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(06/03/02 2:52am)
Diplomats push for international peace conference\nJERUSALEM -- A diplomatic push is under way to organize an international conference on the Mideast crisis, possibly in the latter part of July, but the ongoing fighting is making it difficult to set an agenda, officials said Sunday. Meanwhile Israeli troops searched house to house for suspected militants for a third day in Nablus, the largest West Bank city. More than 60 suspects have been arrested in the roundup, the latest of Israel's frequent incursions into the West Bank.\nIndian, Pakistani leaders head for summit\nNEW DELHI, India -- India's defense minister said Sunday that his nation won't be "impulsive" and sought to ease fears of a nuclear war, as the Indian and Pakistani leaders headed to a summit where they are unlikely to talk peace -- or even talk at all. As part of a diplomatic offensive, Pakistan announced that it will send envoys to the United States and other countries to relay Islamabad's position on the crisis. The emissaries will carry letters from Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf stating that Pakistan is ready to negotiate but that India does not want to talk.\nFeds warn of nukes in wrong hands\nSINGAPORE -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said today that the prospect of terrorists developing nuclear capabilities is "more frightening and dangerous" than nuclear proliferation among nation states. At a regional security conference in Singapore, Wolfowitz said the concern that "nuclear weapons or scientists with nuclear expertise (could) fall into the hands of rogue regimes or terrorist groups is a very, very real one." The discussion on nuclear proliferation was one of a several seminars at a two-day conference, which was attended by more than 150 defense officials.\nItalian premier to answer charges of corruption at trial\nMILAN, Italy -- Lawyers for Premier Silvio Berlusconi tried and failed Saturday to postpone a trial in which the billionaire media mogul is accused of bribing judges, news reports said. Berlusconi's defense lawyers want to put the Milan proceedings on hold while Italy's Constitutional Court rules on their request to change the venue -- a move that would force the trial to start over. The premier is on trial on charges he and some of his associates bribed judges to rule in their favor on the sale of SME, a state-owned food company in the 1980s.\n16 arrested in Mexico land dispute massacre\nSANTIAGO XOCHILTEPEC, Mexico -- Army troops and police arrested 16 people in remote southern Mexico after 26 sawmill workers were massacred in a land dispute, state officials said today. The army and more than 200 state police helped in the arrests after Friday night's shooting about 215 miles southeast of Mexico City, the Oaxaca state attorney general's office said. "This attack was an act of vengeance by one community toward another" because of a federal ruling that the community of Santiago Xochiltepec owned hundreds of acres claimed by neighboring Santo Domingo Teojomulco, the office\'s statement said. Most conflicts in the impoverished region are related in some way to land.
(05/30/02 3:29am)
Russia: no plans for 'N Sync's Bass\nMOSCOW -- The Russian space agency said Wednesday that it had no plans to give 'N Sync's Lance Bass a ride to space, and that no other space tourist has secured a seat on a Russian rocket set to blast off to the international space station in October. \n"The Russian Aerospace Agency has had no contacts whatsoever with Mr. Bass," agency spokesman Konstantin Kreidenko said. "We have received no requests from either him or his representatives, not to speak about signing any contracts.'' \nThe 23-year-old boy band member said in February that he hoped to travel into space, following in the footsteps of an American businessman and South African Internet magnate who have flown Russian rockets to the international station. \nLast week, Moscow's Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russia's premier space medicine center, said Bass and former NASA employee Lori Garver were being evaluated for their space travel fitness. \nBut on Wednesday, Kreidenko said: "Anyone has the right to undergo tests in the Institute of Biomedical Problems. But that doesn't mean that such person is considered to be a candidate for space flight." \nKreidenko said no decision had been made about the next space tourist, and wouldn't comment on possible candidates. \nBass has the support of a Los Angeles TV production company, Destiny Productions, to help fund his bid and to film the training and trip for a TV special. He and Garver were scheduled to hold a news conference in Moscow later this week to discuss their plans. \nOsbourne Mom to cover Queen's jubilee\nNEW YORK -- VH1 has picked Sharon Osbourne, the foul-mouthed matriarch of the Osbourne clan, to help pay tribute to a royal matriarch -- Queen Elizabeth II. \nOsbourne will be the host of VH1's broadcast of the all-star concert celebrating the queen's Golden Jubilee. Osbourne's husband, Ozzy, will perform at the June 3 concert, along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Aretha Franklin and Paul McCartney. A taped performance by Elton John, who will be on tour, will be shown. \nVH1 will air highlights from the concert on June 9. \nThe pop concert will be held in the garden of Buckingham Palace as part of a weekend of festivities to mark the queen's 50 years on the throne. \nSharon Osbourne has become a household name since this year's debut of her family's wacky hit reality show, "The Osbournes,'' on MTV, VH1's sister network. \nArtists aim to engergize downtown NYC\nNEW YORK -- What was once an indoor mall at the World Financial Center will become artist studios under a program designed to draw tenants and visitors back to the battered complex. \nNine artists, who will move into space vacated after the World Trade Center attack, toured the financial center on Tuesday to see where they will work in coming months. Starting in October, the artists will exhibit works ranging from a computer-rendered history of downtown development to handcrafted artificial trees. \nThe World Views program, which provides free space and small stipends to the artists, is meant to draw tenants by making the financial center more lively and appealing for employees and theirfamilies, center spokeswoman Karen Kitchen said. \n"It's really to energize or enliven the public areas of the complex,'' she said. "We want to project that this is a new time, a new space." \nThe artists will produce works ranging from collections of found objects to detailed digital drawings of New York buildings. All are expected to respond in some way to their immediate surroundings and the devastation of the trade center attack. \n"We have a moral responsibility to think about our city and think about what happened to us," said Moukhtar Kocache, the cultural council's director of visual and media arts initiatives.
