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(06/12/08 3:04pm)
MESEBERG, Germany – President Bush, in a fresh warning to Tehran, said Wednesday he favors a peaceful resolution to the nuclear standoff with Iran but has not ruled out the possible use of military force.\nBush spoke at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, but his words were aimed at Iran. Bush warned Iran against dragging out the dispute to run the clock out on his presidency.\n“My first choice is to solve this diplomatically,” said Bush, who is rallying European allies to back tougher sanctions against Iran. But he also said: “All options are on the table,” a phrase he has repeatedly used in reference to a possible military strike against Iran, even as a last resort.\nIran, which says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes, had a message for Bush on Wednesday too.\nPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Bush’s presidency was over and the president has failed in his goals to attack Iran and stop its nuclear program. Addressing thousands of people in central Iran, Ahmadinejad described Bush as “wicked,” and said that Bush was targeting Iran after dispatching the U.S. military into Iraq and Afghanistan.\n“I tell him (Bush) ... your era has come to an end,” Ahmadinejad said. “With the grace of God, you won’t be able to harm even one centimeter of the sacred land of Iran.”\nMerkel, who appeared with Bush at the German government’s main guesthouse called Schloss Meseberg, said if Iran does not agree to suspend its enrichment program, additional sanctions would be needed.\n“If Iran does not meet its commitments, then further sanctions will simply have to follow,” she said.\nThe U.S. and its European allies are waiting to decide if stiffer sanctions should be levied against Iran until after the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, visits Tehran to present a package of incentives in exchange for stopping its enrichment program. The offer, an updated version of one that Iran ignored a few years ago, was developed by the United States, along with Germany, Britain, France, Russia and China.\nAhmadinejad said pressures and sanctions won’t succeed in forcing Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program. “If the enemy thinks they can break the Iranian nation with pressure, they are wrong,” he said.\nThe U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of limited sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for bomb. Iran continues to defy them.\nMerkel said she favors having sanctions decided through the U.N. Security Council, but that doesn’t preclude any discussion within the European Union about whether there are other punitive measures, perhaps in the banking sector.\nAt Bush’s final U.S.-EU summit Tuesday in Kranj, Slovenia, the leaders issued a joint declaration that said the United States and Europe “are ready to supplement those (previous) sanctions with additional measures” if Iran does not halt enrichment. It also said they would “work together ... to take steps to ensure Iranian banks cannot abuse the international banking system to support proliferation and terrorism.”\nAddressing opponents of taking certain sanctions, Merkel said “Let us think of the people in Iran. This is what is essential. I think these people deserve a much more – sort of a better outlook ... and we would hope for the leadership in Iran to finally see reason.”
(06/05/08 2:45am)
Police have detained Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai after his convoy was stopped at a roadblock, an opposition party official said Wednesday. Tsvangirai and a group of about 14 party officials were being detained at a police station in Lupane, north of Bulawayo, spokesman George Sibotshiwe said. Tsvangirai had been campaigning in the area ahead of a presidential runoff on June 27 against President Robert Mugabe. Tsvangirai claims he won the first round outright, and that official results released May 2 showing a runoff was necessary were fraudulent.
(06/05/08 2:43am)
SAN FRANCISCO – California’s highest court Wednesday refused to stay its decision legalizing same-sex marriage in the state, clearing the final hurdle for gay couples to start tying the knot this month.\nConservative religious and legal groups had asked the California Supreme Court to stop its May 15 order requiring state and local officials to sanction same-sex unions from becoming effective until voters have the chance to consider the issue in November. The justices’ decisions typically become final after 30 days.\nAn initiative to ban gay marriage has qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot. Its passage would overrule the court’s decision by amending the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.\nIn arguing for a delay, the amendment’s sponsors predicted chaos if couples married in the next few months, only to have the practice halted at the ballot box.\nThe four justices who denied the stay request were the same judges who joined in the majority opinion that found withholding marriage from same-sex couples constituted discrimination. The three dissenting justices said they thought a hearing on whether the stay should be granted was warranted.\nThe majority did not elaborate on its reasons for denying the stay, but simply issued a one-page order saying its original ruling on marriage would be final at 5 p.m. on June 16.\nWednesday’s denial clears the way for gay couples in the nation’s most populous state to get married starting June 17, when state officials have said counties must start issuing new gender-neutral marriage licenses.
(06/05/08 2:42am)
NEW YORK – Angling for a vice presidential nod, Hillary Rodham Clinton refused to bow out of the Democratic race Tuesday, hoping to maintain leverage as Barack Obama clinched the delegates needed to secure the party’s nomination.\n“A lot of people are asking, ‘What does Hillary want?’” Clinton told supporters at a rally in New York. “I want what I have always fought for: I want the nearly 18 million people who voted for me to be respected and heard.”\nClinton told the crowd she would consult in the coming days with advisers about the fate of her moribund candidacy. But her remarks came hours after she told congressional colleagues she would be open to joining Obama as his running mate.\nMany of her top supporters spoke openly of Clinton’s potential vice presidential prospects. Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel under President Clinton, said he told the former first lady Tuesday that he was initiating a petition to press Obama to select her for the second spot on the ticket. He said Clinton did not encourage or discourage the step.\n“If he doesn’t have her, I think he can still win. With her on the ticket, he can’t be beat,” Davis said.\nClinton’s national finance chairman, Hassan Nemazee, said he was also pushing an Obama-Clinton ticket, claiming that together they would be able to raise $200 to $250 million for the \ngeneral election.\nAdvisers indicated earlier Tuesday that the former first lady would publicly acknowledge in her speech that Obama had crossed the delegate threshold. But she changed her mind and refused to do so even after television networks and The Associated Press declared the Illinois senator had sealed the nomination.\nHer advisers said they considered the delegate numbers to be unreliable, even as the AP estimated Obama had several more than the 2,118 needed to nominate. Earlier, Clinton acknowledged on a conference call with New York lawmakers that the delegate math was not there for her to overtake Obama, according to several participants on the call.\nShe said none of that publicly Tuesday but vowed the Democratic Party would unite in its effort to defeat Republican John McCain in November.\nClinton won South Dakota’s primary Tuesday, while Obama won Montana’s. The two contests rounded out a historic five-month primary battle.\nThe South Dakota victory, which was unexpected, gave Clinton an excuse to buy more time to consider options, her advisers said.\nOn the conference call with New York colleagues, Clinton, a New York senator, said she would be willing to become Obama’s running mate if it would help Democrats win the White House.\nClinton’s remarks came in response to a question from Democratic Rep. Nydia Velazquez, who said she believed the best way for Obama to win key voting blocs, including Hispanics, would be for him to choose Clinton as his running mate.\n“I am open to it,” Clinton replied, if it would help the party’s prospects in November. Her direct quote was described by two lawmakers who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for Clinton.\n“I deserve some time to get this right,” she said, even as the other lawmakers forcefully argued for her to press Obama to choose her as his running mate.\nJoseph Crowley, a Queens Democrat who participated in the call, said her answer “left open the possibility that she would do anything that she can to contribute toward a Democratic victory in November. There was no hedging on that. Whatever she can do to contribute, she was willing to do.”\nAnother person on the call, Rep. Jose Serrano of New York City, said her answer was “just what I was hoping to hear. ... Of course she was interested in being president, but she’s just as interested in making sure Democrats get elected in November.”\nRep. Charles Rangel, a devoted booster of Clinton who helped pave the way for her successful Senate campaign, said he spoke to her Tuesday and got much the same answer.\n“She’s run a great campaign and even though she’ll be a great senator, she has a lot of followers that obviously Obama doesn’t have, and clearly the numbers are against her and so I think they bring all parts of the Democratic Party together and then some,” Rangel said.\nAides to the Illinois senator said he and Clinton had not spoken about the prospects of her joining the ticket.\nMost of Clinton’s campaign staff will be let go and will be paid through June 15, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge her plans.\nUniversal health care, Clinton’s signature issue as first lady in the 1990s, was a point of dispute between Obama and the New York senator during their nomination fight.\nClinton reiterated her commitment to that issue in her remarks Tuesday.\n“It is a fight I will continue until every single American has health insurance. No exceptions and no excuses,” she said.\nOther names have been floated as possible running mates for Obama, including former rivals New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and governors including Janet Napolitano of Arizona, Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Tim Kaine of Virginia. Also mentioned are foreign policy experts including former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, and other senators such as Missouri’s Claire McCaskill and Virginia’s Jim Webb.\nObama could also look outside the party to people such as anti-war Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska or independent New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Or he could look to one of his prominent supporters such as former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota or try to bring on a Clinton supporter, such as Indiana’s Sen. Evan Bayh or retired Gen. Wesley Clark.
