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(10/27/00 4:18am)
Indiana hasn't cast one vote for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, when Lyndon B. Johnson became president. But, every four years, thousands of Indiana residents vote for democratic candidates. \nThis is because the United States is the only democracy in the world which uses an electorate system.\nThe second article of the Constitution calls for what has since been dubbed the electoral college. Put simply, each state legislature must elect a number of electors equal to the number of congressmen representing that state. For example, a state with five representatives and two senators would have seven electors. This means a state's number of electors is somewhat proportionate to its population.\nIn 1996, President Bill Clinton beat republican Bob Dole 50-42 percent in the popular vote, but more than doubled the amount of votes Dole received in the electoral college according to www.historycentral.com. In the current campaign, according to politics.com, if the presidential election were held today, Texas Gov. George W. Bush would win the vote in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, while Gore would win in Illinois.\nProfessor of History Michael Grossberg said the electoral college was put in place to check the power of the people. Instead of voting for a president, the people would elect "wise people" who would, in-turn, vote on a president. Since then, the system slowly evolved until 1868, when all of a state's electoral began going to the party who received the majority of the popular vote. Essentially, the winner takes all.\nNow, 270 electoral votes are needed to win the majority necessary to become president. In 1996, president Clinton carried the state of California's 54 electoral votes -- 20 percent of the votes needed to win. At the time, California represented 11 percent of the nation's population according to Ellen Sung of policy.com.\n"It's an 18th century Constitutional idea about how you need to give people the vote but you also need to control them," Grossberg said. "Someone can get less in the popular vote and still have a massive electoral vote because they win big states. They might win New York, Texas and Florida very closely, but they get all those (electoral) votes."\nMany people contest the electoral college is flawed in that it doesn't let everyone's vote count as much, said IU Southeast Professor Emeritus Thomas Wolf said. He said a Democrat in Indiana can "forget about having any influence in the electoral college."\nHe said the argument in favor of the electoral college is two fold.\n"It gives smaller states greater influence," he said. "It secondly means that it's easier to determine the winner than if we used the direct popular vote. If you had a close election, you might have to wait several weeks to recount certain states or certain precincts."\nBut Wolf also said there are flaws in the system because it goes against what Americans believe about democracy. He said every vote should be equally important and geography shouldn't make any difference.\n"Finally it would mean, if every vote counted, everyone would make a great effort to see as many people vote as possible," Wolf said.
(10/26/00 2:57am)
The Take Back IU petition is a serious step in cleaning up the University.\nWhile petitions often have little effect, Take Back IU sends a message. IU's academic standings are declining even as tuition rises. The quality of life in campus housing is in decline. And the firing of Bob Knight was under suspicious terms.\nThese circumstances point to the administration. Our music school is running in the red. The College of Arts and Sciences budget is unbalanced, and our faculty is underpaid. The administration can't sort out the budget, no matter how many fees pop up on the bursar bill.\nStudents' pocketbooks are being emptied, professors are leaving and the administration is upsetting the alumni.\nIt's obnoxious that IU students are in debt for a second rate education while IU president Myles Brand is making $272,000 per year and will get a raise.\nI don't believe IU is better off now than it was when Brand arrived six years ago. It's time we acted to turn our school back into a first-rate institution, and the petition is a fine way to start. It sends a message: Shape up or ship out.\nThe only problem with the Take Back IU Petition petition is it came directly after Coach Knight's firing. Granted, if Knight hadn't been fired, this petition never would have existed.\nBut in this case, the ends justify the means. If it took the firing of a popular figure to straighten this university out, then so be it.\nThis petition should have been filed before we lost the fifth chemistry professor in five years, before IU fell into the second tier of universities, before the music school fell into the red, before the board of trustees broke the spirit of the law and met to fire Knight, before the golf course controversy, before the community college debacle and before more freshmen were forced to live in overcrowded dorms.\nBut it is never too late to effect positive change. Stand up, tell Brand and the boys to fix IU and sign the Take Back IU petition.
(10/25/00 6:13am)
In the final weeks of presidential campaigning, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore are splitting hairs in the polls.\nFive national polling organizations have reported Bush would win by 2 percent of the popular vote if the election were held Oct. 22. But Bush lost his lead in the Gallup poll Tuesday at 45 to 46 percent in Gore's favor. Bush had been leading Gore in the Gallup Poll by more than a 4 percent margin of error since Oct. 17.\nJournalism professor David Weaver, who studies polling, said he wouldn't bet that the polls will accurately predict the next president of the United States.\n"One of the problems is the electoral system," Weaver said. "It's really difficult to tell whether they're going to carry the crucial states or not. Not only are they close, a lot of times closer than sampling error would allow you to predict, but also (polls are) not fool-proof indicators of how candidates are doing in the crucial states."\nPolitics.com electoral vote tracker Hal Bruno said Bush is ahead in 25 states, worth 213 electoral votes, and Gore has 186 potential votes in 13 states and Washington D.C.\nTwo hundred and seventy votes will be required to win the presidency. He reports 12 states worth 139 votes are too close to call, including Florida, where Bush's brother Jeb is governor. Bruno's report lists Bush's lead as increasing because of more support from previously undecided states.\nMany of the polls, which have been charting a Bush lead, are "tracking polls," or overnight polls conducted by telephone. Reuters/MSNBC and CNN/USA Today/Gallup are both tracking polls, which indicate a Bush lead. \nWeaver said inconsistencies in tracking polls arise because of questionable polling practices. He said good telephone polls will attempt to call someone three times before moving on to another phone number. He said overnight polls are conducted too quickly to allow more than one phone call and eliminate certain groups of people who are only home at specific times of day.\nPolitical science professor emeritus Leroy Rieselbach said another flaw in the polls lies in their inability to predict "intensity," or the motivation to vote for one candidate or another.\n"They are predicting how votes would divide, if the election was conducted on the day the poll was collected," Rieselbach said. "Polls fail to measure intensity of preference. Polls will not distinguish when somebody says, 'My granddaddy would roll over in his grave if I vote Republican.'"\n"(Also) the polls have to worry about the sample. Most of these polls now try to weed out people who won't vote. You can never be entirely sure who is going to go out and vote on election day."\nRegardless of whether the polls predict the next president of the United States, most polls still indicate the closest presidential election since Ronald Reagan beat incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. Rieselbach said the Republican strategy is giving Gore a run for his money.\n"Given that Gore surely has an advantage in terms of experience, in terms of knowing the issues, the Republicans have adopted a strategy of broader, softer ethical issues," Rieselbach said. "My argument is, broadly put, whoever defines the turf on which the campaign is fought has a high likelihood of doing better, winning"
(10/25/00 5:17am)
