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(03/07/12 9:35pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When soapbox preaching is all you’ve got, / This movie’s just not going to get better; it’s not.You’ve got no tricks up your sleeve, no imagination to spare. / Finding someone who will like this “Lorax,” it’s rare.“Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax,” who are you named for? / Surely not the children’s author we all adore.You concealed his message of dire consequences and caring / With a meaningless plot, too many characters, not enough sparing / Of your brainwashing opinions. You see, they don’t fit / In this children’s loved fable. They don’t, not one bit.Your opening song about loving pollution, / About little boys glowing, about society’s delusion, / It made me cringe when I heard it, feel uncomfortable in the theater. / The constant warnings were like you killed a conservative horse, then beat her.Seuss’ book is filled with fantasy. It’s simple. It’s modest. / Your story is critical; it points fingers. Let’s be honest, / You know that it’s obvious, right down to that sign / During the Once-ler’s song that points to big business’s crime. / “Too Big to Fail” — we all know who you’re shunning. / Come on, directors, that’s not clever or cunning.But you did do something right: This film sure is pretty. / The colors are gorgeous, even if the dialogue’s not witty. / You made me laugh a few times, and those bears are the cutest. / But don’t be fooled, moviegoers. Take my advice: Don’t view this.
(03/05/12 5:24am)
The tornado that ripped through Clark County last week destroyed most of Henryville, Ind.
(03/05/12 2:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>HENRYVILLE, IND. — A light rain was already falling Friday when students from the Henryville elementary and high schools were sent home at 2:30 p.m., 20 minutes before regular dismissal.The rain was a prelude to the most destructive tornado in residents’ memory. The storm started with a funnel cloud that touched down at about 3:15 p.m. — 45 minutes after the schools sent the students home — followed minutes later by a monster tornado.Bus drivers herded students onto buses, but not enough time remained to get them all home. The drivers took matters into their own hands, driving their buses through fields, speeding to reach the next stop or shuttling the remaining students to one home to get them all out of danger.A little before 3:15 p.m., Bus 211 returned to the school’s parking lot, unable to outrun the storm. The driver rushed 11 students back into the high school, where they took refuge in the principal’s office along with 15 other people.Moments later, the storm lifted the bus and tossed it through the air, launching it through the front window of Budroe’s Family Restaurant.Nick Shelton was working on a lift in the back of his auto body garage, Henryville Auto Services, across the street from the school. As he worked under the car, no TV or radio played news coverage — there was nothing to warn him of the storm as he continued his routine.In Budroe’s Family Restaurant next door, employees and customers were watching the news and knew they needed to take cover. They knew Shelton wouldn’t know the storm was close. He wouldn’t have anywhere safe to hide in the open garage. With the storm approaching, someone from the diner ran to Shelton’s garage, telling him to join them in the diner’s basement.They made it just in time. As eight people crouched in the diner’s basement, the now-empty Bus 211 crashed through the wall.On Saturday, Andy Bell, Shelton and some friends stood next to Shelton’s demolished garage, now a pile of metal and debris. Two of the friends sorted through the wreckage.Bell said he couldn’t believe what he found in town.“Henryville doesn’t look the same,” he said. “When I came into town last night, it was like a new town.”Destroyed houses and businesses surrounded the schools for miles. The EF-4 tornado with 175-mph winds that swept through the town and others closeby, including Marysville to the northeast, left more damage than Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden could describe the following day.“It has been assessed that we’ve got the largest area of problem, the most widespread,” he said. “It is very rural, so we’re doing the best we can, going door to door.”The Henryville tornado was the first of two in the area, weather officials said, and they followed essentially the same path, separated by about 10 minutes. Officials said the first tornado was on the ground for 52 miles and measured about 150 yards wide.In total, 12 fatalities were counted in southern Indiana.