(06/05/08 2:42am)
WASHINGTON – Israel’s fears that Iran could obtain nuclear weapons and the Israeli government’s attempts to negotiate peace with the Palestinians and Syria are top agenda items when Israel’s beleaguered prime minister, Ehud Olmert, meets President Bush.\nThe most pressing issue for Wednesday’s talks, however, might not even be openly discussed: Olmert’s deteriorating political situation back home, where his popularity has nosedived because of a new corruption scandal and where the end of his term is largely seen as just a matter of time.\nThose developments are jeopardizing Bush’s already ambitious timetable for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by year’s end and are making it unlikely that Bush or Olmert will be able to shepherd the process to completion.\nFor Olmert, a friendly meeting with a stalwart ally like Bush is a marked change from what he left behind in Israel, where his political allies are conspicuously refusing to come to his defense and jostling for his job.\nTopping the list of discussion points at the Bush-Olmert meeting is Iran, a prime concern for both countries, though each has a different intelligence assessment on the state of Iran’s nuclear program. Israel believes that Iran has not suspended its nuclear weapons program, despite a report to the contrary by U.S. intelligence.\n“I think they both made their points very clear, and Israel has made it clear that they think ... that intelligence is wrong, and that Iran is still pursuing a nuclear weapon,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said ahead of the meeting.\nIsraeli newspapers also have reported that Olmert hopes to acquire a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system, advanced radar and new warplanes.\nIn an indication of what Olmert is likely to tell Bush, the Israeli prime minister told thousands of Israel supporters at the annual convention of the pro-Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Tuesday that the Iranian threat “must be stopped by all possible means.”\nOlmert said international sanctions aimed at stopping Iran from developing nuclear weapons must be ratcheted up urgently, and he suggested measures like banning Iranian businessmen and financial transactions and imposing sanctions on Iran’s crucial import of gasoline.\nOlmert said the world should see that “the long-term cost of a nuclear Iran greatly outweighs the short-term benefits of doing business with Iran.”
(05/13/08 2:58pm)
PICHER, Okla. (AP) – Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in piles of debris after tornados and storms rumbled across the region a day earlier and killed at least 22 people in three states.\nSeven people died in Picher, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution here, and officials held out hope that they wouldn’t find any more bodies.\nResidents said the tornado created a surreal scene as it tore through town Saturday afternoon, injuring 150 people, overturning cars, damaging dozens of homes and throwing mattresses and twisted metal high into the canopy of trees.\n“I swear I could see cars floating,” said Herman Hernandez, 68. “And there was a roar, louder and louder.”\nEd Keheley was headed to town to help out Saturday night when he heard a woman screaming. He looked over to see her hand reaching out of debris.\n“She was sitting in the bathtub, she had curlers in her hair and she wanted out of there,” said Keheley, who along with several others pulled her out.\nThe same storm system then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least 14 others. The storms moved eastward; on Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least one person.\nIn Seneca, Mo., about 20 miles southeast of Picher near the Oklahoma state line, crews on Sunday combed farm fields looking for bodies and survivors. Ten of the dead were killed when a twister struck near Seneca.\nNineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, which includes Seneca, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman for county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.\nSusie Stonner, a Missouri emergency management spokeswoman, said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. But she said Newton County officials had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.\nJane Lant was sorting through the debris of her bridal shop about 10 miles north of Seneca. A body wrapped in blue tarp lay next to the shop. Her husband’s feed store and a home across the road were also destroyed.\nLant said they were thankful the store had closed an hour before the twister hit.\n“We would have had people in here at 6 when it hit,” she said.\nIn Picher, some homes were reduced to their foundations, others lost several walls. In one home, the tornado knocked down a bedroom wall, but left clothes hanging neatly in a closet.\n“People were just wandering up and down the streets. Some had blood on them, some were dazed,” Keheley said.\nA Best Western hotel sign was blown miles before coming to rest against a post. At one home, a basketball hoop planted in concrete had its metal support twisted so the rim hung only about 3 feet above ground.\nBroken glass was strewn around the inside of 30-year-old Michael Richardson’s home, but a wrapped Mother’s Day gift and a laptop computer were left unscathed on the kitchen counter.\nFrank Geasland, Ottawa County’s emergency manager said, a government-sponsored buyout of homes in the town left some residences vacant, and this may have prevented a greater loss of life.\nThe National Weather Service sent out a tornado warning at 5:26 p.m., 13 minutes before the tornado hit Picher, said David Jankowski, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Tulsa. Tornado sirens warned residents to take shelter.\nThe twister was the deadliest in Oklahoma since a May 3, 1999 twister that killed 44 people in the Oklahoma City area.\nThe National Weather Service estimated that at least eight tornadoes had been spawned in Oklahoma along six storm tracks. Three teams were dispatched to assess damage, meteorologist Steve Amburn said.\nOn Sunday, storms rumbled across Georgia, killing at least one person in Dublin, about 121 miles southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether the storms produced any tornadoes.\nGeorgia Power officials say at least 80,000 residents are without electricity across the state, mostly concentrated in the metro Atlanta area and the Macon area.\nIn storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado collapsed a home and a business, and there were reports of a few people trapped in buildings, said Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson.\nTornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on Feb. 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2. In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged homes and has slowed farmers in their planting.