Becoming president isn't cheap, and many criticize how political campaigns are funded.\nThus far in the campaign, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore combined have raised more than $300 million dollars, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The number is based on the candidates' reports to the Federal Election Commission, which oversees federal campaign fund raising and is commonly referred to as "hard money."\nMoney that cannot be accounted for in the campaigns is "soft money," or money donated by individuals, corporations and political action committees to the Democratic and Republican national parties, not the campaigns, for "party building." Soft money -- which is supposed to be used for party expenses -- is often criticized. Thomas Wolf, retired dean of political science at IU Southeast, said soft money often gives the impression of bribery.\n"Soft money is a provision in the federal election law, which permits the parties to collect money and spend it on behalf of the candidate without limit," Wolf said. "This is outside the limit that the FEC administers that the candidates can spend."\nLegally, the national parties must report who donates soft money and how much is donated, only the parties know how much is spent in conjunction with the campaigns. According to Wolf, parties won't spend soft money in conjunction with a presidential campaign without the approval of the candidate.\n"I doubt very much that very many people will say, 'If you give me so much money, I will vote your way,'" political science professor emeritus Leroy Rieselbach said. "What the companies get is what political scientists call 'access.' The recipient of the donation is likely to say, 'Well, he's one of my contributors, I'd better listen.' The impact of it is multiplied because the amounts are unregulated."\nAccording to opensecrets.com, a Web site dedicated to track campaign funding, soft money was first used on a national scale by Michael Dukakis when he ran for president against George Bush in 1988. \nRieselbach said when the parties figured out soft money could be used for advertising, it wasn't long before they started buying television air time. While it is illegal for a soft money advertisement to specify who to vote for, or against, the ads are allowed to be entirely suggestive as long as it disclosed who paid for it.\n"The messages that get out, in fact are not controlled by the candidates," Rieselbach said. "The contributors believe they are entitled to be heard. They do get advantages that are denied those who are unable to make those kinds of contributions to the parties."\nRieselbach said while soft money is not bribery, it does open doors for groups and companies with political motives. For example, he said, when Newt Gingrich became speaker of the House of Representatives in 1995, soft money donors were invited to committee meetings to help draft policies.\n"The smaller, less well-financed interests are likely to be shut out, to be driven out in fact by larger groups who give these large soft money contributions," Riesenbach said. "What do you do if 15 PACs (Political Action Committees) from the oil industry have given money, and then you're asked to vote on whether or not to roll back tax on gasoline? It doesn't look good"
(10/25/00 5:15am)
The issues came pouring out Tuesday night at the University of Massachusetts in Boston as Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore traded blows in the first of three presidential debates.\nWhile the long range effects of the debate on this year's campaign are still unknown, the debate marked the first time Bush and Gore have gone head to head on election issues. From the beginning, both candidates vigorously attacked each others' plans for Medicare, Social Security, tax cuts, education reform, energy and foreign policy.\nLate Tuesday, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reported 48 percent of people polled said Gore "did a better job" compared to 41 percent in Bush's favor. \nProfessor Emeritus Thomas Wolf, former IU-Southeast dean of political science and NBC News political analyst, said he doesn't think either candidate "won."\n"Bush probably did better than was expected," Wolf said. "And Gore probably did what his supporters were afraid he would do, and that is talk too much.\n"Gore tried to give too many details, and of course he repeated himself on several things. I will be very surprised if either one gets any benefits in the over-night tracking polls. If anyone does, it will be Bush. But my own analysis is that neither one will get much of an edge."\nPolitical science professor emeritus Leroy Rieselbach said "both candidates did reasonably well," but he differed with Wolf, saying Gore "was much more articulate and in command of his own proposals."\nTwo issues, which were quickly brought to the center stage of the debate, were health care and Social Security reform. Bush immediately said Gore and the Democrats use prescription drugs as an election issue every four years, saying, "It seems like they can't get it done" and offering "immediate help for seniors."\nGore quickly countered, saying "All seniors will get prescription drugs under Medicare" and saying that cited an example of an elderly couple which had to travel to Canada to buy prescription drugs.\nBush used the term "mediscare" to describe what he described as Gore trying to scare senior citizens to the polls by making false claims about Bush's proposed medical reforms.\nAs the issue of tax reform arose, Gore repeatedly said Bush would give money to "the wealthiest 1 percent" and he would spend five times as much of the budget surplus on tax breaks as on education spending. Bush countered Gore's number-based arguments throughout the night by accusing Gore of "fuzzy math."\n"Gore had better command," Rieselbach said. "Of the substance of his proposal and a critique of Bush's proposals. Bush managed to do what he wanted to do and say, 'Forget all that. Never mind the details. There is a basic philosophy that we bring to Washington and Gore is in favor of big government.'"\nAs the debates continued into issues of abortion, defense and foreign policy, Bush stayed on the offense, as Gore verbally dodged negative commentary but gave several puzzled looks to the camera as Bush spoke. Wolf said Bush's attacks were launched "with sort of kid gloves."\n"He did it in a way that I don't think many people would say is very bad," Wolf said. "Gore has laid himself open to this."\nBush did refrain from taking moral stabs at the Democratic administration until the end of the night, when he said, "The buck stops in the Lincoln bedroom." He also said Gore has no credibility on campaign finance reform issues. Gore countered by reiterating he is his own man, a point he made at the Democratic national convention.\nRieselbach said Bush's performance had two problems. One, that he was extremely weak with issues of foreign policy and two, the remark about the "Lincoln bedroom gave Gore the moral high ground"
(10/25/00 5:14am)
Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore will hit the airwaves tonight as the presidential candidates square off in the first of three debates. \nThe first debate will air live on ABC at 8 p.m. CBS and PBS will begin their coverage at 9 p.m. A typical candidate-behind-podium debate, it will be held at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. After being virtually tied since the conventions, the race is the closest in 20 years. The debates could cause the first shift in public opinion in more than a month.\n"There have been instances in which people have pointed to the debates as swinging the vote one way or another," said professor Robert Huckfeldt, political science chairman. "I'm hesitant to make any predictions in who will do better or who will do worse. In 1980, everybody was anticipating that Reagan wouldn't be able to keep up with Carter in the debates."\nPresident of IU College Republicans Anne Scuffham said the issues to be brought up at the debate will "directly affect students' lives." \n"The issues they're debating are kind of setting the course for debates of the future, when (students) will be the ones paying the taxes and the ones with their children in schools," Scuffham said. "Social Security's going to be a big one, because it's going to run out. Gas prices... we all have to drive home. There are things going on in the Middle East that effect us here locally.\n"I'm graduating from college and going into the real world. These issues will directly affect me."\nSenior Marc Kelly, former vice president of the IU College Democrats, said the debates are a great way for students to see "what the candidates stand for."\n"I'm definitely worried about education," Kelly said. "I feel that the government should spend a lot more on education than it does already. I'm not even talking about college, but elementary and high school.\n"All issues effect students. If a president is in support of more military action against other countries, it's very easy for a student to have to go to war. Money could be taken from arts and education to pay for the military."\nLeroy Rieselbach, a political science professor emeritus who researches public opinion, said health care, taxes and education will all be serious issues in tonight's debate. He said these are the issues people are interested in and politicians "hunt where the ducks are."\n"Nobody has to make the point, for example, that prescription drugs are a problem for people, especially senior citizens," he said. "They vote and vote in large numbers."\nRieselbach said the education debates will affect parents more than students. \n"(Students) have little interest in politics, in general," he said. "Their lives are still in flux. They haven't really put down roots in a community as such that they say 'Well gee, what goes on in city hall and Washington, that makes a difference to me.'"\nRegardless of how many students vote, Huckfeldt still acknowledges the possibility of the debates being a pivotal event.\n"I have no idea whether or not the debates will determine who is president," he said. "If I were working for one of the candidates, I would assume that the debates could do that"
(10/23/00 3:32pm)