(05/23/02 3:08am)
A lawsuit over how many unrelated people can live under one roof could go to the Indiana Supreme Court after a state appeals court found the city\'s tenant restrictions unlawful.\nFor now, Bloomington officials must stop enforcing limitations on the number of unrelated adults who can live in a single residence. But city officials hope the situation is temporary, and expect few landlords to take advantage of it because most student housing for fall is already rented.\nCity assistant attorney Michael Flory told The Herald-Times in a story published Tuesday that he plans to file a petition within the next two weeks asking the Indiana Supreme Court to review the appeals court's recent decision.\nThe case has some homeowners worried that they may lose the protection the city provided when it passed a 1985 law limiting the number of unrelated adults living together to no more than three.\nCity council member Tim Mayer said the appeals court decision is important to people in every neighborhood.\n\"Without any control on the number of unrelated people in every house, we'll have more cars, more traffic, more garbage and more noise problems," Mayer said. "I'd like to invite the justices down to Bloomington to spend some time in the core neighborhoods to see what they think."\nThe disagreement that landed the city and landlord Peter Dvorak in court began almost seven years ago when a resident complained about overoccupancy at a rental house Dvorak owned.\nA city housing official investigating the complaint found eight cars parked at the house and five unrelated adults living there, with plans for a sixth.\nDvorak said he never thought the city's lawsuit against him could drag on so long. He's spent between $50,000 and $100,000 on attorneys fees, he said, to defend a principle, even though he won't gain personal financial benefit because he has sold his rental houses.\nAlthough city officials say the law is aimed at all unrelated adults, it has angered college students who feel they are being singled out.\n"I don't think it makes any sense," said Christina Ridge, 20, an IU senior. "I don't think you can tell whether people are going to be good neighbors by whether they're related or not"
(05/23/02 2:22am)
SOUTH BEND -- Quarterback Matt LoVecchio, who led Notre Dame to seven straight wins and a Fiesta Bowl berth as a freshman before losing the starter's job after two games last season, plans to transfer.\nIrish coach Tyrone Willingham said he will grant LoVecchio's request for a transfer.\n"As a coaching staff, we had looked forward to seeing him continue to compete at the quarterback position," Willingham told the South Bend Tribune. "However, we respect his decision and wish him the best of luck both on and off the field."\nLoVecchio's father, Larry, said his son has not decided where he will transfer. LoVecchio is from Franklin Hills, N.J.\nThe decision leaves Carlyle Holiday as the only returning scholarship player at quarterback. Jared Clark, who had been the No. 3 quarterback the past two seasons, switched to tight end during spring practice. Arnaz Battle, who was the starter two seasons ago before breaking his wrist, is now a receiver.\nChris Olsen, a high school senior from Wayne Hills, N.J., signed a letter of intent with the Irish and will arrive in South Bend in August.\nWillingham, hired to replace the fired Bob Davie, is installing the West Coast offense for the Irish and had refused to say during spring practices whether Holiday or LoVecchio would be his starter. Despite throwing three interceptions in the spring game, LoVecchio said he was excited about the offense.\n"In this offense, there's always an outlet, there's always a back or a tight end you can check down to and get rid of the ball for some positive yardage," he said.
(05/19/02 11:36pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Court of Appeals has struck down Bloomington's ban on three or more unrelated adults living together, jeopardizing similar ordinances elsewhere in the state.\nIn an unanimous decision, the three-judge panel on Friday ruled that Bloomington's ban violates the Indiana Constitution.\nThe case involves a Bloomington landlord who let five Indiana University students live in his rental property. The city enforced its zoning ordinance, which was supported by a Monroe Circuit Court judge.\nAttorneys for the tenants argued that the ordinance was biased in favor of families and violated the state constitution's equal privileges and immunities clause, which protects against unequal treatment of different classes of people.\nThe appeals court agreed.\n"This is a significant issue, especially in college towns," said Michael Carmin, the Bloomington lawyer who represented landlord Peter Dvorak. "The ordinance was truly geared toward student rentals, and we don't agree with that."\nThe appellate court did not decree all such zoning ordinances unconstitutional.\nThe court faulted Bloomington's objective in limiting the number of unrelated adults living together: to control trash, noise and traffic.\nBanning a house full of six friends while allowing six family members to live together did not achieve that goal, the court said.\nJodie Woods, general counsel for the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns, said her organization would review the decision so it can offer advice to Indiana communities with similar ordinances.\nThe city of Indianapolis will review the decision but continue to enforce its ban on more than four unrelated people living together in a single-family unit, city attorney Scott Chinn said.\nThe Hamilton County town of Sheridan, about 20 miles north of Indianapolis, has found a way to avoid legal challenges but still address the issue, said Town Council President John Snethen said.\nInstead of pursuing a ban on four or more adults in a single-family residence, the town uses building codes to limit the number of people based on square footage.\n"If you own a nice house and someone moves in next door with 26 people, you're not going to like that," Snethen said. "We should be able to control that. It just makes good business sense"
(05/16/02 3:01am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A.J. Foyt will have three drivers for Sunday's final Indianapolis 500 qualifications.\nDonnie Beechler, who drove for Foyt last year, rejoined his former boss on Tuesday as a teammate of Airton Dare and Greg Ray. All three will try to qualify on Sunday.\n"I'm pulling out all the stops," Foyt said. "Donnie drove a great race here last year, and I'm happy to have him driving for me again at the Speedway."\nBeechler planned to practice in the No. 14T Dallara-Chevrolet for the first time on Wednesday. The track was closed Monday and Tuesday following the first two days of qualifications.\nOn Sunday, the final nine spots in the 33-car lineup for the May 26 race will be determined.\n"I want to drive at Indy, and it's good to be back with a team that I have confidence in," Beechler said. "We had a good car here last year, and I've been looking forward to coming back to Indy. I think this is going to be one of the tightest fields ever."\nThe first 24 qualifiers, led by pole-winner Bruno Junqueira, averaged more than 229 mph.\nLast year, Beecher also took over a Foyt backup car on the second week of qualifications and posted the fifth-quickest speed overall. He started 27th and climbed to seventh before a broken oil line fitting knocked him out after 160 laps for 25th place.\nHis best finish in three previous starts was 12th in 2000.\nBeechler continued to drive for Foyt after Indianapolis last season and had six top-10 finishes in nine starts, including a career-best third at the inaugural race at Kansas Speedway. He finished 15th in the Indy Racing League points.\nOther drivers who have not yet qualified include former winner Arie Luyendyk, Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy, Jon Herb, Alex Barron, Johnny Herbert, Robby McGehee and Mark Dismore.\nMcGehee, who crashed on the first day of practice May 5, received medical clearance to drive Monday; Dismore, who crashed on May 9, will be evaluated later this week.
