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(11/06/07 4:31am)
TERRE HAUTE – Indiana State University President Lloyd Benjamin is promising to help students, who were upset by the discovery of a rope resembling a noose in a campus tree, push hate crimes legislation in the General Assembly next session.\nBenjamin, who condemned the Oct. 25 noose incident at the Terre Haute campus, has encouraged students to carry out their plan to circulate a petition on hate crimes legislation.\n“I pledge to work with you in carrying that petition forward to our Legislature and to push for its passage this legislative session,” he said in a recent letter to the Tribune-Star.\nOfficials are investigating the noose incident as a possible hate crime.\nThe rope was reported to be hanging in a tree near Hines Hall in the center of the Terre Haute campus about noon on Oct. 25. ISU officials notified police and the FBI about the discovery.\nThe incident led to a town hall meeting attended by about 400 people, primarily black ISU students. Benjamin said in his letter that ISU must “address with renewed effort” the underlying issues raised by the incident.\n“Our university community was disgraced by the placement of a noose, one of the most offensive symbols of racial hatred and ignorance, in a tree on our campus. I have no tolerance for this disturbing act,” he wrote.\nNooses, racially charged symbols of the lynching violence of the segregation era, have turned up in recent months in a high school courtyard in Jena, La., on the office door of a black professor at Columbia University, in a tree at the University of Maryland and in a Coast Guard cadet’s bag.\nBenjamin wrote that he was proud of ISU students, faculty and staff who reacted properly.\n“I am particularly proud of our African American students, for whom this symbol is particularly offensive, for reacting with such calm demeanor and appropriate, justified anger,” he wrote. “They were more focused on dealing with the issues behind this symbol than on satisfying the impulsive need for immediate justice. The willingness to work through this issue rather than reacting without the benefit of reason has completely undermined the reaction intended by the perpetrators.”
(11/05/07 3:34am)
A single engine plane crashed early Sunday morning just northeast of the 100 mile marker on Interstate 65.\nAlan D. Gluff, 52, left at about 8:30 a.m. from the Greenwood Airport, Greenwood, Ind., for a local flight. Shortly after takeoff the aircraft, which was an experimental homebuilt single engine two passenger plane, began experiencing engine trouble, according to an Indiana State Police press release.\nGluff was able to turn the aircraft around but was forced to make an emergency landing in a field northeast of the 100 mile marker of I-65. When the aircraft touched down in a field, the aircraft rolled over on its top before coming to a final rest, according to the press \nrelease.\nGluff was not injured in \nthe crash.
(11/05/07 3:31am)
Indiana State Excise police officers cited 84 people on 88 charges in the Red Lot tailgating area during the IU-Ball State football game this weekend. \nMost citations issued during the game were for illegal consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages, according to an Indiana State Excise \npress release.\nOfficers cited 83 minors for illegal possession, consumption or transportation of alcoholic beverages. Four tickets were issued for possession of false identification and one adult was charged with furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor, according to the \npress release.\n“Our local excise officers were assisted by officers from the Vincennes and Indianapolis districts during today’s football game,” Officer Travis Thickstun said in the release. “The increase in officers working the tailgating area during the game is likely the reason for the increase in ticket activity over recent \nfootball games.”
(11/04/07 7:38pm)
A single engine plane crashed early Sunday morning just northeast of the 100 mile marker on Indiana 65.\nAlan D. Gluff, 52, left at about 8:30 a.m. from the Greenwood Airport, Greenwood, Ind., for a local flight. Shortly after takeoff the aircraft, which was an experimental homebuilt single engine two passenger plan, began experiencing engine trouble, according to an Indiana State Police press release.\nGluff was able to turn the aircraft around but was forced to make an emergency landing in a field northeast of the 100 mile marker of I-65. When the aircraft touched down in a field, the aircraft rolled over on its top before coming to a final rest, according to the press release.\nGluff was not injured in the crash.