"We have fought in every clime and place where we could take a gun," boasts the Marine Corps hymn.\nRight now U.S. military units are stationed all over the world. For eight years, the Clinton administration has stationed American soldiers throughout the world and used military force in "humanitarian" missions, like interventions in Kosovo, Haiti and Somalia. \nDuring the presidential campaign, the role of the military and the readiness of U.S. forces have been hotly contested.\n"We must always have the will to defend our enduring interests and values -- from Europe, to the Middle East, to Africa and Asia, and in our own hemisphere," Vice President Al Gore said in a Sept. 12 speech to the National Guard Association.\nThroughout the presidential debates, Texas Gov. George W. Bush has voiced disapproval of humanitarian missions, saying it's the duty of the military to "fight and win wars." He said the military should only be used "where our interests are at stake."\nHistory professor Nick Cullather, who teaches classes on the Vietnam War and World War II, said the United States keeps troops overseas because "that's where the wars are" and the U.S. military is unique in the world as a force used to "project power," rather than "quell revolutionary violence at home.\n"Instances of straightforward aggression like the invasion of Kuwait are likely to be few in number in the future." Cullather said. "Most deployments will be in response to civil wars and genocidal events such as those in Rwanda, Timor, Kosovo, Haiti, Bosnia, etc."\nPolitical science professor Leroy Rieselbach said the collapse of the Soviet Union is the main reason for debate about the military purpose. He said this has given rise to the question "What should the military be doing now?\n"Nobody professes to be an isolationist anymore," Rieselbach said. "The question is not so much whether we will be involved with the rest of the world, we realize we have to be, but Bush is somewhat more cautious. He would be reluctant to do things like sending our troops to Haiti because he thinks nation building is not our responsibility."\nCullather acknowledges many problems in keeping troops overseas. He said every dollar spent in feeding, housing, clothing and entertaining troops overseas contributes to another country's economy rather than the United States'. \nHe also pointed to recent rapes allegedly committed by American soldiers in Okinawa and Bosnia as examples of the harm to international relations, which stationing troops overseas can cause.\nCullather said he doesn't think building a bigger military, an idea both candidates supported in the debates, is a valid option.\n"Large military forces aren't much use against terrorists and may only be targets for terror, as we saw in Yemen," he said. "Bush has made the claim that eight years of the Clinton administration has left a 'hollowed-out' military. This neglects a couple of questions, the first being 'compared to what?"
(10/17/00 6:41am)
With elections less than a month away, Texas Gov. George W. Bush has overtaken Vice President Al Gore in multiple opinion polls since last week's presidential debates. A Gallup Poll, conducted Thursday to Saturday, is the most recent organization to report a Bush lead, at 49-41 percent in Bush's favor.\nA CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll reports the same results, and a CNN/Time poll reported a 45-47 percent Bush lead. All three polls were conducted directly after last week's presidential and vice presidential debates. Only voter.com and Los Angeles Times polls have shown a Bush lead since August. Since September, this is the first time Gallup has shown Bush ahead in opinion polls by more than the 4 percent margin of error.\nPolitical science professor Leroy Rieselbach, who researches public opinion, said the shift in the polls might be attributed to Republican attacks on Gore's credibility after the debates, and he said Gore fudged about visiting Texas disaster sites with the director of Federal Emergency Management and other issues.\n"I would be interested in seeing the impact of the debates, especially the presidential one, on Gore's levels of trust," Rieselbach said. "One possible reason for the shift toward Bush is that people have begun to have their doubts about Gore's trustworthiness and his reliability and credibility."\nIn contrast to the Gallup poll, a politics.com reporting survey shows Gore has a "modest lead" in electoral votes, "with the potential for" 226 votes in 17 states, whereas Bush is ahead in 23 states having 205 votes. Politics.com also reports 11 states totaling 107 electoral votes still undecided. Among those undecided states is Florida, which controls 25 electoral votes and is governed by Bush's brother, Jeb Bush.\nThomas Wolf, former IU-Southeast dean of political science, said the polls are a credible gauge of public opinion, but they don't necessarily show who will win the election.\n"(Gore) could win the election with a majority of the electoral college and a minority of the popular vote," Wolf said. "If it's going to happen, this is the closest (election) I can recall in my life."\nWolf also attributed Gore's slide in the polls to a poor showing during the debate. While a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll reported 48 percent said Gore "did a better job" in the debate, compared to 41 percent for Bush, Wolf said he thinks that in reviewing the debate, undecided voters are changing their minds.\n"The press has checked out some of the things that Gore has said, and they turned out to be not exactly correct," he said. "The clips that have been re-run show Gore being agitated, and I think some voters have taken that as a sign of being impolite, if not immature. These may have been people who were undecided."\nRieselbach said the vice presidential debates might have also factored into the findings. The Gallup poll was conducted immediately after the vice presidential debate, which took place Thursday.\n"Dick Cheney came across as a calm, cool and articulate defender of the Bush position," Rieselbach said. "That may alleviate some of the doubts about Bush's own leadership capability"
(10/17/00 6:39am)
Swing voters, or those people whose loyalty is sworn to neither the Democrats nor the Republicans, could be the deciding factor in this year's presidential election. \nThis week's politics.com reporting survey predicts, if the election were held today, Vice President Al Gore would win with 226 electoral votes in 17 states, while Texas Gov. George W. Bush would carry 23 states with a total of 205 votes. These figures don't include 11 states with 107 votes, which were described as 'undecided.'\n"If the surveys are accurate, it's going to be those people who are waffling back and forth, who voted one way in '96 and are thinking of voting a different way this time, the swing voters, are going to determine the outcome of this," said Professor Emeritus Thomas Wolf, former chair of political science at IU Southeast.\nWolf said the importance of swing voters is not typical of recent elections. He credits the unusual influence of swing voters in the current elections to the amount of people who disapprove of scandals surrounding the Clinton administration.\n"Reagan's re-election was not that way," Wolf said. "Four years ago, Clinton had a comfortable lead the whole way through. It's not always that way. It's happening because of Clinton. You have a situation where he's had eight years of real economic prosperity. But there are a lot of people who are very upset with Clinton about his personal behavior."\nPolitical science doctoral student Michael Wolf said swing voters are especially valuable in this election, because there are fewer of them up for grabs then usual. He said there are two reasons why there are fewer swing voters this year.\n"First, in recent elections, the South has become rather firmly Republican," Michael Wolf said. "Clinton was able to wrestle some Southern states as a native son, but both George Sr. and Bob Dole enjoyed their largest percentage of support from the South. Considering this with the fact that the Rocky Mountain States are generally Republican strongholds in presidential elections, and considering that California, New York and Northeastern states have typically been voting for Democrats, there are not a large number of states that remain competitive."\nWhile some experts theorize about the impact of swing voters on the current election, Professor Robert Huckfeldt, chair of the political science department, said he doesn't think the influence of swing voters is anything new. \n"Swing voters decide every election," Huckfeldt said. "What (a candidate has) to be able to do is attract people who are in some sense up for grabs. That's not bad but it means that all of a sudden you have to pay a lot of attention to people who are somewhere in between. This causes a lot of conflicts sometimes."\nHuckfeldt said appealing to swing voters is what makes many people think presidential candidates are "all the same." He said Gore tries to look less Democratic, Bush tries to look less Republican and voters become confused.\n"Swing voters are people who are not entirely happy with either side," Huckfeldt said. "The candidates have to reach out to the swing voters.\n"What it usually means, for example, for Bush, Bush has been fairly successful at sounding like a moderate on the abortion issue. He's not a moderate on the abortion issue. He could appoint Supreme Court justices that would overturn Roe v. Wade," Huckfeldt said.\n"He's been able to equivocate and not say that as baldly as I've just said it. Part of what happens as a consequence is people start looking at this and saying, 'There's no difference between these guys.' Well, there's a world of difference between those guys, but they're trying to attract swing voters."