(05/13/02 2:08am)
Cincinnati airport terminal evacuated\nHEBRON, Ky. -- Police evacuated the main terminal at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport for three hours on Sunday after a passenger tried to board a plane with a cigar cutter in his boot. \nWhen a screener at a security checkpoint found the small knife, the man ran into a secure area of the terminal, said Kathleen Bergen, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Transportation.\nThe man was arrested, Bergen said. She could not provide details.\nThe terminal, which handles 92 percent of the airport's traffic, was shut down at 9:10 a.m., and the three concourses were evacuated and searched. All reopened by 12:10 p.m., and passengers were allowed back in after being re-screened, Bergen said.\nPassengers on the 10 flights that left the airport during the evacuation were screened upon arrival at their destinations, she said.\nBergen said the Transportation Security Administration was investigating.\nTippecanoe judges rule differently in meth search cases\nLAFAYETTE -- One Tippecanoe County judge has ruled for police and another judge against them in cases testing whether officers can search people suspected of buying legal items that can be used to make an illegal drug.\nJudge Thomas H. Busch found that an officer had sufficient grounds to search the bags of two men outside a store where he had just observed one of the men buying products that can be used to make methamphetamine.\nIn two cases with somewhat different circumstances, however, Judge Don Johnson recently ruled police did not have authority to search customers they stopped outside stores based on tips from employees. Prosecutors said they planned to appeal one of the rulings.\n"It seems that the judges are doing what they should be doing, which is looking at the facts and circumstances of each case individually," deputy prosecutor Mike Dowler told the Journal and Courier for a story published Saturday. "What we're doing is applying very broad constitutional principles to a new law."\nCold pills, fuel, lithium batteries and other relatively common items can be used to make the highly addictive stimulant. It is illegal under state law to possess two or more meth ingredients with the intent of manufacturing the drug.\nPolice in Lafayette and other cities in Indiana have asked retailers to alert them when customers buy large quantities of items that are potential meth ingredients.\nBusch said the case in which he ruled last month differed from those Johnson overturned because police had reasonable suspicion the man had at least two meth ingredients in his bag and had made repeated purchases of such items.\nDowler is scheduled to argue another similar case at an evidence suppression hearing before Busch on Wednesday.\n10 Indiana charter schools win $150,000 grants\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Ten Indiana charter schools will each receive $150,000 federal grants to help cover start-up costs when they open their doors this fall.\nThe 10 schools will receive the one-year grants under the federal government's Public Charter Schools Program, Suellen Reed, the state superintendent of public instruction, said Friday.\nStart-up money has been in doubt because a state law authorizing the schools does not provide them with money for the August to January period. Under the state Department of Education's interpretation of the law, the schools are not eligible for state operating money until the start of the calendar year -- the same funding cycle used for public schools.\nEach of the charter schools receiving the grants are being awarded $125,000 to implement their charters and $25,000 for planning.\nThose schools could seek federal funding extensions after the upcoming school year, and charter schools beginning operations over the next two years also could be eligible for federal help, Reed said.\nCharter schools are independent, taxpayer-funded public schools free of many state rules and regulations. They are designed to be more innovative in teaching and administrative practices than traditional public schools.
(05/09/02 3:01am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Hoping to bring millions of Americans into a class-action lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., attorneys asked the full 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday to consider their case.\nA three-judge panel from the appeals court in Chicago last week rejected a lower court's decision that would have let plaintiffs across the country join a single lawsuit against the two companies. That lawsuit involves loss of value and violations of consumer protection laws in the wake of the tire maker's massive recall and problems with Explorer rollovers.\nIn their brief, plaintiffs' attorneys say the panel "made clear legal errors" in its decision and applied the wrong standards in deciding on class certification.\n"We're hopeful that the entire 7th Circuit will see the error in this opinion," plaintiffs' attorney Irwin Levin said Wednesday. "This decision is in conflict with existing 7th Circuit law and it's something the entire 7th Circuit should be interested in reviewing."\nU.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker in Indianapolis had granted class certification in the case, meaning millions of Americans who once owned or still own 1991 to 2001 Ford Explorers or certain brands of Firestone truck tires could have been part of the class action.\nIn its ruling last week, the three-judge panel said a single, nationwide class would not be manageable.\nThe claims involved in the class action are separate from hundreds of wrongful death and personal-injury lawsuits against Ford and Firestone.\nOver the past two years, Firestone has recalled about 10 million tires amid lawsuits and government investigations of allegations that failure of the tires led to crashes across the country.\nOfficials from both companies said they did not expect the appeals court to alter its decision.\n"We believe the decision is a sound one and it will stand," Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said.\nPlaintiffs' attorneys argue in their brief that the three-judge panel gave no deference to Barker's decision. They say there is a legal precedent that an appeals court should defer to the judge most familiar with the case.\n"Indeed, the panel simply adopts wholesale defendants' view of the facts, ignoring the voluminous factual record upon which Judge Barker based her findings," the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote.\nThey also argue that without the class action, people with small claims will not have a chance to seek restitution, and the two companies will never face "liability proportionate to the economic harm they have caused."\nPlaintiffs' attorney Tab Turner, based in Little Rock, Ark., said he believes the panel's decision is contrary to the law. He also acknowledged that it will be difficult to persuade the full appeals court to hear the case.\n"Probably the next step is the U.S. Supreme Court," Turner said. "It's going to delay things even further"
(05/03/02 4:08am)
