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(05/10/07 4:00am)
Another Elvis Costello "greatest hits" collection. Is Costello going broke? Doubtful, but why put out another greatest hits, "these are my singles"-type album? Rock And Roll Music is an interesting collection of his '70s and '80s run. \nWhat more can be said about the man behind the goofy-ass glasses? As the painfully blunt album title states, this is rock 'n' roll music. Pure and simple, good old-fashioned, nerdy rock 'n' roll. \nSongs from his earlier years are more straight-forward rock 'n' roll, from the dirty garage guitar on "Clean Money" to the doo-doo-doos and ah-ah-ahs of "Welcome to the Working Week." The two-minute rock song is just not as fast as the Ramones'. \nThere's another side to Costello as well. We'll call this the more artsy, mature side. The yearning musing of "Tokyo Storm Warning" shows more of an "I do take my music seriously every once and awhile" side. The man has sung with orchestras, he just has a great voice. \nBut what makes this guy the man is his all-around cheesy poppiness: the keyboard-drenched "Big Tears," the rockabilly Elvis-esque "Mystery Dance," the bouncy "My Sharona" magic of "Pump It Up." There's so much variety here, and this is just a very small taste of Costello's span of 11 studio albums.\nOne of the greatest singer/songwriter/rocker/pop superstars of the last 30 years, Costello's energy and passion for rock music has produced some damn good, catchy as hell songs. This collection captures the raw energy and the fun pop that developed early in Costello's career but merely touches the surface of what kind of musician he is.\nThere's no "Watching the Detectives" or "Radio Radio" on here, but if you've been sleeping for the past 30 years and haven't heard of Elvis Costello, I wouldn't pick up this collection first. Girls Girls Girls is two discs, has almost all the songs from this collection and has "Watching the Detectives." Don't waste your hard-earned cash on this album. Gas is more than $3 a gallon. Illegally download this one.
(05/08/07 8:09pm)
The IU board of trustees hopes giving the next IU president $10 million each year will help fund new initiatives and prevent some of the problems that have hindered Adam Herbert.\nSchool and campus administrators, however, are bracing for budget cuts across the University since the new President’s Fund will divert money they otherwise would have had.\nBecause of the way IU’s budget is set up, each school receives revenue directly from state appropriations, tuition and other sources. Money that goes to campus or University-wide programs, like the new President’s Fund, must be “taxed” and collected from the schools.\nOne-eighth of each IU campus’ new revenue – that is, the increase in revenue from year to year – will be taxed and sent to the president’s office. \nVice Provost of Budgetary Administration Neil Theobald projects the Bloomington campus will contribute about $5 million to the President’s Fund each fiscal year.\nThis new money, which will be collected annually starting July 1, will allow future IU presidents to undertake and fund initiatives and improvements that will move the University to the “next level,” said Board of Trustees President Stephen Ferguson. Presidential discretionary funds could have been helpful for things like starting the School of Informatics, jump-starting life sciences research or dealing with the athletics deficit, he said.\n“If the president doesn’t have any funds, it is very difficult to start new projects,” he said. “It doesn’t allow any maneuverability at all.”\nNot having discretionary money could have been one of the things that contributed to the trouble Herbert had during his tenure, Ferguson said.\n“When he became president, that was one of the biggest surprises to him – that the president doesn’t have any funds,” he said.\nThough most administrators agree the President’s Fund will help the University, financial directors at many of the schools are unhappy they must now cut a substantial amount of money from their budgets, Theobald said. \n“Nobody likes taxes,” he said. \nChris Puckett, the budget director for the College of Arts and Sciences, said the President’s Fund will cost COAS about $1 million. \nPuckett said it will be difficult to cut that amount of money out of the COAS budget, particularly since the decision to create the President’s Fund was made last spring and slated to take effect in the next budget.\n“I wish we had had more warning,” she said. “Ideally, they would announce it as a concept now for budget construction for 2008-2009.”\nBudget administrators do not know from which departments and programs the money will be collected, Theobald said. The only thing they do know is how much they need\nto collect.\nKurt Zorn, the chair of the committee charged with hammering out the details of the President’s Fund, said the trustees made the decision to find money for the IU president before the committee even \ncame together.\n“It was pretty clear that if we came back with a finding other than that we needed a discretionary fund, we would have one anyway,” said Zorn, who is the associate dean for fiscal affairs in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.\nThe committee, with the help of Huron Consulting, decided to raise the funds by assessing the 12.5 percent tax, Zorn said. The Provost’s Fund already collects money on the Bloomington campus-level in a similar manner.\nThe task force chose to allocate the President’s Fund money with no strings attached, with the understanding that the president will have to justify major expenditures to the trustees and University faculty and administrators, he said.