(10/16/00 6:37am)
What would you do with $4,561,000,000,000?\nThis is the United States' 10-year projected budget surplus according to the Congressional Budget Office and both presidential candidates want everyone to feel like they'll get a big slice of the pie.\nDuring the presidential debates, Vice President Al Gore has touted using the money to pay down the national debt, refuel public schools, hand out targeted tax cuts for education, re-secure Social Security and offer better social programs. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. George W. Bush said he wants to use the could-be cash to reduce taxes for Americans of all incomes.\nProfessor of economics Eric Leeper, a macroeconomist and policy analyst, doubts any of the billion dollar campaign promises will come true.\n"It's pretty damn unlikely because it builds in pretty optimistic assumptions about the economy, robust economic growth," Leeper said. "It doesn't allow for the possibility that there might be an economic slow down or, even worse, a recession. If that were to come about, surpluses could become deficits."\nThe assumptions Leeper finds to be optimistic are listed in an October 2000 Congressional Budget Office report as a prelude to the $4.5 trillion estimated 10-year surplus. "Assuming that discretionary spending grows at the rate of inflation after 2000," the report reads. The report later reads "... the path of surpluses over the next decade are highly uncertain because they are subject to legislative action and shifts in the economy."\n"When I listen to candidates for president talk about what they're going to do with the surplus, it's very, very uncertain," Professor of Economics Gerhard Glomm said. "A recession could happen, oil prices could go up another 50 percent, a war in the Middle East could break out, or another war could require a major allocation of resources."\nIf the $4.5 trillion dollar dream does come true, the way the money should be spent comes down to what Professor of Economics Hugh Kelley referred to as "philosophical differences, rather than economic differences."\n"A lot of people think it's our money," he said. "Other people think it's the government's money."\nThis philosophical difference parallels the difference in the candidates' proposals. For example, in the first presidential debate, Gore repeatedly proposed protecting Social Security in a so-called "lock box" and Bush emphasized allowing individuals to invest a portion of the money themselves.\n"There's a part of me that doesn't like forced savings that Social Security represents. But there's a part of me that realizes people don't have the foresight to save for retirement," Leeper said.\nLeeper thinks if the surplus does come to be, paying the national debt should take priority over tax cuts or social programs. He doesn't think the candidates are playing up that possibility enough because paying down the debt isn't a "sexy" enough stance for candidates to take during an election.\n"There's little doubt that government borrowing, which is what the debt represents, increases interest rates that crowds out private investment, which we should be trying to promote," Leeper said. "It could also lead to inflation.\n"The other thing is, the effects of government debt are very diffuse and hard to discern. If you have a high mortgage interest rate, you have no way to know how much of that is because of government debt. If we could say we'll pay down the debt and you'll save 2 percent in monthly mortgage rates, then you'll know what it means to you. That's why it's not sexy."\nWhile Bush and Gore argue over what should be done with the prospective surplus, Kelley, Leeper and political science professor Leroy Rieselbach, agree the prospects are overly optimistic.\nRieselbach said politicians are "always" trying to guarantee money to win votes.\n"There is no guarantee," Rieselbach said. "If you simply think back to five, eight years ago, the phrase always was 'there are deficits as far as the eye can see.' But now we have surpluses. \n"It's like the white whale, Moby Dick. It's big, it's out there. It seems to be around and who knows where it will go and when it will come back," said Rieselbach?
(10/16/00 3:55am)
Garter belts, naked butts and G-strings, oiled abs, flesh and flesh and flesh lubricated by sweat, undulating, touching, pressed together to music and separated only slightly by silk, leather, velvet and lace. Psyches lubricated by alcohol. Social mores broken by desire. Kissing, fondling, grinding hips and long fingernails, long legs and long hair.\nEroticon wasn't freaky enough. \nIt was the pale ghost of Eroticon past.\nI remember when the Eroticon was wet and scary. It was spectacular and frenzied. People with extra holes in their bodies outnumbered people without. People in plain clothes looked weird. People covered in tattoos used to look average at the Eroticon. I remember when people in their underwear looked as if they couldn't come up with a better costume idea. People in rubber suits, corsets and body stockings used to be the norm rather than the standouts.\nThis year's Eroticon, the fifth annual, wasn't like that. It like the spectacle had become shy all of a sudden. It didn't have the thunder, the sex power, the stamina. \nThe steamiest annual act in town was running low on steam. Gone are the days of the public bondage area, the whips and chains vendors, the professional girls leading slaves around on chains. There were plenty of eager people, but there weren't enough paddlers, enough grovellers. There weren't enough dominatrices and naughty people needing punishment. \nThe Eroticon wasn't slurpy enough. It wasn't gooey enough. It didn't have the texture of the Eroticons of old. In the second and third Eroticons, nearly naked nymphettes were served up covered in chocolate sauce and fruit slices. Now, in their stead, waiters and waitresses carried trays of fruit and bowls of chocolate sauce. There wasn't enough candle wax, liquid latex or honey dust. Most of the spanking and begging was done behind black plastic curtains in one corner of the bar.\nThere wasn't enough pain. No one was hanging from flesh hooks. No one was pierced in the middle of the bar. The spankings didn't have the same snap. \nMost of the skits were a little too corny, a little too fun. On the stage where women and men were once raptured and punished, there were instead blow-up doll fights and a cheesy "shootout" with rubber band guns. It was hard to stay captivated. There wasn't enough spectacle.\nIf Eroticon itself wasn't erotic enough, the people were. The staff, the crowd, all the people in black; everyone wore their desires on their sleeves … or their naked arms. There were enough devils and angels and thigh-highs and dancers and minglers and drunken hook-ups to make the night a success. A lot of people got what they wanted while they wiggled hip to hip on the dance floor. A lot of people made contact. Men kissed and women kissed. Men and women kissed. Costumed creatures slid fingers across each other, slid tongues across each other.\nA lot of Eroticon newcomers had a good time. Many of them looked a little uncomfortable in their risque attire, until the fourth or fifth drink of the night. Then they let loose on each other. They smiled while they touched, they left together at the end of the night. The energy of pent desire threw a little gasoline into the campfire.\nBut the Eroticon used to be a bonfire. A sex monster with steaming nostrils that could put a welt on anyone's butt. It used to be completely unbridled, a place where not only was everything allowed, but carried out. \nBut, this year, the Eroticon just wasn't enough.