NASHVILLE -- Tom Collen declined the offer to become the women's basketball coach at Vanderbilt on Thursday, less than 24 hours after accepting the job, because of questions concerning his education.\n"Although I am certainly devastated by what has happened, I walk away from the opportunity at Vanderbilt knowing that the discrepancy on my resume submitted to Colorado State in 1997 was an honest mistake and not one of deception," Collen said in a statement.\nCollen's biography in the Colorado State media guide listed him with two master's degrees from Miami of Ohio.\nVanderbilt had been set to announce Collen as coach on Monday, until they checked his academic credentials and found that he had one master's degree with a dual major.\nCollen sent copies of his transcripts and diplomas by fax to Vanderbilt officials, and his resume correctly showed he had one master's degree. He said Colorado State misunderstood his credentials when he filled out a questionnaire for the sports information department.\nVanderbilt Athletic Director Todd Turner said Vanderbilt felt comfortable with Collen once the information was verified, and on Wednesday announced him as the new coach.\nCollen sent Turner a letter on Thursday turning down the job.\n"Given the events of the last few days, I have decided that it is not in the best interests of Vanderbilt University and my family to accept your offer," Collen wrote.\n"I have great respect for the character and integrity of Vanderbilt University and would not want my presence to detract from that in any way. Please know how deeply I regret the misunderstanding that has occurred and any embarrassment this may have caused to you."\nTurner said Vanderbilt stands behind the offer it made to Collen, but the school's reputation was at risk.\n"I know this decision was difficult for him to make, but it was the right one," Turner said. "We will continue our search immediately to find new leadership."\nChancellor Gordon Gee said the school has high standards and did not want them compromised.\n"Tom Collen is a decent man, and I know he would not want his presence to distract from our commitment to excellence and honesty," he said.\nCollen said he was not trying to fool anyone about his credentials.\n"I have spent over 20 years in the game of women's basketball teaching the game I love and gaining the respect of those involved," he said. "I'm embarrassed by what has happened, but I'm proud of who I am."\nCollen led Colorado State to four NCAA tournaments and had a record of 129-33 in five seasons.\nVanderbilt will continue its search for a replacement for Jim Foster, who left to become the coach at Ohio State. Foster was 256-99 in 11 seasons at Vanderbilt.\nThe 48-year-old Collen is the latest coach to lose a job over a resume discrepancy.\nGeorge O'Leary, former Georgia Tech football coach, lost the head job at Notre Dame earlier this year when he falsely claimed on his resume that he played college football and had a master's degree.
(05/03/02 3:02am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Software executive Michael K. Campbell, who helped turn Powerway Inc. into one of the most prominent computer companies in Indiana, committed suicide at his home.\nInvestigators said Wednesday that Campbell died from carbon monoxide poisoning after sitting in his running truck with the windows opened and the garage door closed Monday night.\n"The garage door was locked from the inside. The truck windows were rolled down, and the electrical system had shut down because it had been running for so long," said Detective Scott Scheid of the Marion County sheriff's department.\nInside the house, police officers found Campbell's will and life insurance policy laid out in plain view in the office, Scheid said.\nCampbell, 50, was chairman and chief executive officer during a period of fast growth for the company, which last year sold a major stake in the business to automaker Daimler Chrysler AG. Powerway's board of directors on Tuesday appointed longtime director Thomas Hiatt the interim CEO until a successor is named.\n"The company is in very strong condition," Hiatt said. "The management team that Mike surrounded himself with is strong."\nCampbell was found at his northeastside apartment Monday night by a Marion County sheriff's deputy. Authorities were alerted after Campbell did not come to work earlier Monday or answer the phone at his home.\nPowerway senior executives informed employees through electronic mail about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.\n"I believe the first reaction was shock, and then it kind of gave way to sadness, just profound sadness," company spokeswoman Ellen Laden said. "Mike was beloved. He seemed to know everyone's name. He was not the kind of CEO who sat in his office."\nPowerway currently is engaged in three major programs, rolling out software technology for Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. and preparing for the May 12 release of its upgraded Powerway.com software.\nThe company employs about 170 in Indianapolis and 35 more in Detroit, London and Mexico City.\nCampbell, a native of Evansville and graduate of the University of Southern Indiana, took a job with the public accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand before joining computerized machine tool maker Hurco Cos. Inc. of Indianapolis.\nHe was recruited as a Powerway director in 1991 and became chairman and CEO in 1993.
(04/29/02 6:27am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- As companies cut back on entry-level hires, this year's crop of more than 56,000 Indiana college graduates will likely have fewer job offers than any class since 1994.\nIndiana campus placement offices report that hiring is down 20 percent to 45 percent at some schools.\n"It's really tough out there," said Tim Harding, director of career services at Butler University in Indianapolis. "This is the toughest year I've seen since I've been here in the last 10 years."\nAlthough the economy is showing signs of recovery, employers in some fields -- such as business consulting, investment banking, manufacturing, computer science and some engineering disciplines -- are not looking for many entry-level college graduates.\n"Generally, the college labor market is very slow and lagging behind the general recovery of the economy," said Philip Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.\nIn April, a survey of 1,515 employers conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found the worst college hiring drop, 63.5 percent, in the technology-heavy West, while the Midwest's 27.1 percent decrease was the smallest.\nAmong Indiana University students earning master's of business administration degrees, only about half have jobs now, compared with 94 percent last spring.\n"We're hit by two job markets that have really disappeared -- consulting and investment banking," Susie Clarke, associate director for graduate career development for the IU Kelley School of Business, told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Sunday.\nThe slump in businesses seeking outside consultants has caused global consulting firms like Gap Gemini Ernst & Young, which has an Indianapolis office, to scale back college recruiting and hiring.\nThe firm made recruiting visits to IU, Purdue and 13 other schools nationwide this spring, compared with 90 colleges two years ago. Entry-level positions were cut in half this year, Gap Gemini Vice President Todd Blake said.\n"I have a surer bet if I go to the more experienced hiree," Blake said. "I can't deploy a 21-year-old out to a client in a matter of weeks."\nHiring in other business areas, such as retailing, sales, accounting and finance, held up reasonably well, said Randy Powell, director of IU's undergraduate business placement office.\nJessica Gettelfinger, 21, of Floyds Knobs, snagged one of those accounting jobs at a small firm in Houston.\n"I felt lucky I got something I wanted, not just any job," she said. "Last year, if you walked in with a tie on and were breathing, you could get a job. But it's not like that now."\nThis year, placement officers said, it's more critical than ever for grads to stand out in the crowd -- with internships or practical experience.\nTimothy Luzader, director of Purdue University's Center for Career Opportunities, is looking at the difficult market as a lesson. He's telling students to consider other options and to network with alumni, former bosses and anyone to find unadvertised jobs.
