passengers and luggage, as well as other transport hubs and public places. The FSB sent experts to determine if explosions caused the crashes, Interfax reported.\nAt about the same time the Tu-154 disappeared, the Tu-134 airliner crashed in the Tula region, about 125 miles south of Moscow, officials said. ITAR-TASS reported that the authorities believe the Tu-134 fell from an altitude of 32,800 feet. Wreckage of the Sochi-bound Tu-154 was found in the Rostov region, about 600 miles south of Moscow about nine hours after it disappeared.\nRescuers quickly found the Tu-134's wreckage. An AP reporter saw one body bag lying near the tail, holding a charred corpse. Emergency Ministry officers wearing camouflage and red berets stood shoulder-to-shoulder and combed the tall grass for pieces of the broken plane.\nMaj. Gen. Gennady Skachkov of the Emergency Situations Ministry told AP at the scene near the village of Buchalki that most of the bodies were still in the cabin, but several had been thrown into the field. He refused to speculate on the cause of the crash but said the crew had given no warning.\nOfficials made conflicting statements about whether the signal from the other jet indicated a hijacking or another severe problem on the aircraft.\nThe Interfax and ITAR-TASS news agencies later quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that the signal was an SOS and that no other signals were sent.\nOleg Yermolov, deputy director of the Interstate Aviation Committee, said that it is impossible to judge what is behind the signal, which merely indicates "a dangerous situation onboard" and can be triggered by the crew during a hijacking or a potentially catastrophic technical problem.\nSibir Airlines seemed to hint at foul play, saying on its Web site that it "does not rule out the theory of a terrorist attack." The airline is one of Russia's largest.\nThe Situation Ministry's Rostov regional chief Viktor Shkareda told AP the plane apparently broke up in the air and wreckage was spread over an area of some 25-30 miles, but the fuselage and tail lay a few hundred yards apart at the edge of a forest. Bodies lay near the plane, but most of the victims' bodies were trapped in the mangled fuselage. The crash was found near Gluboky, a village north of the regional capital Rostov-on-Don.\nSiber said the Tu-134 belonged to small regional airline Volga-Aviaexpress and was being piloted by the company's director.\nInterfax quoted a Domodedovo Airport spokesman as saying no foreigners were on the passenger lists for either plane. A spokesman for the Israeli embassy said an Israeli citizen, David Coen, was on the Volgograd-bound jet.