“Most of the searches are completed,” Indiana State Police Sgt. Jerry Goodin said. “We hope the number stays at eight for our three counties, but as this progresses throughout the day, it would not surprise us to have other fatalities.”Where Highway 161 enters Henryville, a gas station lay in a pile, like Shelton’s garage, across the street from a second gas station that was barely touched.A few blocks down, windows were blown out of a house that had been going through renovations. Near the front window, a box marked “Barb & Charlie’s baby memories” spilled onto a table.New Washington State Bank, near the house, posted a sign on its front door — “Bank closed temporarily, equipment problems.” While the building remained intact, the drive-up ATMs were nowhere to be seen.The Henryville elementary and high schools on Ferguson Street downtown took the brunt of the damage. Three or four buses remained in the parking lot Saturday, knocked to their sides, the windows shattered. Madelynn Evans, 6, threw a stick at Bus 201. Her mother, Wendy, shot her a look, then pulled Madelynn to her side.On Saturday, Madelynn and Wendy stood in the rubble near the bus, surveying the destruction to the town’s only school building — now missing most of the elementary school and the back wall of the high school’s gym. Photos of past basketball teams still hung on the gym’s walls, but the floor was covered in fallen debris.The high school had celebrated its 100-year anniversary last year, and the elementary school was added two years ago.“See the framework over there,” Bell said, pointing to the school. “That’s all that’s left of the two-year addition.”Now, students, parents and faculty are unsure about what will happen. According to the high school’s website, both schools will be out the week of March 5-9 due to the damage. But the school can’t be rebuilt in that time.“We could be out for a couple months — we could be out all year,” senior Logan Chapman said.Junior Miranda Hopper, wearing a Henryville Athletics sweatshirt, said she wanted to cry as she looked at the demolished school.“I’m in such disbelief,” she said. “I can’t take it all in.”“I had 40 math problems to do in geometry, and I didn’t want to do them,” she added. “Now I wish I had them to turn in.”
(03/03/12 2:12am)
After a string of storms Friday afternoon, several southern Indiana towns are working to clean up severe tornado damage. The death toll in the area is now at 12, down from the officially stated 14.
(03/01/12 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Tickets to the IU vs. Michigan State basketball game fanned from Randy Hammond’s hand Tuesday as he wandered Assembly Hall’s parking lot. Hammond, a ticket broker who works for ETA Tickets, stayed close to the stadium’s south entrance, haggling with prospective ticket buyers.Half an hour before tipoff, he still had more tickets than he thought he’d have.“I buy season tickets off people, then sell game by game,” he said. “It’s a lot of work. People don’t realize. You can’t pick and choose games.”The scene outside Assembly Hall changes drastically for bigger games, which more people want to attend. On Feb. 22, when IU played North Carolina Central, four ticket brokers and scalpers waited near the entrance of the stadium. Less than a week later, at the Michigan State game, the number of ticket sellers more than doubled.Hammond didn’t always have to deal with more competition. In Tom Crean’s early years as head coach, tickets weren’t moving as much.This year, however, it’s been harder to get tickets to buy and sell. This year, Crean’s team is winning. This year, everyone wants to go to the games. And more scalpers want in on the profits.At about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, 15 minutes before tipoff, Hammond haggled with three customers.“$350,” Hammond said, holding out three tickets.“I don’t know, it’s getting close to tipoff,” Shane Martin said. He lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth.“$300.”Martin shook his head. “How about $260? $275?”Hammond paused, nodded. He had to get rid of the tickets.Martin took out his wallet, the cigarette hanging from his lips. He counted his bills, then handed the money to Hammond.“You just have to wait ‘til they’re at the price you want,” Martin said, heading into Assembly Hall. “They’re well over face value.”Hammond said he has sold IU basketball tickets since before Crean came on. He said Crean’s first years compared to this season — he held up his left hand, making a circle with his fingers and thumb, then did the same with his right — are like “day and night.”