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(01/26/12 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The gray toolbox is filled with Ashley Woodward’s utensils. Black containers of dye look like film canisters in the top section. Brushes and other supplies nearly spill from the bottom.“I’m almost ready for a bigger one,” Woodward says, looking at the box.Her father has the same one for his tools. Woodward’s found a different use: a cake decoration carrier.“Cake decorating isn’t difficult,” Woodward says, “it’s just time consuming and tedious.”Woodward works at Sweet B Design, a Bloomington company that sells photography and custom cake services and doesn’t yet have a storefront. For now, she makes cakes out of the Southern Hills Church of Christ basement kitchen, as well as her own and her parents’ kitchens.Brooke Eads began the company in 2008 and invited Woodward to join as co-owner fewer than two years ago. It’s a side job for Woodward, who also works in the Monroe County Community School Corporation food service.“I’m the lunch lady, hairnet and all,” she says.Woodward’s love of baking started with her grandmother, who used to make all of Woodward’s birthday cakes when she was younger. Now, she uses her grandmother’s recipes in her cake orders, along with those she’s modified from baking books.Woodward doesn’t have a team or an industrial-sized oven. She has to start early, sometimes a month in advance. It’s not like on the reality cake-baking shows, such as "Ace of Cakes" and "Cake Boss," she says.“I got an email the other day asking for a three-dimensional Tim Tebow cake by Sunday,” she says. “What day was it? Thursday? I can’t do that. Some people who watch the cake shows don’t realize the time that goes into it.”Though Woodward says she’s far from cake-show level, she’s picked up a few tricks from watching them, such as using a utensil from a sewing kit — a short-spiked gear with a blue handle — to make her patterned designs look quilted or sewn. She said she knew she needed a similar tool, but after seeing someone use the gear on a show, she went out and found it.Woodward has developed many skills on her own, not from her culinary art classes at Vincennes University or from "Cake Boss." Before she learned to put icing on her cake stand while decorating, to act as glue to hold the cake down, her cakes slid off onto the table.“You learn it the hard way, not in school or on TV,” she says. “And it’s usually last minute.”On Sunday, Jan. 22, Woodward showed off a few of the skills she’s learned by decorating a Styrofoam cake. She started by spreading buttercream icing over the three different-sized layers. Then, she rolled out white fondant, an icing-like substance that is edible but has no flavor. Bakers use it to cover cakes and give them a smoother look.“My next big purchase of equipment is something that will roll the fondant out real thin,” she said. “It’s about $4,000 to $6,000. It pulls it through and rolls it out thinner than you can do by hand.”The machine would make the fondant stretch farther and cut Woodward’s time down considerably — rolling fondant is the most time-consuming part of the process. With the three layers, Woodward spent at least half her decorating time working the fondant.“Ace of Cakes” star Duff Goldman's brand of fondant has buttercream mixed in, and Woodward uses it because it comes in tubs of different colors. It’s easier to roll out and spread, but it also falls apart and gets holes. As Woodward tried to lay green fondant over the top layer, it began to show the buttercream beneath.“That’s OK,” she says. “I’ll just have to put a little more decorating on this layer.”Woodward finished decorating the three layer cake in approximately two hours, using her quilted pattern, tiger stripes and a few sugar-sheet cutouts. She might not have all the tools she needs now, but she’s getting there, and in a few years, she hopes she and Brooke will have the most important tool: a storefront.“If you don’t have any kind of patience or anything like that, it’s not the right thing for you to do,” she says. “I’m usually a pretty patient person.”
(01/26/12 3:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The tragedy of film adaptations is, undoubtedly, something will be lost.In “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” the film sacrifices an entire plot line that made Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel more than just a work about 9/11. It also sacrifices the fantastic romanticism Foer wrote into every scene.It’s a movie. It can’t have everything.Some critics forget this. They fault “Extremely Loud” for exploiting our nation’s tragedy and focus on the plot instead of the story’s meaning.Thomas Horn plays Foer’s 9-year-old lead character, Oskar Schell, to a T. He takes on Schell’s simple journey of finding meaning in his father’s death and brings the emotional themes the novel was built on: Everyone has loss, everyone keeps secrets, everyone holds the weight of the world on their shoulders.This story could have been about anything, but it wasn’t. It was about 9/11. So look past that and see the film for what it’s really worth: a damn good child actor and a loss that connects us all.
(01/09/12 4:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An August graduation threw Chelsea Gill into the real world without a determined acting job, without her twin sister and with family troubles on her mind. It was a hard transition made even more difficult by rooting herself in one of the busiest cities in the nation — Chicago.“To not think about it for, like, an hour every day, I’d watch a Jason Segel movie,” Gill said.Gill loves every part Segel’s played: his lead roles in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “I Love You, Man” and “The Muppets,” and even his small role in “Knocked Up.” So Sunday, Jan. 1, she picked up her guitar to distract herself with something else Segel-related.In the matter of half an hour, Gill wrote a song that captured her idol’s attention and scored her a date with a man she’d seen every day but never met.“When I was young, I was told to follow my dreams / no matter how big or obscure they seem,” the song starts. “So here it goes, got a lot to prove / Can’t stop now, nothing to lose.“Have drinks with me / Oh Mr. Segel can’t you see, I’m trying real hard to impress / I think you’re hot, but I digress.”Gill played the song for her roommates, who told her to put it on YouTube. Gill didn’t have an account. She didn’t follow YouTube sensations; she couldn’t even tell you what many of them were. But in less than a week, Gill’s video received nearly 180,000 hits. “From what I assume, he saw it on Twitter,” Gill said. “Over 100 people tweeted it to him, and only 30 of them were my friends.”Segel responded two days after Gill posted it.“My favorite thing, maybe ever. I am in awe. Response on the way,” he tweeted.“I’m gonna need a couple days on this one,” Segel also tweeted.A couple days was all it took. Segel’s publicist contacted Gill, and Saturday, Segel invited her to the Chicago Film Critics Awards that night.“First we went for drinks and talked, and it was me and my sister and him,” Gill said. “Then we went to the award show together. He’s a huge fan of the song.”Gill said she knew Segel’s response was a personal gesture because there were no cameras following them, and everything she thought he would come across as was true. Though Gill never planned on becoming a YouTube hit, she said the craziness surrounding the video has been worth it.“The fact that in less than a week, I met one of my idols, he had a drink with me and took the time out of his crazy, hectic schedule, I’m over the moon right now,” Gill said. “I’m probably the luckiest person in the world.”