(03/07/07 5:00am)
Emma Thompson's character in "Stranger than Fiction" has an interesting habit. She is a veritable chain smoker but is never seen snuffing out a cigarette in any way that could be considered traditional. She spits into a napkin, then rolls the cigarette butt into the paper, carefully twisting it around the cigarette and then putting the used napkin in her pocket. She won't flick the ash or put the cigarette out on the ground because she is conscious and has no wish to disrupt her environment. It took me three viewings of the film to figure out the habit. My point? Though this habit is never verbally explained in the film, it has the incredible benefit of providing needed depth and intricacy to a minor character. Specificity and subtlety this well-used is rare, even in the best-written movies.\nThe movie's main character, Harold Crick (Will Ferrell), is one of those people who instinctively knows the distance of six yards without needing any frame of reference. He is practically made of numbers; he counts tiles and stairs and mentally corrects odd angles to run perpendicular in his surroundings. Crick is the unwilling hero of the film whose all too predictable life is turned upside down when he starts hearing an omniscient voice that narrates his life as though he is the main character in a novel. As it turns out, he is the main character in a novel by recluse author Kay Eiffel, played brilliantly by Thompson. The problem is, she is about to kill him off.\nThe film could have been a race against the clock, could have followed Harold as he frantically searched for the author, attempting to halt the inevitable. Screenwriter Zach Helm is too smart for that, however, and knows Harold's story is worth telling well. We watch as Harold develops relationships, solidifies friendships and falls in love with a smart, warm girl played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. \nDirector Marc Forster has a pitch-perfect ability to match strong directorial skills with the collaboration of his crew. He leaves the stamp of the auteur on his films, and yet they are so different from each other. From the eerie moodiness of "Monster's Ball" to the fanciful "Finding Neverland" to the comedic and nuanced "Stranger than Fiction," Forster is shaping up to be one of the most prolific directors of his generation. Populating the film with talented actors, Forster creates an imaginative character tapestry. Will Ferrell's beautifully underplayed performance is the key to the success of the movie; he plays Harold straight and this has the end result of pairing comedy with quirkiness. \nThe DVD has some special features worth mentioning. It contains several small featurettes on the making of the film. The best one is a surprisingly in-depth look at the use of GUI (Graphic User Interface), a kind of on-screen graphic technique that further explores the mathematical precision of Harold's world. However, like so many DVDs of late, it suffers from a lack of commentary or any original features that might make it a more worthwhile buy. And those obligatory marketing devices used in the "previews" section are just an annoying ploy to get people to buy more DVDs.\n"Stranger Than Fiction" was one of the 10 best films of last year, sadly overlooked by audiences and critics in favor of epic-style dramas with blood and shock value. Each set is a work of art, the characters are wonderfully specific, and the writing is refreshingly original.
(02/19/07 5:00am)
The faculty of IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis has voted overwhelmingly to approve an open letter to the IU board of trustees requesting the next University president treat IUPUI as an equal to IU-Bloomington.\nThe letter also requested greater attention and a larger research role for the Indianapolis campus.\nThe faculty councils of all 18 schools at IUPUI as well as the University library each ratified the letter, with only two professors voting against it, according to a tally compiled by IUPUI mathematics professor Bart Ng.\nNg, the president of the IUPUI Faculty Council, said IUPUI faculty is even more earnest about this issue than the IUB faculty was during the uproar over the failure to pick a campus chancellor in the fall of 2005.\nThe letter calls on the next president of the University and the trustees to recognize IUB and IUPUI as “two strong and complementary research campuses” and says IU cannot achieve greatness unless the campuses are “recognized, valued and supported as equal partners.”\nWhen Bloomington Faculty Council President Ted Miller talked about the letter at the trustees’ business meeting in February, trustee Tom Reilly voiced skepticism about the state’s ability to support a third public research university.\nNg said Indiana’s declining funding for IU means each campus has had to learn to rely less and less on state funding. He also said he rejects the commonly held view that IUB will suffer if the University focuses more resources on IUPUI.\n“This is not Bloomington versus Indianapolis,” he said. “The real question is: Can you not afford to develop a university at the heart of the population center of the state?”\nNg said he and other faculty want IU to bolster the science departments and research faculty at IUPUI. He said having a strong university in Indianapolis to educate and train professionals and produce research will entice businesses to come to Indiana, increasing IU’s importance to the state and its profile nationwide.\nAt their February meeting, the trustees said they will have a thorough discussion about the letter and the IUPUI faculty’s requests at their March 1 and 2 meetings in Indianapolis.\nTrustee President Stephen Ferguson declined to comment on the letter or the new endorsements because the board has not had a chance to meet and discuss the issue, trustee secretary Robin Gress said.