(05/13/08 2:57pm)
KHARTOUM, Sudan – Hundreds of Darfur rebels reached the outskirts of Sudan’s capital Saturday for the first time and clashed with security forces, rebel and government officials said.\nSudan’s army deployed on the streets of Khartoum, putting up checkpoints and imposing an overnight curfew. An Interior Ministry statement said the curfew was in effect while the government was “dealing with the infiltrators.”\nState television showed footage of burning trucks and other cars pockmarked by bullets. At least one body was sprawled in a dusty street, covered in cloth, and another victim was slumped in the cab of a jeep nearby. Men in traditional white robes crowded around the wreckage.\nThe clashes come after days of government warnings that the Justice and Equality Movement, one of Darfur’s main rebel movements, was going to target Khartoum. Saturday’s attack is the closest the rebels have ever gotten to the capital.\nAfter nightfall, Interior Minister Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed told state TV that government troops had successfully expelled the rebels from the city but were still searching for possible remnants of the force.\nThe government channel also reported that a rebel leader and one of his aides were killed in the clashes, but JEM could not immediately be reached for comment. Hamed said many rebels were detained and about 40 vehicles were destroyed or confiscated.\nState TV also showed pictures of soldiers seizing what appeared to be rebel jeeps mounted with rocket or mortar launchers and ammunition. Government troops drove the vehicles down empty streets, waving their weapons to signal victory and saluting colleagues.\nThe government later extended the curfew in Khartoum, saying some rebel members have shed their uniforms and are hiding among civilians. Security forces ordered residents to clear the streets and armored vehicles were patrolling the capital. Bridges to Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city, have been cut by government forces.\nIn a statement, the military said that “elements” of JEM had infiltrated northern Omdurman. The statement said the Sudanese forces had stopped the main advance of the JEM forces in neighboring province Kordofan, but that a few had reached Khartoum.\nJEM leader Abu Zumam, however, told The Associated Press by telephone that hundreds of his fighters had reached Omdurman and engaged government forces. Gunfire could be heard in the background.\n“We entered Omdurman by force,” he said, adding that his army of some 700 vehicles planned to take over the state radio building in the city.\nJEM once confined its activities to Darfur, where local ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003 complaining of discrimination.\nIn the last year however, JEM has widened its activities to include Kordofan, the vast province between the capital and Darfur.\nMore than 200,000 have died in Sudan’s Darfur region and 2.5 million have fled to refugee camps since 2003. Sudan denies backing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads accused of the worst atrocities in the conflict.\nOn Saturday, the country’s interior minister accused neighboring Chad of supporting what he called “mercenaries” who aimed to hit Khartoum. “Chad wants to hit Sudan in the heart,” Hamed told state TV.\nSudan also accused Chad of attacking a border area to provide cover for JEM’s attacks against the capital.\nThe Sudanese army spokesman, Brigadier General Osman al-Agbash, said Chadian forces on Friday attacked the border and were repelled with “heavy losses on the attacking Chadian forces,” he said according to the official state news agency SUNA.\nRelations between the two countries, which share a long arid border region home to numerous armed groups have long been strained.\nChad has accused Sudanese authorities of arming rebels who launched a failed assault February on the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. The rebels reached the gate of the presidential palace, but fled toward Sudan after Chad’s army repelled them in fighting that left hundreds dead.\nSudan, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused Chad of supporting the rebellion in Darfur.\nThough the two countries signed peace agreement in March promising to prevent armed groups from operating along each other’s shared borders, the accusations have continued unabated.
(05/13/08 2:57pm)
BAGHDAD – Shiite groups brokered a reported cease-fire Saturday with militants fighting U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City as the country’s army launched an offensive in Mosul against al-Qaida’s main bastion in Iraq.\nSheik Salah al-Obeidi, an aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, said the cease-fire will go into effect Sunday. The cease-fire may not necessarily end the seven-week-old clashes in Sadr City, the stronghold of al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, as U.S. military has blamed clashes on breakaway groups.\nThe bulk of the 60,000-strong Mahdi Army is not believed to have participated in the clashes. Instead the violence is blamed on splinter groups that have refused to honor a general cease-fire ordered by al-Sadr last August. Al-Sadr has directed his supporters to only fight when attacked.\nIraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh expressed support Saturday for efforts aimed at “achieving order and security in Sadr City.”\n“The agreement represents the government’s vision to end armed displays and purge al-Sadr City from roadside bombs and mines and impose the law in the city,” al-Dabbagh said in a statement.\n“Iraqi security forces are the only force to achieve this and the government has the right to raid and search any place suspected of possessing heavy or medium weapons,” al-Dabbagh said. “The government is also committed to chase all wanted people under the supervision of the prime minister.”\nThere was no immediate comment from the U.S. military on the reported deal.\nThe newly announced cease-fire comes after government-backed Shiite envoys set strict demands for Shiite militias to end their battles against Iraqi and U.S. forces in a meeting with al-Sadr’s supporters on Thursday.\n“A 10-point agreement has been reached between members from the United Iraqi Alliance and Sadrist movement in Baghdad and we are informed that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is committed to it,” al-Obeidi said in the southern city of Najaf.\nHe added that “the agreement stipulates that the Mahdi Army will stop fighting in Sadr City and will stop displaying arms in public. In return, the government will stop random raids against al-Sadr followers and open all closed roads that lead to Sadr City.”\nAl-Obeidi said a joint committee will observe the implementation of the agreement and any violations by either side.\n“This document does not call for disbanding al-Mahdi Army or laying down their arms,” al-Obeidi said, rejecting a previous call by al-Maliki.\nThe clashes in Sadr City began in late March after al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, launched a crackdown against the Shiite armed groups in the southern city of Basra. Aid groups say at least 6,000 people have fled the homes in Sadr City to escape the fighting and seek help as food and medical supp-\nlies dwindle.\nMeanwhile, Maj. Gen. Riyadh Jalal Tawfiq, the commander of military operations in the northern city of Mosul, issued a statement on Saturday to announce that operation “Lion’s Roar” against al-Qaida in Iraq was under way.\nMosul is considered the last important urban staging ground for al-Qaida in Iraq after losing its strongholds in Baghdad and other areas during the U.S. troop “surge” last year.\n“Operation ‘Lion’s Roar’ is an Iraqi-led, planned and executed operation, and is another example of the Iraqis’ growing confidence and ability to independently carry out complex combat, police and humanitarian operations,” said Maj. Peggy Kageleiry, a spokeswoman for U.S. forces in the north.\nShe added that U.S.-led Coalition forces “will provide advice, guidance and support as-requested by the Iraqi operational commander.”\nAl-Maliki has been promising a crackdown since last January. But no major offensives have been mounted even as al-Qaida in Iraq tried to exert its influence in Iraq’s third-largest city through attacks and intimidation.
(05/13/08 2:56pm)
WASHINGTON – The cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny to 42 cents on Monday, the latest in what are expected to be annual price adjustments by the Postal Service.\nA new law regulating the post office makes it easier to raise rates as long as the agency doesn’t exceed the rate of inflation. Rates are to be adjusted each May.\nBut the post office also has introduced a way for people to save money when the price goes up, the Forever stamp, which remains valid for first-class postage regardless of any increases.\nWith the rate increase approaching, sales of the Forever stamp reached 64 million a day in April, postal officials said.\nForever stamps currently sell for 41 cents, but can be used after the rate increase without any additional postage. However, when the rate goes up, so does the price of Forever stamps.\nUnlike the Forever stamps, other 41-cent stamps will require additional postage under the new rates, and postal officials said they printed an additional 1.5 billion 1-cent stamps in anticipation of the demand.\nAlso, for the first time the agency has stamps available at the new rate before the change takes effect.\nA set of five 42-cent stamps honoring pioneering journalists went on sale in April, as did a set of four stamps featuring the American flag flying at different times of day.\nA 42-cent stamp featuring singer and actor Frank Sinatra will be released Tuesday.\nThe increase comes just a week after the post office announced it had a loss of $700 million in the second quarter of the fiscal year, blamed largely on declining mail volume and rising fuel prices.\nWhile the charge for the first ounce of a first-class letter rises to 42 cents, the price of each added ounce will remain 17 cents, so a two-ounce letter will go up a penny to 59 cents.\nThe cost to mail a post card will also go up a penny, to 27 cents.\nOther rates set for Monday:\n– Large envelope, 2 ounces, $1, up 3 cents.\n– Money orders up to $500, $1.05, unchanged.\n– Certified mail, $2.70, up\n5 cents.\n– First-class international letter to Canada or Mexico, 72 cents, up 3 cents.\n– First-class international letter to other countries, 94 cents, up 4 cents.\n– Priority mail flat-rate envelope, $4.75, up 25 cents.\n– Express mail flat-rate envelope, $16.50, up 25 cents.\nBut, the Postal Service said that overall prices for Express Mail, its overnight service, will be lower at the weights and in the delivery zones used by most customers.\nAnd Express Mail and Priority Mail customers can save money simply buying postage online, the agency said. Express Mail customers will receive 3 percent off the published retail prices and Priority Mail customers will save an average of 3.5 percent.\nIn Los Angeles, www.stamps.com said it has released new software which will include discounts on Express and Priority Mail for customers buying postage through its Internet site, targeted to small business and home offices.\nPostage rates last went up in May 2007, with a first-class stamp jumping 2 cents to the current 41-cent rate. That change came under the old law governing the post office, while the current boost uses the simpler procedures of the new one.