(01/06/12 5:42am)
Occupy Bloomington protesters have received a 24-hour extension to
remove their belongings from Peoples Park, said Bloomington Parks and
Recreation Department Director Mick Renneisen. The protesters are still
not allowed to sleep in the park.
(01/05/12 6:58pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Following the first Bloomington City Council meeting of 2012, Occupy Bloomington protesters waited for a call to come through.Around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, it did. They would not receive 48 hours to vacate Peoples Park; instead, they would only get the original 17 and have to leave the park by noon Thursday.Three hours before the protesters heard from their legal counsel, Bloomington police officers hung eviction notices at the park as occupiers gathered for General Assembly.Signs posted on poles around the park informed the protesters that all personal belongings, tents and other possessions must be removed from the park, and that camping in public parks is a violation of the Bloomington municipal code.An hour later, Occupy Bloomington members convened at the City Council meeting to state their case. People who wished to speak stood in a line from the microphone to the door. City Council Public Comment Rules state that during a regular session, audience members can speak for three minutes on any subject.“After the stakes are out of the ground, they will still be stuck in me and I think in a lot of these people,” one protester said.The nine City Council members present listened, many of them taking notes.“One gentleman spoke in front of GA and asked if anyone could foster his dog,” said Nicole Johnson, her voice breaking, “because he would have to go to the homeless shelter when they took us out of the park tomorrow, and he couldn’t go there with his dog.”“And about New Year’s, I would like to say,” Johnson added. She paused, then let out a sigh. “The Bloomington Police Department waited patiently for our party to end, even tolerating a stellar firework display.”Johnson said somewhere between Fourth Street and Kirkwood Avenue, someone allegedly threw a bottle at a building. A BPD officer arrested Alexander Cookman, 36, for throwing the bottle. Two other crowd members, Joshua Johnson and Brian Milum, were arrested for disorderly conduct and other charges.Protesters spoke before and after the City Council business meeting, then met in the City Hall lobby to discuss their next action. One protester said the Occupy legal counsel spoke with a Bloomington city lawyer, who was going to recommend that Mayor Mark Kruzan give the protesters 48 hours to vacate the park. Around 9:30 p.m., the protesters were notified the occupiers that they would not receive an extension.
(01/05/12 6:54pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At noon Thursday, Occupy Bloomington protesters remained in Peoples Park without incident.Only six tents remained standing, with a few people taking them down and placing them in piles at the back of the park.Less than 18 hours earlier, Bloomington Police Department officers pinned eviction notices on posts around Peoples Park informing the occupiers that camping there is in violation of the Bloomington municipal code, and the protestors’ belongings must be removed.Protesters had been living in the park since Oct. 9, 89 days before the eviction.“We’re the longest running occupation,” said Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student.An hour before the park was to be evicted, Flores stood with other protesters, wearing a sign that said, “Where will they go?”The biggest concern for most occupiers was not the group’s next step. Instead, many questioned where Bloomington’s homeless, who came to know Peoples Park as a safe space, would stay for the rest of the winter.“The homeless are victimized,” said CW Poole, a self-identified occupier. “They’re kicked out of the shelters and have no place to go in the middle of winter.”After receiving the eviction notice, protesters convened at City Hall to voice their opinions before nine members of the Bloomington City Council. Protesters in attendance then met in the lobby following the meeting to discuss their next action.One protester told the group about a board at the park where people could write down their concerns. By the time of the City Council meeting, only two had been mentioned: where would the homeless members’ dogs go and what would they do with the military tent.At 11 a.m. Thursday, the military tent was nowhere in sight, removed by a group of people eight hours earlier after a dance party inside the 50-foot-long structure. While most of the tents and belongings had been removed by noon, protesters spent the last hour making signs, playing music and waiting for the inevitable — their departure from the park.But not all protesters thought leaving the park would hurt their cause. Sophomore Peter Oren, a member of Occupy IU, said while some Occupy Bloomington’s members did create working groups to protest outside of Peoples Park, the group’s reliance on occupying the space gave them a bad image.“The point of occupying is it’s a tactic to draw attention to the issue,” said sophomore Nick Greven, also a member of Occupy IU. “I’ve already heard people talking about having ‘General Assembly’ elsewhere.”Greven said he agreed with Oren that it was time to move on with other ways to spread the message.“It’s forcing us to evolve,” Oren said.— Bailey Loosemore
(01/05/12 12:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>At noon Thursday, Occupy Bloomington protesters remained in Peoples Park without incident.Only six tents remained standing, with a few people taking them down and placing them in piles at the back of the park.