(09/27/00 5:50am)
Prosecutor Carl Salzmann said he will charge Gregory Keith Cox, the man accused of the Saturday morning slaying of Sherry King, with murder today.\nA Monroe County Circuit Court spokeswoman said Cox's probable cause hearing took place Monday and he will be arraigned Thursday.\nCox is being held without bail. \nDiontae Brooks and Jessie Williamson, also arrested in the incident, face charges of selling crack cocaine. Facing an arraignment Thursday, the two are being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, the spokeswoman said.\nAccording to police, Cox, Brooks and Williamson, all residents of Detroit, were arrested Saturday morning after police responded to a shooting at Pheasant Run Apartments, 1004 Country Club Road. It was there that Sheriff's Deputy Roger Watkins found King, Andrew Crouch, Karin Coonce (who is six weeks pregnant) and another man, Randy Osmer, shot in the bedroom of Apartment 24.\nMonroe County Deputy Coroner Dave Toumey pronounced King dead at the scene. \nPolice said Cox, Brooks and Williamson, who had previously fled the scene, were arrested without incident at 2408 S. Rogers Street. \nPreliminary charges of dealing in a controlled substance were filed against Brooks and Williamson after police said they found crack cocaine in the back of the squad car which transported them to the jail. According to the Monroe County Circuit Court, preliminary charges of murder were filed against Cox. \nThe officer in charge of the investigation, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Steven Chambers and other investigators have not yet released a formal police report of the Saturday killing. Chambers said the Monroe County Sheriff's Department filed a probable cause affidavit Tuesday with Salzmann\'s office and the court.\nBloomington Hospital spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said shooting victims Crouch and Coonce were still hospitalized as of Tuesday. Crouch is in satisfactory condition. The hospital will no longer comment on the condition of Coonce at the request of her family, Beavers said. As of Monday she was in stable and satisfactory condition. The hospital would not comment Monday on the condition of Coonce's unborn child.
(09/25/00 8:03am)
One woman was shot dead and three others wounded on Bloomington's south side Saturday morning. Police say drugs were involved. \nIllinois resident Shery J. King was pronounced dead at the scene by Monroe County Deputy Coroner Dave Toumey. \nBloomington residents Randy Osmer, 18, Andrew Crouch, 19, and Karen Koontz, 18, who was six weeks pregnant, were taken to Bloomington Hospital. Osmer was treated and released. Crouch and Koontz were stable and in satisfactory condition late Sunday. \nHospital representatives would not comment on the condition of Koontz's unborn child.\nThe Monroe County Sheriff's Department said the three were shot at about 10 a.m. Saturday. Police were called at about 10:20 a.m. to Pheasant Run Apartments, 1004 Country Club Drive. Deputy Roger Watkins arrived at the scene and found the four victims in the bedroom of Apartment 24 -- Osmer, Crouch and Koontz's home.\nThe Sheriff's Department quoted the victims as saying a man they knew entered the bedroom and started shooting. The suspect, Gregory Keith Cox, 34, and two others, Diontae Brooks, 17, and Jessie Williamson, 19, fled the apartment, police said. All three are from Detroit.\nThe three men ran to Maurice English's house at 2408 S. Rogers St., police said. \nAccording to the Sheriff's Department, Bloomington police arrested Cox, Brooks and Williamson without incident at English's house. Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Steve Chambers said a .32 caliber revolver, which was consistent with bullets and casings from the crime scene, was fou nd in English's backyard.\nPolice have filed a preliminary charge of murder and three charges of attempted murder against Cox. Chambers said Brooks and Williamson were charged with dealing a controlled substance after crack cocaine was found stashed in the back of the Bloomington Police Department patrol car in which they were transported. \n"Basically, the individual who did the shooting (Cox) felt like he was ripped off for some narcotics and he was aggravated because of that," Chambers said. "No one was actually buying or selling. (Cox) thought he was asleep and some were stolen."\nAccording to police, Cox gave a conflicting account of the killing when interviewed by Monroe County sheriff's deputies, saying he fought with one of the victims before the shooting.\nCox is being held at the Monroe County Correctional Center without bail. \nWilliamson and Brooks are each being held in lieu of $50,500 bail.\nMonroe County Coroner George Huntington said King's body was sent to the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis for further examination.
(09/21/00 4:30am)
Sink the Bismark, the game of drunken finesse, requires a container of at least 55 ounces, a small glass, a large amount of readily available beer and, ideally, at least three participants, each with a beer of their own. Note: Each contestant should be drinking the same kind of beer that's in the bucket. \nFirst place the large container on a small pile of napkins and fill it with beer. Then, set the small glass afloat in the beer. Nick's English Hut uses a 56-ounce bucket and a 6-ounce high ball glass. Nick's patrons ordinarily order pitchers to keep their buckets full.\nThe game begins when a player pours part of his or her beer into the small, floating glass. Each player takes a turn pouring beer into the glass until it ultimately sinks, hence "Sink the Bismark." The player who sinks the Bismark must then chug the small glass of beer (which makes it hard to tell the winner from the loser). The bucket is then refilled and the glass is again floated to start a new round.\nTo understand the finer points of Sink the Bismark, IDS Weekend observed the practices of three seniors, Gretchen "Shakey" Barts, Beth "The Rookie" Burnett and Lauren "Human Microphone" Kaelin, and junior Krista "The Pro" Ungerman. Weekend caught up with the four while they were on a sorority outing at Nick's, in which they and a dozen sisters consumed 18 pitchers and four buckets of beer in about two hours.\nBasic Rules:\nKaelin: "You can only pour once, but if you miss, you have to pour again." \nUngerman: "(When pouring) you're not allowed to lean the glass on the bucket."\nBurnett: "No pouring down the side of the glass."\nFinesse:\nBarts: "A plastic cup is easier to control. You can squeeze it."\nUngerman: "You're only allowed to reach into the beer with three fingers. You could use two, but I want to make sure I get it."\nEtiquette:\nBurnett: "Don't get any napkins in the bucket."\nBurnett: "It's definitely a messy game. You don't want to wear your Sunday best."\nKaelin: "What puts the finishing touches on a chug is if you slam it"
(09/21/00 4:28am)
It can be played by young and old with equal skill, but it's not golf.\nIt's often played while drunk, but it's not bowling. \nIt's usually played in a bar, but it's not billiards.\nIt's Sink the Bismark, a tradition at Nick's English Hut since, well, for a while.\nIn any event, the peculiar game of pitchers, pails and pilsner never would have been conceived if it wasn't for Dick Barnes. \nBarnes bought Nick's in 1957, five years after graduating from IU. Then, about 15 years later, he began the Nick's Bucket Brigade.\nMembers of the Bucket Brigade, of which there would eventually be about 250, are members of a select group of Nick's patrons. To be served from one of the dented, banged-up 56 ounce, sheet-metal buckets which hang over the bar, one had to own one. \nTo own a bucket, it must be willed down by a previous member of the Brigade. Of course, Buckets aren't easy to come by and, over the years, many of them have been closely kept by families, fraternities and groups of friends.\nTwo small ledgers contain the names of everyone who's ever owned a bucket. Some of the more prominent local figures on the list include Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis, Tim Knight, basketball commentator John Laskowski, Upstairs Pub owner Steve Engel, former administrative assistant Ron Felling and former IU track star Steve Heidelberg, who, in 1975, held the IU record for the indoor and outdoor mile.\nIn 1983, basketball trainer Tim Garl came to IU and was given a bucket by football strength coach Bill Montgomery.\n"At that time, I didn't realize what it was," Garl says. "I didn't know how unique it was.