(11/04/07 6:58pm)
Indiana State Excise police officers cited 84 people on 88 charges in the Red Lot tailgating area during the IU-Ball State football game this weekend. \nMost citations issued during the game were for illegal consumption or possession of alcoholic beverages, according to an Indiana State Excise press release.\nOfficers cited 83 minors for illegal possession, consumption or transportation of alcoholic beverages. Four tickets were issued for possession of false identification and one adult was charged with furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor, according to the press release.\n“Our local excise officers were assisted by officers from the Vincennes and Indianapolis districts during today’s football game,” Officer Travis Thickstun said in the release. “The increase in officers working the tailgating area during the game is likely the reason for the increase in ticket activity over recent football games.”
(11/02/07 7:16pm)
Get ready to switch your clocks back.\nDaylight saving time ends this Sunday, unlike past years when the change occurred on the last Sunday in October.\nIndiana will turn its clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday. Daylight saving will return at 2 a.m. Mar. 9 next year.\nThe change to the first weekend in November is a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The conditions of the law also mandate that daylight saving time begin the second Sunday of March, three weeks earlier than previous years. March of this year marked the first time the law was put into effect.\nFive Indiana counties on Central Standard Time will move to Eastern Standard Time when daylight saving time ends, including Davies, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike counties. \nAccording to University Information Technology Services, people may need to upload the newest available updates for their mobile devices to ensure their clocks are synchronized with the time change. Computers updated with the new time zone setting when daylight saving time went into effect last spring will adjust automatically on Sunday. \nFor more information on daylight saving time’s effect on electronic devices, visit www.uitsnews.iu.edu/?p=1047.
(11/02/07 1:26am)
BEDFORD – A coroner has ruled the death of Lawrence Circuit Court Judge Richard D. McIntyre was likely a suicide.\nLawrence County Coroner John Sherrill said an autopsy found that the 51-year-old McIntyre died from carbon monoxide poisoning. McIntyre’s wife found him unresponsive Tuesday evening in a sport utility vehicle parked inside a detached garage at their Bedford home.\nMcIntyre gained national attention during a months-long recount of his 1984 congressional campaign against Democrat Frank McCloskey. The Democrat-controlled House ruled McCloskey won in southern Indiana’s 8th District by four votes, prompting a Republican walkout at the Capitol.\nMcIntyre had been a judge in Lawrence County since 1988.
(11/02/07 1:25am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Vice President Dick Cheney defended the CIA’s interrogation practices against suspected terrorists Thursday, telling Indiana soldiers and veterans that the agency’s program has yielded intelligence that’s averted deadly terrorist attacks.\nCheney spoke at the Indiana War Memorial to about 350 people, including American Legion members and about 150 Indiana National Guardsmen. He told them there’s recently been a “good deal of misinformation” spread about the CIA’s interrogation of terrorist suspects.\nThe vice president said those methods are classified but said none of them involve torture. He said the CIA’s interrogation program has produced valuable intelligence on terrorist groups.\n“The program has uncovered a wealth of information that has foiled attacks on the United States – information that on numerous occasions has made all the difference between life and death,” he said.\nThe CIA’s interrogation techniques have dominated the Senate’s debate of President Bush’s attorney general nominee, Michael Mukasey. Several Senate Democrats have said they will vote against Mukasey unless he unequivocally states that the practice of waterboarding is torture.\nWaterboarding simulates drowning by immobilizing a prisoner with his head lower than his feet and pouring water over his face.\nCheney told the audience at the Indiana War Memorial’s ornate auditorium that the CIA’s interrogation methods are not the same as those used by the Department of Defense to extract intelligence from detainees captured in Iraq or Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.\n“The CIA program is different. It involves tougher customers – men like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, and it involves tougher interrogation,” he said. “The procedures are designed to be safe, to be legal and they are in full compliance with the nation’s laws and treaty obligations.”\nCheney’s speech before the American Legion, a national Indianapolis-based veterans group, comes a day before it opens a three-day National Americanism Conference. His appearance was invitation-only and was closed to the public.\nAbout two dozen anti-war activists gathered outside the downtown war memorial to protest the vice president’s speech and the war in Iraq, holding signs such as “Impeach Cheney, War Criminal” and “No Blood for Oil.”\nFollowing his Indianapolis speech, Cheney flew to Dallas to attend a private fundraiser for Texas Sen. John Cornyn and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