Less than 18 hours earlier, Bloomington Police Department officers
pinned eviction notices on posts around Peoples Park informing the
occupiers that camping there is in violation of the Bloomington
municipal code, and the protestors’ belongings must be removed.
Protesters had been living in the park since Oct. 9, 89 days before the eviction.“We’re the longest running occupation,” said Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student.An hour before the park was to be evicted, Flores stood with other protesters, wearing a sign that said, “Where will they go?”
The biggest concern for most occupiers was not the group’s next step.
Instead, many questioned where Bloomington’s homeless, who came to know
Peoples Park as a safe space, would stay for the rest of the winter.“The
homeless are victimized,” said CW Poole, a self-identified occupier.
“They’re kicked out of the shelters and have no place to go in the
middle of winter.”
After receiving the notice, protesters convened at City Hall to
voice their opinions before nine members of the Bloomington City
Council. Protesters in attendance then met in the lobby following the
meeting to discuss their next action.
One protester told the group about a board at the park where people
could write down their concerns. By the time of the City Council
meeting, only two had been mentioned: where would the homeless members’
dogs go and what would they do with the military tent.
At 11 a.m. Thursday, the military tent was nowhere in sight, removed by a
group of people eight hours earlier after a dance party inside the
50-foot-long structure. While most of the tents and belongings had been
removed by noon, protesters spent the last hour making signs, playing
music and waiting for the inevitable — their departure from the park.
But not all protesters thought leaving the park would hurt their cause.
Sophomore Peter Oren, a member of Occupy IU, said while some Occupy
Bloomington’s members did create working groups to protest outside of
Peoples Park, the group’s reliance on occupying the space gave them a
bad image.
“The point of occupying is it’s a tactic to draw attention to the
issue,” said sophomore Nick Greven, also a member of Occupy IU. “I’ve
already heard people talking about having ‘General Assembly’ elsewhere.”Greven said he agreed with Oren that it was time to move on with other ways to spread the message.
“It’s forcing us to evolve,” Oren said.— Bailey Loosemore
(01/01/12 8:28pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three Occupy Bloomington protesters were arrested during a New Year’s Eve march around the courthouse building downtown.Bloomington Police Department Lt. Faron Lake said officers received a complaint around 11 p.m. Dec. 31 of protesters walking up and down Kirkwood. “They were doing their chanting and normal protesting that they’ve done,” Lake said. On two different occasions, the protesters stopped in the roadway, blocking traffic, Lake said, and after officers arrived, they saw one protester throw a bottle at a building near the corner of 6th and College. The bottle-thrower, Alexander Cookman, 26, had also stepped on a squad car at one point, Lake said, and was arrested for criminal mischief, disorderly conduct, resisting law enforcement and public intoxication. As an officer arrested Cookman, Lake said other responding officers attempted to disperse the rowdy crowd. One protester, Joshua Johnson, 36, yelled, “Get out of the way, asshole,” at an officer before pushing him and running off, Lake said. Two officers chased after Johnson, tackled him in the roadway and arrested him for obstructing traffic, battery on a police officer, criminal mischief, resisting law enforcement and disorderly conduct, according to police reports. A third protester, Brian Milum, 25, was arrested for disorderly conduct after an officer told him to stop arguing and Milum refused, Lake said.
(12/12/11 6:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Silence.In the last five seconds of the IU vs. Kentucky game Dec. 10, the intersection of Kirkwood Avenue and Dunn Street was empty save for a few fans scanning the TVs at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood as they passed.One girl watched through the bar’s side window from atop a guy’s shoulders. Not a word was spoken. Not a cheer was heard as the two waited for the play that would bring tears of victory or defeat.Then, a muffled cry. Slow-motion drinks flying through the air. Two people running out the bar’s side door, their cheers filling the silent street.The Hoosiers did the impossible. They beat the No. 1 team in the nation. Celebration couldn’t begin to describe what took place next.“This is the resurgence of Indiana basketball,” IU fan Zac Muller said, wearing a Santa hat and red Indiana sweatshirt. “This is Indiana, rising like a burning phoenix out of the ashes and stomping on UK really hard.“This whole time, the only thing we had to cling to was Tom Crean bringing this program out of the crater that we were in and out of the ashes,” he added. “And he rocked the house, man.”IU and Bloomington police were prepared for the celebration at Kirkwood.“We expected and hoped we’d win the game,” IUPD Chief Keith Cash said. “We anticipated there would be spontaneous gatherings.”Neither department made any arrests, but they set up extra patrols at the Showalter Fountain and at Kirkwood.Zac Smith was working upstairs at Nick’s English Hut when the bar exploded in cheers. He had been there for the 2002 win against then-No. 1 Duke and said he hadn’t seen a reaction as big until Dec. 10.“Are you kidding me? It was awesome,” he said. “I thought the building was going to shake down.”Nick’s usually has a full staff for every home game, and the night of Dec. 10 was no exception. There was extra beer, extra everything, Smith said.“It was business as usual for us,” he said.Dylan Swift, a Nick’s employee and former IU baseball player, was in the kitchen downstairs by the main bar.“The first thing was everybody started jumping, all in unison from the main bar to the back room to the kitchen,” he said. “You couldn’t control it.”Swift said he tried to keep working, but it was impossible. People weren’t ordering, anyway. For the next 20 or 25 minutes, Swift said no orders were placed.“I don’t think I got to leave till 3 or 3:30 a.m.,” he said. “I usually get off at 1 a.m. It was unreal. I’ve never seen Nick’s so dirty with beer on the floor. We were cooking food until the last minute when we had to shut down. Officially, we were closed, but on a night like last night, you couldn’t get all the people out.”In the first 15 minutes following the game, groups of people came from all directions, gathering outside Kilroy’s. The rush followed a little later as the fans from Assembly Hall converged on the area.