(02/15/07 4:44am)
It was like campus, buildings and all, had been scooped up Wednesday by some invisible force and deposited in a nearly-deserted winter landscape. \nGone were the familiar throngs of students, scurrying across campus. Whole minutes ticked by, without a single person passing in front of Ballantine Hall. \nThe sounds were most foreign, though. After the Student Building's clock chimes ceased, announcing a quarter to 10 in the morning, the only sounds that could be heard in the Old Crescent were the rattle of tree branches heavy with ice, as a gentle but frigid wind blew through them and the crunch of snow as students, always by themselves, carefully plodded across the treacherous sidewalks. \nFor the first time in more than 10 years, the IU administration closed campus Wednesday, after heavy winter weather caused states of emergency in several surrounding counties, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said.\nAll classes before noon were canceled and noncritical employees were told not to report to work until midday.\nAfter monitoring weather conditions for several hours, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Terry Clapacs made the decision after 5 a.m. Wednesday, MacIntyre said. Clapacs did not want to endanger IU's large population of employees who commute to campus from adjacent counties, he said.\nIU President Adam Herbert, who would typically make the call to close campus, was at a business meeting in Florida and was slated to come back into town Wednesday evening, MacIntyre said.\nMacIntyre notified local media about the closings, including the Indianapolis television stations, he said.\nDespite this, dozens of students, ignorant of the news, trekked to campus only to turn back and return home, presumably to bed.\nSophomore Taylor Stauffer responded with a cry of exasperation when she learned her 10:15 a.m. A100 Accounting class was canceled after walking all the way to the Kelley School of Business from her home near Third Street and Woodlawn Avenue. \nHer traveling companion, sophomore Duncan Hewett, who walked from Third Street and Indiana Avenue, was not pleased about the prospect of having to walk all the way back home.\n"That was the coldest walk I've ever done," he said.\nBoth Stauffer and Hewett resolved to return to bed.\nAssociate instructor and English graduate student Susan Davis, who was catching up on work in Ballantine Hall on Wednesday morning, remarked that aside from the frigid temperatures, the partly-sunny sky made for a beautiful morning.\nIU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said officers responded to only a handful of car crashes as a result of icy weather. Most drivers, he said, had prepared themselves for the inclement weather and drove cautiously.\nThe IU campus has only closed four previous times in the past 100 years as result of winter weather, according to documents at the IU Archives. \nMost recently, officials called off classes in March 1996 after 10 inches of wet, heavy snow battered the campus.\nStudents seemed to take the delay in stride, though. By 3 p.m., the campus was brimming with students again.\nBy most reports, the campus came to a grinding halt with little complication, though in the Read Center dining room, the menu was a casualty due to the delay.\nSharon Barnes, a cook in the dining room, looked down at a tray of halved hard-boiled eggs in the salad bar.\n"We didn't have the help to make deviled eggs," she said. "So they're just eggs"
(02/13/07 5:23am)
The latest round of phishing attacks on IU Credit Union members displays a higher level of sophistication than previous scams -- though experts say this should come as no surprise. \nThe e-mails, sent to many IU students, faculty and staff as well as others outside the University, "warned" members that the credit union detected errors in their accounts due to fraudulent activity and urged them to click what looked like a link to the IU Credit Union Web site.\nThe URL, however, routed to a server and a fake credit union Web site based in Diboll, Texas, said Mark Weigle, IU Credit Union vice president in charge of security.\nCredit union officials learned about the phishing attacks shortly after 9 a.m. Monday. By 10:30 a.m., they had contacted the fake Web site's Internet service provider, and the page was taken down and the server removed, Weigle said.\nThis attack is more developed than the massive phishing scam that occurred in June, when phishers successfully defrauded about 70 to 80 members. The e-mails correctly referred to recipients as IU Credit Union members, not just customers, as in the last attacks. They also included the credit union's logo and a fake copyright claim.\nThe scams' small enhancements should not be surprising, said Markus Jakobsson, an associate professor of Informatics who specializes in cyber security. \nPhishers learn from previous attacks and adjust their tactics, he said. Bank customers were previously warned to look out for bad spelling and factual errors, so the scammers have improved their grammar and checked their facts.\nWeigle said he was not aware of any credit union members who fell victim to the latest round of attacks.
(02/13/07 3:10am)
The latest round of phishing attacks on IU Credit Union members displays a higher level of sophistication than previous scams -- though this should come as no surprise, experts say. \nThe e-mails, sent to many IU students, faculty and staff as well as others outside the University, "warned" members that the credit union detected errors in their accounts due to fraudulent activity and urged them to click what looked like a link to the credit union Web site.\nThe URL, however, routed to a server and a fake credit union Web site based in Diboll, Texas, said Mark Weigle, the IU Credit Union vice president in charge of security.\nCredit union officials learned about the phishing attacks shortly after 9 a.m. Monday. By 10:30 a.m., they had contacted the fake Web site's Internet service provider and the page was taken down and the server removed, Weigle said.\n- For more on this story see Tuesday's Indiana Daily Student
(02/10/07 9:40pm)
A driver hit a Vectren gas unit near the corner of Adams and Allen streets, causing the unit to break open and spill natural gas late Thursday night, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Bill Parker.\nAt the request of the Vectren gas maintenance, BPD blocked off an area of several blocks and did not let traffic pass as of 12:45 a.m. Friday.\nPolice did not evacuate any nearby buildings.\nParker did not know how long the leak would take to fix.\nNo one was injured, and the driver of the vehicle refused an ambulance. He was issued a Breathalyzer test, Parker said.
(02/05/07 5:21am)
University officials say their plan to outsource the IU Motor Pool won't cause the massive job losses protested by IU employees and state and local government officials. \nBut for motor pool manager Mike Hardesty, the announcement is disappointing nonetheless.\nThe program, unveiled at Friday's board of trustees meeting, by Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Terry Clapacs, will turn daily rental car operations over to Enterprise Rent-A-Car and calls for gradually selling off IU's fleet of nearly 500 vehicles in favor of leasing the cars from private companies.\nAs part of the agreement with Enterprise, IU students older than 18 can now rent cars from Enterprise anywhere in Indiana. Most rental car companies either do not allow people younger than 25 to rent cars or charge steep fees for younger drivers.\nClapacs made no mention of whether the program would save IU money, but he said there would be no spike in rates for IU employees who rent cars.\nThe changes will eliminate four jobs -- three of them full time -- at the motor pool, though Clapacs said $3.6 million will be generated - $2.2 million of that cash will be used to fund renovations of Franklin and Ballantine halls.\nClapacs said, and repeated several times, that the employees currently holding the IU Motor Pool administrative staffer, mechanic and mechanic's assistant positions that are slated for elimination will be transferred to other departments at IU and will not be let go.