(11/01/07 4:00am)
Ween has been troubling rock's serious mentality for the past 17 years. It is rare to come across a rock band with such a consistent sense of humor and flair for genre experimentation. Ween is known for keeping fans on their toes. Each album is categorically schizophrenic, bouncing from pop to country to easy listening to rock to lounge music, without hesitation. Their latest creation La Cucaracha is a musical-genre hodgepodge that keeps the listener engaged.\nOn La Cucaracha, Ween is more playful than on 2003's Quebec. The first track "Fiesta" revs up the listener with fluttering trumpets backed by upbeat drumming. It could pass for the theme song of some old-school comedy troupe. As an instrumental opener, it leaves you guessing about where the rest of the album will go.\nThe two tracks that follow keep the playful attitude rolling. "Blue Balloon" has a steady, dream-like tempo. The lyrics "Can the father's love reach the child above the clouds / So as to dance the day up high / Way up high, above the blue balloon" and rhythmic percussion makes it seem as though the listener is floating in a field of tall grass. The wind noises in the background help the imagery as well. \n"Friends" takes an amusing stab at techno while using synthesizers and echoing voice effects to maintain the previous track's dreamy feel. The catchy song forces you to bounce along and chant the refrain "Friends in life are special / Do you want me as your special friend?"\nThe party demeanor staggers with the fourth track. "Object" brings poor choices regarding casual relationships into question. It's not an optimistic song, but the album as a whole spans multiple emotions as well as music types. \nLa Cucaracha's standout track "My Own Bare Hands" has lyrics ranging from sensible to incomprehensible. Hard-guitar riffs and gruff singing make it a rock classic. Sprinkled with obscenities, the song isn't groundbreaking, but it is hilarious. Lines such as "I'm gonna be your lawnmower / And cut your fuckin' grass" will make you smile unless you are too easily offended by playful profanity.\nThe album definitely keeps your attention. The songs cover country, reggae, light rock, new age, techno and classic rocking out. If you're new to Ween, you might find them intimidating. But don't worry, the experience is well worth the possible confusion.
(11/01/07 1:22am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Nearly every main demographic group of top college athletes exceeds the graduation rate for its student-body counterparts.\nAccording to federal graduation rates released Tuesday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, 63 percent of Division I athletes who started college as freshmen in 2000 graduated in six years. That beats the graduation rate for all students at Division I schools by 1 percent and equaled last year’s percentage.\nWhite athletes had a 67 percent graduation rate, compared to 64 percent for white students overall. Black athletes also outperformed their student-body counterparts, 53 percent to 46 percent.\n“What these data show are that student-athletes are good students,” said NCAA spokesman Erik Christianson. “There tends to be a myth that student-athletes do not perform well in the classroom. The data simply suggests otherwise.”\nThe NCAA released federal statistics on graduation rates that do not account for transfer students. Earlier this month, it also released data termed “graduation success rates” that counted transfers and resulted in higher overall totals.\nThe federal statistics released Tuesday show that 49 percent of black male athletes graduated in six years, compared to 39 percent of their student-body counterparts. Female black athletes had a 63 percent graduation rate compared to 50 percent overall.\nThe data show that 74 percent of white female athletes graduated, compared to 66 percent overall.\nHispanic male and female athletes also graduated at higher percentages than overall figures for their ethnic groups. But white male and Asian/Pacific Island male students fell short of the overall percentages for their groups.\nThe federal numbers counted 18,346 athletes and 645,215 students overall at Division I schools and also included graduation rates for all Division I schools.\nChristianson said the NCAA is encouraged by the latest statistics but understands “that there’s room for improvement.”\nHe noted that the governing body for college athletics has raised eligibility standards for high school athletes who want to compete in college. It also requires students to earn 20 percent of their degree every year.\nEarlier this month, the NCAA released its graduation success rates, which the organization prefers to focus on because they count transfer students. They showed the overall graduation rate for men and women in all sports at 77 percent.\nThe individual rates for the three poorest-performing groups of athletes – men’s basketball, football and baseball – showed slight improvements for the second consecutive year.\nThis is the third year the NCAA has also released its own data.