(04/29/02 4:37am)
BOSTON (AP) - The NHL suspended Boston defenseman Kyle McLaren on Sunday for rest of the Bruins' playoff series against Montreal for the hit that sent Richard Zednik to the hospital.\n"McLaren delivered a dangerous blow to the head of his opponent and caused significant injuries to the opposing player," said Colin Campbell, the league's executive vice president and director of hockey operations. "Mr. McLaren clearly must be held accountable for his actions in this regard."\nCampbell, who met with McLaren on Saturday, said he did not think the hit was a deliberate attempt to injure, and added that he took into account McLaren's reputation as a clean player.\n"I don't like being suspended, but I can't say that I was surprised by the decision," McLaren said in a statement.\n"I would like to repeat that my action was in no way intentional, it just happened as part of the play, and I wish Richard Zednik a speedy recovery."\nBruins president Harry Sinden said Sunday the team did not agree with the suspension but "accepts and respects" it and considers the matter closed.\nMcLaren was given a match penalty and suspended indefinitely after hitting Zednik with 1:18 left in the Bruins' 5-2 victory on Thursday night that evened the best-of-seven series at two games apiece. After the game, Canadiens coach Michel Therrien accused McLaren of a cheap shot and vowed revenge.\nHe backed off those threats before Saturday's game, which Montreal won 2-1 to take a 3-2 lead. The game included only five penalties, and one power play.\nMcLaren insisted he was not trying to hurt Zednik, who had a broken nose, concussion, bruised throat and cuts on his face. Zednik scored both Montreal goals in the game and is Montreal's leading playoff scorer.\nZednik was released from the hospital Saturday morning.\nBoston led 5-2 Thursday when the 6-foot Zednik sped up the right side into Boston's zone. His head was down when the 6-4 McLaren skated toward him and reached with the upper part of his left arm, dropping Zednik to the ice. Zednik was down on the ice, unconscious, for five minutes.\nThe second concussion of his career will sideline him for at least the rest of the series, Canadiens doctor David Mulder said.\nGame 6 of the series is in Montreal on Monday night, with Game 7, if necessary, in Boston on Tuesday night.
(04/22/02 5:17am)
ELKHART, Ind. -- A judge who approved a plan to erect monuments to other important documents near a Ten Commandments marker so it could remain on city property has reversed that decision, ruling that the proposal is unconstitutional.\nU.S. District Judge Allen Sharp gave Elkhart officials 30 days to come up with a new plan, The Truth reported in a story for Saturday's editions.\nSharp wrote in his order Wednesday that the city's proposal to set up markers to documents including the Bill of Rights and the Preamble to the Constitution could create an impression that the government was endorsing a religion.\nThat was part of the grounds on which the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago had rejected a similar plan by Indiana officials to place a Ten Commandments marker at the Statehouse.\n"The city of Elkhart has choices, but the proposed remedy is not among them," Sharp wrote. "The religious language…cannot remain in its place of prominence by the Elkhart Municipal Building."\nSharp set aside previous orders that contradicted Wednesday's ruling, including one he made March 4 in favor of the city's proposed remedy.\nIndiana Civil Liberties Union attorney Ken Falk welcomed the decision.\n"You can't put the Ten Commandments next to U.S. historical documents and convert the Ten Commandments into a historical document," he said.\nMayor Dave Miller said the city was unlikely to appeal Sharp's latest ruling because of the cost. Elkhart City Attorney Vlado Vranjes said officials would have to consider their next step and try to come up with another remedy.\nIn his ruling Wednesday, Sharp said the city's other options included removing or covering religious language on the marker, moving it to private property or placing it within the context of other documents, including secular ones, similar to the frieze on the wall of the U. S. Supreme Court.\nThe ICLU has argued that is not practical in Elkhart's case.\nFalk suggested the easiest option would be to move the marker to private property, where it would be constitutionally protected.\nTwo Elkhart residents represented by the ICLU sued in 1998 to try to remove the monument, which was given to the city by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1958.\nThe sides began settlement talks after the U.S. Supreme Court last spring declined to hear the city's appeal.