(02/05/07 3:00am)
The battle over the leadership roles of the IU president, which the trustees tried to put to rest a year ago when they restructured the University administration at their January 2005 meeting, seems to have resurfaced again.\nUniversity Faculty Council representatives Ted Miller, an IU Bloomington public affairs professor, and Bart Ng, an IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis mathematics professor, spent the entirety of their briefings to the board of trustees Friday discussing an open letter the IUPUI faculty sent to the trustees. The professors requested more attention from the next IU president and a high research profile.\nThe two-page letter, dated Jan. 18, protests the trustees' Agenda for a Future of Distinction, which, according to the letter, relegates IUPUI to teaching students and stifles the faculty's ability to conduct meaningful research.\n"In order for Indiana University to achieve greatness, both campuses must be recognized, valued and supported as equal partners."\nThe faculty, according to the letter, want IUPUI to be recognized as a research campus in its own right.\nTrustee Tom Reilly questioned the state's ability to fund a third major research campus since Indiana, which he said is a small state, already funds IUB and Purdue University.
(02/03/07 12:43am)
The outsourcing plan for the IU Motor Pool will eliminate four jobs, generate a onetime $3.6 million in capital and allow all IU students 18 years of age and older to rent cars from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.\nThe program, announced Friday by Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Terry Clapacs at the board of trustees' regular meeting, will keep the majority of the motor pool staff intact, though all IU-owned vehicles that are leased to departments or rented to employees will be sold and replaced by leased Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Automotive Resources International cars.\nClapacs said, and repeated several times, that the employees currently holding the IU Motor Pool manager, mechanic and mechanic's assistant positions that are slated for the chopping block will be transferred to other departments at IU and will not be let go.\nThe IU Motor Pool will continue to operate the Campus Safety Escort, Disabled Student Services, Motorist Assistance Program and Garage Services. The Motor Pool will still be in charge of the leased cars, though the service will be financed by Automotive Resources International.\nAs part of its agreement to run the rental car program, Enterprise Rent-A-Car will allow all IU students older than 18 to rent cars. Most rental companies require a person to be 25 to rent a car.\nThe plan also calls for the motor pool to sell off its fleet of nearly 500 vehicles available for employees or departments to rent or lease. \nA large chunk of the revenue the outsourcing will generate -- $2.2 million -- will go to renovate Ballantine and Franklin halls.\nThe trustees applauded the outsourcing program, saying it will allow IU to be more nimble while maintaining its commitment to employing members of the IU community.\nClapacs said he hopes to present the plan for outsourcing the IU Bookstore to the trustees at their March meeting.
(02/02/07 10:36pm)
There will be no smoking allowed at IU-Bloomington. The same goes for every other IU campus across the state. \nThat's a done deal already. The only things left to decide are the particulars of the ban.\nIU President Adam Herbert announced at the board of trustees meeting Friday that he will instruct the head of each campus to submit a plan by Oct. 1 to prohibit smoking.\n"This is about the health and well-being of students, faculty and staff at Indiana University," he said. \nTrustees Sue Talbot and Phil Eskew applauded Herbert's announcement, saying that smoking is one of the biggest health problems facing Indiana.\n"It's the right thing to do," said Eskew, a Carmel, Ind.-based doctor.\nTrustee Vice President Patrick Shoulders expressed concern that prohibiting smoking, particularly on a residential campus such as IUB, could be complex. He urged Herbert to consider the potential ramifications of a smoking ban before enacting one.\nIn her report to the trustees, IU Student Association President Betsey Henke questioned the feasibility of such a ban. A 2003 rule prohibiting smoking within 30 feet of all buildings on campus is not enforced and is ignored by smokers, said Henke, an IU senior.\nHerbert said he was firm in his decision and intense opposition would not dissuade him from banning smoking. \nThe president will also direct the chancellors to adopt programs to help smokers at IU kick the habit, he said.\nIU-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU-East Richmond have both already banned smoking on their campuses.\nRead Monday's issue of the Indiana Daily Student for more information.