(05/13/08 2:55pm)
YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar’s military rulers held a referendum Saturday aimed at solidifying their hold on power while brazenly turning cyclone relief efforts into a propaganda campaign. In some cases, generals’ names were scribbled onto boxes of foreign aid before being distributed.\nHuman rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims in going ahead with the vote, which seeks public approval of a new constitution.\nThe referendum came just one week after Cyclone Nargis pounded the Irrawaddy delta, leaving more than 65,000 people dead or missing. Nearly 2 million others were left homeless or in need of food, shelter and medicine.\nAye Aye Mar, a 36-year-old homemaker, looked frightened when asked if she thought anyone would vote against the\nreferendum.\n“One vote of ‘No’ will not make a difference,” she whispered, her eyes darting around to see if anyone was watching. Then she raised her voice to declare: “I’m saying ‘Yes’ to the constitution.”\nThough international aid has started to trickle in – with two more planes organized by the U.N. World Food Program landing at Yangon’s airport Saturday – almost all foreign relief workers have been barred entry into the isolated nation. The junta says it wants to hand out all donated supplies on its own.\nBut with roads blocked and bridges submerged, reaching isolated areas in the hard-hit delta has been made all but impossible. The military has only a few dozen helicopters, most small and old. It also has about 15 transport planes, few of which are able to carry massive amounts of supplies.\nLong lines formed in front of government centers, where minuscule rations of rice and oil were being distributed. Elsewhere, people clustered on roadsides hoping for handouts. The words “Help us!” were written in chalk on the side of one home.\n“Please, don’t wait too long,” said Ma Thein Htwe, 49, who waited with dozens of other women and children at a monastery in Kungyangon for her ration of rice.\nKo Zaw Min, 27, said not enough aid was reaching his community. Each family was given just over a pound a day.\n“I want to build my home where it used to stand, in the field over there,” said the farmer, who lost his 9-year-old son and a 1-month-old baby in the disaster. “But I have nothing.”\nDespite international appeals to postpone the constitutional referendum, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country.\nAs lines formed, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals, including junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.\n“We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region,” said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.\n“It is not going to areas where it is most in need,” he said in London.\nIt has been 18 years since the last poll, and many people had no idea how to vote. Some asked each other or officials, “Where do I go?” or “What do I do?” as they walked into curtained booths to cast their ballots.\nMyanmar has been ruled by military regimes since 1962. The current junta seized power in 1988, throwing out the country’s last constitution.\nThe referendum seeks public approval of a new one, which the generals say will be followed in 2010 by a general election. Both votes are elements of what the junta calls its “roadmap to democracy.”\nBut the proposed constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency — elements critics say defy the junta’s professed commitment to democracy.\nIt also would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, from public office. The military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general election won by her National League for Democracy party.\nSome 27 million of the country’s 57 million people were eligible to vote, although balloting was delayed for two weeks in the areas hardest hit by the May 3 cyclone.
(05/13/08 2:54pm)
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama erased Hillary Rodham Clinton’s once-imposing lead among superdelegates Saturday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party’s nomination for president.\nObama added superdelegates from Utah and Ohio, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton. The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton’s total for the first time in the campaign. He picked up nine endorsements Friday.\nThe milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination. They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.\nThose party insiders, however, have been steadily streaming to Obama since he started posting wins in early voting states.\n“I always felt that if anybody establishes himself as the clear leader, the superdelegates would fall in line,” said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.\n“It is perceived that he is the leader,” said Fowler, a superdelegate from South Carolina who supports Clinton. “The trickle is going to become an avalanche.”\nSuperdelegates are the party and elected officials who will automatically attend the Democratic national convention this August in Denver. They can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.\nThey are key because neither Obama nor Clinton can win the nomination without them.\nNearly 800 superdelegates will attend the convention. Obama has endorsements from 275, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. Clinton has 271.5.\nMany of the superdelegates who endorsed Obama in the past week said it is time for the party to unite behind him. Obama is coming off a big win in North Carolina’s Democratic primary Tuesday. Clinton narrowly won the primary Indiana’s primary the same day, but Obama did better than many expected.\nSince then, Obama has added 20 superdelegates since and Clinton has had a net increase of one.\nKevin Rodriquez of the Virgin Islands said in a statement that he switched from Clinton to Obama because he thinks Obama has brought energy and excitement to the party.\n“He has shown he can connect with Democrats, Republicans and independents across this country, whether we live on the mainland or an island,” Rodriquez said.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
Cedric Yarbrough was dressed in a pimp costume with Arsenio Hall and Brian Mcknight on the set of the blaxploitation parody "Black Dynamite" when he came to a realization: \n"When you look at my life, it's pretty damn ridiculous," Yarbrough said. "And it's due to the success of 'Reno 911.'" \nYarbrough plays Deputy S. Jones on Comedy Central's hit series "Reno 911." The show is a parody of reality law-enforcement programs such as "Cops." It began as a sketch comedy titled "Ugly Americans," Yarbrough said. \nThe pilot episode of "Ugly Americans" was shot for Fox, but it sat on the shelf for two years until another network decided to give it a try.\n"Comedy Central picked it up, and away we went," Yarbrough said.\n Comedy Central will air the first episode of the show's fifth season Jan. 16. The new season will pick up where the last season left off by revealing the father of Deputy Trudy Wiegel's baby. It will also feature several guest stars, including Christina Applegate and George Lopez.\n"Our guest stars are phenomenal," Yarbrough said. "They really get our show."\nGuest stars on the show have to be quick-witted because, while basic plot elements are scripted, much of the dialogue on the show is improvised, Yarbrough said.\nEven though 90 percent of the show is improvised, Yarbrough said, the Writer's Guild of America strike still effects the cast of "Reno 911."\n"It affects all of Hollywood," Yarbrough said. "I stand with the writers. I don't only do 'Reno,' I do other movies and TV, and without words it's difficult to do a show or movie."\nOther cast members such as Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant have supported the strike by participating in picket lines, Yarbrough said.\nComedy Central is able to air the newest season of "Reno 911" because filming was completed before the strike began, Yarbrough said. Scripts for other projects Yarbrough has been involved with, such as a movie with Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn titled "Four Christmases," were also written before the strike.\n"Several movies were written before (the strike) and stockpiled because people knew it would happen," Yarbrough said.\nNew movies will continue to be released to the public for now, but if the strike continues into February and March "people will really feel the pinch," Yarbrough said.\nIn spite of the strike and being set on the shelf, the show is now in its fifth season and Yarbrough is still having a great time playing Deputy S. Jones.\n"I love waking up to do the show," Yarbrough said. "We're like kids playing cops and robbers. It doesn't get any better than that."\nPlaying cops and robbers can, however, have its drawbacks, because you never know how police officers will react to you, Yarbrough said. When he and the rest of the show's cast members flew into Reno, Nevada, for a Comedy Central event, they were greeted by members of the city's police department. The cast didn't know what kind of reception they would receive. \n "I was prepared to get flogged," Yarbrough said.\nThe officers' reaction to the cast's arrival was like a scene from a movie, Yarbrough said. One person in the back of the crowd began clapping and others joined in until the entire group was applauding the cast.\n"Most police really get the show and like the show," Yarbrough said.\nYarbrough said countless police officers have told him scenes on "Reno 911" are similar to the situations they encounter.\n"They deal with criminals that are drunk and disorderly or fighting over a sandwich, and it happens to them on a daily basis," Yarbrough said. "They have to hold a straight face, but they want to laugh."\nYarbrough said he has done "drive alongs" with officers and some of the things he has seen are "pretty damn funny."\n"We really are hitting close to home," Yarbrough said.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
