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(07/26/01 3:56am)
The city's parks department put a rest to talk of closing Mills Pool Tuesday.\nIn June, city officials floated the idea of shutting down the westside pool and replacing it with a sprayground facility. But the suggestion rankled many community members and city councilmen, who just approved a $6 million allocation to the parks department in the city's 2002 budget.\nMany even see it as a class issue. Some have suggested the city would never dream of closing the popular Bryan Park Pool on the wealthy south side of town.\nAt the Bloomington Parks Commission's monthly meeting late Tuesday afternoon, department officials ended concern about the pool's future. \n"We are not going to close Mills Pool," commission president Les Coyne said. "That's just not going to happen."\nParks officials are now focusing on renovating the pool. Parks Director Mick Renneisen said he's been trying to get an estimate on how much it would cost to repair the pool's large, expensive leak. Renneisen said he's had no luck to date.\nJohn Turnbull, the department's sports director, said in any event Mills Pool would receive $400,000 of the $6 million bond issued for renovations to city parks and amenities. Turnbull threw out the idea of adding a water playground on the shallow end of the pool. \nAnother option, Turnbull said, would be to add a separate sprayground feature on the pool's current site. It would involve a sprinkler park on a rubberized surface somewhere on pool grounds.\n"We talked about spraygrounds because they have been popular in other places," he said. "We want to increase participation in the facility."\nThe city will put off work on Mills Pool until 2003, Turnbull said. He encourages feedback from the public, noting that concerned citizens have nearly a year to discuss and comment on plans for the facility.\nMeanwhile, the parks commission voted unanimously to approve $1.1 million in improvements for Bryan Park Pool. The city plans to add more shade and two new slides.\nWith the commission's approval, the parks department can now seek a conceptual design. If the city receives an acceptable bid, Turnbull said work should begin as soon as October.\nThe parks department plans on using the lion's share of the bond on pedestrian walkways and bicycles paths. It also hopes to build a new 15,000-square foot skateboard park in Cascades Park.
(07/16/01 1:44am)
The city has dashed a controversial plan to outsource a vacant managerial position in the wastewater department to a private company. The move was welcomed by city employees, who had decried the plan.\nIn January, the city solicited proposals from private firms to oversee operations at the city's two sewage treatment plants, which treat about 15 million gallons of water a day. City officials, who thought such an arrangement might save money and increase efficiency, said it was only one option they were investigating.\nBut it hit a nerve and elicited a firestorm of criticism from wastewater employees and liberal critics, who didn't take kindly to the idea of "privatizing" a public resource. They attended public forums on the subject in droves, raising the question of whether an outsourced manager would be accountable to rate payers.\n"We really appreciated the public's involvement during the process and would like to thank all those involved for their interest and dedication to exploring different options," said Utilities Director Mike Philips. "After going through the process I feel we've made the best decision."\nThe city announced Friday it would hire a manager as a public employee, likely from within the existing pool of wastewater employees. The city's employees services department has been accepting applications for the plant manager position since June 14.\nThe deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Monday.\n"We'll make the determination if we have to broaden the search," Philips said. "But we expect to hire from within."\nThe utilities department had reviewed proposals from Environmental Management Corp. of St. Louis, United Water Company of New Jersey, Bynum Fanyo & Associates of Bloomington and utilities employees on how to best manage the sewage treatment plants. The average annual fee stood in the $100,000 range, and the companies touted long-term savings in the millions.\n"It's in the city's best interests to continuously explore ways of improving operations and providing higher quality services," Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez said. "Throughout the process everyone has been open to the idea of looking at ways to do things better. It was a good process in terms of opening up possibilities and we gained valuable information we can use to the benefit of rate payers."\nFernandez said the city plans to work toward a collaborative labor/management model to run the Dillman and Blucher Poole facilities. Few details have been worked out.\n"We're talking about a very important public entity," Philips said. "We don't have a timetable yet, but we just want to do the best job we can"
(07/12/01 1:57am)
Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez plans to invest $1.2 million into the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, a downtown landmark that has long been financially beleaguered. Under his proposal, the city would pay off the theater's debt and effectively own it after a three-year period.\nFernandez said he has the backing of the city council, which is now threshing out the 2002 budget. Half the funding would come from the city's general fund, while about $600,000 would be drawn from property taxes in the downtown area.\n"While there are varying opinions on this subsidy, we recognize a very important facility that has done many positive things for our community," Fernandez said. "The alternative is a large, boarded-up building half a block from our downtown. It's a vibrant center of our community, and this is no different than the government funding public parks."\nAgreement is near on a public-private partnership to run the performing arts facility, which is now run by the Bloomington Area Arts Council. The Steak 'n Shake restaurant company, which is taking advantage of tax credits, owns roughly 99 percent of the recently renovated theater on paper. \nThe partnership would involve the city, the Lotus Education and Arts Foundation, the Monroe County Visitors Bureau and the arts council. Burdened by $1.2 million in debt, the arts council has been operating the theater on a volunteer basis for months.\nAfter it opened its college mall location, the Kerasotes movie chain donated the theater to the arts council on the condition that it not screen films. Formerly a locally owned movie theater, Kerasotes had snapped it up in 1976.\nThe not-for-profit council embarked on a $3.2 million renovation project, restoring a balcony and making other interior improvements. With major donor support, the arts council paid off $2 million. But the stream of donations dried up.\nThe project ended up threatening the arts council's major facility, the downtown John Waldron Arts Center. Fernandez appointed a commission to straighten out the situation.\nIt recommended taking the theater's management out of the hands of the arts council and creating a public-private partnership. Fernandez said his office has a long way to go before completing the arrangement.\nUnder the loose sketch of a plan, the visitors bureau would open a visitor center in the former box office and art gallery adjacent to the Buskirk-Chumley.\nThe Lotus group would manage the theater for three years, after which ownership would revert to the city. Fernandez, who doesn't plan on running for reelection, said he hopes the next administration will seek an outside agency to run the theater.\nThe plan will likely draw criticism from conservative circles, who denounced the $100,000 loan the city made to the council last year. They argued that it's a waste of taxpayer dollars and the government has no business meddling with the free market.\nFernandez looks at it more like an investment.\n"The arts are an important part of this economy," he said. "A study the tourism center did in 1996 found that the arts bring in $20 million each year, which I would call a solid return. This is a solid investment that supports our local cultural economy -- and it also enriches lives"
(07/12/01 1:56am)