\n"I had one for a while and then, one time when I was down there and a bunch of guys had come up and sat down with us and I left the bucket on the table when I left. Then a mutual acquaintance said 'Those guys took your bucket.' I thought he was just kidding, but, when he returned, I realized he wasn't. I talked to Dick (Barnes) and he made arrangements for me to get a new one."\nAs time passed, a new tradition was born: Sink the Bismark. This is where the details get murky. The problem with tracing the history of a drinking game is that the people who invented it probably remember the least about how it started. \nRex Barnes says no one knows exactly how the game got started, but it started some time in the '80s and was invented at Nick's. From there, folklore abounds. \nAt least one old-timer at Nick's says Sink the Bis' got started when another drinking game, quarters, was banned at Nick's in the '80s. Needing another game to play, customers began to play Sink the Bismark. \nOthers say Sink the Bis' dated back to the '70s and, an alumnus said Saturday, he'd never seen it played at Nick's (as it was being played at three tables upstairs). Finally, Rick McClund, a Nick's employee since 1981, gives the most verifiable account of the game's origins.\n"It was in 1985 or '86," McClund says. "I was working the bar. People were just foolin' around. They put the dipper in the bucket. Then they started making up rules."\nWhen Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis came to the IU faculty, he was given a bucket. While he doesn't remember exactly who gave it to him, Chancellor Gros Louis said he goes to Nick's about six times per year and that he's "very good" at Sink the Bismark. He sometimes takes the Board of Eons, a student group, to Nick's for a few rounds of Sink the Bis'.\n"Whenever I went with students, we'd always identify the designated driver in advance," he says. "We also make sure we're getting food." \nTime passed, buckets changed hands and, eventually, so did Nick's. In 1996, Dick Barnes's son, Rex, became manager of the bar. That same year, he made buckets of beer usable by the general public for $7.95. While no ordinary customer can purchase "ownership" of a bucket, it does allow temporary use for Sink the Bismark, and it also keeps people from lying about owning a bucket in order to use it.\nBloomington resident Charlie Webb III ended up owning three of them. He inherited his first bucket before he was old enough to go to Nick's. Then, one of his co-workers willed him one before she moved away and, finally, one of his Beta Theta Pi brothers gave him one. \n"They were used quite heavily in college," Webb says. "My fraternity brothers would know that I had the buckets, as well as (manager) Rex Barnes. When there was a long line, they'd go to the front of the line and say 'Would you tell Rex that Charlie Webb is out here.' Then they'd go to the bar and say, 'can we have Charlie Webb's bucket? He's sitting in the corner over here.'"\nToday the Bucket Brigade marches on. While two of Webb's buckets and many others will soon be retired and sold at a charity auction for lack of recent use, Sink the Bismark is still one of the most popular attractions at Nick's. In fact, it's the only drinking game openly promoted at any Bloomington bar. \nAnd, on a late Friday or Saturday night, crowds of students, alumni and locals alike can be seen gathering around their buckets, trying to keep a steady hand for another round of Sink the Bismark.
(09/21/00 4:00am)
It can be played by young and old with equal skill, but it's not golf.\nIt's often played while drunk, but it's not bowling. \nIt's usually played in a bar, but it's not billiards.\nIt's Sink the Bismark, a tradition at Nick's English Hut since, well, for a while.\nIn any event, the peculiar game of pitchers, pails and pilsner never would have been conceived if it wasn't for Dick Barnes. \nBarnes bought Nick's in 1957, five years after graduating from IU. Then, about 15 years later, he began the Nick's Bucket Brigade.\nMembers of the Bucket Brigade, of which there would eventually be about 250, are members of a select group of Nick's patrons. To be served from one of the dented, banged-up 56 ounce, sheet-metal buckets which hang over the bar, one had to own one. \nTo own a bucket, it must be willed down by a previous member of the Brigade. Of course, Buckets aren't easy to come by and, over the years, many of them have been closely kept by families, fraternities and groups of friends.\nTwo small ledgers contain the names of everyone who's ever owned a bucket. Some of the more prominent local figures on the list include Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis, Tim Knight, basketball commentator John Laskowski, Upstairs Pub owner Steve Engel, former administrative assistant Ron Felling and former IU track star Steve Heidelberg, who, in 1975, held the IU record for the indoor and outdoor mile.\nIn 1983, basketball trainer Tim Garl came to IU and was given a bucket by football strength coach Bill Montgomery.\n"At that time, I didn't realize what it was," Garl says. "I didn't know how unique it was.\n"I had one for a while and then, one time when I was down there and a bunch of guys had come up and sat down with us and I left the bucket on the table when I left. Then a mutual acquaintance said 'Those guys took your bucket.' I thought he was just kidding, but, when he returned, I realized he wasn't. I talked to Dick (Barnes) and he made arrangements for me to get a new one."\nAs time passed, a new tradition was born: Sink the Bismark. This is where the details get murky. The problem with tracing the history of a drinking game is that the people who invented it probably remember the least about how it started. \nRex Barnes says no one knows exactly how the game got started, but it started some time in the '80s and was invented at Nick's. From there, folklore abounds. \nAt least one old-timer at Nick's says Sink the Bis' got started when another drinking game, quarters, was banned at Nick's in the '80s. Needing another game to play, customers began to play Sink the Bismark. \nOthers say Sink the Bis' dated back to the '70s and, an alumnus said Saturday, he'd never seen it played at Nick's (as it was being played at three tables upstairs). Finally, Rick McClund, a Nick's employee since 1981, gives the most verifiable account of the game's origins.\n"It was in 1985 or '86," McClund says. "I was working the bar. People were just foolin' around. They put the dipper in the bucket. Then they started making up rules."\nWhen Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis came to the IU faculty, he was given a bucket. While he doesn't remember exactly who gave it to him, Chancellor Gros Louis said he goes to Nick's about six times per year and that he's "very good" at Sink the Bismark. He sometimes takes the Board of Eons, a student group, to Nick's for a few rounds of Sink the Bis'.\n"Whenever I went with students, we'd always identify the designated driver in advance," he says. "We also make sure we're getting food." \nTime passed, buckets changed hands and, eventually, so did Nick's. In 1996, Dick Barnes's son, Rex, became manager of the bar. That same year, he made buckets of beer usable by the general public for $7.95. While no ordinary customer can purchase "ownership" of a bucket, it does allow temporary use for Sink the Bismark, and it also keeps people from lying about owning a bucket in order to use it.\nBloomington resident Charlie Webb III ended up owning three of them. He inherited his first bucket before he was old enough to go to Nick's. Then, one of his co-workers willed him one before she moved away and, finally, one of his Beta Theta Pi brothers gave him one. \n"They were used quite heavily in college," Webb says. "My fraternity brothers would know that I had the buckets, as well as (manager) Rex Barnes. When there was a long line, they'd go to the front of the line and say 'Would you tell Rex that Charlie Webb is out here.' Then they'd go to the bar and say, 'can we have Charlie Webb's bucket? He's sitting in the corner over here.'"\nToday the Bucket Brigade marches on. While two of Webb's buckets and many others will soon be retired and sold at a charity auction for lack of recent use, Sink the Bismark is still one of the most popular attractions at Nick's. In fact, it's the only drinking game openly promoted at any Bloomington bar. \nAnd, on a late Friday or Saturday night, crowds of students, alumni and locals alike can be seen gathering around their buckets, trying to keep a steady hand for another round of Sink the Bismark.