The heroes came from all over Bloomington, braving the cold of the second official day of the winter season. They congregated in the back room of Bear's Place, a room most well-known for Comedy Caravan performances. But that night, it was the battleground for the "Guitar Hero 3" tournament.\nEvent organizer Dan Coleman said he created the tournament because he heard people boasting about their "Guitar Hero 3" skills everywhere he went. He wanted to give people like those a chance to put their money where their mouths are. \nContestants entered the tournament by paying $5 and picking what division they wanted to rock in: beginner, medium, hard, or expert. Contestants' names were then put into a pitcher and drawn randomly. Two players competed at a time on a song also selected randomly by Coleman. The player with the most points at the end of the song, which are based on the accuracy and deftness of hitting the notes, moved to the next round. The winner of the division took the money accumulated by the contestants. \nAfter the Play Station 2s were hooked up to the giant projection screen and players calibrated the whammy bars to get some last-minute practice, the tournament began. The beginner and hard divisions went first, followed by the medium then expert. \nCompetition heated up in the expert division as Bloomington residents Sara Pierpont and Matt Wissig performed "Take This Life," a song that, as the guitar hero screen stated, was "made famous by" Swedish death metal group In Flames. The contestants smashed the technicolor buttons on the guitar necks and tugged at the whammy sticks with chaotic precision. On screen, the green, red, yellow, blue and orange notes flew down at dizzying speeds. \nThe characters on stage in the video game fantastically and stylishly wailed the chords (with Wissig's character inexplicably levitating and floating around at one point) in stark contrast to the stiff, mechanical motions of their human controllers. Wissig even sat on a chair while he played, more closely resembling B.B. King in his latter days than Slash from the "Guitar Hero 3" television commercial.\nThe match between Pierpont and Wissig was close, and the audience cheered and jeered at the two contestants, as spectators would in any intense competition. \n"Chicks rule!" one bar goer shouted. \n"Only pussies play sitting down!" yelled another, sipping on a hipster-approved $1.50 bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon. \nWissig was undaunted by the jeer, but stood up anyway. He went on to win this battle by 60,000 points due to his button-tapping agility and advanced to the championship round. The 23-year-old then went up against Joel Echelbarger to perform the Aerosmith truck-driver jam "Same Old Song and Dance." Wissig ultimately won the final round and the $30 grand prize. \nAfter winning the expert-division tournament, Wissig hung around with some buddies and shared his "Guitar Hero 3" insights, most notably about how playing drums for his band Ponyboy is a crucial part of his success in "Guitar Hero 3".\n"Drummers do good because they are used to rhythm. Strumming is like the high hats -- it's all about the timing."\nWissig converses more with his friends as the conversation drifts further from the topic of Guitar Hero 3. Although he is Bloomington's expert-division "Guitar Hero 3" champion, the game is seemingly not a center part of his life. \n"It's kind of dorky, but I'll take what I can get. When the students come back, I'll have more competition." \nThe next "Guitar Hero 3" tournament will be held Jan. 30 at Bear's Place.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
Picture yourself five years from today. If someone were to ask you how you spent the last week of 2007, would you even remember?\nIf asked this very question, several thousand people from India and all over the world would answer "Sunburn."\nThe first Sunburn Music Festival, held on Dec. 28-29, 2007 in Goa, India, is an enterprise aimed at introducing and popularizing worldwide electronic dance music in that country. It is the first electronic-music festival in the country, and admittance to its spectators is entirely free. \n "The dream started many years ago and, like good wine, did take some time to mature," said the festival Partner/Creative and Content Head Nikhil Chinapa, on the festival's Web site. \nAfter attending a memorable dance party in Ibiza, Spain, she started hosting a small, annual party in Goa. Chinapa then founded her own club in India for those tired of the typical Indian mainstream Bollywood music that dominated the country's clubs. She craved a new and experimental type of music to populate the dance scenes. \nThe club was a place for DJs to play their electronic-dance-music so fans could dance to the music they love. At the same time, Smirnoff Vodka began bringing some of the genre's most famous artists to India, including Sasha and John Digweed, who have also performed at the U.S. festival Bonnaroo. PDM Entertainment, an experimental marketing company in India, later contacted Chinapa to help co-found India's first dance-music festival. It was through the combined efforts of Chinapa, her friends, PDM Entertainment and Smirnoff Vodka that Sunburn was made possible.\nSunburn is not just a group of concerts, but also a revolution within the Indian music industry. Many who were present will state this mission of expanding electronic music in India was taken to new heights. Sunburn 2007 was the perfect cocktail for those electronic-dance-music lovers who like their drinks shaken as well as stirred. Electronic dance music encompasses genres including techno, house and disco. The DJs at Sunburn focus on electronic house music, which is characterized by its rich pumping bass lines, catchy instrumental riffs and quick tempo. \nThe festival featured international DJs who performed from sunrise to sunset, such as Axwell, Carl Cox, John 00 Fleming and Sergio Flores who mixed their music on the spot, creating beats that made the festival goers get up and dance.\nThe 2007 festival performance site was situated on the golden sands of Candolim Beach on Goa's north side. The state of Goa, situated on India's west coast, is a kind of hybrid city -- a dichotomy between Hindu and Christian cultures. Both religions host festivals throughout the year that consist of events to honor everything from a change of season to religious sacred days. \nMusic is also a dominant aspect of the Goan culture, as it has its own folk music and various dances to accompany it. \nIt was also in Goa that Chinapa first began her mission to expand electronic music, and it's the only place she would host the festival. \n"Every time I go there, it feels like coming home, with its friendly people, gorgeous waters, weather, flea markets and now an Electronic Dance Music festival to call our own. It is like a dream come to life for me," Chinapa said on the festival's Web site. \nCarl Cox led the ravers into a cataclysmic finale that extended into a two hour-encore. \nRolf Pederson, who traveled from Denmark for the festival, called Carl Cox's performance "as good as sex!" \nBars and beach shacks decorated with fairy lights added an element of post-Christmas festivity and pre-New Year's debauchery to the environment. Along the beach, welcoming locals lined up to do business. They made the best of this hectic situation by charging a relatively small fee to braid hair and draw henna tattoos on newly acquired golden-brown skin. Aurelia Sonrisa, a Goan tourist from Spain, commended the organizers on bringing together "a united movement of people and positive energy" directed toward music. Sohrab Nicholson, a music student from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, was just happy to be under the sun getting a tan, or as he called it "getting his brown on."\nThis festival was an adventurous yet beautiful way to bring in the new year. Positive vibes flourished under the bright Goa sun. New friends were made, and old friends reunited as the world's youth could be seen at their prime.