“The only thing good about the first year was some people didn’t realize how much the prices were dropping,” Hammond said.But ticket brokers, people who sell tickets mostly via the phone and online instead of at the stadium, still took a substantial loss in those first years, which Patrick O’Steen, owner of Bloomington-based company Tickets for Less, Inc., said some don’t realize.“We were stuck with several games where we couldn’t sell any tickets,” he said. “So we end up with 30, 40 tickets and lose $2,000 a game.”By buying season tickets, Hammond said, he will get money back out of this season’s biggest five games.“Then the rest is profit,” he said. “The biggest five games of the year will make the starting money back.”O’Steen said his company tries to sell all its tickets via the phone and be out of them by game day, but when he has tickets left, he’ll have someone sell them at the stadium.For the Michigan State game, O’Steen said he had six tickets left to sell, some of them dead center, row 12.“We were trying to get $295 each for them,” he said. “I think we ended up getting $150 each for them.”The closer the game, the more perishable the tickets become, and prices usually go down, O’Steen said. But in instances when there are no tickets on the market, O’Steen said prices can shoot up.“Generally, for most events, especially if it’s a week day, if you don’t care if you go or not, you can save some money,” he said.People buying the tickets think brokers are making a huge profit, but most of the time that’s not the case, O’Steen said. He said he doesn’t get tickets for $35 then sell them for a $300 profit. He usually spends a few hundred dollars per ticket to make a $50 profit, then sells 50 tickets.“They say, ‘How can you charge $250 a ticket?’” he said. “They don’t think about the four years that it took us to make a profit. Like, right now for Purdue, good Purdue tickets, you’re paying a couple hundred a ticket.”O’Steen said as of Wednesday, there were only 20 or 30 tickets for the Purdue game Sunday left on the market.“It can be expensive for the average fan to go on a year like this,” O’Steen said. “But nobody’s going on bad years, and we’re taking kind of a beating.”Five minutes after tipoff Tuesday, the momentum changed. Crowds of people no longer rushed by the scalpers, who still had a few tickets to sell.Though IU’s rankings this season have increased the ticket selling business, the demand hasn’t made Hammond or the other ticket brokers’ job any easier.At 7:10, Hammond wandered off for home, a few tickets still in hand.
(03/01/12 4:05am)
Michael Goering’s farm in Salem, Ind. is a part of a family tradition of making maple syrup.
(03/01/12 12:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Sometime in their youth, the band members of fun. missed their opportunity to experiment with auto-tune and should recognize that it never be used in an album.On their second album, “Some Nights,” fun. tries to fit in every gimmicky sound modifier possible. You can call it artistic, I call it annoying.Lyrics such as “What have we done / Oh my god” in “It Gets Better” make me ask, “What have you done? When is it getting better?” Through the entire song, lead singer Nate Reuss’ voice is auto-tuned to the point where any emotion he might have tried to convey is covered by a robotic effect that competes with the lyrics.On top of that, every song on the album tries to be the next teenage anthem. “We Are Young,” the album’s first single, already won us over as exactly that, but fun. wants to make every song on “Some Nights” meaningfully stand out.It doesn’t work. And what’s left is fun.’s practice album, which should have never made it to shelves.
(02/16/12 3:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Half an hour into “The Vow,” my boyfriend, startled awake and said, “I didn’t even know I was tired.”I wish I could have done the same.“The Vow” was spectacularly bad. What the previews depicted to be a feel-good romance movie turned into a two-hour trailer with each scene feeling more awkward and misplaced than the last. This is not what I was promised.I was promised to see Leo (Channing Tatum) cutely try to make Paige (Rachel McAdams) fall in love with him again after she lost her memory. No — Leo tries maybe twice to regain her love before taking the backseat to the second “plot,” centered around Paige’s relationship with her controlling parents.Instead of giving us any feeling of what it’s like to live in that cliché situation, McAdams barely cracks a facial expression in the entire film. Way to make us feel warm and gooey for Valentine’s Day, Ms. McAdams. After seeing your latest, I wish I had memory loss.