(10/31/07 4:08am)
INDIANAPOLIS – A federal appeals court has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging sectarian prayers being given during sessions of the state House of Representatives.\nThe 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a ruling Tuesday that a group of taxpayers who sued did not have legal standing to do so.\nThe 2-1 ruling overturned a federal judge’s decision that banned the practice of opening the chamber’s business with sectarian prayers. U.S. District Judge David Hamilton ruled in November 2005 that prayers mentioning Jesus Christ or using terms such as “savior” amounted to state endorsement of a religion.\nBut the appeals court said the taxpayers lacked standing to sue because they could not sufficiently link taxpayer money with the practice. The court said that there were minimal costs for the “Minister of the Day” program, such as money for webcasting and postage for thank you letters and pictures.\nBut it said the costs were not only unrelated to the content of the prayers offered, the appropriations did not authorize, direct or mention the expenditures.\n“They have not shown that the Legislature has extracted from them tax dollars for the establishment and implementation of a program that violates the establishment clause,” Judge Kenneth Ripple wrote in the majority opinion. It ordered that the lawsuit be returned to Hamilton’s court and be dismissed.\nJudge Diane Wood dissented, saying the majority had overextended “the command of Freedom From Religion” in denying the plaintiffs a day in court. She said that preferential access to the House speaker’s stand for adherents to the Christian faith was exactly the kind of problem the First Amendment’s establishment clause was supposed to remedy.\nIf the plaintiffs had simply complained about hearing the prayers as they walked past the door of the House chamber on their usual way to work, “they may very well have been entitled to proceed,” she said.\nWood said the majority opinion should in no way be taken as a ruling on the merits of the House practice.\nPrayer in the Indiana House was a tradition for 189 years until the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana challenged the practice in 2005 on behalf of the four taxpayers. They believed the prayers – usually Christian – were offensive and violated the constitutional separation of church and state.\nOf 53 opening prayers during the 2005 House session, 41 were given by clergy identified with Christian churches and at least 29 mentioned Jesus Christ.\nThere was no immediate action on Tuesday’s ruling from House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, who was the chamber’s speaker and was named as the defendant when the lawsuit was filed.\nCurrent House Speaker Patrick Bauer (D-South Bend), said he needed time to meet with the Indiana attorney general’s office and House staff to discuss ramifications of the ruling. But he said he was glad the appeals court had left the tradition alone, and when lawmakers meet for an organization day Nov. 20, the House would begin with a prayer.\nUnder Bauer’s leadership last session, the House began each day’s business with a nonsectarian prayer. The Senate did the same.\n“That’s what we were arguing for all along,” said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana. “The constitution allows that.”
(10/31/07 4:06am)
EDGEWOOD, Ind. – A man faces charges that he was drunk when he allowed his 10-year-old son to sit in his lap and drive his truck just before it plowed into a tree.\nPolice said Anthony T. Russell, 35, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.19 percent – more than twice the state’s legal limit to drive of 0.08 percent – when the truck crashed Saturday.\nAfter the crash, the boy was taken to an Anderson hospital and was found to have a broken rib.\nThe force of the truck’s impact into the tree was strong enough to break off the pickup truck’s steering wheel, police said in a probable cause \naffidavit.\nRussell was formally charged Monday with two felony counts of driving while intoxicated, one count of felony neglect and a misdemeanor drunken driving charge. He was being held Tuesday in the Madison County Jail on a $5,000 bond.\nWhen police officers arrived at the scene of the one-vehicle crash in Edgewood, just west of Anderson, they found Russell and his son outside the truck.\nRussell told officers he’d let his son sit on his lap to steer the truck and that it crashed into a tree as they were coming down a hill.