(01/10/08 5:00am)
For sophomore and IU varsity heavyweight wrestler Justin Kuhn, going up against a professional mixed-martial-arts fighter was an exciting challenge, despite his lack of professional experience. On Dec. 8, 2007, Kuhn participated in MXC Fight Night, a mixed-martial-arts event hosted at Jake's Nightclub similar to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.\nMMA is a fighting style that is set to determine which style of martial arts is the most successful. Instead of judo fighters only fighting other judo fighters, for example, it is a way to see which style would be the most effective in a "real life" fight, pitting fighters of all different styles against each other. An MMA fighter can use any martial arts technique he knows, as long as it does not violate the very limited rules of most MMA matches. MXC Fight Night used standard UFC international rules. Over the years, fighters of some styles have had to adopt other styles to be able to compete. MMA has become a hybrid style in which combinations of judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu have proven the most successful, but style hybridizations vary for each fighter. \nJust a few days before the event, Kuhn's roommate, who also fought that night, convinced him to volunteer and take part in the headlining fight. He took the place of another fighter who backed out at the last minute. Of the seven matches, his was the only professional one, the rest amateur. Despite the possible danger of getting into a hexagonal cage with a super heavyweight professional fighter, Kuhn was not frightened. \nAccording to the Ultimate Fighting Championship Web site, a light heavyweight class fighter can weigh anywhere from 185 pounds to 205 pounds. The range for super heavyweight is 205 to 265 pounds. \nDespite the differences in experience and weight class, he felt prepared and confident to compete against his opponent Dave Herman. Kuhn said he hadn't trained specifically for this fight, but in addition to being a heavyweight wrestler for the IU wrestling team, Kuhn has trained in various martial arts including kickboxing, judo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. \n"I know Herman's a wrestler, too, so I'm going to try to focus on my striking," Kuhn said. "I think I can hold my own."\nKuhn said he wanted to make it a good match, but outright victory might not have been his main goal. In addition to the $300 payout, the main thing Kuhn wanted to gain from this fight was experience. In the end, he lost to Herman by rear naked choke, a move where the fighter chokes his opponent from behind. He plans to participate in more competitive fights after the IU wrestling team's season ends, most likely in the light heavyweight class. \nThis type of dedication and thirst for experience was evident in other fighters as well. Neil "The Lone Wolf" Coker, a 25-year-old IU alumnus who is a coal miner in Terre Haute, stood out from the others. \nCoker chose to compete because he was curious to see how his skills stacked up to other fighters' styles. He found out about the match through Higi and the IU Judo Club. \nWhile others gulped down Red Bull, made last-minute runs to Wendy's or debated which was the most intimidating nickname to use, Coker sat quietly on a bench against the wall, focused on the fight ahead. He was accompanied by his ringside man and one other friend, but they honored his silence and talked quietly to each other. Like most of the fighters that night, Coker was a mixed-martial-arts rookie, but he had a lot of other martial arts experience to rely on. Coker started practicing in judo at age 19 and has won titles around the country in the sport. He trained in Jiu-Jitsu and different striking techniques to prepare himself for his fight. He was confident in his game plan but was still a little nervous.\n"I don't know what to expect. I'm just going to fight my fight," he said. \nNobody seemed more committed to the event than Bloomington native and mixed-martial-arts fighter Chris Higi, the man who put it all together. Higi wanted to give fighters in the area an opportunity to get some experience and get involved. He mentioned that there are fights where they get underpaid or otherwise abused. His main objective for the first event was to put on a good show that was fun for the audience while making sure the fighters were taken care of. He made sure to have doctor examinations before the fights, insurance forms, safety briefing, EMTs ringside and a professional referee.\n"I want to do this a few more times, and if I make enough money, I can start bringing in more talent, better talent and hopefully keep doing shows," he said.\nThe back room, where the cage and seating were, was sparsely populated at the time the championship was supposed to start. The first fight was delayed for about 30 minutes while the staff of Jake's waited for the area to fill up. Despite the early 8 p.m. start, the $15 entry and it being the weekend before finals week, the seating was about three-fourths full when the first fight began, although the main bar area was almost empty. \nCory Mahon, an undefeated 21-year-old professional mixed-martial-arts fighter, was one of the judges for the night because of his connection to Higi. He said that many of these competitive events are at bars such as Jake's or small arenas such as high school or college basketball gyms, especially those with so many amateur matches. As this was the first event organized by Higi, most of the fighters were amateurs. \n"Everyone starts here," Mahon said. \nMahon also said that most of the MXC fighters just want to get experience, not exposure, from these types of fights, so the audience is of little importance. Amateur MMA fighters need experience so they can gain exposure to other hybrid fighters, recognize the flaws in their technique and add new moves to their repertoire. When a fighter enters MMA, he probably is specialized in one type of martial arts training. Even though some, like Coker and Kuhn, had a somewhat wider range of prior experience, it is a totally different world when you have to go against someone who is combining many types of moves and using them interchangeably.\nStill, the ambition and passion shown by many of the fighters and those around them contrasted with the attitude of much of the audience. Many of the spectators seemed drawn by the promise of violence and maybe a little blood. While the spectators observed for entertainment purposes, it was more serious for the fighters. Even those who appeared rowdy at first became more serious as their fight came closer. For the fighters, matches can be a test of character or validation in talent. \nBrandon Bezy, a 24-year-old who likes watching UFC on TV, was excited to see a mixed-martial-arts fight live for the first time. \nHe believes Jake's is an ideal venue to host an event like this. \n"If they got the space, then this is the place," he said. \nBezy had brought a few friends, all of whom seemed eager to "see some dudes get knocked out."\nSupporters and friends of the participants made up much of the crowd. Quite a few IU Judo Club members, such as junior Emily Laughlin, attended to show their support for Coker and others who had ties with the group. \nJake's made an effort to transition from a nightclub to fighting arena. The club offered VIP ringside seating as well as rows of folding chairs for others. "Ring girls" helped with the transitions between matches and rounds, dancing in the ring during the breaks as well as interacting with the audience. Higi rented a six-sided, open-topped cage that took more than two-and-a-half hours to set up. These touches helped create a realistic atmosphere even though the Jake's disco ball hung just a few feet outside the ring.\nThe success of MXC Fight Night at Jake's is hard to measure, and its future is still unclear. The next date has yet to be announced, but that's for Higi and the Jake's team to figure out. \nFor the fighters, the future of Fight Night is much more personal. \n"This might sound kind of weird, but fighting is fun for me. I love the competition," Coker said. \nKuhn echoed the same sentiment. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it," he said.
(12/06/07 5:00am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jake Halverson and Dan Stoner walk in from a post-party breakfast, and a guy is masturbating in their kitchen. Well, not just any guy. He has a name. It is Pee Pants -- at least, that's what's sharpied on his forehead. He was named Pee Pants because he got loaded on acid and booze, then passed out on the front porch soaked in urine. Oh, and with a cock drawn on both cheeks.