(02/02/12 2:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>What do you do when the other founding member of your band not only drops out, but also reportedly ends your romance?You write a solid, ’80s-esque album more heartfelt than the first — one that still holds all the quirks — and let it all out.Chairlift’s “Something” places the revengeful (“Sidewalk Safari”) next to the sweetly romantic (“Met Before”) all over an airy, techno-pop beat.They’re simple beats that let Caroline Polachek’s voice shine, as it should. Her voice floats over the melodies like a harder, more modern Pat Benatar, making every change from high to low seem effortless. She can go from rhythm and blues emotional in “Cool as a Fire” to quick and breathy in “I Belong in Your Arms.”Nothing on “Something” comes across as especially striking or difficult. There are definitely a few songs I’ll never listen to again, but it does offer a refreshing pop sound that will make other indie bands pay attention.
(01/26/12 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The gray toolbox is filled with Ashley Woodward’s utensils. Black containers of dye look like film canisters in the top section. Brushes and other supplies nearly spill from the bottom.“I’m almost ready for a bigger one,” Woodward says, looking at the box.Her father has the same one for his tools. Woodward’s found a different use: a cake decoration carrier.“Cake decorating isn’t difficult,” Woodward says, “it’s just time consuming and tedious.”Woodward works at Sweet B Design, a Bloomington company that sells photography and custom cake services and doesn’t yet have a storefront. For now, she makes cakes out of the Southern Hills Church of Christ basement kitchen, as well as her own and her parents’ kitchens.Brooke Eads began the company in 2008 and invited Woodward to join as co-owner fewer than two years ago. It’s a side job for Woodward, who also works in the Monroe County Community School Corporation food service.“I’m the lunch lady, hairnet and all,” she says.Woodward’s love of baking started with her grandmother, who used to make all of Woodward’s birthday cakes when she was younger. Now, she uses her grandmother’s recipes in her cake orders, along with those she’s modified from baking books.Woodward doesn’t have a team or an industrial-sized oven. She has to start early, sometimes a month in advance. It’s not like on the reality cake-baking shows, such as "Ace of Cakes" and "Cake Boss," she says.“I got an email the other day asking for a three-dimensional Tim Tebow cake by Sunday,” she says. “What day was it? Thursday? I can’t do that. Some people who watch the cake shows don’t realize the time that goes into it.”Though Woodward says she’s far from cake-show level, she’s picked up a few tricks from watching them, such as using a utensil from a sewing kit — a short-spiked gear with a blue handle — to make her patterned designs look quilted or sewn. She said she knew she needed a similar tool, but after seeing someone use the gear on a show, she went out and found it.Woodward has developed many skills on her own, not from her culinary art classes at Vincennes University or from "Cake Boss." Before she learned to put icing on her cake stand while decorating, to act as glue to hold the cake down, her cakes slid off onto the table.“You learn it the hard way, not in school or on TV,” she says. “And it’s usually last minute.”On Sunday, Jan. 22, Woodward showed off a few of the skills she’s learned by decorating a Styrofoam cake. She started by spreading buttercream icing over the three different-sized layers. Then, she rolled out white fondant, an icing-like substance that is edible but has no flavor. Bakers use it to cover cakes and give them a smoother look.“My next big purchase of equipment is something that will roll the fondant out real thin,” she said. “It’s about $4,000 to $6,000. It pulls it through and rolls it out thinner than you can do by hand.”The machine would make the fondant stretch farther and cut Woodward’s time down considerably — rolling fondant is the most time-consuming part of the process. With the three layers, Woodward spent at least half her decorating time working the fondant.“Ace of Cakes” star Duff Goldman's brand of fondant has buttercream mixed in, and Woodward uses it because it comes in tubs of different colors. It’s easier to roll out and spread, but it also falls apart and gets holes. As Woodward tried to lay green fondant over the top layer, it began to show the buttercream beneath.“That’s OK,” she says. “I’ll just have to put a little more decorating on this layer.”Woodward finished decorating the three layer cake in approximately two hours, using her quilted pattern, tiger stripes and a few sugar-sheet cutouts. She might not have all the tools she needs now, but she’s getting there, and in a few years, she hopes she and Brooke will have the most important tool: a storefront.“If you don’t have any kind of patience or anything like that, it’s not the right thing for you to do,” she says. “I’m usually a pretty patient person.”