(10/31/07 4:05am)
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – A Wabash College freshman who fell to his death from a campus building may have slipped on the copper roof while trying to reach the peak, administrators believe.\nAn autopsy Monday showed that 19-year-old Patrick Michael Woehnker of Kendallville, Ind., died of blunt force trauma caused by the fall, said Montgomery County Coroner Darren Forman.\nWoehnker fell Sunday from the top of Goodrich Hall, an academic building that was closed at the time. He was with four other students on the roof when he got separated from them, authorities said.\n“Right now, we’re most likely looking at it as an accident,” said Crawfordsville Assistant Police Chief Hal Utterback. “We’re waiting on toxicology results to see if there was anything further.”\nPreliminary tests showed that Woehnker had a blood-alcohol content of 0.04 percent, he said. Final toxicology results will likely take four to six weeks.\nAdministrators believe the men used underground tunnels to get inside the building. Once they reached the rooftop observation deck, officials suspect Woehnker climbed over safety railings to get to the east side of the roof, where he slipped.\n“They’re extremely dangerous places to be. ... The building itself was secure,” said Wabash College spokesman Jim Amidon.\nWoehnker was a member of the swim team and Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Counselors met with members of both groups Sunday, Amidon said. The swim meet Monday was canceled.\n“To be honest, the students are not handling this situation well,” Amidon said. “It’s hard for all of us.”
(10/30/07 3:33am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana has 10 high schools where so many students leave before their senior year that the schools are considered “dropout factories” in a national analysis.\nThe schools are among about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide where 60 percent or less of the students who enter high school make it to their senior year, according to the analysis conducted by Johns Hopkins University for The Associated Press.\nThe Indiana Department of Education, unlike agencies in many other states, tracks individual students using unique testing numbers. So its graduation rates – which account for students who transfer to other Indiana schools or are held back a year – might be a more accurate reflection of how many students stay in school, according to the agency.\nStill, many of the Indiana schools tagged by Johns Hopkins researcher Robert Balfanz as “dropout factories” in the review of three consecutive high school classes also have poor graduation rates.\nAt Arsenal Technical High School in Indianapolis, for example, researchers said an average of just 22 percent of the students who entered high school were still there during their senior year. The state, however, says the school has a 44 percent graduation rate. Neither measure paints a rosy picture of the school.\nArsenal Tech is representative of many schools on the researchers’ list, which is made up mostly of schools with many poor, minority students from urban areas in Indianapolis, East Chicago, Gary and Richmond.\nStudents likely to drop out tend to enter school lagging behind, said Jason Bearce, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education.\n“It’s a challenge to get them caught up with their peers and keep them there,” he said.\nStudents who make it through elementary and middle school may struggle with the changes that come with high school. If they fail a class, they have to make it up or they will be short credits to graduate. Enough missed classes and a student may feel like there’s no point in continuing high school.\nThe downward spiral is difficult to overcome in districts that have few resources for tutoring and remediation, said Lowell Rose, a consultant with the Indiana Urban Schools Association.\nAnd parents in poor, urban areas may be busy working to provide basic needs, such as food and housing, for their children. They may not have the time or educational background to help with homework or stress the importance of school. Rose says students from these homes often lack what he calls the “culture of learning.”\n“They didn’t have it in middle school,” Rose said. “They didn’t have it in elementary school. Once they get into high school, they can’t keep their heads above water.”\nIndiana legislators raised the dropout age to 18 and provided students more options for earning a diploma in an effort to improve graduation rates. Advocates say the recent expansion of full-day kindergarten will give students a solid educational foundation while helping struggling students catch up with their peers.
(10/30/07 3:28am)
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. – A school bus driver accused of being drunk while transporting 13 high school cheerleaders and their coach could escape the most serious charge against her because of paperwork errors by the Jackson County pros-\necutor’s office.\nThe mistakes could reduce Sylvia Cooke’s maximum possible sentence from three years to one year, depending on a Jackson Circuit Court judge’s decision after a hearing set for Thursday.\nCooke, 61, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.19 percent, more than twice the state’s legal limit to drive of 0.08 percent, when she was tested Sept. 1, 2006, court documents said.\nAuthorities say she was driving erratically on Interstate 65 with a dozen New Albany High School cheerleaders returning home from a football game in Jennings County when their coach persuaded her to exit the highway and pull over at Uniontown in Jackson County – about 40 miles north of Louisville, Ky.\nCooke was charged with a felony count of drunken driving with a passenger under the age of 18 and a misdemeanor count. She pleaded not guilty and is free awaiting her trial, set for Nov. 14.\nCooke’s trial was originally set for Aug. 15, but Prosecutor Richard Poynter, who took office after the charges were filed, discovered in July that his predecessor, Steve Pierson, had made a mistake in writing up the felony charge.\nPoynter found that Pierson had not included in the felony charge the allegation that the bus was driving “in a manner that endangered a person.” He filed new charges inserting that language into the original felony count, and changed the misdemeanor charge’s language to boost it to the level of a felony.\nCooke’s defense attorney, Bart Betteau, objected to the amended charges and filed a motion arguing that the change came too far after the date of her arrest – and too close to trial.\nA judge granted his motion, but the prosecutor asked the judge to reconsider.