(01/23/07 5:18am)
The more than 4,200 women across campus who purchase their birth control at the IU Health Center face dramatic prices increases this year as a result of change in federal law and new pharmaceutical industry practices, health center officials said.\nThe cost of most common forms of birth control have doubled. Ortho Tri-Cyclen and Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo, both $10 per month last year, are now $20, said Cheryl Thomas, director of the IU Health Center Pharmacy. \nThe NuvaRing, which was $12 per cycle, is now $40.\n"That one's depressing," Thomas said.\nWhen IU's contract with drug makers expired at the end of 2006, so did the steep discounts on contraceptives that drug makers have traditionally given to the University and other college health centers.\nThomas was notified in a letter in December that IU's costs would increase. \n"It's very sad," she said.\nBut IU is not alone in this predicament, Thomas said. \nHealth centers across the country are losing discounts on drugs for several reasons. First, drug makers are less inclined to extend discounts on birth control once generic versions of the drug hit the market. Second, a new federal law prohibits drug makers from giving the group-purchasing discounts university health centers once enjoyed, Thomas said.\nThe increase makes the IU Health Center's prices more comparable to costs on the open market. CVS Pharmacy sells the NuvaRing for almost $50.00 per cycle, about $10 more than the health center's new charge.\nPlanned Parenthood in Bloomington, 421 S. College Ave., sells Ortho Tri-Cyclen for $19 and the NuvaRing for $25. However, even those prices are increasing as a result of higher costs from the drug companies, said Larisa Niles-Carnes, a clinic assistant at Planned Parenthood. Starting March 1, most contraceptives will increase $4 or $5, she said.\nSophomore Jen Miller started purchasing her birth control pills at the Health Center three months ago. She ordered them from the Planned Parenthood in her hometown of Highland, Ind. until she found out about the Health Center's discounted prices.\n"How can you beat $10, you know?" she said. "I haven't gotten my refill yet. If they had told me (about the price increase) when I first went in there I would've freaked out."\nStill, Miller said it is likely she will continue to fill her prescription on campus. Her roommates get their contraceptives from Planned Parenthood, where she said they spend $17 on their prescriptions.\n"It's not really that big (of) a difference," Miller said. \nThomas said she doesn't expect the price increases at the health center will create much hardship for her patients because about half of the 45,000 to 65,000 doses the health center sells each year are billed directly to insurance, meaning that many women don't have to pay full price for their birth control pills.\nThomas encouraged anyone who has problems paying for their birth control to talk to her or pharmacy staff, since programs are available to help defray the cost.\nSenior Amy Gastelum, president of the IU Women's Student Association, said her group was not aware of the cost increase, but said the Health Center should have publicly notified students about the change. \nHealth Center nurses have been instructed the tell women that the costs went up, but, when the Health Center posted information about drugs in the past, students did not pay attention to the flyers, Thomas said.\n-Staff writer Michelle Manchir contributed to this article.
(01/08/07 5:40am)
ELLETTSVILLE -- No one would know by looking at the faces of the soldiers waiting on the floor of the Edgewood High School gymnasium Saturday evening, but the throngs of people in the bleachers were cheering for them.\nThe members of the Bloomington-based 2nd Battalion, 150th Field Artillery of the Indiana National Guard, lined up one after another, marched sharply onto the hardwood and stood erect, their hands at their sides, in front of the folding chairs set up for them in the middle of the basketball court. \nEach man's face was stoic -- eyes forward, lips pursed in an expression that was just a muscle twinge away from a frown. \nBut Saturday night was for them. The family, friends and well-wishers were there to cheer the soldiers for everything they had given and sacrificed during their 15 months in Mosul, Iraq.\n"Taskforce Raider," as the unit was nicknamed, returned home Christmas Eve. The community organized the event, best described as a "pep rally," to help the nearly 150 soldiers of the unit find some closure and show them their efforts are appreciated, said state Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington. \nA group of local politicians gathered to thank the soldiers for their services. Welch, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, state Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, and Rep. Baron Hill, D-9th, all took the podium. \nMiss Indiana and IU graduate student Betsy Uschkrat sang the national anthem. \nIU men's basketball coach Kelvin Sampson served as an honorary co-chair of the event. But NCAA sanctions that prevent him from having any contact with high-school students forced Sampson to address the troops in a different gymnasium before the rally.\nEach politician spoke of the sacrifice the soldiers gave. Each expressed an inability to understand what the men had gone through, having not been to Iraq themselves. And each expressed happiness that the soldiers returned.\n"I am fortunate, on behalf of the city of Bloomington, to say to you the prettiest words in the English language: Welcome home," Kruzan told the crowd.\nDespite the joyous atmosphere of the evening, the ceremony turned somber when Maj. Kirk White, the company's executive officer, paid tribute to the one solider lost during the unit's 15-month tour of duty, calling him one of the unit's "up-and-coming young leaders." Staff Sgt. Paul Pabla of Huntington, Ind., was killed by a sniper in July.\nAt every instance that required the audience to be silent -- each speaker, the national anthem, the pledge of allegiance, the benediction -- crying babies and restless children paid a noisy testament to the families that these men left behind in Indiana.\nMarlyce Webster, a Danville, Ind., resident, came to Ellettsville to support her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Malcolm Webster, with her two daughters. She was not surprised that the community and friends came together to organize the rally.\n"It's like a big family," she said.\nThe soldiers themselves expressed their happiness to be home as they mingled with loved ones after the event. Their priorities for their first months back in civilian life varied -- some wanted to rest and relax, others desired vacations.\nBut Staff Sgt. Shawn Settles, a Wilkinson, Ind., resident whose daughter was born while he was in Iraq, knew exactly what he wanted.\n"I need to get to know my kids," he said.