(04/22/02 5:14am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana officials are lobbying the Pentagon to name Camp Atterbury as a regional or national training center for soldiers and civilian agencies involved in homeland defense.\nThey join Ohio and Nevada officials who also are pitching bases in their states as candidates for homeland defense training sites, said Clifford Ong, director of Indiana's Counter-Terrorism and Security Council.\n"The National Guard Bureau thinks highly of our Guard," Ong said. "The problem is nobody really knows what the plan is, whether they are going to have a training program."\nThe National Guard's 33,132-acre Camp Atterbury, which straddles Johnson and Bartholomew counties, has slowly become one of the country's top training facilities.\nPremier military units, such as the Navy Seals commandos and the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Ky., train there regularly, as do many federal and local police agencies.\n"You've already got a history of law enforcement and military using this facility," Guard spokesman Maj. James McGallivray told The Indianapolis Star for a story Sunday.\nLt. Col. Barry Richmond of the Guard's strategic plans office in Indianapolis said only about six or seven other states have a Guard training facility as extensive as Atterbury's.\nIts features include an air gunnery range, an airfield that can land up to four large cargo planes, more than 30 small-arms ranges and specialized training resources such as rubble piles with 300 feet of tunnels used to train search-and-rescue dogs and their handlers.\nGuard officials also point to other selling points -- a central location nationally, a railroad line upgraded about five years ago and barracks that easily can house 8,000 soldiers.\nRichmond said Atterbury's best edge, however, has been its willingness to tailor training exercises to whatever a military unit or agency needs.\n"You can have the best resources," he said, "but if you don't have good people, their value is undermined"
(04/15/02 4:23am)
ICLU may fight state over decision to close hospital\nEVANSVILLE -- The Indiana Civil Liberties Union is considering challenging the state's plan to close the Evansville Psychiatric Children's Center.\nWhile Gov. Frank O'Bannon and other state officials tout the benefits of moving mentally ill patients to group homes, the ICLU says many are being deprived of needed care.\n"I think we've done a horrible job of taking care of mentally ill kids in Indiana," ICLU attorney Ken Falk told the Evansville Courier & Press for a story published Sunday.\nIndiana is required by law to provide care for mentally ill children, Falk said. But parents and lawmakers said at a hearing last week officials have not provided evidence that children at the center will receive adequate treatment elsewhere if it is closed.\nO'Bannon announced last month that the 28-bed children's hospital would be closed June 30. The decision is expected to save the state about $3.3 million a year.\nThe state has been shifting toward smaller, regional centers and community-based settings for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled. A center for the developmentally disabled at New Castle already has been closed, and officials also plan to close the Muscatatuck State Development Center.\nSouthwest Indiana places more children in institutions than other parts of the state. Eleven of 19 patients at the Evansville center earlier this month were from Vanderburgh County, said John Hamilton, secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.\nBut 51 Indiana counties currently have no children placed in a state mental hospital, Hamilton said.\nThe ICLU already has a lawsuit pending against the state in federal court, alleging Indiana is violating federal law by refusing to provide Medicaid funding for children's placement in private psychiatric residential treatment facilities.\nLab techs say no quick fix for evidence backlog\nFORT WAYNE -- Technicians at the state's crime labs say they will likely need years to analyze a mounting backlog of evidence, despite lawmakers' attempt to ease the problem with an additional $12.2 million.\n"The state earmarking money will help tremendously," said 1st Sgt. John Vanderkolk, manager of the crime lab in Fort Wayne, which serves about 30 counties in northern Indiana. "But it will take time to see the impact."\nAll four of the state lab locations -- Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Lowell and Evansville -- are wrestling with backlogs of evidence awaiting testing.\nFort Wayne has handled the highest volume of evidence annually since 1998, but it has the lowest number of backlogged cases, according to numbers provided by Indiana State Police.\nThe Fort Wayne lab is currently working on evidence submitted in June 2001. As of April 1, the lab is backlogged by 779 cases.\nThe lab performs latent fingerprint identification, drug screening, ballistics testing and firearms identification. It also prepares DNA and trace evidence samples for testing completed at the Indianapolis lab.\nIf no additional evidence were submitted to Fort Wayne's lab, the current backlog could be eliminated in four months. Instead, new evidence arrives daily, Vanderkolk said.\nState lawmakers agreed to spend additional money on the problem before they adjourned in mid-March. Some of the funding will be used to hire new technicians, which can take six months to two years.\nIn the meantime, as technology advances, still more evidence arrives, Vanderkolk said.\n"This is an age-old problem," he told The Journal Gazette for a story published Sunday. "New technology allows for new testing, and service requests go up."\nState Supreme Court declines to hear security case \nLAFAYETTE -- The Indiana Supreme Court declined to rule on whether a local judge overstepped his bounds when he ordered county commissioners to increase security at the Tippecanoe County Courthouse.\nThe justices said the issue was moot since most of the security measures mandated by Tippecanoe Circuit Court Judge Ronald Melichar were put in place anyway after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\n"We presume that since they took these measures on their own initiative, they ultimately concluded that these steps were reasonably necessary," the justices wrote in the opinion issued Friday.\nCommissioners closed six of the building's eight entrances, set up metal detectors and approved funding for additional bailiffs after a series of bomb threats disrupted business at the courthouse in September.\nMelichar's mandate was issued in August 2000. The courthouse was the target of an attempted truck bombing in 1998.\nThe county commissioners and council last fall asked the state Supreme Court to determine whether Melichar's order had exceeded his authority, because courthouse security is the responsibility of the county sheriff and commissioners.\nSmall-town mayor seeks nomination for governor\nPETERSBURG, Ind. -- A southwestern Indiana man who became the youngest mayor in state history is seeking the Republican nomination for governor in 2004.\nRandy Harris, Petersburg's three-term mayor and a 36-year-old Evansville native, announced his candidacy Friday at the Pike County Lincoln Day dinner.\nAt age 27, he won election as mayor of Petersburg in 1991, becoming the youngest mayor in state history.\nHarris, a Republican in largely Democratic Pike County, acknowledged that his background as a small-town mayor could leave him open to attacks that he is unprepared to lead the state.\n"I guess the biggest question that will come from this campaign is, 'How can you take the step from being the only mayor in a county with 13,000 people in a city of less than 3,000 and run for governor of Indiana, with 6 million people,'" Harris told about 170 people at the dinner.\nBut Harris said he has a record of effective management.\nThe University of Southern Indiana graduate worked as a radio news reporter after moving to Petersburg in 1988.\nState Sen. Luke Kenley, R-Noblesville, also has announced a candidacy for the GOP nomination for governor. Two others have indicated they may also run: state Sen. Murray Clark, R-Indianapolis, and conservative activist Eric Miller.\nLt. Gov. Joe Kernan is widely expected to seek the Democratic nomination to succeed Gov. Frank O'Bannon.\nMan accused of spreading fear over CB radio\nMUNSTER, Ind. -- Police have arrested a northwestern Indiana man they say made threats over a citizens band radio to rape and kill his neighbors and truck drivers.\nWilliam Bates, 38, of Munster, transmitted the threats for more than a year, authorities allege. Police received their first complaint of a threat in October 2000.\nBates' arrest Friday came after a Munster police sergeant spent 40 hours over a five-week period listening on a CB radio for threats and recording them, The Post-Tribune of Merrillville reported.\nBates, who was arrested on a misdemeanor harassment charge, was released from the Lake County Jail on Saturday. Authorities said they also plan to charge him with possession of marijuana.\nBates could not be reached for comment Saturday. There is no phone listing for him in Lake County.\nPolice said Bates' on-air name was "Candy Man."\nBates' radio equipment interfered with his neighbors' televisions, computers and other electronics, police said.\nOfficers who searched Bates' home confiscated radio equipment with settings that violated federal communications regulations.