(01/26/12 3:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The tragedy of film adaptations is, undoubtedly, something will be lost.In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” the film sacrifices an entire plot line that made Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel more than just a work about 9/11. It also sacrifices the fantastic romanticism Foer wrote into every scene.It’s a movie. It can’t have everything.Some critics forget this. They fault “Extremely Loud” for exploiting our nation’s tragedy and focus on the plot instead of the story’s meaning.Thomas Horn plays Foer’s 9-year-old lead character, Oskar Schell, to a T. He takes on Schell’s simple journey of finding meaning in his father’s death and brings the emotional themes the novel was built on: Everyone has loss, everyone keeps secrets, everyone holds the weight of the world on their shoulders.This story could have been about anything, but it wasn’t. It was about 9/11. So look past that and see the film for what it’s really worth: a damn good child actor and a loss that connects us all.
(01/09/12 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An August graduation threw Chelsea Gill into the real world without a determined acting job, without her twin sister and with family troubles on her mind. It was a hard transition made even more difficult by rooting herself in one of the busiest cities in the nation — Chicago.“To not think about it for, like, an hour every day, I’d watch a Jason Segel movie,” Gill said.Gill loves every part Segel’s played: his lead roles in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man” and “The Muppets,” and even his small role in “Knocked Up.” So Sunday, Jan. 1, she picked up her guitar to distract herself with something else Segel-related.In the matter of half an hour, Gill wrote a song that captured her idol’s attention and scored her a date with a man she’d seen every day but never met.“When I was young, I was told to follow my dreams / no matter how big or obscure they seem,” the song starts. “So here it goes, got a lot to prove / Can’t stop now, nothing to lose.“Have drinks with me / Oh Mr. Segel can’t you see, I’m trying real hard to impress / I think you’re hot, but I digress.”Gill played the song for her roommates, who told her to put it on YouTube. Gill didn’t have an account. She didn’t follow YouTube sensations; she couldn’t even tell you what many of them were. But in less than a week, Gill’s video received nearly 180,000 hits. “From what I assume, he saw it on Twitter,” Gill said. “Over 100 people tweeted it to him, and only 30 of them were my friends.”Segel responded two days after Gill posted it.“My favorite thing, maybe ever. I am in awe. Response on the way,” he tweeted.“I’m gonna need a couple days on this one,” Segel also tweeted.A couple days was all it took. Segel’s publicist contacted Gill, and Saturday, Segel invited her to the Chicago Film Critics Awards that night.“First we went for drinks and talked, and it was me and my sister and him,” Gill said. “Then we went to the award show together. He’s a huge fan of the song.”Gill said she knew Segel’s response was a personal gesture because there were no cameras following them, and everything she thought he would come across as was true. Though Gill never planned on becoming a YouTube hit, she said the craziness surrounding the video has been worth it.“The fact that in less than a week, I met one of my idols, he had a drink with me and took the time out of his crazy, hectic schedule, I’m over the moon right now,” Gill said. “I’m probably the luckiest person in the world.”
(01/06/12 5:42am)
Occupy Bloomington protesters have received a 24-hour extension to
remove their belongings from Peoples Park, said Bloomington Parks and
Recreation Department Director Mick Renneisen. The protesters are still
not allowed to sleep in the park.