“People are gonna get in the streets soon,” one fan said to his friend. “I can feel it. The streets is gonna happen.”It started with short-lived mobbing in the intersection, groups running into the middle of the street from the four corners of Dunn and Kirkwood, jumping around, then running back to different corners.Two men carried around two other fans on their shoulders, circling the intersection between mobs. Then, people began spilling into the street, standing to the side as a few fans directed traffic through.But when the song “This is Indiana” began playing out of windows in The Rubicon apartments, fans streamed to the sound, the streets no longer safe for car travel. Police blocked Kirkwood intersections at Indiana Avenue and Grant Street. Swift went to the Nick’s roof with his phone camera.“We got pictures of all the people dancing,” he said. “One of our co-workers had her car parked out front, and she had to go outside and stop people from flipping it over.”It was a silver Infiniti SUV parked across from Nick’s. It had already been trampled — its roof caved in, hood scuffed with shoe marks, windshield cracked. About an hour into the celebration, the crowd wanted to see it flipped.“Flip that car, flip that car, flip that car,” they chanted as people made a half-circle around the SUV.Three fans did as requested. They bent next to the front of the car and started pushing its side, rocking it back and forth before a girl ran up and yelled, “Stop!”She distracted them for a minute before they began again. After the second attempt, another girl came out of the crowd.Bloomington Police Lt. Faron Lake was one of the officers who responded to Kirkwood following the win. It took the police some time to clear the area, Lake said, but there were no major problems while he was there.“We had the music shut off to disperse the crowd and removed people from the top of vehicles,” Lake said. “Then we had the vehicles leave the area.”Bloomington Police Sgt. Shane Rasche said there were no mass arrests as a result of the celebration.Crystal Orly, a Nick’s employee, had no idea what was happening. She thought the screaming and chanting outside was in celebration; she didn’t realize her car had been destroyed.“I got out there and realized that my car was being rocked back and forth, and apparently people had been standing on the front of my car before I got out there,” she said. “I had to prove to the individuals that it was my vehicle so they wouldn’t topple it over. And people were booing me because they were so caught up in the vandalism.”Orly stood in front of her car before a police officer approached her and asked her to move it. The Infiniti groaned to a start then hissed as Orly backed it through the crowd. In front of her, a fan in a red sweatshirt motioned for her to back up.“My first thought was to calm people and let them know there is a person behind this vandalism being affected by all of this,” Orly said. “It kind of blew my mind that I had to prove that it was my vehicle before they would stop.”Max McCombs, Jake New and Michael Auslen contributed to this report.
(12/08/11 3:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Union Board executive team made cuts across all programming committees’ proposals this year after receiving a less-than-expected budget from the Committee for Fee Review.Evan Farrell, UB president, said the student-run organization expected to receive around $400,000 for the fiscal year, which runs from August to July, but instead received around $50,000 less.“The student activity fee is divided between organizations,” Farrell said, “and we get a certain allocation every two years from the Committee for Fee Review. This year, we got about 50 cents less per student.”But as the new Union Board administration takes over in January, budgeting issues will not be a problem, Farrell said.HOW THE PROCESS WORKSEvery other year in March, the Union Board executives send a proposal to the CFR, who then lets them know by April how much the organization will receive for the next two years.At the same time, Union Board goes through a “Big Budget” process in which each of the 13 programming committees proposes its own budget complete with how much money the committee will need for each event it wants to plan between August and July. These proposals include not only events during their term, but also annual events that take place in the spring under a new committee. Though they won’t be there to see the events through, they have to make room for them in the budget.For the 2011—12 fiscal year, the lectures committee proposed a budget of $54,950 for programs to be held during the committee’s fall term, as well as the spring committee’s term. They received $118,200, a difference of $22,315. But that doesn’t mean they spent all $118,000.Each event has to have a line-by-line budget passed by the executive team, Farrell said, that outlines every expense for the event.“Typically, events run lower than budgeted,” he said. “We then put money back into the general pool.”WHERE YOUR MONEY GOESMost events throughout the school year are planned for in Big Budget, including lectures, leadership, auxiliaries, canvas, comedy, performing arts, films and more.Funding for events not planned in Big Budget comes from the general account, which was allotted $101,236 in the March budget summary and receives leftover funds from completed events. These remaining funds are also turned over to the incoming Union Board in January, an amount usually around $75,000, to use for their own programs.When events go over their budgeted funds, money to make up for their losses is taken from a reserve account, Farrell said.The reserve account takes in profits from concerts and other ticketed programs, which are planned to break even, Farrell said.For the Lil Wayne concert in April, Union Board paid the artist $700,000 to perform, which was twice as much as the organization received in funding. But none of the artist’s fees came from the budget. Instead, the organizers determined how much funding would be needed for the artist’s and other expenses, and then developed a proposal for how many tickets had to be sold to break even. At an average ticket price of $75.04, they needed to sell 11,000 tickets. They sold 14,000, making about $40,000 in profit that went to the reserves.When Union Board lost money on the Sarah Silverman show, funds were taken from the reserve to make up for the loss, preventing them from using student funds to pay for their mistakes.But whether students know where their activity fee money goes or not, Farrell said he believes Union Board’s programs give them opportunities no other organizations can.“We want to help make the student experience a stronger college experience as much as possible,” he said.