(09/21/00 4:00am)
Sink the Bismark, the game of drunken finesse, requires a container of at least 55 ounces, a small glass, a large amount of readily available beer and, ideally, at least three participants, each with a beer of their own. Note: Each contestant should be drinking the same kind of beer that's in the bucket. \nFirst place the large container on a small pile of napkins and fill it with beer. Then, set the small glass afloat in the beer. Nick's English Hut uses a 56-ounce bucket and a 6-ounce high ball glass. Nick's patrons ordinarily order pitchers to keep their buckets full.\nThe game begins when a player pours part of his or her beer into the small, floating glass. Each player takes a turn pouring beer into the glass until it ultimately sinks, hence "Sink the Bismark." The player who sinks the Bismark must then chug the small glass of beer (which makes it hard to tell the winner from the loser). The bucket is then refilled and the glass is again floated to start a new round.\nTo understand the finer points of Sink the Bismark, IDS Weekend observed the practices of three seniors, Gretchen "Shakey" Barts, Beth "The Rookie" Burnett and Lauren "Human Microphone" Kaelin, and junior Krista "The Pro" Ungerman. Weekend caught up with the four while they were on a sorority outing at Nick's, in which they and a dozen sisters consumed 18 pitchers and four buckets of beer in about two hours.\nBasic Rules:\nKaelin: "You can only pour once, but if you miss, you have to pour again." \nUngerman: "(When pouring) you're not allowed to lean the glass on the bucket."\nBurnett: "No pouring down the side of the glass."\nFinesse:\nBarts: "A plastic cup is easier to control. You can squeeze it."\nUngerman: "You're only allowed to reach into the beer with three fingers. You could use two, but I want to make sure I get it."\nEtiquette:\nBurnett: "Don't get any napkins in the bucket."\nBurnett: "It's definitely a messy game. You don't want to wear your Sunday best."\nKaelin: "What puts the finishing touches on a chug is if you slam it"
(09/14/00 10:46am)
Shay dances naked in a dark little bar filled with big talk, small talk, smoke and music. It's a place where half-naked women smile at red-faced men. It's a place where money, lots of money, is pushed between boobs, under g-strings and hidden in bras. Some love it, some hate it and a few who work or go there never admit it. Regardless, dancing at Night Moves pays Shay's bursar bill.\nThe baby-faced brunette looks a little bored. She doesn't look anyone in the face when she dances. She doesn't smile when she's on stage. She twists, turns, takes off her clothes, puts her breasts on the faces of the customers who surround the stage and collects her dollar bills.\nAfter an act, she puts on something cut low on top and high on the bottom. Then she sits with the customers, talking, joking, having a drink and watching the other girls dance. Sometimes they play video pool with her on a little machine in a dark corner of the room. Other times they'll hand her a dollar and she'll put it between her teeth and let a girl on stage take it with her mouth. She smiles and goes along with it all, getting tips here and there for her efforts. \nIt wasn't her childhood dream. The dusky brunette didn't wile away her teenage years dreaming about peeling off black vinyl tube dresses and chit-chatting with strangers for a living. \nIt just sort of happened that way. She lived with her parents in a little burg down south. Her dad was a supervisor at a chemical plant and her mom marketed coupon books. Shay still calls her parents her "heroes." But when she turned 18, she said she didn't want to take her parents' money anymore. She moved out and, with her best friend, got a job at Deja-Vu, in Louisville, Ky. On her first day, Shay made $400.\n"It was a nude club, so I had to get totally nude," she says. "It was the scariest thing I'd ever done."\nThe tough job brought tough times. The other dancers were mean to the cute new girl, and her best friend quit after her boyfriend "threw a fit." Shay's boyfriend of a year threw a fit, too. But Shay didn't quit. They stayed together another year, fighting the whole time over her new occupation. She doesn't talk about work with her boyfriends anymore.\nThe new job didn't go over well with her parents, either.\n"My mom cried a little bit," Shay says. "They both just asked me, 'Why? Why? Why?' It's something I couldn't explain to them. Anymore, it's not talked about."\nWhen it came time to go to college, Shay came to IU, changing towns but not professions. She came to Night Moves and met Larry, the husky, gray-haired owner with a gold Night Moves pendant around his neck.\nLarry's always looking for new talent, and the copper-colored girl with natural D cups and a baby face was a shoe-in for a mostly nonsilicone club. Now, Shay's a junior, and while she and the other girls are on stage shaking their money-makers under the strobe and black lights, Larry sits in his basement office, watching television, counting his money and making phone calls. The bar business is his forte, with Night Moves being the 14th bar he's owned in 30 years.\nA 61-year-old great-grandfather and a little league coach, Larry keeps his office television turned up to drown out the constant music from upstairs. Although there are a half dozen, half-naked women less then 10 feet above his head, Larry would rather watch Tiger Woods, "And I don't even like golf," he says.\n"I've never had any sexual relations with a dancer that worked for me," he says. "My daddy told me, 'If you sleep with an employee, you might as well put your dick in the cash register and slam the door shut.'"\nShay is one of Larry's "house girls," meaning a dancer who works regular shifts. When he's not raising his grandkids, recruiting girls and supervising his staff of bouncers, dancers, DJs and waitresses, Larry plays host to the monthly "features," hard-bodied, model types who appear in calendars, magazines and, occasionally, films. \nFeatures, having to cope with a fair amount of fame, or at least infamy, adopt professional stage names that tend to be flashier than the aliases the house girls use. "Safire Blue," "Sandra Scream" and "Kloey Love" are just a few of the hundreds of girls whose framed photos fill the walls around the doors and offices of Night Moves. \nBut Shay doesn't want to hit the big time as a dancer. She wants to finish her School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation degree, find a job she likes and leave. She says she'll keep working: "Maybe another two years, or as long as I can take it.\n"You get criticized and critiqued every night," Shay says. "I've had some of the rudest comments you'll probably ever hear. I had one guy thrown out because he called me a bitch."\nShe doesn't always like how she has to treat the customers, either. She says sometimes she feels bad about taking money, "especially from drunk guys. But that's my job, and I'm good at it."\nThe job does come with benefits. While some dancers don't think its professional to drink at work or to take customers up on propositions, Shay has a sip every now and then. Once she decided to accept an offer from a customer last summer.\n"Me and my best friend," she says. "We met this guy here last summer that took us to Woodstock. He paid our airfare, gave us a hundred dollars a day, paid for all our food, all our drugs."\nShe also met her boyfriend of 11 months at work. While she still doesn't talk about work with him, she says he doesn't treat her any differently because of her profession. And, on the last Friday night in September (will check), while Kloey Love was letting customers rub her down with incandescent body paints, Shay's boyfriend waited for her in the doorway while she was leaving work. She wasn't wearing a tube dress or a g-string, but a long denim skirt and a white cotton tank top. Her tattoos were all covered up. In her hands were a thick stack of dollar bills and a Budweiser. Under her arm was a fall schedule of classes. \nShay is a stage name. Her true identity is omitted to protect privacy. Night Moves is located at 1730 S. Walnut St.