Three hours ago, Pee Pants stood erect with the kind of dazed smile only brought on by the Euphoria of Drug as he clumsily navigated his way through a 13-keg party at the Ninth and Washington house referred to as The Clinic.
So here is Pee Pants, cock-chinned and all, waxing his full-morning johnson, and Halverson and Stoner are walking into the kitchen. Their first reaction is to kick him, and that's what they do. They kick him down to the hard-time killing floor blues and kick him out of the house, careful to avoid all contact outside the sole of the shoe.
"Not a good way to come back from breakfast," Halverson says. "But that's the abortion clinic, baby."
That is Pee Pants.
Goodbye, Pee Pants.
Goodbye, Clinic.
So The Clinic is a party house -- or was a party house. But to simply call it such not only shows a lack of perspective but a lack of understanding. It was a short-lived culmination of only the most collegial desires. Certain kinds of brilliance are never meant to last, kind of like Tupac or the back room at Studio 54. Eventually all the coke gets blown out.
"My pants get tight when I think about the parties and the beer and the women," says Stoner, overlooking his old porch.
Halverson and Stoner's time at The Clinic is over now and so are the parties. Neighbor and senior Amber Kim recalls how the area used to be after a Clinic party.
"Total disregard for nature," says Kim. "For a block there'd be yellow cups all over the place, in the street, in people's yards."
And then she was Facebooking one day and lo and behold, she saw an advertisement for a Clinic party and more than 500 people had already accepted invitations. That's when Kim thought, "Holy shit. What is this place?"
IU seniors Halverson and Stoner revisit The Clinic on a December morning. They no longer live here. No habitat is permanent, and life sent The Clinic members down separate paths. The house isn't theirs anymore. They don't know the current tenants or if there are still parties at the place like they had up until that final day, but they doubt it.
"Those were the glory days of pure existence," says Stoner of his time at The Clinic. "And they couldn't last forever."
But memories last until the grave, and that's all they have now. It is cold this morning, and grey clouds blanket the sky overhead. Halverson and Stoner choose to remember The Clinic in their own way and remember their last morning still under lease.
"That was a special time," says Halverson with a smile.
Indeed.
The last morning, Aug. 15
The sun is shining and a handful of people are hanging around. A sample platter of blunts sits on a table next to a couple of coolers full of champagne and orange juice.
A celebration, bitches.
Today they pay homage to The Clinic with a puff of weed for reminiscence and a mimosa to wash it down. Cops have never been a problem. Halverson claims a sort of "halo protection" where police tend to lose focus on those houses next to bars.
Bloomington Police Department Officer Tom Kuhlenschmidt denied this logic, saying, "I think most people who live near the bars go out, so it really doesn't matter."
Either way, cops never busted The Clinic.
A blunt is lit. Apricot this time, maybe peach next. It's not just that this place suffers from a weed infestation or the kind of routine double-digit keg presence that amasses enough people to shatter any existing Tijuana fire codes. There's something here that's part of that Grand American College Experience. This much is evident when Halverson and Stoner start to recant tales of typical Clinic parties.
Parties at The Clinic start in the morning, with friends drinking morning beers like fine Irishmen in the early twilight of St. Patty's Day. The kegs usually show up in the afternoon, and the people show up, too. The first wave comes, then the friends of friends come, and the friends of the kegs come with them. They migrate into different parts of the house, only to find more of those shining aluminum beacons of freedom nestled in almost every corner of the house. A horde of Bills and Jills call friends to say, "Bring Billy and Christy; they've got kegs and kegs. And jungle juice."
And junior Billy and sophomore Christy come with more Billys and Christys and tap into the source. The herd gets shelled off the tank, multiplying like bodies in the River Styx.
The rambling builds over the hours, rolling into the crazed kind of inertia equaled by rodents on a mean mix of cocaine and Spanish Fly. The energies entwine in one inexorable ball of lust, thirst, envy, booze and uneven smiles until the level can't be maintained and crashes in on itself in one gleaming collapse in the American night.
Lines form outside just to take a piss. A stream of multicolored cups floods the street.
Slouches become more defined. Eyelids get heavy. Tongues get greasy. Lust finds a home. Many find company and good cheer. Some find frustration. The rest find temporary comfort in things better left unsaid.
That's Clinic love, baby.
Halverson and Stoner claim some 900 hundred people will pour through The Clinic on a night like this. Considering one bar manager puts the average attendance at Kilroy's on a Saturday night at about 700, you can see The Clinic is capable of putting a dent in the local economy.
And that could be the story, and it would be enough. We are a herd of a species, and that is what ultimately defines us. But there are always the shepherds.
People who live at The Clinic have another name for them.
"Randoms," Halverson says. "There are countless stories of Clinic randoms."
Randoms, dude
There's "Harlan," who comes into parties with a big beard and full biker gear. The guy rides in on a motorcycle from some unknown part of the American countryside. He stands out in a sea of Uggs and Abercrombie.
As Stoner puts it, Harlan is "the only guy who wears leather pants and looks cool doing it."
The first time Harlan walked into a Clinic party, he started handing out what Halverson calls "nugs of fire." The last time The Clinic guys see Harlan, his pockets are loaded with sugar-cube doses of acid, and he happens to run into a guy named Pee Pants.
Then comes "Barson," drinking G&T's with a woman on his arm like they're at Gatsby's on the West Egg. Halverson stops by home for a little midnight medicine and sees these two with champagne sparkles in their eyes and talk on their tongues.
"I come downstairs, and they're on the couch with my sheets all over them," Halverson says.
The next thing Halverson knows, Barson and his girl are going at it. But he doesn't say anything because it's not Clinic policy.
"I thought he was friends with somebody, and I wasn't going to harass him," he recalls. "That's just not how The Clinic was."
Come one, come all.
There's the "Big Motherfucker," who massacres the house, knocking all kinds of shit over and eating raw sausages out the freezer. There's "Remegis," the saint of a drunken order who walks like he's dancing on lily pads and filters more liquid than a grey whale. There's the "Mandolin Boy" who shows up on the porch with a case of beer and a will to pick.
But none of the randoms embody The Clinic quite like this one:
"Toothless Gill" has more holes in his socks than hopes -- or dollars, for that matter. He says he doesn't mean to intrude on anybody when he walks over and sits down on a stranger's porch like that.
"But, shoot, I ain't gonna hurt nobody. I just need to get out that gaddum sun."
Gill's got enough money for the 32 oz. Miller High Life in his hand, because, baby, this is the high life. He sits on the porch sporting the kind of weathered tan that can only be earned with work and sweat, and speaks like some cross-minded, down-on-his-luck apostle.
"God loves us, man. I'll tell you what ... I done a lot of bad in my life, but God is great." He points to his beer. "The Lord spoke to me and told me to get motivated to get this beer."
Gill takes off his hat and folds back the inner lining, revealing a half-smoked joint. The sun exposes his little beads for eyes. He sparks up the joint and passes it around. Some wave it off; others accept it.
"I was smoking this joint when the Lord tells me to get outta there, so I leave, and right in the alley rolls the police," Gill says in that guttural sort of rambling dialect particular to Hoosier country. "He put me on this porch and away from that squad car, man. God is great, man."
Gill thinks God brought him to The Clinic. He explains how he smokes meth out of a light bulb, and the people on the porch learn why Toothless Gill is toothless.