At their arraignment Monday, the 16 protesters charged with trespassing at Brown's Woods pleaded innocent and asked for jury trials.\nSeveral of them occupied trees in the hope of ending plans to build an apartment complex on the privately owned woodland just east of Ind. 37. The Indianapolis-based developer, Herman and Associates, intends to start construction on the publicly subsidized affordable housing project later this month.\nAn early morning raid Friday spearheaded by Monroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp resulted in the arrests. The 50-acre parcel, which the activists said is too environmentally sensitive for a high-density development, is now guarded around the clock by a private security firm.\n"It is not a crime to protect your community from greedy individuals, just as it is not a crime to defend your home from an invader," said senior Matt Turissini. "Bloomington is our home."\nEarly Saturday morning, Turissini and five others chained themselves arm-to-arm to sewer grates on either side of the street past the police line on Basswood Drive, which leads up to the woodland. They were all arrested and charged with trespassing, a class A misdemeanor that can carry up to a year in jail.\nLucille Bertuccio, a 65-year-old who tried to cross police lines in spite of repeated warnings, was charged with resisting arrest as well as criminal trespass. Many faced initial charges of resisting arrest, which Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzman dropped.\n"It's the standard of this office to drop the charge unless someone forcibly resists arrest," he said. "They were all passive, so it doesn't apply."\nSalzman said it's highly unusual to ask for a jury trial for a misdemeanor charge.\n"They want to clog up the system," he said. "They just want to make this as public and drawn out as possible."\nAbout 50 people gathered outside of the Justice Building Monday to peacefully demonstrate. They chanted, marched around the courthouse and bore cardboard placards urging that the charges be dropped. They've dubbed the group "The Bluebird 16."\nThe crowd included Frank Ambrose, who allegedly drove 10-inch nails into trees at the Morgan-Monroe State Forest last June to prevent logging on public land. Ambrose, a once-prominent local activist who's since moved to Detroit, said he attended the arraignment to provide moral support.\nSeveral demonstrators tried to sit in for the hearing, which lasted three hours and processed all defendants charged with offenses over the weekend. The courtroom only seats 50, and many milled outside a closed door. A few county employees in adjoining offices facetiously sprayed air-freshener in the protesters' general direction. \nMarc Haggerty, a longtime activist who has been working on a documentary on the protest, was the first charged with trespassing to be arraigned. He said he was acting as a journalist when he was arrested.\nDeputies wrestled Haggerty to the ground Friday when he refused to turn over his camera and leave the property, Sharp said. Haggerty's camera was smashed in the process -- along with a tape containing two hours of interviews and footage of the raid.\nHaggerty, a volunteer at WFHB Community Radio, said in a later interview that he planned to show his finished work on community-access television.\n"I'm an independent filmmaker," Haggerty said. "I have the same First Amendment rights as anyone else. I didn't see the corporate media roughed up."\nSharp has offered to pay for the camera but told Haggerty that the tape has been lost. Haggerty said he is looking into pursuing legal recourse against the arresting officers.\nHaggerty and the other 15 defendants told Brown they intend to represent themselves in court.\nThey admit to breaking the law but plan on making the case to a jury that it was justifiable.\nIndiana's constitution allows legal defense on such grounds, Salzman said.\n"We're one of the few states to allow jury nullification," he said. "Of course, it very rarely comes up"
(07/09/01 2:02am)
A parched Michael Englert descended 80 feet from a red oak in Brown's Woods late Saturday afternoon, ending a two-day standoff with the police. After giving him some fruit and a water bottle to slake his thirst, sheriff's deputies arrested him on charges of trespassing and resisting arrest. \nEnglert, one of 16 activists arrested over the weekend, had occupied the tree in the hope of ending plans to build an apartment complex on the privately owned woodland just east of Ind. 37. The Indianapolis-based developer, Herman and Associates, intends to start construction on the publicly subsidized affordable housing project later this month.\nThe 30-year-old environmental activist, who had identified himself only as "Moss" to reporters, withstood an early morning raid on the hilly 50-acre parcel Friday. Englert spent more than 24 hours dangling from mountaineering ropes atop the oak -- with no water and little food.\nMonroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp commandeered about 30 deputies and state troopers to clear out the development site, which activists say is too environmentally sensitive for high-density housing. Sharp launched the raid at 5 a.m. Friday, using borrowed heavy earth-moving equipment.\nConstruction workers hired by Herman and Associates cleared the way to the tree-sitters with a bulldozer, tearing down dozens of trees. Officers then used a scissors-like hydraulic lift to reach the demonstrators.\nWhen sheriff's deputies attempted to apprehend Englert, he scampered about 20 feet further up the tree with the help of retaining ropes. They soon abandoned the effort to arrest him.\n"We don't want to risk injury to anyone," Sharp said Friday. "We're not going to force him down -- he'll have to come down at some point, and we're just focusing on running a safe operation."\nBut Sharp took precautions to ensure that Englert wouldn't remain on the privately owned property. Aided by deputies, construction workers used chainsaws to send his platform crashing down to earth in a shower of gallon water jugs and shreds of blue tarp.\nOfficers discovered a total of five platforms in the thickly wooded area and ended up arresting three other demonstrators stationed in trees. Liam Mulholland, a 19-year-old Indianapolis resident, attempted to evade deputies by sliding along ropes to an adjacent tree.\nThey forcibly removed Mulholland from his perch, hauling him off to jail on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and resisting law enforcement. Fellow tree-sitters Ruth Hanford, 22, and Steven Chadwick, 20, cooperated peaceably with arresting officers, State Trooper Jackie Taylor said.\nWhile the deputies were arresting the tree-sitters, about a dozen troopers kept an eye on a small crowd of about 35 protesters who had gathered on Basswood Avenue just outside of Brown's Woods. They arrested Marc Haggerty early in the morning when he refused to leave the woods and turn over his video camera. \nThey wrestled the 52-year-old Bloomington resident to the ground and led him in handcuffs to a waiting paddy wagon. Haggerty later said he had been working on a documentary and didn't plan on being arrested.\nOfficers also dragged away 65-year-old Lucille Bertuccio after she tried to break past the line in spite of repeated warnings. Both were released on their own recognizance immediately after they were booked at the Monroe County Correctional Center.\n"They're likely looking mostly at fines, even with the resisting arrest charges," Sharp said of the eight arrests Friday. "They'll only be in serious trouble if they're violating probation."\nMegan Hise, 20, and Hannah Jones, 22, snuck into the densely wooded area later that morning and locked themselves to the tree Englert occupied with plastic pipes and handcuffs. It took deputies more than half an hour to free them with hacksaws and bolt cutters.\nLike all of the others, they were released later that day on their own recognizance.\nSharp ordered his men out at about 1 p.m. in the afternoon, turning it over to a private security firm hired by the developer. The security team, which employs many off-duty sheriff's deputies, took 36-year-old Brown County resident Jennifer Weiss into custody for trespassing later that afternoon.\nThey stayed overnight and kept watch over Englert, who said he was hoping that rainwater would allow him to hold out for a few days. \nEarly Saturday morning, five men and a woman chained themselves arm-to-arm to sewer grates on either side of the street just past the police line on Basswood Avenue. It took the police more than an hour to free the prone protesters, who were all arrested along with bystander Amanda Skinner.\nMatthew Berghs, Shane Becker, Marie Mason, Jared MacKinnon and Normand Turcotte of Toronto, Ontario all posted $500 bond and were released Saturday afternoon. Matthew Turissini, who had no previous criminal record, was released on his own recognizance. \nProperty owner Bill Brown, who will sign over the land to the developer sometime this week, said he was glad that no one has been hurt. He's also glad to finally have the demonstrators out of his hair.\n"They're breaking the law," he said. "We only ask that they leave peacefully."\nWhile no environmental activists are keeping vigil in the woodland any longer, they vow to keep fighting a battle they've waged for more than three months. \n"Many of us are still going to be involved and do what we can to stop this from happening," Englert said. "I won't be going back to the site though -- it's my first arrest. But I don't regret it."\nFor Englert, it's a battle against sprawl threatening to encroach on Bloomington's small-town way of life and rural character.\n"We need to focus more attention on protecting these areas of green space in our county," he said. "Yes, there are parks -- but the natural green space has been disappearing."\nCounty Commissioner Brian O'Neill said the environmental activists -- with whom he sympathizes -- came into the process too late to make a difference. \n"It requires commitment to apply pressure on public bodies at the appropriate times so you don't run into futility like they have," he said. "But I think something positive might come of this -- it's important to address these issues in the planning stages.\n"You really need to focus on the overall zoning plan," he said. "You can't stop irresponsible developments on a petition-by-petition basis. All they legally have to do is meet the minimum requirements."\nO'Neill proposes a complete environmental inventory of Monroe County, which he admits will be costly. He recently applied for a $5,000 federal grant that will allow the county to assess the environmental and economic impact of local development.\nO'Neill noted that the land in question has been zoned for residential housing for nearly three decades. And it's only been a heated point of debate for the past few months.