(01/05/12 6:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Following the first Bloomington City Council meeting of 2012, Occupy Bloomington protesters waited for a call to come through.Around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, it did. They would not receive 48 hours to vacate Peoples Park; instead, they would only get the original 17 and have to leave the park by noon Thursday.Three hours before the protesters heard from their legal counsel, Bloomington police officers hung eviction notices at the park as occupiers gathered for General Assembly.Signs posted on poles around the park informed the protesters that all personal belongings, tents and other possessions must be removed from the park, and that camping in public parks is a violation of the Bloomington municipal code.An hour later, Occupy Bloomington members convened at the City Council meeting to state their case. People who wished to speak stood in a line from the microphone to the door. City Council Public Comment Rules state that during a regular session, audience members can speak for three minutes on any subject.“After the stakes are out of the ground, they will still be stuck in me and I think in a lot of these people,” one protester said.The nine City Council members present listened, many of them taking notes.“One gentleman spoke in front of GA and asked if anyone could foster his dog,” said Nicole Johnson, her voice breaking, “because he would have to go to the homeless shelter when they took us out of the park tomorrow, and he couldn’t go there with his dog.”“And about New Year’s, I would like to say,” Johnson added. She paused, then let out a sigh. “The Bloomington Police Department waited patiently for our party to end, even tolerating a stellar firework display.”Johnson said somewhere between Fourth Street and Kirkwood Avenue, someone allegedly threw a bottle at a building. A BPD officer arrested Alexander Cookman, 36, for throwing the bottle. Two other crowd members, Joshua Johnson and Brian Milum, were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges.Protesters spoke before and after the City Council business meeting, then met in the City Hall lobby to discuss their next action. One protester said the Occupy legal counsel spoke with a Bloomington city lawyer, who was going to recommend that Mayor Mark Kruzan give the protesters 48 hours to vacate the park. Around 9:30 p.m., the protesters were notified the occupiers that they would not receive an extension.
(01/05/12 6:54pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At noon Thursday, Occupy Bloomington protesters remained in Peoples Park without incident.Only six tents remained standing, with a few people taking them down and placing them in piles at the back of the park.Less than 18 hours earlier, Bloomington Police Department officers pinned eviction notices on posts around Peoples Park informing the occupiers that camping there is in violation of the Bloomington municipal code, and the protestors’ belongings must be removed.Protesters had been living in the park since Oct. 9, 89 days before the eviction.“We’re the longest running occupation,” said Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student.An hour before the park was to be evicted, Flores stood with other protesters, wearing a sign that said, “Where will they go?”The biggest concern for most occupiers was not the group’s next step. Instead, many questioned where Bloomington’s homeless, who came to know Peoples Park as a safe space, would stay for the rest of the winter.“The homeless are victimized,” said CW Poole, a self-identified occupier. “They’re kicked out of the shelters and have no place to go in the middle of winter.”After receiving the eviction notice, protesters convened at City Hall to voice their opinions before nine members of the Bloomington City Council. Protesters in attendance then met in the lobby following the meeting to discuss their next action.One protester told the group about a board at the park where people could write down their concerns. By the time of the City Council meeting, only two had been mentioned: where would the homeless members’ dogs go and what would they do with the military tent.At 11 a.m. Thursday, the military tent was nowhere in sight, removed by a group of people eight hours earlier after a dance party inside the 50-foot-long structure. While most of the tents and belongings had been removed by noon, protesters spent the last hour making signs, playing music and waiting for the inevitable — their departure from the park.But not all protesters thought leaving the park would hurt their cause. Sophomore Peter Oren, a member of Occupy IU, said while some Occupy Bloomington’s members did create working groups to protest outside of Peoples Park, the group’s reliance on occupying the space gave them a bad image.“The point of occupying is it’s a tactic to draw attention to the issue,” said sophomore Nick Greven, also a member of Occupy IU. “I’ve already heard people talking about having ‘General Assembly’ elsewhere.”Greven said he agreed with Oren that it was time to move on with other ways to spread the message.“It’s forcing us to evolve,” Oren said.— Bailey Loosemore
(01/05/12 12:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At noon Thursday, Occupy Bloomington protesters remained in Peoples Park without incident.Only six tents remained standing, with a few people taking them down and placing them in piles at the back of the park.
Less than 18 hours earlier, Bloomington Police Department officers
pinned eviction notices on posts around Peoples Park informing the
occupiers that camping there is in violation of the Bloomington
municipal code, and the protestors’ belongings must be removed.
Protesters had been living in the park since Oct. 9, 89 days before the eviction.“We’re the longest running occupation,” said Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student.An hour before the park was to be evicted, Flores stood with other protesters, wearing a sign that said, “Where will they go?”
The biggest concern for most occupiers was not the group’s next step.