(04/15/02 4:12am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana has lost more jobs in the past two years than any other state.\nThe approximately 3 percent setback -- seven times worse than the national average -- is so severe that neighboring industrial states look prosperous in comparison, an analysis of recent government statistics shows.\nAmong sectors shedding the 95,000 workers were retailing, services and the state's core industry of manufacturing.\nEconomists say prospects for a rebound are uncertain.\nMore than in past recessions, competitive pressures to cut costs will force some manufacturers to buy machines or move work out of the country instead of hire back laid-off employees.\n"Everything depends on the future of manufacturing," Hudson Institute economist Graham Toft told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Sunday. "I am not sanguine about the uptick."\nDeclining employment, with its fallout of crimping state tax revenue, is only the latest symptom in a decades-long trend of Hoosiers losing ground in earnings.\nMuch of the problem is attributed to international competition and corporate buyouts that swept away well-paying management positions.\nLow unemployment rates are deceptive because they do not track people who drop out of the labor market. As the number of available jobs shrink, so does the number of people looking for work.\nThere's nothing new about a recession pounding Indiana. In the eight recessions since World War II, only in 1990-91 did Indiana do better than the country as a whole.\nThe current recession began in March 2001, and many experts think it ended late last year or early this year.\nAs a barometer of economic health, employment shows the total number of jobs available. Shrinking job opportunities usually mean people earn less money.\nThe two-year period beginning in January 2000 dates to a couple of months before the technology bubble busted and more than a year before the recession began, said IU economist James C. Smith, who analyzed the Bureau of Labor statistics.\n"Indiana just fared pretty poorly across the board," Smith said.\nYet, Hudson Institute's Toft, who formerly headed the state's economic development think tank, said the 3.16-percent loss is better than average for the state during recessions.\nIndiana's job-creation woes stretch back further than two years. Few jobs have been created since the mid-'90s, leaving total employment stubbornly entrenched at just below 3 million, Toft said.\nThe lackluster performance raises questions about whether many of the prized manufacturing jobs lost during the recession can be recovered.\nThe latest figures show the two-decade effort to diversify the state's economy was not aggressive enough, Smith said.\nAlthough Indiana has added thousands of jobs in well-paying services, 21.5 percent of all jobs are directly involved in manufacturing, still the highest dependence in the nation.\nTom McKenna, executive director of the Indiana Department of Commerce, said an obsolete tax structure is the greatest hindrance. He urged the General Assembly to enact the governor's proposed revisions.\n"We have a 19th-century tax structure, and we need a 21st-century tax structure," McKenna said.
(04/01/02 4:48am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana State Police crime lab still faces several years of work to whittle away a burgeoning backlog of evidence, despite a last-minute maneuver by state lawmakers to earmark more money for the lab.\nThe additional funding -- about $12.23 million over four years -- is not expected to keep up with the number of cases referred to the lab, police say.\nThe number of backlogged cases at the state's four crime labs was 5,287 on Jan. 1. By March 1, it swelled to 5,649.\n"To get caught up within four years would be a desirable goal, but it also would be a tall order," state police Sgt. David Bursten said.\nThe four state police crime labs -- in Indianapolis, Lowell, Fort Wayne and Evansville -- analyze crime evidence for most of the state's police organizations.\nMoney for scientific testing of DNA samples, guns, drugs and other evidence appeared elusive during most of the legislative session as lawmakers struggled with an impending budget deficit. But on the session's last day, lawmakers tapped part of an existing fee collected by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for the crime lab.\nIn the first year, the fee would net about $1 million for the lab. The money would increase each year, to $4.39 million in the third year.\nGov. Frank O'Bannon signed the measure last week.\nMaj. Robert Conley, commander of the state police laboratory division, said the agency continues to be swamped with requests for evidence examinations.\nDNA analysis of blood and other bodily substances accounted for 729 backlogged cases as of March 1.\nIt will take time to hire more scientists, train them for the crime lab and plug them into the existing system. addition, it may be difficult to find qualified scientists willing to work from 4 p.m. to midnight, Conley said.\nFor victims waiting for justice, there's little solace in knowing about the reasons for the backlog.\nLaura Koenig, a 23-year-old Vincennes woman who was raped in May 2001, is still waiting for an arrest in her case. She has identified a man as her attacker, and some DNA tests have been completed, but others are pending.\nKoenig, who agreed to tell her story to The Indianapolis Star last month, said the detective on the case has urged her to hang on.\n"I guess I'll hang on and see how long it takes," she said.