(07/09/01 1:29am)
After months of setbacks, Menards cleared the last hurdle to putting up a superstore at the Ind. 37 Bypass at Fullerton Pike Thursday. The Monroe County Board of Zoning Appeals took only about 15 minutes to approve Menards' plan to reduce the size of its parking lot from 800 spaces down to 406.\nProject attorney Gary Clendening said construction should start later this month. The 161,000-square-foot home improvement store could be open as early as December.\nThe five-member board unanimously approved Menards' zoning variance petition without debate. Project engineer Steve Smith of local firm Smith & Neubecker won over skeptics by announcing that the home supplies chain planned to dedicate another 1 1/2 acres on the site to green space.\nMenards had already planned to leave 13 acres of green space untouched. It requested the zoning variance to leave 1 1/2 acres open for another light industrial development.\nAnd company officials said 406 spaces would be enough to serve the store's customers.\n"It's a number based on a lot of sites in a lot of towns," Smith said during his presentation to the board.\nConcerns over lot size and potential parking spillover held the development up several months. Most recently, board member John Irvine requested a delay so he could hand count the number of parking spaces at Wal-Mart and Lowes, a Menards competitor.\nWhen Menards first proposed cutting the size of its parking lot in half, board members alleged it misled the Monroe County Plan Commission, which had already given preliminary approval to the project. In keeping with zoning ordinances, Menards originally proposed constructing 800 parking spaces.\nIrvine and fellow board member Carol Wise refused to vote for the variance if Menards didn't pledge to dedicate more green space on the site. Menards, which had planned to lease out the entire three acres, then asked for more time to rework its proposal.\nBut it then ran afoul of Bloomington Utilities officials, who initially refused to grant Menards an extension of city water and sewer lines on the grounds that the project constituted "leapfrog development." In May, Menards officials cut a deal with the city in which they would foot the bill for the line extensions. They also agreed to set aside part of the site for a water storage tank to service the southwest side of town.\nThe zoning variance then came up before the board during a June meeting, at which Irvine asked for another month-long delay. But Irvine, who had been one of Menards' harshest critics, cast the deciding vote for final approval of the project at a contentious plan commission meeting just two weeks later.\nCritics expressed the concern that the project would cause traffic congestion on the burgeoning West side of town. They also questioned whether a big-box home improvement store could really be considered light industrial, which is how the site is zoned.\nBut no such voices of dissent were heard at Thursday's meeting.\nWise asked Smith if an existing row of trees at the site would be preserved on the additional green space. Smith said it would. Wise then asked if the area would be maintained.\n"It's going to be mowed, I'd imagine," Smith said. "It's just right off the sidewalk. It would look unkempt if it were allowed to grow wild."\nIrvine stepped in and asked if Smith knew what the mix of trees would be at the site.\n"As far as I know, they're all poplars," he said.\nNo one had further questions or comment, and the petition came to a vote.\n"I'd like to thank you gentlemen," Board President Matt Dillion said after the variance was approved. "I know it's been a struggle."\nBud Burnitt, real estate agent for property owner Bill Brown, expressed relief after the uncharacteristically short meeting.\n"We're very pleased with the site," he said. "We're creating 200 new jobs, preserving green space and bringing in a good quality company"
(07/02/01 2:13am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Frank O'Bannon announced Thursday a moratorium on grants from the Build Indiana Fund, which lawmakers use for capital projects in their districts.\nCreated in 1989 to hold down local property taxes, the fund taps into gambling and lottery revenues to pay for town halls, fire trucks, sewers and other projects. It's recently come under fire for alleged misuse.\nThe Indianapolis Star published an investigative report last week alleging that state money has been funneled into projects that might not exist or have close ties to legislators. In one instance, the funds were allegedly used to pay for a trip to Georgia. The Star also reports that at least $40 million distributed by legislators went to nonprofit groups in violation of state law.\nThe report follows a lawsuit the Indiana Civil Liberties Union filed in May. The watchdog group alleges that hundreds of thousands of dollars from the fund have been sent to churches and private schools in violation of Indiana's constitution.\nMarion County Prosecutor Scott Newman, who has jurisdiction over the state capitol, said he intends to investigate the allegations. While the Governor said he supports Newman's investigation, he launched his own.\n"When the Governor sees a problem, he acts on it," said O'Bannon spokeswoman Mary Dieter. "He wants to make sure the process works."\nO'Bannon ordered the State Budget Office to review how the funds are spent, asking for a report by July 30. The Star reported there is little oversight of the distribution of the grants.\nThe 1989 statute that created the fund established a committee to review grant requests, but it hasn't actually met for years. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, blamed that on O'Bannon, who is supposed to appoint a majority of the panel's members.\nThe State Budget Office can only act in an advisory capacity, Director Betty Cockrum said. It's up to lawmakers to reach a final verdict on the fund. But she downplays the severity of the allegations being floated around.\n"Every budget passed has the weight of law," she said. "Any appropriation supercedes any previous laws."\nThe budget went into effect Sunday, and the hold on spending has left many local grant recipients reeling. Jonathon Coke, General Manager of WFHB, said he was disappointed by the governor's decision.\nThe community radio station had hoped to use a Build Indiana Fund grant to expand its signal to the Ellettsville and Nashville areas. The station had also planned to use some of the $54,000 to renovate its downtown facility. \nCoke and many other volunteer station members spent the spring lobbying local lawmakers for what they call much-needed funding.\nDuring the two-year budget process, each lawmaker gets a share of the annual outlay and decides how to distribute it in his or her district. The budget approved in April allots $74 million -- up to $900,000 in some districts.\nLawmakers have distributed more than $420 million from the fund in its 11-year lifespan. State law already requires applicants to outline costs and explain the need for the project.\nWhile lawmakers defend the fund as a boon to many communities, there are already rumblings for reform in the next session. \nSenate Majority Leader Robert Garton, R-Columbus, has appointed a bipartisan task force to review Build Indiana Fund appropriations in the 2001-2002 state budget. House Speaker John Gregg, D-Sandborn, and Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, have called for stricter guidelines.\n"The program is good," Gregg said in a letter to the State Budget Agency. "But obviously, there are some questions about accountability"
(07/02/01 1:40am)
New York Gov. George Pataki last week signed into law a ban on talking into hand-held cell phones while driving. It passed the state legislature with overwhelming bipartisan approval, and a poll shows 87 percent of New Yorkers back the legislation. Next on the agenda: a ban on singing along with the radio.\nIt's really quite absurd. The data simply do not support the theory that talking on a cell phone impairs one's ability to safely maneuver a couple of tons of steel through the streets. A recent AAA study, which looked at more than 32,000 traffic accidents between 1995 and 1999, found that cell phone use accounted for only 1.5 percent of distraction-related accidents. By comparison, fiddling with the radio dial caused 11.4 percent of said accidents.\nHell, adjusting the air conditioning brought about roughly twice as many.\nWhy stop with cell phones? Why not ban smoking in the car? Or drinking coffee? Or putting on makeup? Or talking to the person in the passenger seat?\nWhy not ban eating take-out fast food during rush hour? Why stop with a ticket and a $100 fine? Why not raise it to a class D felony if the perpetrator is caught with extra ketchup packets?\nMoreover, the ban in question boasts fewer teeth than an Appalachian hilljack -- it doesn't actually ban talking on a cell phone while behind the wheel. Under the new law, it's perfectly acceptable to talk over a speakerphone or through a headset. Considering that most cell phone manufacturers long ago branched out into accessories, I'm sure New York's public servants had a rough time selling this to the lobbyists.\nIt seems fairly obvious that the distraction lies in carrying on a conversation while trying to navigate the roads. So in effect, this legislation only requires that one keep both hands on the wheel. \nI suppose it won't be long before the police will be able to pull you over for slouching in your seat. Really, mandatory seatbelt use is bad enough. Requiring someone to wear a seatbelt is basically like criminalizing suicide. Think about it.\nOf course, New York's legislature shouldn't necessarily shoulder all of the blame -- its hands were tied. Earlier this year, several counties established their own bans on handheld cell phones, leading to confusion over a patchwork of laws. \nAnd the political will existed for such legislation, even though it'll have a negligible effect on traffic safety. It just seems to be one of those senseless yet politically popular ideas -- like the flag-burning amendment that comes up in Congress whenever enough lawmakers have grown weary of the people's business.\nAnd its popularity is understandable. Most of us dislike the cell phone set, even if we ourselves yammer on the accursed things all the time. After all, the phenomenon has reached plague-like proportions, bringing out the curmudgeon in all of us.\nAnd don't get me wrong -- I'm as curmudgeonly as anyone. It wouldn't take long to sell me on a mandatory life sentence for anyone who neglects to shut off his cell phone while in a movie theater or at a restaurant.\nWhen I see a slickly dressed urban professional in Chicago or San Francisco yapping away in a sushi bar over a Heineken, I have no trouble accepting that. While he doubtlessly uses it mostly for inane chatter, at least he appears to have some legitimate reason to own one in the first place.\nOstensibly, his job requires working out of the office and keeping abreast with the latest developments -- whether financial or with some client. Plus, he lives in a major metropolitan area where the pace of life rivals a stock car race.\nBut nowadays I constantly pass by vacuous blond bimbos with cell phones plastered on their ears while they walk to class. My first thought on such an occasion is that she's probably not even gainfully employed. \n"And like, we were with Todd… And like, we got soooo trashed… So then Dan starts giving us all this crap… And I was like, 'yeah.'"\nThen I realize that she has no marketable job skills whatsoever -- she can't even speak English. So since when did these bleached-out halter-top morons become so important that they need to be immediately reached at any time, day or night? After all, these are the geniuses that keep tanning salons open in the summer.\nOne would assume that idea is to snuff out any sort of intelligent thought that would normally occur over the course of a five-minute walk. Or maybe it's just conceit or social status.\nIt certainly isn't anything pragmatic. It would be hard to imagine such an individual even finding work as a waitress—after all, that requires communication.