(12/08/11 1:09am)
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(12/05/11 3:40am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Democracy looked like a group of about 50 protesters marching the wrong way on College Avenue to the Justice Building on Saturday. As they streamed past cars that changed lanes or stopped, they chanted.“Show me what democracy looks like.”“This is what democracy looks like.”“Whose streets?”“Our streets.”Saturday’s march led Occupy Bloomington protesters from their makeshift home in Peoples Park to the old courthouse on the square, the Justice Building and back. At the front of the line, six Occupy Bloomington “radical cheerleaders” led the chants. “G-R-E-E-D. Corporations don’t fool me. You greedy, yeah, yeah, you greedy.”It was the first march they cheered at, said protester and cheerleader BW, who declined to give her full name. They’d had practice in the park and wrote all the cheers together. They dressed in red and black — BW’s outfit complete with a red Christmas bow on her back — unintentionally mimicking sorority rush participants’ color scheme. “I think they subconsciously wanted to be radical cheerleaders,” BW said. Before the march, groups of girls participating in rush walked past the park.“Come march with us,” Logan Flores, an Ivy Tech Community College student, yelled at one group. From the middle, one girl yelled, “Hi” back.“Why do you hate me right now?” Flores said as the girl passed.“I hate you all the time, Logan,” she responded.“Is it because you’re in front of your friends?”She smiled, shook her head no and kept walking.In front of the Justice Building, Flores stood on the sidewalk behind the other protesters as they chanted, “Free all the prisoners.”“I’ll stay out of that one,” he said. “Free most of the prisoners.”With the Justice Building the last stop, the protesters marched home. As they reached Peoples Park, Occupy IU media liaison Justinian Dispenza stopped to talk to one man filming the march on his phone. Dispenza had walked in the march, calling out to people and offering chai tea. But he had something different to say to the videographer.“I make $14 an hour, took a shower and cut my hair,” he said to the camera, “and I’m still pissed.”“Sometimes it’s important to engage with people who hate you,” he said.
(12/02/11 3:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On Nov. 24, nearly six months after Lauren Spierer’s disappearance, the woman behind @NewsOnLaurenS continued to tweet. “Always in our hearts. Love you, Lauren. Mom, Dad & Rebecca. #Thanksgiving #FindLauren”News about the missing 20-year-old had slowed, and fewer people were tweeting about her. But 29,050 people still followed the feed.On a holiday to give thanks, they needed to be reminded one family continued to cope with loss.“A family is incomplete today,” said one of the feed’s retweets. “Hoping 2day inspires some1 to speak up! We want Lauren home for #Christmas! #FindLauren #Hope @NewsOnLaurenS”Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been in use for years, serving mainly as tools to connect people with their friends online. At the time of Lauren’s disappearance, volunteers found a new purpose for social media: spreading information about a missing person to a mass audience. With the assistance of @NewsOnLaurenS and the Spierer family’s official Facebook page, people across the country tuned in to every update on the case and discovered how they could participate in the ongoing searches. While news media conveyed the same information, they often lacked the emotion that attracted people to the case, said Hans Ibold, an assistant professor in the School of Journalism.“What social media can do is provide opportunities to develop a sense of ‘we,’” Ibold said. “I belong to a group, and the group recognizes me, and I recognize the group. And that happens when emotions come into play. That emotional investment is key to getting off the couch and doing something.”Two days after Lauren’s disappearance, the user behind @NewsOnLaurenS — who remains anonymous — searched social media sites for information about the missing student. Her brother attended IU. Her parents were alumni. She wanted to know what she could do to help when search parties were formed. A few Facebook pages existed but no Twitter feeds, and she couldn’t find the information anywhere, she said.With a few shy clicks, she started the Twitter account.As she began tweeting, she made a vow to herself to never let the account be about her. Finding Lauren was the important part, not the person behind it. The anonymous user intended to give the account to Lauren’s parents, but they declined the offer.“At the three-month mark, I had lunch with Charlene and Robbie,” she said. “I went down there and said, ‘Do you want this?’ I didn’t want them to feel like this was something they couldn’t utilize. My mission is to help them in any way possible.”Though tweets allow users to express messages in only 140 characters, Twitter’s control capabilities allowed @NewsOnLaurenS to choose what was tweeted or retweeted. “As the Spierers have seen, Facebook hasn’t been the same for this case,” the user said. “One page was shut down because it grew so out of control. On Facebook, when you become a fan, anybody can say whatever they wanted. It grew into a nasty circle of rumors and speculation.”Seventy percent of active Internet users are on Facebook, Ibold said, so people who know how to use the site effectively can see beneficial results.“For me, using social media did provide these moments of connectedness with her family, other students and other community members that I wasn’t getting from the news,” Ibold said. “And I can’t really explain why, but I think it has to do with those emotions.”It also helps in police cases, though Bloomington Police Department Capt. Joe Qualters could not give specific details on the Lauren Spierer case. For BPD, he said, social media continues to be a valuable tool for law enforcement, allowing officers to monitor people’s actions and thoughts through Facebook and Twitter posts.“It’s amazing what people will reveal about just about anything,” Qualters said. “You can use it as a way to supplement information.”Law enforcement can also use the sites to be proactive and prevent events from happening if they have enough warning, Qualters said. “We can monitor a kid’s Facebook page, and if it says something about shooting up a school, we can deter those types of events,” he said. The user behind @NewsOnLaurenS said utilizing social media was an educational process. After meeting Lauren’s parents, she taught Charlene how to use Twitter.“Lauren was a young, beautiful girl,” she said. “That’s going to captivate an audience anyway. But the Spierers took immediate action. They started findlauren.com immediately, and that was crucial.”As of November, the Twitter account had established 50 leads since the case started, the user said. “It may not have resulted in finding her, but it solved pieces of the puzzle along the way,” she said.