(04/01/02 4:28am)
Barry Took, one of Britain\'s most famous comedians and comic writers who helped produce such shows as "Monty Python's Flying Circus," died Sunday at the age of 73, his family announced.\nTook, once described as one of the funniest men in Britain, died at a north London nursing home after a battle with cancer, his family said.\nTook had an unusually long career as a standup comic, radio scriptwriter writer, television executive and film critic.\nHe was responsible for celebrated radio series like "Round the Horne," "The Army Game," "Educating Archie" and "Bootsie and Snudge." The shows were a vital part of British life in the austere decades after World War II, when food rationing lasted for years and the country struggled to adjust to its diminished role in the world.\nTook also worked on the U.S. television show, "Laugh In."\nA native of London, Took was dogged by self-doubt, depression, domestic problems and ill-health. His two marriages ended in divorce.\nLeaving school at the age of 15, he worked as an office boy and a cinema projectionist before serving in the air force, where he was involved in entertainment programs.\nTook later worked as a stage hand and comic. In his autobiography, "A Point of View," he recalled that he once did 12 shows in the city of Wolverhampton without raising a single laugh.\nIn 1957, he began working with fellow comic Marty Feldman, and they went on to create and write some of the most successful radio shows of the 1960s. The pair turned out scripts at a rapid pace, often compiling four or five shows a week.\nAlthough his working life revolved around comedy, Took once said: "I don't like comedians very much because I don't like neurotic people. I think they should go and get cured. I'm mad too but I'm as cured as I can get."\nDubbed Baron von Took by a television executive, he was involved in plans for a show called "Baron von Took's Flying Circus" which eventually became "Monty Python's Flying Circus."\nIn later life, Took wrote film reviews for Punch magazine and did panel shows on radio.\nTook is survived by two daughters and two sons.
(03/25/02 4:59am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- When homes throughout Indiana are reassessed this year, property owners may not be hit as hard as expected if elected assessors do everything they can to hold down tax bills.\nHomeowners have been told the average bill could rise anywhere from 13 to 33 percent. But a recent study concluded that the increase could be much smaller -- 3 to 5 percent -- if elected assessors work within the law to aid property owners.\nIf they go further and fail to abide by the state's new minimum standards for valuing property, it could mean even more favorable treatment for homeowners.\nThat would fly in the face of what the reassessment is supposed to do: make property tax bills for similar properties more equal, as the Indiana Supreme Court has ordered.\n"I think assessors are going to do whatever the heck they want," Karl Berron, a lobbyist for the Indiana Association of Realtors, told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Sunday. "If the state does nothing, the system's not going to get fixed."\nThe reassessment is the first since 1995 and the first since the state's high court declared the current system unconstitutional because owners of similarly priced homes were paying wildly different tax bills.\nThe big question is whether state tax officials will have the know-how and political will to stop assessors from going too far. Residential assessments could remain out of whack if many of the 1,100 assessing officials are selective about how they use information from home sales in assessments.\n"If the state looks the other way and taxpayers are uninformed, you can get just as bad a result as you would in the current system," said Larry DeBoer, a Purdue University economist who has researched potential effects of the new market value system.\nThe potential for exploiting court-ordered reforms could force state officials to keep a close watch over assessors. If they fall short, the reassessment might not satisfy the Supreme Court, sparking more lawsuits.\nGov. Frank O'Bannon's estimate that the average homeowner's bill would rise 13 percent assumes local officials will perform their jobs flawlessly and without regard for who will pay more. Critics say that's unlikely, given the big increases many homeowners could see.
(02/04/02 4:15am)
Fort Wayne man seeks to lower fees for bone marrow registry\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A Fort Wayne man who survived cancer believes the fee to register as a bone-marrow donor may be costing some cancer patients their lives, so he is asking state lawmakers to help.\nA man in Germany donated the bone marrow that Randy McCune said freed his body of leukemia. McCune, 40, wants to make it easier for others to find a match.\nThe bone-marrow profile needed to match donors and recipients can cost a donor up to $96 and deters some people who might be willing to help, McCune said.\n"It's atrocious that people have to pay to save someone's life," he told The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne for a story published on Sunday.\nMcCune is pushing legislation in the General Assembly that would educate people about bone-marrow transplants and reduce the fee donors pay to have their bone-marrow profile added to the national marrow registry.\nThe Indiana House passed McCune's proposal 94-1 last week, sending the legislation to the Senate. The bill transfers $50,000 from the state's anatomic gift promotion fund to a new fund for the test of bone- and organ-marrow donors.\nLawmaker seeks state Hispanic commission \nINDIANAPOLIS -- A lawmaker from East Chicago is sponsoring a bill that would make Indiana's Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs a permanent entity.\nDemocratic Rep. John Aguilera's bill has made it out of committee with an amendment calling for a separate commission for Native Americans.\n"We have grown threefold in the last decade, and we are projected to grow another threefold in the next decade," Aguilera, Indiana's only Hispanic lawmaker, told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.\nU.S. Census figures indicate Hispanics comprise 3.5 percent of the state's population -- 214,000 of 6.1 million Hoosiers. Lake County has the state's largest Hispanic population, with 59,000 people or 12 percent.\nWhile Hispanics are well-established in Lake and Porter counties, much of the rest of the state is just beginning to recognize an influx, making it more difficult to maintain a statewide voice, Aguilera said.\nIn the last session, he challenged his own Democratic leadership in the House and refused to vote for the House map of new legislative districts because it did not contain a majority Hispanic district anywhere in the state. Aguilera's district is about 25 percent Hispanic and Latino.\nA survey by the Greater Indianapolis United Way in 2000 found a majority of the local Hispanic community had been in Indiana less than two years.\nIndiana transportation funding next to last\nINDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana's share of federal funding for pet transportation projects put it next to last in the nation on a per-capita basis, according to an Associated Press review of federal data.\nIndiana received $39.1 million -- or $6.44 for each of the state's 6.08 million residents-- from a pot of highway money used for projects dear to lawmakers hearts. Only Ohio received less per capita.\nNo Indiana lawmaker sat on the House-Senate Appropriations conference committee, a 29-member panel which increased funding for local projects requested by individual lawmakers.\nIn doing so, the committee removed general transportation money states can use at their discretion. The AP computer analysis found the shift cost state and local governments about 11 percent of the money they originally expected to get as they saw fit.\nThe biggest per-capita loser was Ohio, which received $5.81 per person for pet transportation projects.\nIndiana's share rises to $6.64 per person if the state's share of a joint Indiana-Kentucky Ohio River bridges project is taken into account.