(07/02/01 1:25am)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" staggers the imagination. It prods the viewer to consider the big questions of human nature and mortality. It possesses a sweeping vision and a provocative intelligence.\nIt's certainly a flawed film, if only because its reach exceeds its grasp. "A.I" is a transcendent triumph of originality -- the most ambitious big-studio production made since "Apocalypse Now."\nThe seeds for "A.I" were sown decades ago when the late director Stanley Kubrick came across Brian Aldiss' plaintive short story "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long." He developed the material for a cinematic adaptation but lacked the technology to steer his vision onto the silver screen. \nIt wasn't until he saw Steven Spielberg's "Jurassic Park" in 1993 that he realized the film might be possible. He started a correspondence with Spielberg soon after, initially concerning the logistics of such an undertaking. Before he died, he passed the project onto Spielberg, suggesting that it was closer to his sensibilities.\nStylistically and philosophically, they seem like an odd couple. Kubrick's work is cold and analytical, often misanthropic -- in "Dr. Strangelove," he tosses out the thermonuclear annihilation of the human race as a joke.\nBy contrast, Spielberg is known for being warm and gooey, a master of emotional manipulation. \nKubrick made icy films perfectly composed from highly literate screenplays, whereas Spielberg pictures have always been big and affirmative.\nRemarkably though, Spielberg adheres closely to what one can only assume Kubrick intended. Nearly every frame of the film pays homage to the late master -- he recreates Kubrick's detached style with every perfectly enunciated syllable and every glossy surface. \n"A.I." is set in a future in which the greenhouse effect has suntanned millions to death and left coastal cities like New York and Venice submerged in the ocean. To conserve the finite resources available, humans have come to rely on robots or "mechas" to provide for many of their daily needs -- they tend to everything from nannying to prostitution.\nThe government has also implemented a system of population control which bans breeding without permission. Professor Hobby (William Hurt) of Cybertronics of New Jersey sees a market opportunity -- robot children capable of unending love for their parents.\nWithin two years, he's produced a prototype. He selects a family in the company to test the model. Grieving over a terminally ill son in cryogenic slumber, Monica (Frances O'Connor) immediately takes kindly to David (Haley Joel Osment) despite his awkward mannerisms and artificial complements.\nSoon, Monica decides to imprint herself on him -- meaning that he'll be unendingly affectionate toward her. He soon develops a creepy stalker-like obsession.\nStill, one can't help but to be sympathetic toward David -- his feeling is genuine but he lacks the frame of reference to express it in a normal way. In one of the film's many surreal moments, he breaks out into a shrill, forced burst of laughter at the dinner table.\nHis love for Monica -- whom he refers to as Mommy in one of the more heart-wrenching scenes -- presents the film's central philosophical thrust. David thinks he loves her and acts as if he loves her -- so does it matter if that's just his programming?\nAren't we all programmed in such a way by biological imperatives? Isn't coupling at bottom just a means to perpetuate our genetic code? Isn't filial affection just a means to preserve our offspring?\nIsn't "love" simply hard-wired to our subconscious mind?\nOnce Monica's real son is cured by a miracle of modern science, he soon grows resentful of David's presence. The situation reaches such a boiling point that Monica has to get rid of the porcelain child.\nShe can't bring herself to return him to the plant, where he'll be deactivated. So she instead leaves him in the woods to fend for himself. Convinced that Pinocchio is a how-to book, he sets out to find the "Blue Fairy." \nConsumed by all-encompassing love, David believes that Monica will take him back if he becomes a real boy. His quest leads him to a "Flesh Fair" in which resentful humans deactivate mechas in gaudy and spectacular ways.\nOne can see why Kubrick was initially attracted to the material -- to some extent, the film's biggest irony is that machines are more human than their organic counterparts. But like any great work of art in any medium, "A.I." doesn't simply make a point. On the contrary, it inspires thought and debate.\nOf course, it's not a masterpiece. Succumbing to his sentimental nature, Spielberg simply grafts a happy ending onto the work, detracting from the pathos of the story. Judging from the special effects, it's safe to assume that he had run out of money at that point.\nIt's unfortunate he didn't put more thought into the editing process -- barring a few heavy-handed moments, "A.I." ascends to high art.
(06/25/01 3:09am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- "We caught the big fish," Gov. Frank O'Bannon said in announcing a $13.9 million settlement with Guide Corporation over the White River fish kill.\nGuide, based in Anderson, has agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of violating the Clean Water Act to settle criminal charges. The misdemeanor counts of criminal negligence allege that the automotive parts maker released 1.6 million gallons of tainted wastewater in December of 1999 into the White River, killing more than 5 million fish.\nU.S. Attorney Tim Morrison said a toxic chemical Guide used routinely to treat metal-laden waste-waters at the plant had been used in excess as the plant rushed to finish a project before Christmas break. \nGuide would normally use 20 to 60 gallons of the chemical -- HMP-2000 -- to treat wastewater. State and federal officials allege that Guide used more 2,000 gallons in one instance that December before wastes were released to Anderson sewers.\nGuide will pay $1.96 million in criminal fines and forfeit another $1.96 million in assets. \n"We have sent the message to would-be polluters that we will not tolerate abuse of our precious national resources," O'Bannon said at a press conference on the bank of the White River in downtown Indianapolis. "We've sent the message that we will vigorously pursue restitution and penalties against those who fail to heed our warning."\nIf a federal judge accepts the terms of the settlement, Guide will also fork over $10 million to settle state and federal lawsuits. Of the $10 million, $6 million will be placed in a state trust fund to pay for the cleanup and restocking of the river.\nThe Indiana Department of Natural Resources has stocked more than 500,000 bass, bluegills, catfish and crappie into the river in the past year. Additional restocking is planned for the fall.\nThe state has already blown through $2 million in cleanup and investigative costs. It hired private lawyers specializing in environmental law, jacking up expenses.\n"It is the Guide Corporation -- not the Hoosier taxpayer -- that will foot the bill for improving the White River and for the legal work it took to reach this conclusion," O'Bannon said.\nIn February, Vehicle Lightning Inc. purchased Guide, assuming its liabilities. The company hopes to reach a fair and quick resolution, according to a press release.\n"It is an important step in resolving this matter and allows Guide Corporation and its employees to focus all their energy on the future," said Steve Murray, executive vice president of human resources. "The resolution of this suit is the first step in resolving the other legal actions that the new management is committed to concluding."\nA class action lawsuit filed by property owners along the river is still pending. And Morrison said the federal government would continue to investigate the fish kill.\nUnder the terms of the settlement, Guide will remain under intense watch from federal officials during a five-year probationary period. It will turn over all of its files and submit to comprehensive environmental audits. \nIf Guide violates the terms of the probation, Morrison said it will face another $1.96 million penalty.\nIt might take as long as three months to entirely resolve the case, Morrison said.