"Burst the bottom of the filament, put some water and salt to get rid of the lining. It'll be as clear as this glass right here," Gill says, rapping his knuckle on the window pane. "Once is good, but you can do it as many times as you want, depending on how tweaked you are."
The stories topple over each other until Gill can't make sense out of them anymore, and it all comes out in one frustrated question.
"You got any light bulbs here?"
All he gets is blank stares, and people start to leave the porch. "I'm sorry, man. My brain's fried. See how my stories jump?"
He salivates over his toothless gums and mutters, "My momma told me on her death bed, man, she says, 'I know you smoke that stuff, Gill. You're just running away.'"
The talk gives way to a quiet stare of resilience and sadness. Eventually, Gill slips away unnoticed, and that's the way it always is.
Never see 'em coming. Never see 'em going.
Au revoir, ma maisonPee Pants and Toothless Gill are gone, but The Clinic still stands, though no longer as a refuge for highwaymen and wanderers, the kind of souls who tire far after their feet are worn.
"The Clinic," Stoner explains, "is open to any race, creed or sexual orientation."
The ghosts of The Clinic walk its hallowed halls one more time in the form of stories.
They're in the hallways.
In the basement.
On the front porch, passed out in their own urine.
But mostly these ghosts exist in the smiles of the people who congregate here on its final morning because The Clinic, like any fine democratic institution, is always about the people.
For the last time, the party slows down in a lazy combination of THC, champagne and sunshine.
The stories are passed like blunts and sipped like mimosas. Halverson, Stoner and company send off The Clinic with some bud and bubbly.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
A style of music originated in Nigeria by the late Fela Kuti, Afrobeat is gaining increased popularity in America more 30 years after its inception because of its irresistible mixture of funk, jazz and African percussion and singing. Here is a glimpse into a style of music that you might not have been exposed to yet.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
1. Band of Horses -- Cease To Begin \n2. Castanets -- In The Vines \n3. Iron & Wine -- The Shepherd's Dog \n4. Sigur Ros -- Hvarf-Heim \n5. Muscles - Guns Babes Lemonade
(11/15/07 5:00am)
I remember my first introduction to the notion of Internet flirting. I was in sixth grade, and I was innocently perusing a Hanson chat room when I was singled out: "Hey GoalGirl42, A/S/L?" (Age/Sex/Location, for those of you not fluent in chat pick-up lines). I don't remember my response, but it was probably an exaggeration. "A/S/L?" has since given way to AIM, Xanga, MySpace and obviously, Facebook. We are both the leaders and victims of the Internet generation -- and what may be the end of romance entirely. \nLooking back, I can trace my past relationships to awkward "convos" on Instant Messenger in which I and whatever boy-of-the-moment would spend hours getting to know each other. We'd share likes and dislikes, our deepest secrets and our feelings for each other -- entirely online. I can't remember the last time I was asked for my phone number, but I can easily recall the last time I gave my screen name away (coincidentally, through a Facebook message). We thrive off instant gratification, and it's hard to remember a time before e-mail replaced love letters or "A/S/L?" replaced "SWAK." \nWhile the Internet is a useful medium for communicating, it's also deceitful. It's easy to hide behind the guise of the computer screen and put on a front of wit and charm. After all, there's nothing the delete key can't solve to ensure a perfectly calculated response. It's great if you're outgoing and confident online, just as long as you can be that way in person. I've had some wonderful conversations through AIM, during which eye contact and social skills don't matter, that have resulted in cringe moments in person.\nSince the AIM craze subsided slightly after high school, Facebook has revolutionized the way we date in college. From "Oh my god, he friended me!" to "What the hell? He detagged every picture!" Facebook marks every monumental moment of a relationship for hundreds of other people to see. First, there are the cryptic messages and pokes, then it moves on to flirting on a "wall" for all mutual friends to see, until finally it escalates to the coveted "In a Relationship with _____." \nIt does not end there.\nThere's the "friending" of each other's closest friends, the changing of default profile pictures to include the new partner and the persistently optimistic status updates. All of these changes litter everyone else's news feeds, resulting in congratulatory wall posts and some scowls from bitter hags like me. Pictures of the duo are posted documenting every date and, in some extreme cases, the significant other's name is listed under "Interests."\nUnfortunately, Facebook has a much uglier side.\nBreakups are never easy, but Facebook makes them a lot worse. There's the initial dumping, and then there's the Facebook dumping -- or, as I like to refer to it, "the cyber lobotomy." Understandably, one must cancel the relationship status, knowing that their friends (all 1,016 in my case) will see that little broken heart icon next to their name as soon as the page is refreshed. It's as if Mark Zuckerberg gets some cruel pleasure from displaying broken hearts for the world to see. The only way to effectively avoid the inevitable slew of post-breakup wall posts and messages is to temporarily deactivate your account before the cancellation of the relationship. \nThen comes the emo status and profile updates, because as the Internet generation we find comfort mourning in a public forum. Besides, there's always the hope that the ex is monitoring your page. "Monitoring" is a friendly word for "obsessively stalking someone's profile," which is a natural (and unhealthy) step after a devastating breakup. Slowly, as pictures of new flings are posted, the ones of the ex-happy couple are detagged, forever fading into cyber history. Screen names are removed from buddy lists, MySpace Top 8's are rearranged and lovey-dovey comments are deleted. The same virtual world that cultivated the relationship is also its final resting place.\nSo now what? Do we revert to real dates and late-night phone calls? It may already be too late for us, at least until we graduate. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook launched its own matchmaking application in the coming months. So in preparation: 21ish/F/Bloomington, U?
(10/18/07 4:00am)
New albums in the history of popular music deserve torrents of superlatives in the same way as Blonde on Blonde. \nSure, this hulking beast of a record (the first studio double LP in rock history, at 71 minutes) starts off slowly with the absurdist "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35." But that's just Dylan sedating his listeners before the kill. From then on, it's Dylan at his most musically inspired and, more importantly, at his lyrical peak. A little more than two months after its release, Dylan crashed his motorcycle in Woodstock, N.Y., and his career took a dramatic turn. In the spring of 1966, however, Dylan stood at the forefront of a new musical consciousness.\nThe album's aftershocks are still being felt today. Recorded in Nashville, Tenn., with producer Bob Johnston and a band of impressionistic session musicians, Blonde on Blonde broke so much new ground that it's easy to lose sight of its importance. Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited, classic though they remain, were mere appetizers for the hallucinogenic, improvisational mastery unleashed here. At a time when The Beatles were still performing "Drive My Car" to stadiums of screaming teenage girls, Dylan was explaining how "the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face" without a hint of self-importance.\nTrying to explain why Blonde on Blonde resonates to this day is akin to trying to justify why Whistler's "Nocturne in Blue and Gold" still typifies and explicates London. In that, Blonde represents art rock in its infancy, even before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was dropped like a fluorescent atomic bomb on an unsuspecting, meaning-hungry public.\nDigression doesn't serve Blonde on Blonde well. Sure, it's a fine example of what can happen when a ragtag band of revolutionaries hits the studio and freewheels until they're blue in the face, but something deeper was happening in February and March 1966 in Nashville, and it was mostly in Dylan's head. \nAs Dylan explained to Playboy Magazine in the late '70s, Blonde on Blonde was "the closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind. ... It's that thin, that wild mercury sound. It's metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up. That's my particular sound." \nIt's the sound Dylan will always be remembered by, too, for decades, maybe centuries, to come.