Instead, many questioned where Bloomington’s homeless, who came to know
Peoples Park as a safe space, would stay for the rest of the winter.“The
homeless are victimized,” said CW Poole, a self-identified occupier.
“They’re kicked out of the shelters and have no place to go in the
middle of winter.”
After receiving the notice, protesters convened at City Hall to
voice their opinions before nine members of the Bloomington City
Council. Protesters in attendance then met in the lobby following the
meeting to discuss their next action.
One protester told the group about a board at the park where people
could write down their concerns. By the time of the City Council
meeting, only two had been mentioned: where would the homeless members’
dogs go and what would they do with the military tent.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, the military tent was nowhere in sight, removed by a
group of people eight hours earlier after a dance party inside the
50-foot-long structure. While most of the tents and belongings had been
removed by noon, protesters spent the last hour making signs, playing
music and waiting for the inevitable — their departure from the park.
But not all protesters thought leaving the park would hurt their cause.
Sophomore Peter Oren, a member of Occupy IU, said while some Occupy
Bloomington’s members did create working groups to protest outside of
Peoples Park, the group’s reliance on occupying the space gave them a
bad image.
“The point of occupying is it’s a tactic to draw attention to the
issue,” said sophomore Nick Greven, also a member of Occupy IU. “I’ve
already heard people talking about having ‘General Assembly’ elsewhere.”Greven said he agreed with Oren that it was time to move on with other ways to spread the message.
“It’s forcing us to evolve,” Oren said.— Bailey Loosemore
(01/01/12 8:28pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three Occupy Bloomington protesters were arrested during a New Year’s Eve march around the courthouse building downtown.Bloomington Police Department Lt. Faron Lake said officers received a complaint around 11 p.m. Dec. 31 of protesters walking up and down Kirkwood. “They were doing their chanting and normal protesting that they’ve done,” Lake said. On two different occasions, the protesters stopped in the roadway, blocking traffic, Lake said, and after officers arrived, they saw one protester throw a bottle at a building near the corner of 6th and College. The bottle-thrower, Alexander Cookman, 26, had also stepped on a squad car at one point, Lake said, and was arrested for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting law enforcement and public intoxication. As an officer arrested Cookman, Lake said other responding officers attempted to disperse the rowdy crowd. One protester, Joshua Johnson, 36, yelled, “Get out of the way, asshole,” at an officer before pushing him and running off, Lake said. Two officers chased after Johnson, tackled him in the roadway and arrested him for obstructing traffic, battery on a police officer, criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct, according to police reports. A third protester, Brian Milum, 25, was arrested for disorderly conduct after an officer told him to stop arguing and Milum refused, Lake said.
(12/12/11 6:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Silence.In the last five seconds of the IU vs. Kentucky game Dec. 10, the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street was empty save for a few fans scanning the TVs at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood as they passed.One girl watched through the bar’s side window from atop a guy’s shoulders. Not a word was spoken. Not a cheer was heard as the two waited for the play that would bring tears of victory or defeat.Then, a muffled cry. Slow-motion drinks flying through the air. Two people running out the bar’s side door, their cheers filling the silent street.The Hoosiers did the impossible. They beat the No. 1 team in the nation. Celebration couldn’t begin to describe what took place next.“This is the resurgence of Indiana basketball,” IU fan Zac Muller said, wearing a Santa hat and red Indiana sweatshirt. “This is Indiana, rising like a burning phoenix out of the ashes and stomping on UK really hard.“This whole time, the only thing we had to cling to was Tom Crean bringing this program out of the crater that we were in and out of the ashes,” he added. “And he rocked the house, man.”IU and Bloomington police were prepared for the celebration at Kirkwood.“We expected and hoped we’d win the game,” IUPD Chief Keith Cash said. “We anticipated there would be spontaneous gatherings.”Neither department made any arrests, but they set up extra patrols at the Showalter Fountain and at Kirkwood.Zac Smith was working upstairs at Nick’s English Hut when the bar exploded in cheers. He had been there for the 2002 win against then-No. 1 Duke and said he hadn’t seen a reaction as big until Dec. 10.