(06/25/01 2:58am)
The boarded and vacant building on College Ave. and Eighth Street won't be developed anytime soon.\nA Florida developer has tabled its proposal to build a student apartment complex downtown -- for the moment. It plans to go back to the drawing board to work out financial issues.\n"We're very disappointed," said Nathan Hadley, executive assistant for economic development. "We'd like to see a private developer step in and transform this eyesore into something that will contribute to the downtown. \n"We'll find a way to make this work."\nIntergroup Realty Trust originally proposed to build a nine-story apartment complex at the long-abandoned ST Semicon site, just across from city hall. As originally proposed, it would have housed more than 800 students.\nWhile the proposal had the backing of the mayor's office, several city and county officials bristled at its size and potential parking problems. So Intergroup scaled back the proposal to a four-story, 470-bedroom structure.\nIntergroup specializes in student housing, and it has built sprawling three-story structures in North Carolina, Florida, Texas and Illinois. The Bloomington project would have marked a turn toward urban infill projects.\nBut Intergroup wasn't sure if it could turn a profit from the modified proposal, project engineer Steve Smith of local firm Smith & Neubecker said. \n"They're working very hard to make it work," he said. "Bloomington has a good market, and they just want to carefully review the numbers. The numbers just weren't working."\nSmith also said setbacks made it seem unlikely that the project would have been finished by the 2002-03 school year, as Intergroup had hoped.\n"Obviously, timing is important with a project like this," he said. "It has to be open in the fall."\nBloomington Plan Director Tom Micuda said he didn't know if the project will ever see the light of day. \n"They scaled it down to reflect what a lot of people had expressed concern about," he said. "It's now more typical of the downtown. But it remains to be seen if both sides can come together on this."\nIntergroup will return with another proposal in a few months, Smith said. It will likely seek a tax abatement.
(06/21/01 2:57am)
Angry opposition from local environmentalists hasn't deterred Tom Herman.\nHerman, president of the Indianapolis-based developer Herman & Associates, said he plans to stay on schedule with his Canterbury House Apartments project.\nWhile he was visibly shaken after a raucous protest at last week's County Council meeting, Herman cites a need for more affordable housing in the Bloomington area. The council gave final approval to more than $10 million in tax-free bonds, much to the dismay of the dozens of activists in attendance.\nHerman plans to buy a 50-acre site -- sometimes known as Stoney Springs or Brown's Woods -- from landowner Bill Brown and build a 208-unit complex on the site. Opponents argue the land is environmentally sensitive and one of Bloomingon's few remaining greenspaces.\nSome might spend a long time in jail for their beliefs.\nBrown discovered a barricade blocking off Basswood Drive Tuesday, the only route to the wooded space just east of Ind. 37. Constructed in the dark of night, the makeshift barricade consists of bike racks and thick metal poles filled with cement either chained or cemented into the street.\nThe major act of vandalism -- to a city road -- should cost local taxpayers thousands of dollars, police said. Those responsible are looking at charges of vandalism and theft -- police have determined that most of the materials used in the barricade were reported stolen by local contractor Weddle Brothers, Inc.\nAnd it's only the beginning, Monroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp said. He warned Herman and Brown to hire private security when the construction starts in mid-July. Several opponents to the project have threatened acts of non-violent civil disobedience.\n"It doesn't surprise me at all," Sharp said. "I don't quite know what to expect -- except they won't hurt trees. That's their philosophy."\nFor the moment, Sharp has his hands tied with Tracy McNeely, the 19-year-old woman who scaled an oak tree on the privately owned land March 22 to protest the development. After 88 days, McNeely temporarily left her leafy perch Saturday to visit her sick grandmother.\nFellow activists have been sitting in for her until she returns. They have no plans to leave the site, even when the bulldozers come rolling in.\n"We need to protect our greenspace from urban sprawl," said Donna McNeely, Tracy's mother. "The people's faith in government has been shattered, so the only path is peaceful civil disobedience."\nMcNeely claims that no tree-sitter has ever been successfully removed in Oregon, but Sharp has been drawing up a plan. \n"It's going to be a pain in the butt," he said. "That's for sure. But we're fully prepared to take care of this. Hopefully, they won't do anything to exacerbate the situation.\n"If any of my officers are injured, that'll take it right to a felony."\nA sheriff's deputy has already informed McNeely that she's trespassing on private property. But Sharp said he doesn't plan on moving in just yet.\nHaving McNeely arrested isn't the only option open to the developer. McNeely has been occupying a tree located in the middle of the proposed extension of Basswood Drive that would lead up to the apartments. \nHerman and Associates intend to preserve some of the property as greenspace, and project engineer Steve Smith said rerouting the extension would be easy enough.\n"There's plenty of room to go around," he said.
(06/21/01 2:25am)
A 36-year-old Indianapolis-area man drowned while swimming in Lake Monroe early Monday afternoon.\nDavid N. Carter, of Speedway, had been on an outing with three co-workers, who rented a pontoon boat for the day, Indiana Conservation Officer Angela Goldman said. After roughly an hour of boating, they docked at the bank of Mary's Cove, just southwest of the Fairfax Beach.\nCarter decided to go for a swim while his companions -- whose names police won't disclose -- were picnicking, Goldman said. They soon noticed that he was floating face down about 20 feet off the shore. They tossed out a safety ring, but police said Carter did not respond.\nSo one of the two female co-workers accompanying him dived into the water and attempted to bring Carter back toward the boat. She managed to get ahold of him but was dragged underwater. \nWith the help of her life jacket, she struggled back to the surface. But Carter wasn't seen again until divers pulled his body out of 55 feet of water at about 4:45 p.m. Monroe County Coroner Dave Toumey pronounced Carter dead at 5:04 p.m.\nPolice do not know why Carter drowned but do not suspect foul play at this point.\nCarter's co-workers told police that he had not been drinking, which Toumey's autopsy confirmed. Members of Carter's family told Toumey that he wasn't a good swimmer.\nThat's all police have at this point -- Carter hadn't been wearing a life jacket, Goldman said. The area, while popular with swimmers during the summer, wasn't crowded at the time, and weather conditions were not adverse.\nCarter had been swimming in one of the deepest area of the lake, a gravel pit before the lake was filled decades ago.
(06/21/01 2:24am)
Months of heated debate came to an end Tuesday, when the Monroe County Plan Commission gave final approval to a Menards on the southwest corner of Ind. 37 and Fullerton Pike.\nProject engineer Steve Smith of local firm Smith Neubecker said construction should take four or five months. The 161,000-square-foot home improvement store could be open as early as December.\nThe project -- which opponents fear will cause further traffic congestion on the burgeoning west side -- squeaked by on a 5-4 vote. John Irvine, one of Menard's harshest critics, cast the deciding vote.\n"It gets in through a loophole," he said, echoing the criticism of commission president Brian O'Neil. "But I think it is within the law. Therefore, I am voting yes."\nIrvine and others criticized O'Neil and councilman Scott Wells for seeking to prolong the debate over the merits of the planned big-box superstore when it was up for final plat approval.\nCommissioners customarily air out their differences at the preliminary approval stage. After the plan commission has given its seal of approval to a development, appointed county officials go over the plans to ensure compliance with zoning ordinances. If they recommend a project, final plat approval is seldom more than a rubber stamp.\n"I'm sorry to see that there's still dissension after this has headed to final plat," said commissioner Jane Martin, urging O'Neil to call a vote after about an hour of discussion. "We've once again revisited issues that we've already voted on."\nWhile supporters said the proposed land use met zoning requirements, O'Neil argued that it barely passed muster.\n"We all know the only reason this is coming through is by virtue of a loophole," he said. "When the property was zoned light industrial, no one had a large retail establishment in mind."\nThe light industrial zoning means the land can be used for a lumberyard, which is how landowner Bill Brown presented Menards. O'Neil said the impact of such a store would be disastrous on traffic, already congested on the fast-growing west side. \n"As elected officials, we're supposed to be strategic with what we do with our government resources," he said. "We're supposed to make strategic investments to the neighborhood. This won't just clutter up the store with cars from our counties, but all the surrounding counties."\nCommissioner John Newlin, who voted in favor of the development, had a quick retort to O'Neil.\n"I thought we wanted money coming in from other counties," he said.\n"Bottom line: This will create 200 new jobs," Commissioner Charlie Felkner echoed.\nBut dissenters didn't give up on the "loophole" argument. Wells asked county attorney David Schilling what percentage of Menards' stock would have to be lumber.\n"There's no percentage -- it's not 50 percent or 40 percent," he replied. "It's like prostitution. You know it when you see it."\nWhen Schilling couldn't produce a quantitative figure, Wells just furrowed his brow and hung his head in frustration. The petition came to a vote shortly thereafter.\nWhen first introduced, the project ran afoul of Irvine, who demanded that unused space be preserved as greenspace. It was then delayed for three months after the City of Bloomington refused to provide the site sewer and water extensions in spite of preliminary county approval.\nMenards resolved the dispute by offering to pay for the lines itself and allowing city utilities to build a water tower on the site. It also agreed to the county's demand to foot the bill for a new stoplight at that intersection.\nMenards is still seeking a zoning variance that will allow it to cut the parking lot from 800 to 400 spaces, but attorney Gary Clendening said it wouldn't affect the start of construction.