(12/01/11 5:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three IU students arrested in Tuesday’s protest at the Kelley School of Business’ Godfrey Graduate Executive Education Center will not be charged, Monroe County Prosecutor Chris Gaal said Wednesday.Protesters in an autonomous group gathered outside a JPMorgan recruitment event to stop interviews, said media liaison and senior Justinian Dispenza. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, the protesters prevented anyone from entering the room.When police arrived at the scene, they advised the protesters to move from the door or they would be arrested for trespassing. After the threat of arrest, most of the protesters sitting in front of the door moved away but continued to protest in the surrounding hallway and stairwell. Three protesters, however, remained.The three were taken into custody, as well as two more who sat down in front of the door following the initial arrests.After asking the protesters to move, members of the IU Police Department arrested the students and two other protesters, said Mark Land, associate vice president for University communications.“They were not arrested because they were protesting,” Land said. “They were arrested because they were keeping other students from using the facilities. They were getting in the way of the educational mission of the University.”Gaal said the University is within its legal rights to remove disruptive persons who are advised of trespass from its property but that the punishment is a matter for IU to handle, not the city.Typically, when IUPD officers make arrests for criminal acts, the offenders are prosecuted by the local court system and are then handed to the prosecutor’s office, Land said. In this case, Gaal said he did not believe the county needed to prosecute.“This was a peaceful demonstration in which no property was damaged nor any person injured,” Gaal said in a statement. “Because this situation did not pose a significant threat to public safety. It does not warrant the expenditure of scarce resources that would result from a criminal prosecution.”The students now face discipline for personal misconduct and will attend a judicial conference, Dean of Students Harold “Pete” Goldsmith said. According to the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, personal misconduct includes “intentionally obstructing or blocking access to university facilities, property or programs.”If the students disagree with the conference’s decision, Goldsmith said they can go before a hearing commission.“The initial phases will start now,” Goldsmith said. “But in terms of how much time we have left in the semester, I’m not sure if it will be completed.”Possible judicial conference outcomes1. Reprimand and warning2. Disciplinary probation3. Restitution: repaying the cost of property damage by the student4. Participate in a specific program: can include counseling, alcohol education or other program designed to foster civic participation5. Provide a specific service: repair damaged property6. Expulsion from University housing7. Suspension8. Expulsion9. Deferred sanction: an allotted future expulsion timeSource: IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct
(11/24/11 6:08pm)
Muppets reboot a nostalgic trip down memory lane
(11/21/11 4:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Big Al Carpenter said he would rather beat Purdue University than eat. On Saturday, he will take his 1979 Holiday Bowl ring out of its box in his dresser drawer and don it on the sidelines of the Old Oaken Bucket game. He’ll park his motorized scooter in the North End Zone of Memorial Stadium, the same place he’s sat for every home game but one in the last 30 years. It’s where he can see the whole field.Born with cerebral palsy, Big Al has cheered for IU for nearly 60 years. He loves IU football, and he loves the rivalry game.“Have you seen that Old Oaken Bucket trophy?” he asked. “It’s something worth fighting for.”From his usual spot in the North End Zone, Big Al has supported the team through seven head coaches. Though he never attended the University, he became a volunteer coach in 1973 for former IU Coach Lee Corso, traveling with him to the Holiday Bowl six years later.Big Al’s IU football fan career began at age 5, when he heard his first game on the radio at home in Spencer, Ind. From that moment, he dreamed of playing for IU.“In my house, you never was caught listening to Purdue,” he said. “It was always IU. It’s our state school, for one, and two, I developed a love for IU every time I listened to a game. It meant something to me.”Big Al saw his first game, which was against the University of Iowa, when John Pont was IU’s coach.“It was amazing,” he said. “All the pageantry and everything that went on. I used to tell my mom, one day I’d be on the football team.”It was another game against Iowa that Big Al missed in 2010, the first home game he didn’t attend in 30 years.“I used to have mini-migraines,” he said. “I knew I had to get somewhere where I could get a shot. For me, it was kind of sad because when I woke up the next day and asked who won, we’d lost by a smidgen.”In 1973, when Big Al still used crutches to get around, and Lee Corso led the team, Al hitchhiked from Spencer to attend football practices.“One day, Coach Corso said, ‘You understand people. How would you like to be a part of my staff?’” Big Al said.Big Al remained on staff all 10 years Corso coached. Now, Corso lives in Florida, but Big Al said they’re still best friends.“I have his phone number, and he has mine,” he said. “There are times I wish he was here to talk about anything.”Big Al still attends football practices when he can, making the 30-minute scooter ride from his home in Bloomington down the B-Line Trail on fair-weathered days. But no matter what weather, Big Al will make it to the football games. Those are important. That’s when the team really needs his support.Big Al said he believes the team will win this Saturday. Then again, he believes that about every game. On Oct. 29, he waited for the Homecoming game against Northwestern with the same belief. Two hours before kickoff, Big Al entered the stadium to look across the empty field and mentally prepare, a tradition he has before every game.“I go into the stadium and get psyched up for the game,” he said. “I try to put myself in the players’ shoes. Football is a very intense game. What more can a person ask for than to be a part of something like this?”Minutes before the Homecoming game, Big Al inched forward in his scooter chair and looked toward the double doors, where the team would enter the field.“We’re about ready,” he said. “Here it goes.”One hundred eleven players walked onto the field. Big Al doesn’t know each by name, but he supports every one. One player stopped a few feet from Big Al’s scooter, bent his knees and flexed his arms inward, yelling Big Al’s name before rejoining the team.Big Al smiled.“I try to let the guys know, no matter what, we will prevail,” he said. “You just go and let the kids know you’re not giving up on them.”