“Are you kidding me? It was awesome,” he said. “I thought the building was going to shake down.”Nick’s usually has a full staff for every home game, and the night of Dec. 10 was no exception. There was extra beer, extra everything, Smith said.“It was business as usual for us,” he said.Dylan Swift, a Nick’s employee and former IU baseball player, was in the kitchen downstairs by the main bar.“The first thing was everybody started jumping, all in unison from the main bar to the back room to the kitchen,” he said. “You couldn’t control it.”Swift said he tried to keep working, but it was impossible. People weren’t ordering, anyway. For the next 20 or 25 minutes, Swift said no orders were placed.“I don’t think I got to leave till 3 or 3:30 a.m.,” he said. “I usually get off at 1 a.m. It was unreal. I’ve never seen Nick’s so dirty with beer on the floor. We were cooking food until the last minute when we had to shut down. Officially, we were closed, but on a night like last night, you couldn’t get all the people out.”In the first 15 minutes following the game, groups of people came from all directions, gathering outside Kilroy’s. The rush followed a little later as the fans from Assembly Hall converged on the area.“People are gonna get in the streets soon,” one fan said to his friend. “I can feel it. The streets is gonna happen.”It started with short-lived mobbing in the intersection, groups running into the middle of the street from the four corners of Dunn and Kirkwood, jumping around, then running back to different corners.Two men carried around two other fans on their shoulders, circling the intersection between mobs. Then, people began spilling into the street, standing to the side as a few fans directed traffic through.But when the song “This is Indiana” began playing out of windows in The Rubicon apartments, fans streamed to the sound, the streets no longer safe for car travel. Police blocked Kirkwood intersections at Indiana Avenue and Grant Street. Swift went to the Nick’s roof with his phone camera.“We got pictures of all the people dancing,” he said. “One of our co-workers had her car parked out front, and she had to go outside and stop people from flipping it over.”It was a silver Infiniti SUV parked across from Nick’s. It had already been trampled — its roof caved in, hood scuffed with shoe marks, windshield cracked. About an hour into the celebration, the crowd wanted to see it flipped.“Flip that car, flip that car, flip that car,” they chanted as people made a half-circle around the SUV.Three fans did as requested. They bent next to the front of the car and started pushing its side, rocking it back and forth before a girl ran up and yelled, “Stop!”She distracted them for a minute before they began again. After the second attempt, another girl came out of the crowd.Bloomington Police Lt. Faron Lake was one of the officers who responded to Kirkwood following the win. It took the police some time to clear the area, Lake said, but there were no major problems while he was there.“We had the music shut off to disperse the crowd and removed people from the top of vehicles,” Lake said. “Then we had the vehicles leave the area.”Bloomington Police Sgt. Shane Rasche said there were no mass arrests as a result of the celebration.Crystal Orly, a Nick’s employee, had no idea what was happening. She thought the screaming and chanting outside was in celebration; she didn’t realize her car had been destroyed.“I got out there and realized that my car was being rocked back and forth, and apparently people had been standing on the front of my car before I got out there,” she said. “I had to prove to the individuals that it was my vehicle so they wouldn’t topple it over. And people were booing me because they were so caught up in the vandalism.”Orly stood in front of her car before a police officer approached her and asked her to move it. The Infiniti groaned to a start then hissed as Orly backed it through the crowd. In front of her, a fan in a red sweatshirt motioned for her to back up.“My first thought was to calm people and let them know there is a person behind this vandalism being affected by all of this,” Orly said. “It kind of blew my mind that I had to prove that it was my vehicle before they would stop.”Max McCombs, Jake New and Michael Auslen contributed to this report.
(12/11/11 5:39am)
An IU fan does a "Tebow" pose in the intersection of Kirkwood and Grant after IU's win against no. 1 ranked University of Kentucky on Saturday.
(12/11/11 5:35am)
Officers of the Bloomington Police Department watch as IU fans celebrate on Kirkwood avenue after the Hoosiers' 73-72 win against no. 1 ranked University of Kentucky on Saturday.