(06/18/01 1:10am)
Before a prospective viewer of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" plunks down a fistful of cash, he should keep a few things in mind.\nFirst, as a general rule, the quality of a movie is inversely proportional to the number of screenwriters involved in its production.\nWith a single screenwriter, a film generally possesses a sharply defined artistic vision. With two or three, one can assume it was necessary to call in a few veterans to polish rough edges or sharpen the dialogue.\nReportedly, 11 screenwriters toyed with "Tomb Raider," which is why it's a muddled mess of a popcorn flick. It takes its inspiration from a buxom and wildly popular video game character, which is kind of like basing a play on skee ball.\nWatching someone play a video game isn't fun -- the entertainment comes with the challenge. And video games lack the fundamental elements of a decent movie, such as fleshed-out characters, a plot and, well, logic.\nThis is a movie in which two characters -- not one, but two -- get along just fine after taking a knife to the heart. It's a movie in which the curvaceous heroine ventures out into Siberia with nothing more than a sleeveless, form-fitting top. This is a movie in which it's possible to outrun bullets and fend off several dozen commandoes armed with laser-guided submachine guns with nothing more than a pocketknife.\nThe opening scene best captures "Tomb Raider," which stars Angelina Jolie's bee-stung lips and heavily padded mammary glands more than it does the actress herself. She's doing battle with a giant robotic spider, emptying more magazine cartridges than a panicked 18-year-old American soldier in the jungles of Vietnam.\nThe cinematography is frenetic, and the frames are so tight that it's impossible to have any sense of physical space or any idea as to exactly what's going on. She vanquishes the beast of a machine -- only to see it rise from the grave and sneak up on her in an inspired stroke of creativity.\nOf course, she easily dispatches it again shortly thereafter. Jolie, playing a wealthy globe-trotting British archeologist, then nears the relic that she's presumably seeking. But gasp! — it's another false denouement.\n(Incidentally, archaeology -- which I always assumed was a rather staid vocation -- seems to involve a lot of gunplay, knife-slinging and kickboxing.)\nThis time, the robot has her pinned. It looks like the end -- a mere four minutes or so into the movie. She simply orders it to stop and then pops in a CD: "Lara's Party Mix." It turns out that the whole extended display of special effects was nothing more than a training exercise.\nWhile she's toweling off, her nerdy tech assistant (a slumming Noah Taylor, whose past credits include "Shine") whines over the fact that she used live ammo on his beloved creation.\n"Did you program it to stop before it tore my head off?" she insouciantly asks in the passable British accent she musters throughout the film.\nThat's not only a really lame retort unworthy of a well-heeled Englishwoman who speaks dozens of languages and listens to Bach -- it makes no sense whatsoever. She just told it to stop a bloody minute ago.\n"Tomb Raider" -- directed by Simon West of "Con Air" fame -- is riddled with such mind-blowing lapses of detail.\nThe thin pretext of a plot involves a secret society called the Illuminati that wants to retrieve two sides of an ancient triangle while the planets are aligned in some fashion. If they succeed in their mission, they'll be able to control time and thus the universe.\nJolie manages to snag half of the triangle in an ancient Cambodian temple about 50 minutes into the film, meaning there's no real reason for the movie to go on. She would only have to destroy one side of the triangle to foil the Illuminati's fiendish scheme of world domination. But not a single character notices.\nOf course, the plot doesn't really matter -- it's only a clothesline on which to hang the action sequences. One -- involving a giant seven-armed stone Buddha coming to life -- passes as mildly entertaining.\nUnfortunately, the rest of the film is cliched and derivative, ripping off "Indiana Jones" and "Batman." In one scene, she even evades a gun-toting pursuer by leaping off a waterfall.\nOne has to wonder if Harrison Ford will receive royalties.
(06/11/01 4:34am)
TERRE HAUTE -- "It's just a big mess," sighed Eric Holt, nervously brushing imaginary lint off of his polo shirt. "It's gotten to the point where I don't care. But it'll all be over Monday."\nHolt and other residents of the redbrick factory town near the Illinois border have settled into a weary resignation toward the imminent execution of Timothy McVeigh. The convicted Oklahoma City bomber -- responsible for the deaths of 168, including 19 children -- will be put to death by lethal injection at 7 a.m. today.\nWhile the city has long had a good relationship with the U.S. Penitentiary on its southwest outskirts, many residents shun the glare of the spotlight. They shun the notoriety that comes with the first federal execution in 38 years.\n"We're just a reluctant participant," said Rod Henry, president of the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce. "We have no choice in the matter. All we can do is put our community's best foot forward."\nEven those who support capital punishment in principle and McVeigh's death in particular fear the high-profile execution will taint the city's reputation. After all, it's a quiet industrial town filled with lumberyards and smokestacks, boarded storefronts and train tracks. It looks as though it hasn't left the 1920s -- advertisements for Clabber Girl Baking Powder, a local product, adorn the trash cans along the lonely downtown strip.\nBut like a Biblical plague of locusts, more than 1,300 reporters have descended on the quiet town just off the Wabash River. All throughout the weekend, they've scampered around the prison grounds with laptops and nickel-chain press credentials, setting up cables and television cameras. A battalion of news vans -- crammed bumper to bumper -- rest just inside the gate of the 1,100-acre facility.\nMany members of the press hail from across the Atlantic. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world that practices capital punishment, and interest in McVeigh's execution is keen among Europeans.\n"It's difficult for us to understand how it's normal and accepted," said Twan Huys, a correspondent for a Dutch National Public Radio outlet based just outside of Amsterdam. "I suppose it's the cowboy mentality. In the Netherlands, something like 70 percent of the people oppose the death penalty."\nWorking out of Washington, Huys only ventures out of the capitol to cover bigger events. Watching a photographer pace down the side of the road in the hope of getting a good shot of the distant prison, Huys claims he's never seen anything like it.\n"I even went to both of the political conventions," he said. "And that doesn't compare to the media frenzy I see here."\nBut reporters and network producers weren't the only ones roaming around the prison grounds this weekend. Police cars man every intersection on Ind. 63, the only route to the prison. Officers with sidearms and black bulletproof vests paced around, keeping an eye out for suspicious motorists.\nSince Saturday, the officers have been working 12-hour shifts instead of the usual eight. More than half of the department's 120 officers will be on duty at 7 a.m. today -- along with the Indiana State Police, 50 U.S. Marshals, 30 FBI agents and several officers from nearby municipalities such as Brazil.\nThat's not including the Vigo County's Sheriff's Department and the more than 600 Bureau of Prison employees that will be on hand. Fearing some kind of retribution from far-right militia groups, prison and law enforcement officials say security is as tight as a drum.\nThe Federal Aviation Administration has even issued a flight restriction around the penitentiary grounds that started at 4 p.m. Sunday. Charles Goodwin, director of the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field, said the order -- which prohibits flying within one mile of the prison -- is in effect through Monday.\nFriday, Gov. Frank O'Bannon announced the closure of all state offices in Vigo County. Most federal offices will also be closed, as will all city and county government agencies.\nBut the rest of the city will be working overtime -- restaurants and hotels have been bustling with business. With the Miss Indiana Pageant coinciding with the execution, every hotel room in town has been booked.\nMany entrepreneurs have even been trying to capitalize off of the event.\nRaoul David, who owns a grocery store across the street from the penitentiary, has been working around the clock. Journalists march in and out of his food mart, and he's been hawking what he describes as his "McVeigh Special": shish-ka-bobs marinated in soy sauce.\nDavid isn't the only one trying to make a buck off of what locals frequently describe as a circus.\nDebbie Walker, the owner of a downtown tattoo and body-piercing parlor, has been selling souvenir T-shirts for $20 a piece. As of early evening Saturday, only four were left in stock.