(09/14/00 4:00am)
Shay dances naked in a dark little bar filled with big talk, small talk, smoke and music. It's a place where half-naked women smile at red-faced men. It's a place where money, lots of money, is pushed between boobs, under g-strings and hidden in bras. Some love it, some hate it and a few who work or go there never admit it. Regardless, dancing at Night Moves pays Shay's bursar bill.\nThe baby-faced brunette looks a little bored. She doesn't look anyone in the face when she dances. She doesn't smile when she's on stage. She twists, turns, takes off her clothes, puts her breasts on the faces of the customers who surround the stage and collects her dollar bills.\nAfter an act, she puts on something cut low on top and high on the bottom. Then she sits with the customers, talking, joking, having a drink and watching the other girls dance. Sometimes they play video pool with her on a little machine in a dark corner of the room. Other times they'll hand her a dollar and she'll put it between her teeth and let a girl on stage take it with her mouth. She smiles and goes along with it all, getting tips here and there for her efforts. \nIt wasn't her childhood dream. The dusky brunette didn't wile away her teenage years dreaming about peeling off black vinyl tube dresses and chit-chatting with strangers for a living. \nIt just sort of happened that way. She lived with her parents in a little burg down south. Her dad was a supervisor at a chemical plant and her mom marketed coupon books. Shay still calls her parents her "heroes." But when she turned 18, she said she didn't want to take her parents' money anymore. She moved out and, with her best friend, got a job at Deja-Vu, in Louisville, Ky. On her first day, Shay made $400.\n"It was a nude club, so I had to get totally nude," she says. "It was the scariest thing I'd ever done."\nThe tough job brought tough times. The other dancers were mean to the cute new girl, and her best friend quit after her boyfriend "threw a fit." Shay's boyfriend of a year threw a fit, too. But Shay didn't quit. They stayed together another year, fighting the whole time over her new occupation. She doesn't talk about work with her boyfriends anymore.\nThe new job didn't go over well with her parents, either.\n"My mom cried a little bit," Shay says. "They both just asked me, 'Why? Why? Why?' It's something I couldn't explain to them. Anymore, it's not talked about."\nWhen it came time to go to college, Shay came to IU, changing towns but not professions. She came to Night Moves and met Larry, the husky, gray-haired owner with a gold Night Moves pendant around his neck.\nLarry's always looking for new talent, and the copper-colored girl with natural D cups and a baby face was a shoe-in for a mostly nonsilicone club. Now, Shay's a junior, and while she and the other girls are on stage shaking their money-makers under the strobe and black lights, Larry sits in his basement office, watching television, counting his money and making phone calls. The bar business is his forte, with Night Moves being the 14th bar he's owned in 30 years.\nA 61-year-old great-grandfather and a little league coach, Larry keeps his office television turned up to drown out the constant music from upstairs. Although there are a half dozen, half-naked women less then 10 feet above his head, Larry would rather watch Tiger Woods, "And I don't even like golf," he says.\n"I've never had any sexual relations with a dancer that worked for me," he says. "My daddy told me, 'If you sleep with an employee, you might as well put your dick in the cash register and slam the door shut.'"\nShay is one of Larry's "house girls," meaning a dancer who works regular shifts. When he's not raising his grandkids, recruiting girls and supervising his staff of bouncers, dancers, DJs and waitresses, Larry plays host to the monthly "features," hard-bodied, model types who appear in calendars, magazines and, occasionally, films. \nFeatures, having to cope with a fair amount of fame, or at least infamy, adopt professional stage names that tend to be flashier than the aliases the house girls use. "Safire Blue," "Sandra Scream" and "Kloey Love" are just a few of the hundreds of girls whose framed photos fill the walls around the doors and offices of Night Moves. \nBut Shay doesn't want to hit the big time as a dancer. She wants to finish her School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation degree, find a job she likes and leave. She says she'll keep working: "Maybe another two years, or as long as I can take it.\n"You get criticized and critiqued every night," Shay says. "I've had some of the rudest comments you'll probably ever hear. I had one guy thrown out because he called me a bitch."\nShe doesn't always like how she has to treat the customers, either. She says sometimes she feels bad about taking money, "especially from drunk guys. But that's my job, and I'm good at it."\nThe job does come with benefits. While some dancers don't think its professional to drink at work or to take customers up on propositions, Shay has a sip every now and then. Once she decided to accept an offer from a customer last summer.\n"Me and my best friend," she says. "We met this guy here last summer that took us to Woodstock. He paid our airfare, gave us a hundred dollars a day, paid for all our food, all our drugs."\nShe also met her boyfriend of 11 months at work. While she still doesn't talk about work with him, she says he doesn't treat her any differently because of her profession. And, on the last Friday night in September (will check), while Kloey Love was letting customers rub her down with incandescent body paints, Shay's boyfriend waited for her in the doorway while she was leaving work. She wasn't wearing a tube dress or a g-string, but a long denim skirt and a white cotton tank top. Her tattoos were all covered up. In her hands were a thick stack of dollar bills and a Budweiser. Under her arm was a fall schedule of classes. \nShay is a stage name. Her true identity is omitted to protect privacy. Night Moves is located at 1730 S. Walnut St.
(09/08/00 3:51am)
Forget about flipping through a book: more and more people are scrolling through them.\nThe electronic publishing industry is growing, thanks to new technology and online school books.\nFor years, Web users have been able to order books online from retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. But now, books are being offered on the Web on CD-ROM and in text.\nSchool Zone Publishing recently released elementary school level workbooks on CD-rom, and the IU department of Spanish and Portuguese recently adopted a multimedia CD-ROM to accompany the regular texts.\nWhile many texts are being put online, other texts are being published online before appearing in print. Electronic publishers, such as 1stbooks.com, are selling electronic titles by the dozens every day and many by celebrity authors such as Stephen King and Richard Lugar, who both had books published online.\n"Here we help authors publish, sell and electronically distribute their books to the more than 150 million readers who use the Internet," 1stbooks President Timothy Jacobs said. "We download hundreds of books a day."\nMost titles available on the Web cost only a fraction of what a text copy costs, since there are no printing, binding or shipping costs. Most downloadable books from Barnes&Noble.com cost between $2 - $5, while their traditional counterparts often cost from $10 - $25.\nOne problem that electronic books encountered at their inception was that they weren't as portable as regular texts. But with the inception of hand-held downloading and reading devices, like the Rocket E-book, electronic texts are now more portable than hard copy texts; a standard E-book is a little bigger than a calculator, but can hold 4000 pages of text. The Rocket E-book cost about $200. A new version of it and a similar reader will be released by General Electric later this month.\nThe Owen County Library recently purchased an E-book, and the Monroe County Library has been seriously considering buying equipment to access electronic texts, but the local demand of electronic texts is still debatable. Since buying the E-book in April, the Owen County Library has only had about ten readers use it, Assistant Director Vickey Freeland said. This number looks even smaller when considering the library hosted 7,449 visitors for the month of July alone.\nBut the Monroe County Library is still considering buying E-book equipment. While there is currently no provision in the library's budget for electronic books and readers, Supervisor Cass Owen said library employees and administrators frequently travel to conferences and conventions in order to learn more about electronic books.\n"People were beating down our doors for DVDs," she said. "We haven't had one patron request this. But that doesn't mean people won't use it if we have it"