(11/18/11 3:52am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A new Internet scam has University Director of Public Safety Jerry Minger and other Protect IU members alarmed. “Robbery by appointment,” a scam most commonly related with Craigslist — a website used to post classified ads in various cities — first came to Minger’s attention when two IU-Purdue University Indianapolis students fell victim to the crime. “What happened to these two students, someone posted an ad on Craigslist that they had property for sale, iPhones or iPads, and when they showed up, they were actually robbed,” Minger said. “I think in both cases, they brought money and were going to buy an iPhone when they had just released the product.”The first robbery took place in a parking lot off campus, the second on West 10th Street in Indianapolis. Both places were public.“It’s not a place where they felt unsafe at all,” Minger said. “In fact, reading some of the articles that were on the Internet, some of these places were within blocks of police stations and court houses.”So far, Minger said he has only heard of one robbery by appointment incident in Bloomington, but it’s a scam that could happen to anyone.Previously, he said one IU student fell victim to a scam when he bought a Mercedes online. “The thieves had taken pictures of it and talked him into he’d get a better deal if you just send me the cash to this bank account,” Minger said. “Then we’ll give you the car and send you the title. The car was never what they said it was. They took a picture of a car that was out on a street.”Minger said students and other Craigslist users should take measures to protect themselves and their items. He has posted tips for Craigslist users on the Protect IU website: protect.iu.edu/news.When meeting someone for a transaction, please remember to:- Insist on a public meeting place where there are plenty of people, better yet, the IUPUI Police parking lot or any police department. If you are dealing with a legitimate buyer, they will not object to the meeting location.- Arrive at the meeting place much earlier than the agreed upon time to avoid being ambushed, especially if you are walking.- Do not meet in a secluded place or invite strangers into your home.- Be especially careful when buying and selling high-value items.- Tell a friend or family member where you are going.- Take your cell phone along, if you have one, to call 911 if necessary.- Consider having a friend accompany you.- Above all, trust your instincts.
(11/10/11 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two discussions headlined Occupy IU’s second meeting Tuesday: whether to become an IU-affiliated student organization and what the group’s first step should be.Senior Justinian Dispenza began the first issue by saying he didn’t agree with becoming a student organization, but he believed it was something that should be mentioned.“The pros, though I’m against it personally, are that we can rent rooms on campus, possibly receive student funding and legal tabling,” he said.According to the Student Organizations Handbook, members of a new organization must write a constitution, including the exact phrase “This organization shall comply with all Indiana University regulations, and local, state, and federal laws.”Violations of University regulations might result in loss of student organization benefits and might subject the organization to the Student Organization Ethics Board process, according to the handbook.Possible violations were addressed in the second topic of the meeting: where to go next. Handing out pamphlets and occupying designated spaces for a few hours would not infringe on University policy but occupying Dunn Meadow overnight would.The handbook states that “overnight camping is not a form of expression and, therefore, permission will not be granted to cook or live in overnight structures.”Occupier Joseph Klatt suggested flash occupations in different locations to bring more students into the movement before setting up a permanent tent city in the spring. But Peoples Park occupier Max Walsh said forming an overflow camp in Dunn Meadow is already being discussed.“We might beat the students to occupying Dunn Meadow,” he said.The Occupy IU group agreed, though, that occupying now is too soon and that they should first reach out to more students.Propaganda, such as handing out pamphlets and making a list of facts that students care about, would be the first step, Klatt said. Students would also have the opportunity to learn about the cause face-to-face with an Occupy IU member.Then, the group will move on to more noticeable tactics: occupied teach-ins, where members of the group take control of a classroom for one lecture period at the start of the semester when students don’t recognize their professors’ faces and occupying public buses — possibly a handful of people with signs on every bus. That way, they’d reach thousands of people at one time.Starting with pamphlets will allow the group to maintain a sustained movement with room to grow.“It’s a structure that makes it inviting and brings people in,” said Ben Robinson, assistant professor of Germanic studies. “We want to be taken seriously.”Occupy IU’s next meeting will be at 7 p.m. today in the Indiana Memorial Union.