(01/08/07 5:34am)
NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- For Rep. Baron Hill, the second time around is a little sweeter than the first. \nThe fourth-term Democrat took the oath of office as 9th District Congressman on Saturday in the Lee H. Hamilton Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse after defeating Republican Mike Sodrel Nov. 7 during one of the closest and most-watched congressional races in the country. Hill previously represented the 9th District for three terms from 1998 until 2004, when Sodrel beat him by fewer than 1,500 votes.\nNow, back in Washington after riding a national frustration with the Republican majority in Congress, Hill said this oath of office was more special than his previous three because voters gave him another chance to represent them after a two-year hiatus. \n"I'm honored that you would give me this -- I should say another -- opportunity," he told a near-capacity crowd of supporters in a second-floor courtroom of the New Albany, Ind., Federal Building. \nHill said he expected a handful of supporters to come to his swearing in, but he was overwhelmed by the number of people who attended. After his speech, many of these supporters lined up to hug, congratulate and have their photographs taken with the congressman.\nIn his speech Hill said he wanted to cut prescription drug prices for senior citizens, work to reduce American dependence on foreign oil by promoting biofuels and research in clean-energy technology and improve health-care coverage for Americans. \nThe congressman also touched on new initiatives his Democratic colleagues have already begun to work on, including reducing the budget deficit and national debt and limiting the influence lobbyists have on members of Congress by banning travel on corporate jets.\nHill also said the new Democratic majority is working to reduce the cost of higher education by cutting the interest rates on federal student loans.\nIncreased pressure to reduce the number of earmarks on bills should not affect his ability to bring federal dollars to IU, he said.\nSodrel helped bring millions of dollars to IU, including more than $2 million from a Defense Department bill passed in September.\nWhen asked about President Bush's reported plan to send more troops to Iraq in an effort to stabilize the country, Hill said he disagreed with the proposal and that the president was not listening to his military advisers in making the decision. \nSenior Ozair Shariff, a member of the lobbying group Indiana Muslim Political Action Committee Taskforce, lives in nearby Clarksville, Ind., and said he attended the ceremony because he has been a Hill supporter for many years.\nBecause the congressman visited Bloomington and IU several times during his campaign, Shariff said Hill understands IU's importance in his constituency, even though Monroe County is in the far northern area of the 9th District.
(01/05/07 5:05am)
The owners of Pizza Express hope a fire that gutted the office of their 10th Street store Tuesday won't cost them too much business.\nThe Pizza Express in Crosstown Plaza, 1791 E. 10th St., will be closed for at least four weeks as workers repair fire, smoke and water damage caused by a short in a breaker box that set the rear of the store ablaze, said Sara Sheikh, the communications manager for One World Enterprises, the company that owns Pizza Express.\nThe Bloomington-based pizza chain is setting up a call center to help route many of its delivery customers through the three other stores in town, though sales at 10th Street store account for the biggest chunk of Pizza Express' business. Insurance adjusters were still calculating the cost of the damage, Sheikh said.\n"It will definitely cost us," said Dave Schwandt, the manager of One World Enterprises. \nThe Bloomington Fire Department responded to the fire at Pizza Express at about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, said Bloomington Fire Department Chief Jeff Barlow. Fire crews extinguished the blaze in the office in about 20 minutes and were able to prevent it from spreading beyond the Pizza Express store. No one was injured.\nInvestigators ruled the fire accidental and believe it might have started at the circuit breaker, Barlow said.\nThe fire sent smoke through the ventilation systems in the other businesses in the building. Hi-Tek Hair, located next door to Pizza Express, has been closed since the fire because of smoke damage, though owner Rebecca Washel said she hopes to reopen Friday.\nJulie Behr, the salon's coordinator, said she, another employee and a customer were at work when they heard a loud bang. When she looked out the back door, the Pizza Express employees were standing outside and told her to leave the building. \nLennie's, which is in the same building as Pizza Express, closed Tuesday but reopened Wednesday, Schwandt said.\nSheikh said her company is fortunate to have three other stores in Bloomington to pick up the slack, though she said the walk-up business will suffer from the closure because of its proximity to campus.\nFor a listing of Pizza Express locations, addresses and hours, visit http://express.bloomington.com.
(01/05/07 1:49am)
John R. Myers II, the man convicted of the 2000 murder of IU sophomore Jill Behrman, wants a new trial.\nPatrick Baker, the Indianapolis lawyer hired to represent Myers, said in a Dec. 29, 2006, motion that his client should be granted a second chance to prove his innocence because the defense was not told about a piece of evidence. Baker also claims the jury that convicted his client was tainted by outside influences.\nAfter a Dec. 20 press conference in which Myers' mother asked the public to come forward with any evidence that could exonerate her son, the defense learned about a green bicycle helmet similar to one Behrman can be seen wearing in photographs. In November 2000, a man found the helmet a quarter-mile west of the Behrmans' home, according to the motion. The defense was not able to inspect the helmet or have it tested for fingerprints, hair samples or DNA before or during the trial. \nThe defense believes the bicycle helmet might have given the jury a reasonable doubt that Myers killed Behrman or even led to another suspect, Baker wrote.\nBaker also pointed to a court investigation that found a juror's son dropped off a television set at the hotel where the jury was sequestered and another juror had a phone conversation with his girlfriend in which she told him, "The media is making John Myers look like a monster."\nBefore the trial began, Judge Christopher Burnham ordered that the jury be sequestered in a local hotel so they would not view media reports of the trial, which could influence the decision. Baker said the TV and phone call both violate those orders and warrant a new trial.\nBaker also cited an investigation that said some of the jury members drank after the trial each day and started a food fight at dinner one night causing a "circus-like atmosphere" in the jury room. \nBurnham ruled that when he interviewed each juror before closing arguments at the trial, he determined that the jury had not been tainted by outside influences. Since Baker did not present any new information about the jury's behavior, he dismissed that part of the motion.\nHowever, Burnham gave prosecutors 20 days to respond to Baker's claims before Burnham will rule whether the new evidence entitles Myers to a new trial.