\n"I've gone through at least 30 dozen," said Walker, a 50s-ish woman in a low-cut black dress. "I've been selling 'em as far away as Germany and Japan. Hell, Dave Letterman called last week, and he bought one."\nDesigned like a newspaper front page, the "Terre Haute Extra Hangin' Times" design features a headline that screams, "DIE MOTHERFUCKER DIE!" A tamer version simply reads, "Die! Die! Die!"\nWalker defends her entrepreneurship, which many locals have decried as tasteless.\n"People have been telling me that I should be ashamed; that it's blood money," she said. "But hell, I just paid for my trip to Jamaica."\nWhile Walker can barely ship out the "Hangin' Times" shirts fast enough, the anti-death penalty ones haven't sold as well.\n"I guess I might as well tear them to shreds," she reflected. "I'll probably just burn them."\nLike many locals, Walker thinks lethal injection is too good a fate for McVeigh -- which is why she has no qualms about profiting from his death.\n"I really think they oughta tie the bastard to a streetlight in the middle of Oklahoma City," she said while dragging on a unfiltered cigarette. "They oughta let anyone do whatever they want to him. He oughta be hanged... or maybe he should be stoned to death.\n"The Romans had the right idea -- feed 'em to the lions."\nWalker's sentiment -- though tempered by salesmanship -- is largely shared throughout the community.\n"Personally, I think he should die," said Seinya Samforay, an off-duty member of the Indiana National Guard. "With all those children he killed, it's a matter of justice -- and that son of a bitch would live better in prison than I do."\nSamforay's view seems to be the norm. And fewer death penalty opponents will be in town Monday than organizers had planned for McVeigh's original May 16 execution date. A Friday protest march drew as many members of the press as participants. \nA lone protester sat huddled in tattered clothes at the corner Ind. 63 and Springhill Drive Saturday afternoon.\n"Pray for Tim's dad on Father's Day," read his poster-board placard. "God forgive all of us"
(06/04/01 2:14am)
Joe Roberts came to Bloomington six years ago after General Electric closed down his place of employment, an appliance factory in Cincinnati. An unskilled worker who didn't have much choice, he took up GE's offer to relocate him and his family.\nAnd now he's looking at migrating again.\n"It's happened so many times," he said. "It just has a numbing effect."\nRoberts was one of the 922 GE employees to clock out of the Bloomington refrigerator factory for the final time Friday. The laid-off workers will receive severance pay equal to one week's wages for every year they have worked for GE.\nGE Appliances spokesman Terry Dunn, who described the severance package as generous, said the workers would also be allowed to keep their company-paid medical insurance for up to a year. And Dunn said they will be eligible for up to $4,000 in job training, as well as federal assistance for workers displaced by the North American Free Trade Agreement.\nRoberts -- and others who choose to pack their bags -- are eligible for preferential hiring at other GE plants.\nGE officials announced the cutbacks in September 1999, citing the increased production costs of complying with federal environmental regulations that go into effect this July. The Fortune 500 company put forward its plans to transfer 1,400 jobs to Celaya, Mexico, where labor is cheaper.\nThe Celaya factory will produce labor-intensive, high-end refrigerators, while the Bloomington plant will focus on a better-selling, high-volume model. Dunn said the line has been selling well even in a wintry marketplace. \n"The feedback on this product so far has been excellent," he said. "We believe we have a real winner."\nWhile it scaled back on its Bloomington workforce, GE invested $100 million in the Curry Pike factory on the west side of town to meet the strict energy-efficiency standards under the Congressional Clean Air Act.\n"All of the equipment in the plant is obsolete under the new energy standards," Dunn said. "And we're making a very serious investment to preserve the factory and the jobs."\nWith a sagging economy, GE ended up cutting 200 more jobs than the 1,400 it announced in 1999. In mid-December, it let go of 735 workers in the first round of cutbacks.\nMore than 300 workers were rehired to assist the factory with its production goals. Of those who lost their jobs, about 400 were called back or hired temporarily.\nWhile they received their pink slips two weeks ago, Friday didn't digest easily with everyone.\n"People are human -- they put their best faces on and deal with it," said Bob Lewis, a 25-year veteran of the plant. "But in their quiet moments, you could tell they were hurting."\nThe layoffs affected only those with the least seniority, who were hired as early as 1992. But Lewis hasn't been sleeping well.\n"A few years back, I though it was a joke when I heard people talking about jobs going to Mexico," he said. "I thought it was a pipe dream. But now I listen to all the rumors."\nIf the economy doesn't pick up, Lewis said he fears another round of layoffs as early as August.\n"I've been thinking of going back to school," he said. "Or maybe I'll just leave the area. I don't have concrete plans, but I see things happening around me."\nWhile he issued a warning about slowing appliance sales, Dunn said the company shouldn't consider any further layoffs until 2003, when federal regulations will phase out ozone-depleting HCFC-14b foam insulation. \nBut he believes the company will invest again in the Bloomington plant to secure its long-term future. With 1,600 workers, GE remains one of Monroe County's largest employers.\n"We're not talking about jobs," he said. "We're talking about people. And we want to do everything we can to show our commitment to our workforce"
(05/31/01 2:20am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- As the remaining laps dwindled, rookie driver Helio Castrovenes threaded his way through traffic and widened his lead at the Indianapolis 500. \nA wave of relief came over owner Roger Penske, a longtime 500 legend who won for a record 11th time at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday in the 85th running of the "Greatest Spectacle of Racing." After a six-year hiatus, Penske returned in a triumphal fashion.\nCastrovenes and teammate Gil de Ferran swept the top two positions in Penske's first visit back to Brickyard since 1994. \n"This is the best day of my life, coming back like this," Penske said shortly after Castrovenes doused himself with the traditional bottle of milk. "We redeemed ourselves for the lousy things we did in '95. And I can tell you walking back to the garage with Al (Unser Jr.) and Emerson (Fittipaldi) after we didn\'t make the field and coming up to victory circle today is a big difference."\nIn 1995, neither of Penske's drivers -- two-time champions Fittipaldi and Unser Jr. -- managed to qualify. Since then, Penske hasn't been able to enter any drivers because of a CART boycott after the circuit contentiously split with the Indy Racing League. \nCART lifted its ban this year, and its drivers carried the day.\nThe talented but luckless racing scion Michael Andretti sped past the checkered flag in third place, 5.7359 seconds behind Castroneves. Jimmy Vasser and Bruno Junqueira came in fourth and fifth, while former IRL Champion and NASCAR driver Tony Stewart finished sixth before flying off to Charlotte, where he came in third at the Coca Cola 500. \nNicolas Minassian, the only other CART driver in the race, had engine trouble in the 74th lap and had to call it quits.\nWhile four IRL drivers led throughout the race, not a single emissary from the splinter circuit ended the race in the lead lap. Eliseo Salazar bore the IRL flag with a seventh-place finish.\nStill, CART drivers didn't gloat at their dominance.\n"We raced the IRL guys all day as well," said Andretti, who has lobbed volleys at the circuit in the past. "I think just luck was against them, I think. Through -out the race, they were mixing it up with us." \nIt didn't look good for the IRL at the start, when poll-sitter Scott Sharp overcorrected after sliding on the first turn, slamming into the outside retaining wall. An angry Sharp declined to discuss his accident at length with media gathered outside his garage, but owner Tom Kelly blamed cold tires -- a complaint that resurfaced throughout the day.\nSeven laps after Sharp's early exit, Sarah Fisher -- who received the biggest applause from the crowd after her introduction -- spun on almost the same spot. Scott Goodyear, a two-time Indy runner-up, hit the wall hard while trying to get out of the way.\nGoodyear, who's still being treated in the Methodist Hospital, suffered a fractured lower back. \nIn a few days, he'll return to his suburban Indianapolis home, where he'll recuperate for another eight to 12 weeks.\nOnly nine laps later, IRL point leader Sam Hornish Jr. spun out, sending Unser Jr. careening into the wall. The former champion -- whose fortunes have been sagging in recent years -- pounded his fist against the side of the car, knowing his day was done.\nUnser was unhurt -- except for his pride.