(10/30/07 3:26am)
INDIANAPOLIS – Several more leading Democrats in Indiana are endorsing Hillary Clinton for the party’s presidential nomination.\nState Democratic Chairman Dan Parker and Democratic National Committee members Phoebe Crane of Whitestown and Robert Pastrick of East Chicago are among 16 additional party leaders from Indiana backing Clinton, her campaign announced Monday. The list also includes several district chairmen.\n“Indiana is ready for change, and Hillary Clinton has the strength and experience to deliver it,” Parker said in a \nnews release.\nClinton is already endorsed by U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, Indiana House Speaker Patrick Bauer, former House Speaker John Gregg and former Indiana first lady Judy O’Bannon, among others.\nTwo former Democratic state party chairs – Robin Winston and Ann DeLaney – are among those backing John Edwards.\nAmong those backing Clinton’s top primary opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, are Melina Kennedy, who ran for Marion County prosecutor in 2006, former Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez and lobbyist and party activist Kip Tew.\nSeveral big-name Republicans also are split.\nGov. Mitch Daniels and former U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., are among those backing Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has the support of Terre Haute attorney Jim Bopp, who is a member of the Republican National Committee, and Secretary of State Todd Rokita.\nAnd former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is being helped by Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi and former Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith.
(10/29/07 2:16am)
SPENCER, Ind. – High school students who created a business plan detailing the market potential they see in the rising demand for goat meat in Indiana will get a $28,000 school district loan to open a goat farm.\nSpencer-Owen school board members voted 5-2 Thursday to finance the seven-acre farm, which will be run by Owen Valley High School students about 15 miles northwest of Bloomington.\nThe students will work together to raise and market Boer goats to Indiana’s growing number of ethnic groups that favor goat meat. They’ll pay back the loan through their meat sales.\n“I was skeptical at first whether we could make it work, but the more we got into it, I realized all the support we had,” said Owen Valley junior Kameron Blake. “We had to convince people it would work.”\nThe students already had taken bids for construction of a 30-by-50-foot barn and a fence around seven acres near McCormick’s Creek Elementary School, where the district owns 83 acres.
(10/26/07 4:21am)
NAPPANEE, Ind. – Insurance company representatives from around the nation are helping sort through the ruins of nearly 200 homes and 53 businesses damaged or destroyed by last week’s northern Indiana tornado.\nMore than $10 million in losses and several thousand claims, largely from the Nappanee area, are expected from the storm by insurers across Indiana.\nWinds of 160 mph ripped apart dozens of homes and damaged three recreational vehicle businesses when the Oct. 18 storm blew through the community of some 7,000 people 20 miles southeast of South Bend. Police said five people suffered minor injuries.\n“Lots of us (have) never been through this,” said Patrick Taylor, a State Farm claim representative from Pennsylvania. “It’s difficult to put yourself in that position ... The empathy is very important. Very important.”\nTaylor said claims representatives need to listen to the victims’ stories first, then help them find basic necessities like food, clothing and emergency money. After that, they have to explain insurance policy procedures and scope out the damage.\nHe was one of at least 15 people who visited Nappanee as part of State Farm’s catastrophe team. Taylor stood outside Nathan and LaWanda Borkholder’s one-story home, which lost its roof in the storm. Their living room was strewn with crumbled bricks, wall panels and dust.\nNathan Borkholder said they heard the tornado siren that night and made it out of their bedroom and into their hallway before deciding to stay put.\n“Even two to three seconds further, we would have been in the kitchen, and we had chunks of glass flying through the walls,” he said.\nDamage assessment data is transferred to a computer program that spits out a final estimate, Taylor said. After that, the policyholder can receive the appropriate payment, though it’s hard to say how long it’ll be before their home and property are all restored.\nOverall, State Farm – which insures one in four houses in the area – has been handling more than 100 claims in the Nappanee area as a result of the storm, spokeswoman Missy Lundberg said.