(01/03/07 5:28pm)
An electrical fire at the Crosstown Plaza Pizza Express on Tuesday morning gutted the store's office as smoke spread to the three other businesses in the building.\nPizza Express, 1791 E. 10th St., will be closed for at least one to two weeks as workers repair the fire and smoke damage, said Dave Schwandt, the manager of One World Enterprises, the company that owns Pizza Express. \nThe Bloomington-based pizza chain will try to reroute many of its delivery customers through the three other stores in town, though sales at the store on 10th Street account for the biggest chunk of Pizza Express' business.\n"It will definitely cost us," Schwandt said. \nThe Bloomington Fire Department responded to an active fire call at Pizza Express and a possible electrical problem next door at Lennie's at about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday, said Bloomington Fire Department Chief Jeff Barlow. When they arrived, firefighters found a fire in the office of Pizza Express. Fire crews extinguished the blaze in about 20 minutes and were able to prevent it from spreading beyond the Pizza Express store. No one was injured. \nThough investigators were still examining the cause of the fire, they believe it might have started at the circuit breaker, Barlow said.\nSchwandt said he hopes to open Lennie's again Tuesday night or Wednesday afternoon at the latest. The 10th Street Dagwood's, which is in the same building as the Pizza Express, was just awaiting the all-clear from health inspectors to reopen and should be up and running Tuesday night, said Dagwood's owner John Santos.
(11/16/06 5:00am)
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is a daunting prospect. \nMost of my friends' mothers didn't even attempt to on Thanksgiving. Their families packed their things, drove over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house and let her do all the work. This has left me to wonder if when this generation of grandmothers dies, Thanksgiving dinner as we know it will fade away, only to be replaced by TV dinners and Hamburger Helper.\nMy mother, who began her day in the kitchen at 9 a.m. and didn't end it until the last dish was on the table at 5 p.m., quite literally waged war against the meal. Between balancing squash, corn, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sherbet, pumpkin pie, two kinds of stuffing, gravy and of course the damned turkey, she looked physically drained by the time the family sat down to dinner.\nAt the annual Thanksgiving get-together of Indiana Daily Student staffers, the job of cooking the turkey always falls, to much complaining and protest, on the most mature and oldest staffers, in the hopes that along with the ability to hold their tongues and manage their time well, these people have also somehow picked up the ability to effectively cook a 25-pound monstrosity of a turkey in a dinky college apartment oven.\nAnd feeding that many people is expensive. For eight adults, a relatively standard gathering by American standards, the Butterball Turkey Web site (www.butterball.com) recommends serving 12 pounds of turkey. At $1.29 or more per pound, that can really add up. Tack on sides and dessert, and a student who is looking to treat his friends to a home-cooked holiday meal could end up spending beer money for the next semester-and-a-half.\nBut it's not nearly as hard or as costly as it seems. By cutting a few barely perceptible corners and penny pinching, I cobbled together a Thanksgiving dinner for eight starved college students with just more than $25 and five hours of labor.\nAnd, save the pair of grease fires and some longer-than-expected cook times, it all went off without a hitch, which is remarkable since the last time I cooked for guests, my hamburgers were nigh inedible and two hours late. \nWhat was the secret to my success? Love. No, really. Using a lot of garlic to mask the cheap canned vegetables helped. Closely following my trusty cookbook was essential. The sage culinary advice of Mamma Zennie came in handy, too. But it was really just love that made my meal work. None of the dishes were particularly complex, I just had to take the time and overcome the daunting mountain of Thanksgiving dinner. \nA trailer park Thanksgiving\nI grew up in a household that valued good food. Most of my mother's pantry is filled with organic goods. Vegetables were always fresh and chemical free. Thanksgiving dinner cost about as much as a semester's worth of tuition, too.\nI can shop frugally at Marsh or Kroger, but to feed eight people on a shoestring budget, I needed help. So, I employed the help of my roommate, who has the proud distinction of having grown up in a trailer park.\nWhen I told him of my project, he answered ominously with a single word: Aldi.\nThat's right, to cook this cheaply, even Kroger brand is too pricey.\nSo cheap it's a Wonder\nTo cut prices even further, we went waaaay across town to the day-old bread store, at 3301 Indiana 37, for the bread stuffing. \nThe shop, which is officially called Wonder/Hostess, is an absolute haven for all the things that make American children obese. But it also has really cheap bread.\nTwo 2-pound loaves of industrial-size restaurant and hotel white bread and a dozen instant dinner rolls rang up at $3.28. \nCheap food, expensive shopping carts\nThe first thing to know about Aldi is that they charge a deposit of one quarter to take a shopping cart, and they don't have bags or baggers. These are all things that help save money, apparently. \nThe second thing to know about Aldi is that there is a lot of really cheap food. Canned vegetables: 34 cents each. Potatoes: 10 pounds for $5. \nAfter comparing prices, we realized that it would be far cheaper to roast two chickens than one turkey -- it would probably cook faster, too.\nPlus, Thanksgiving isn't just about turkey. A roasted and stuffed chicken can taste very similar.\nSo, for 45 cents per pound, I bought two approximately 5-and-a-half-pound chickens. \nAldi even had an aluminum roaster pan for about $2.50. \nIn the end, I bought everything I needed (minus some evaporated milk for the pie) for $21.74. \nThe Joy of Cooking\nI am no chef. I have done my share of experimenting in the kitchen, but only recently have I been able to turn an even remotely edible result.\nMy only guide in this endeavor was the 915-page 1975 edition of "The Joy of Cooking," which I only recently bought for about $30. It has descriptions of how to do just about anything and everything, from cooking road kill to setting a table for a seven-course meal. It is so all-encompassing that most chefs use it only as a reference. Referring to "The Joy of Cooking" for step-by-step instructions and recipes for cooking a basic staple like Thanksgiving dinner is about like using a hand ax to open a peanut -- it works but it's not as precise as you'd like it to be.