\nHornish's car was towed to the pits, where it received a new set of tires. The rising star reentered the race four laps behind, pulling off a 14th place finish. He wasn't the only major IRL contender to suffer that fate -- former champion Buddy Lazier pitted with electrical problems.\nAfter losing four laps, he ended the race a distant 18th.\nEarly on, IRL kept in the running. Greg Ray led 38 of the first 100 laps, Sharp's teammate Mark Dismore led 29 and A.J. Foyt team driver Robby Gordon led 22 laps. Dismore had to pit with gearbox problem, eventually limping past the checkered flag in 16th place. \nIn lap 103, Andretti charged hard at Ray, who spun out and brushed against the third-turn wall.\nAndretti led 16 laps Sunday, bringing his total to 388 -- but he was hardly satisfied with his seventh top-ten finish.\n"Third is fine if you're driving for points," he said. "But obviously, leading the last lap is all I'm caring about."\nAndretti credited his finish to bad luck and lapses in judgment.\n"I made mistakes," he said. "In this race, you can't make mistakes."\nA pitstop collision with Tony Stewart damaged his front wing, which he said plagued him later the race. Rookie Cory Witherill's harmless spin on lap 138 led several drivers to pit under the yellow flag.\nCastroneves darted out first, in front of Stewart, who slammed on his brakes. Andretti -- the career leader in laps without a victory -- had nowhere to go. He tailended Stewart.\nIRL officials penalized Castrovenes, handing Stewart the lead. But Stewart -- who complained of foot cramps and barely made it to North Carolina on time -- pitted on lap 144 and never mounted another challege.\nCastrovenes grabbed the lead on lap 149 and never relinquished it.\nRobbie Buhl ran hard after him, bobbing around his tail only .4 seconds behind. But at 218 mph on lap 165, he lost control on the turn and flew into the wall.\nDe Ferran tried to maneuver to the outside of Castroneves, but the Brazilian rookie deftly wended through traffic. He held onto his lead, as de Ferran and Andretti slowly lost ground.\nBreaking all tradition, Castroneves abruptly stopped his car on the victory lap and scaled the 17-foot fence, pumping his fist at the roaring fans in the infield. Upon his urging, a few members of his crew joined him in his trademark victory celebration.\n"I knew he'd do something stupid," de Ferran said. "Obviously, he was extremely excited, as well he should be"
(05/21/01 2:49am)
After years of coaching his sons' baseball team, Indiana House Speaker John Gregg missed his first practice in April. Gregg, a popular conservative Democrat from Sandborn, found himself too caught up in trying to reach a last-minute budget agreement with Senate Republicans.\nThat's when he made up his mind.\nGregg, who has led House Democrats since 1994, ended speculation Thursday that he might run for Congress in the state's newly drawn 8th District.\nHe doesn't want to uproot his family and doesn't care for the idea of commuting to the nation's capital.\n"I just came back from a scout camping weekend," he said. "I've been coaching baseball for eons, and my wife (Sherry, a Knox County Circuit Court Judge) is very involved with the church.\n"I spend a lot of time with my family and I couldn't imagine getting on a plane to Washington Monday morning and not coming back until Thursday."\nMany Democrats -- including House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt -- had tried to convince Gregg to mount a bid to unseat four-term incumbent John Hostettler, a conservative Republican.\nGregg said he also received several calls from political consultants interested in managing a campaign. But the only conversation that mattered was with his sons, John, 9, and Hunter, 7.\n"I went over it with them," he said. "And I couldn't say that either was in favor. My youngest son was worried that I wouldn't be famous anymore -- he and his friends from school see me on the TV channels all the time."\nUnder new redistricting maps, the district's boundaries were extended northward to include Vigo County, which includes the working class and heavily Democratic Terre Haute. Gregg said the new lines were not drawn with his possible candidacy in mind.\nBut it was still a possibility he strongly considered.\n"I went back and forth," he said. "I changed my mind from day to day, hour to hour."\nThe district has earned the nickname the "Bloody Eighth" because of its close and contentious elections. Gregg, who has a strong rural political base, doesn't doubt for a moment that he would have successfully slid into national politics.\n"I would've beat Hostettler like a drum," he said. "The 8th district deserves representation."\nMichael Jahr, Hostettler's Washington spokesman, said the congressman had no comment at this time. Hostettler hasn't yet formed a reelection committee, and his Washington office can't discuss campaign matters.\nEven with Gregg out of the picture, Democrats expect to pick up the seat in 2002.\n"Gregg would've been a great candidate," said Douglass Davidoff, communications director of the Indiana Democratic Party. "We think the district is slightly more Democratic after redistricting. And we think we'll pick it up -- there's a lot of potential talent in that district."\nWhile Davidoff can't discuss races until after the primary, Gregg didn't hesitate to toss out a few names. He said there are a number of other Democrats in his caucus who would make strong candidates, including state Reps. Russ Stillwell, D-Boonville, and Jonathan Weinzapfel, D-Evansville.\nGregg doesn't discourage rumors that he could be tapped as a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2004.\n"I'm not ruling out anything," he said. "I'm still in the House. I've just decided not to run for Congress."\nGregg planned to make his announcement in late May. But he decided to push it up after watching his Sandborn Blue Jays lose a game at Freelandville 15-11.\n"It comes down to family and baseball," he said.
(05/17/01 1:38am)
Tuesday, city employees renewed their call for utilities officials to scrap the idea of outsourcing a managerial position at the city's wastewater department.\nIn January, the city solicited proposals from private firms to oversee operations at the city's two sewage treatment plants, which treat about 15 million gallons of water a day. The idea -- which is only being explored as an option -- has stirred up a firestorm of controversy.\n"It's money leaving this community -- that shouldn't happen," said Tony Walda, a 10-year employee of the Dillman plant just south of Bloomington. "There's no need to hire a public firm when these facilities are run well."\nOpponents of the idea spoke out at a public forum Tuesday evening at the Monroe County Public Library. Assistant Utilities Director Scott Dompke had to defend himself from volleys lobbed by the public and fellow panelists, all of whom were Democrats opposed to the very idea of privatization.\n"It's implied that only professionally trained individuals are fit for these public jobs," said City Councilman Andy Ruff, D-at large. "I resent the assumption that municipalities all across the country operate poorly or inefficiently because they can't keep up with the demands of the private sector."\nAs did many audience members, Ruff expressed the concern that a private company would be more accountable to its bottom line than to the public.\n"As a progressive Democrat, I believe that the government should provide vital public services," he said. "And city employees are more accountable."\nUtility officials aren't considering privatizing the service, Dompke repeated during the course of the evening.\n"We're looking for a manager that can draw on the resources of his company behind the scenes," he said. "It would only be a midlevel manager who would report up the chain of command. The manager would have to report to a public employee."\nAnd Dompke -- who believes that taxpayers could stand to save money from such an arrangement -- stresses that no final decision will be made until the department can review the proposals.\n"We might hire from the inside; we might hire from the outside," he said. "But the job requires a lot more responsibility than an individual can manage. It take a lot of knowledge of science and a lot of knowledge of legal -- that's what we hope a company can bring to the table." \nAnd in any event, a private company would only profit by providing human resources, Dompke said.\n"It's a fairly narrow proposal," he said. "And we're only exploring alternatives to filling in vacancies."\nStill, critics blanched at the plan, which they branded "an assault on democracy."\n"We're talking about the cheapest government when we should be thinking about the best government," said Jack Miller a longtime activist who sparred with former Indianapolis Mayor Steven Goldsmith, known for privatizing city services. "If you want cheapest, hop a plane to Somalia. It's cowboy city, where we can all be libertarians."\nBloomington Mayor John Fernandez, while opposed to privatization, said he's open to the idea of contracting out the position. He caught the forum on community access television.\n"All of this rhetoric was ratcheted up," he said. "But no one has any intention of privatizing any vital public service. I share concerns about accountability, but I think this has become more a broad political debate"