(11/07/11 3:31am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The pumpkin was in place.Josh Jachim steadied his right foot on the base of his team’s wooden slingshot cannon and crouched away from the launching machine. He put a hand on the edge of his black German helmet.“It’s safety,” he said, tapping his helmet. “Every time I bent down, I got hit in the head.”To his left, Gregory Darling held the pull that released the pumpkin.The two boys and their brothers, Nick Jachim and Evan Darling, had attended the Great Bloomington Pumpkin Launch at Hilltop Garden and Nature Center before, but never as contestants.“We want to go against our dads,” Josh said.“Yeah, we got bored watching him,” Nick added.On Saturday, elementary students Josh, Gregory and Nick formed the Pumpkin Avengers and battled their fathers, Glenn Darling and Joe Jachim on team BPG 9000, in the accuracy competition. The Great Bloomington Pumpkin Launch was split into three age divivisions — youth, student and adult — and two competitions — distance and accuracy. Each team had two chances to launch a pumpkin as far as they could and then another two chances to get as close to a target as possible. Though the distance competition pits age groups against each other, Event Coordinator Bill Ream said all six participating teams would go head-to-head for accuracy.That placed Josh and Gregory’s wooden cannon against the white-tubed cannon from which they had borrowed their design.The boys’ slingshot took two days to build and a week to revise, Nick said.“We just found out two or three weeks ago that they had a kids section,” Josh said.The divisions and rules were changed this year, Ream said, because the launching competition didn’t take place the last two years due to a low number of teams.“We got a lot of interest from spectators in bringing it back,” he said, “and we had seven teams sign up to participate. Obviously, one team couldn’t make it.”For the first six years, the competition took place at Hilltop and then moved to RCA Park for two years before taking a break.“Hopefully, they’ll keep doing it,” Ream said. “It’s a real unusual activity.”Two 8-by-8 foot tarps with scarecrows in the middle marked 150 feet and 400 feet accuracy targets. The Pumpkin Avengers aimed its cannon at the 150 foot tarp. Its distance shots had gone 150 feet and 180 feet, respectively, so it’d be right on target.The adult teams launched both of their accuracy shots first, with the youths’ dads getting their pumpkin the closest — 44 feet from the 400 foot target.The first to go of the youth and student groups, the boys eyed the slingshot’s position.“Move it to the left just a tiny (bit). That’s it. That’s it,” Nick said.“I think we’re dead on,” Gregory replied.He held his hands tight on the pull, waiting for the crowd’s count down.Three. Two. One.Gregory pulled.The five-pound pumpkin shot through the air in an arch. Gregory fell to the ground from the slingshot’s force. He watched as the pumpkin splattered to the left of the scarecrow, possibly on the tarp.“I think we hit it,” he said.“We’re so close,” Josh said.Ream stood behind the team, waiting for the measures from the field to crackle over his walkie-talkie. He announced the Pumpkin Avengers’ accuracy into a microphone.“Twenty-one feet with pumpkin seeds on the tarp,” he said.The boys spent little time cheering. Instead, they readied their cannon for the next shot.While the Pumpkin Avengers did not take home the accuracy prize — an Ivy Tech Community College student team won with a shot 11 feet from the tarp — it placed first in its division for distance and second in accuracy after the Ivy Tech team.“We’ll definitely be doing it again,” Josh said.
(11/04/11 3:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>A Google document in which people can schedule time to occupy Peoples Park will be made following the first Occupy IU meeting Thursday at the Indiana Memorial Union.Instead of leaving their comfort zone entirely, people will be able to sign up and give a definite time for when they can occupy.“It’s not about getting rough. People aren’t expected to live like they’re homeless,” said occupier Daniel Bingham. “It’s about maintaining a space.”Bingham arrived at the meeting after finishing a shift at work. In the table-filled room near the Back Alley, more than 60 people sat in a circle, on chairs and on the floor, discussing ways to get more students involved in the occupation movement and future plans for the Peoples Park occupiers.“I came in late, but I heard mention of temporary occupation,” Bingham said to the crowd. “People occupying need a break to sleep in their beds. People could rotate in for a night at a time so we can keep a constant presence.”Around the circle, people wiggled their fingers above their heads, a silent way of showing agreement instead of clapping.One of the main reasons senior Justinian Dispenza and occupier Joseph Klatt facilitated the Occupy IU meeting was to bring the meaning of the occupation movement directly to the students.“When we were setting up occupation, it was between Dunn Meadow and Peoples Park,” Dispenza said. “We decided on Peoples Park because of its rich history.”Unfortunately, students don’t always spend time off campus and may not know about the protest, Dispenza said.At the meeting, Klatt mentioned another concern.“It’s getting cold,” he said. “I don’t know if people want to camp out. Do we want to think about an inside space as well?”“It’s difficult to get students to camp outside, especially in freezing weather,” someone else said.“We’re looking into buying a $2,000 military tent that’s 50 feet wide,” one Peoples Park occupier said. “So, that’d be really hard to fit in Peoples Park.”Currently, about 70 people can sleep in the tents in the park, but most nights, only 20 to 30 protesters sleep there.But Dispenza said the purpose of the meeting wasn’t to set up a new occupy site or force people to start sleeping outside. Instead, he wanted to begin a discussion with interested students and faculty.Minutes before the meeting began, Steve Veldkamp, assistant dean of students, dropped off sheets of blue paper titled “Information about Students’ Right to Protest.”“I have a few business cards that I can give to the leaders, or are you all leaders?” he said looking around the circle.“We’re all facilitators,” Dispenza said.“Okay, I’ll just leave these here for anyone to take, then,” Veldkamp said, placing a stack of blue papers and business cards on a table before leaving.“IU’s technically not all free speech,” Dispenza said as Veldkamp left. “You have to protest in designated free speech zones.”The speech zone issue was brought up again later in the meeting.“All of campus should be a free speech zone,” one protester said.“The whole city should be a free speech zone,” someone else added.Though no further decisions were made at the meeting, Occupy IU will meet again to continue discussions at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the same place.