(11/16/06 4:47am)
Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is a daunting prospect. \nMost of my friends' mothers didn't even attempt to on Thanksgiving. Their families packed their things, drove over the hills and through the woods to grandmother's house and let her do all the work. This has left me to wonder if when this generation of grandmothers dies, Thanksgiving dinner as we know it will fade away, only to be replaced by TV dinners and Hamburger Helper.\nMy mother, who began her day in the kitchen at 9 a.m. and didn't end it until the last dish was on the table at 5 p.m., quite literally waged war against the meal. Between balancing squash, corn, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, cranberry sherbet, pumpkin pie, two kinds of stuffing, gravy and of course the damned turkey, she looked physically drained by the time the family sat down to dinner.\nAt the annual Thanksgiving get-together of Indiana Daily Student staffers, the job of cooking the turkey always falls, to much complaining and protest, on the most mature and oldest staffers, in the hopes that along with the ability to hold their tongues and manage their time well, these people have also somehow picked up the ability to effectively cook a 25-pound monstrosity of a turkey in a dinky college apartment oven.\nAnd feeding that many people is expensive. For eight adults, a relatively standard gathering by American standards, the Butterball Turkey Web site (www.butterball.com) recommends serving 12 pounds of turkey. At $1.29 or more per pound, that can really add up. Tack on sides and dessert, and a student who is looking to treat his friends to a home-cooked holiday meal could end up spending beer money for the next semester-and-a-half.\nBut it's not nearly as hard or as costly as it seems. By cutting a few barely perceptible corners and penny pinching, I cobbled together a Thanksgiving dinner for eight starved college students with just more than $25 and five hours of labor.\nAnd, save the pair of grease fires and some longer-than-expected cook times, it all went off without a hitch, which is remarkable since the last time I cooked for guests, my hamburgers were nigh inedible and two hours late. \nWhat was the secret to my success? Love. No, really. Using a lot of garlic to mask the cheap canned vegetables helped. Closely following my trusty cookbook was essential. The sage culinary advice of Mamma Zennie came in handy, too. But it was really just love that made my meal work. None of the dishes were particularly complex, I just had to take the time and overcome the daunting mountain of Thanksgiving dinner. \nA trailer park Thanksgiving\nI grew up in a household that valued good food. Most of my mother's pantry is filled with organic goods. Vegetables were always fresh and chemical free. Thanksgiving dinner cost about as much as a semester's worth of tuition, too.\nI can shop frugally at Marsh or Kroger, but to feed eight people on a shoestring budget, I needed help. So, I employed the help of my roommate, who has the proud distinction of having grown up in a trailer park.\nWhen I told him of my project, he answered ominously with a single word: Aldi.\nThat's right, to cook this cheaply, even Kroger brand is too pricey.\nSo cheap it's a Wonder\nTo cut prices even further, we went waaaay across town to the day-old bread store, at 3301 Indiana 37, for the bread stuffing. \nThe shop, which is officially called Wonder/Hostess, is an absolute haven for all the things that make American children obese. But it also has really cheap bread.\nTwo 2-pound loaves of industrial-size restaurant and hotel white bread and a dozen instant dinner rolls rang up at $3.28. \nCheap food, expensive shopping carts\nThe first thing to know about Aldi is that they charge a deposit of one quarter to take a shopping cart, and they don't have bags or baggers. These are all things that help save money, apparently. \nThe second thing to know about Aldi is that there is a lot of really cheap food. Canned vegetables: 34 cents each. Potatoes: 10 pounds for $5. \nAfter comparing prices, we realized that it would be far cheaper to roast two chickens than one turkey -- it would probably cook faster, too.\nPlus, Thanksgiving isn't just about turkey. A roasted and stuffed chicken can taste very similar.\nSo, for 45 cents per pound, I bought two approximately 5-and-a-half-pound chickens. \nAldi even had an aluminum roaster pan for about $2.50. \nIn the end, I bought everything I needed (minus some evaporated milk for the pie) for $21.74. \nThe Joy of Cooking\nI am no chef. I have done my share of experimenting in the kitchen, but only recently have I been able to turn an even remotely edible result.\nMy only guide in this endeavor was the 915-page 1975 edition of "The Joy of Cooking," which I only recently bought for about $30. It has descriptions of how to do just about anything and everything, from cooking road kill to setting a table for a seven-course meal. It is so all-encompassing that most chefs use it only as a reference. Referring to "The Joy of Cooking" for step-by-step instructions and recipes for cooking a basic staple like Thanksgiving dinner is about like using a hand ax to open a peanut -- it works but it's not as precise as you'd like it to be.