(10/25/07 4:00am)
"Things We Lost In The Fire" is a rarity among Hollywood films. It isn't driven by a fast-paced plotline, and it is shockingly realistic. It doesn't leave you with one particular feeling or understanding but instead showcases the human condition of rebuilding.\nHalle Berry plays Audrey Burke, the recent widow of Steven Burke, played by David Duchovny. Benicio Del Toro plays Jerry Sunborne, Steven's best friend since childhood and a heroin addict. \nThe first part of the film does not immediately show the death of Steven, but builds an emotional outline of his character. The scenes are from moments in his life with Audrey, his children and Jerry. These are not the "major" events of his life but rather the obscure yet unforgettable details, such as family time at the pool or unloading the car after a fun family vacation. The other part deals with the initial effects Steven's death had on his loved ones. None of this is by any means melodramatic -- it just depicts those simple moments in a raw style. \nThe remainder of the film deals with the relationships and unlikely bonds between Steven's loved ones following his death. Jerry moves in with Audrey and the kids and at first finds himself quite discomforted and attempts to relapse. Through time, however, Jerry grows attached to his best friend's children and wife. While he is focused on helping them grieve, he does not focus on his bouts with heroin. The same occurs for Audrey when she helps Jerry through a relapse and in doing so, adopts her late husband's unconditional loyalty and kindness.\nThe film constantly quotes that one must "accept the good." This might seem like a strange proverb for a gloomy production, but it is not put forth in a cheesy, uplifting way. It is an attempt to promote kindness and forgiveness and indicates one will be rewarded for these acts. \nDespite the slow pace, film fans tired of cliche Hollywood endings and unrealistic relationships will revel in this film's earnest and frank look into familial rebuilding. Also, Del Toro's portrayal of a broken man battling his demons is nothing short of amazing.
(10/25/07 4:00am)
ew movies have attempted to do what "Rendition" almost achieves. That is, successfully depict the international tensions in a post-9/11 world. This film comes close with its all-star cast and powerful message, but something is still amiss.\nPerhaps it is because this film focuses too much on a compelling plot rather than doing in-depth character analysis. The core story line is based on the "Extraordinary Rendition," a CIA initiative that abducts terrorist suspects to a foreign prison. The premise of the initiative is to use interrogation and torture to make the suspect reveal information. \nOmar Metwally portrays Anwar El-Ibrahimi, an engineer who is abducted while traveling from a conference in South Africa. Reese Witherspoon plays his pregnant wife Isabella, who travels to Washington, D.C., to find a reason for his disappearance. Meryl Streep plays a CIA agent who is convinced that Anwar is complicit in terrorist activities. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Anwar's interrogator, who is certain of the engineer's innocence. He is contrasted with another interrogator, played by Abasi Fawal, who uses stern torture on the suspect. \nWhile all of the emotion and events are realistic and powerful, the viewer is unable to fully feel empathy for the characters. One only sees the surface of each individual, which simply isn't enough for a film that pushes so much passion. There are isolated scenes in last year's "Babel" that evoke more sentiment than the entirety of this film.\nThis is not to say "Rendition" isn't a solid film and an earnest effort. If anything, it is a transitional film that will set the tone for future post-9/11 films. This subject matter is always difficult to depict when the world is in such a tumultuous time. And unlike so many films that depicted the 9/11 tragedies too soon, the timing is not off for this subject. While "Rendition" addresses the tensions in our culture based on fear and prejudice, the script fails to dive deeper into these tensions and leaves the audience wanting more.\n"Rendition" sets the stage for the new generation of leading actors in Hollywood. Witherspoon is the only actress her age that not only has a commercial appeal, but a respected and prolific career. The same is true of Gyllenhaal.