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(02/22/12 5:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The country’s eyes may be on the presidential primaries this spring, but in Indiana, two Republicans and a Democrat are gearing up for a fight for two-term Gov. Mitch Daniels’ office.The gubernatorial candidates are making rounds of the state in an effort to win voters. Republican candidate Jim Wallace and Democratic candidate John Gregg were in Bloomington on Tuesday, and they discussed with the IDS some of the issues they think are most important this election cycle. Republican candidate Rep. Mike Pence, R-6th District, contributed to the discussion via email. What do you think is the biggest issue this election cycle?John Gregg (D): It’s jobs. It’s jobs. I’ve been doing this since January of last year 24/7, and that’s all people want to talk about is jobs. If they’re our age, your age or anything in between, that’s all they want to talk about. Any time we spend one second in this nation talking about anything that doesn’t have to do with jobs, it’s wasting time.Mike Pence (R): Jobs. No question about it, and after that, education. As governor, I will focus like a laser on job creation and helping make our schools among the best in the nation.Jim Wallace (R): It’s job growth and economic development. A high-schooler who has just graduated looking for an opportunity instead of college, or you’re a fresh college graduate, or you’re somebody mid-career or even retiring looking for transitional employment. By a margin of 8-to-1, Hoosiers are much more concerned with that.What would be the first thing you focus on or do if you are elected?Gregg: We’ve got great opportunities in the energy business. When I see those wind farms, I want to know why those aluminum blades are not made in Indiana. We make aluminum. I want to know why that steel shaft holding everything up isn’t made in Indiana. Most of that stuff comes from Europe. Why aren’t we making those here? We’re a manufacturing state. We also are traditionally an agricultural state. How can we go to sustainability and also green? How can we add jobs in this area? How do we go from the traditional automobile and steel and still do that, but then go to the advanced manufacturing? These are things we need to do.Pence: Job creation and making sure our kids have a great education.Wallace: There’s two things that are at the forefront of our agenda. The first is expanding something called the EDGE credit, which is called the Economic Development for Growing Economies (Tax) Credit. The second is something I’m really excited about, particularly because I have kids in college, the PRIME credit. It’s something we’re introducing that stands for the Public Research Investment Management Employment Credit, which would create a special credit for graduates of our higher universities. We’re one of the few states that don’t already do that, and if we want to retain our best and brightest folks from our schools ... that’s one clear and easy way to do that. Not costly at all to do that.Why should a college student vote for you?Gregg: I have a son who’s a sophomore in college. ... I’m a former college president myself. We talk about jobs. I think that number one, the whole idea of jobs if I was sitting here as a college student would be, “Am I going to be able to get a job that pays well enough to pay off my debt? Am I going to be voting for someone concerned enough with the availability and accessibility of college? Am I voting for someone who wants to see us work together on some of these opportunities that have to do with the environment?” There’s a big difference in the vision I have for Indiana than my likely opponent. My likely opponent is one from the top down, where they run it out of Washington, they run it out of Indianapolis. My idea of a vision is from the bottom up. I think that the students that are coming into college ... seem to have a greater awareness of the problems facing us. I think they’re kind of tired of people just fussing and fighting for the sake of fussing and fighting. Pence: With a son attending college here in Indiana, I am very much aware of the need to make college affordable for Hoosiers, find ways to help students complete their degrees on time and then help them find a good job once they graduate. As governor, my focus will also be on making sure there are plenty of employment opportunities in Indiana for our college and university students so they can give back their talents and help make Indiana an even better place to live and raise a family.Wallace: I have, as I mentioned, two children in college ... and this is what I do. I focus on economic development for folks entering the job market. My entire career’s been focused on creating jobs and economic development ... and I would think as a student nowadays, it won’t do anybody any good if we don’t have jobs.
(02/22/12 2:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The new ImagineBloomington initiative kicked off Tuesday. The program includes workshops and surveys in which residents can help shape the city’s future. From this feedback, Scott Robinson, transportation and long-range manager for Bloomington, said officials will devise a plan for Bloomington’s future. “We’ll kind of craft a vision statement,” Robinson said.He said the project is currently beginning and that officials hope to receive more comments about what people like and don’t like about the city. The entire process will take about five years to go into full effect.“Some of the feedback that we’ve received so far is about the downtown,” Robinson said. “They think it’s a great downtown.”Katie Bannon, zoning and long-range planner for Bloomington, said the workshops will be available for all residents to participate in and will run in various locations for about 90 minutes.“We’re going to start by just getting people’s general ideas,” Bannon said about the workshops. “We hope there will be some commonalities.”The workshops will take place in neighborhoods around the city and at schools. A list of all locations is available at, bloomington.in.gov/imaginebloomington. People unable to attend workshops can fill out surveys or participate in forum discussions online, Bannon said. Bannon and Robinson said they hope IU students will give feedback even though many are temporary residents. “We always wish there would be more student involvement,” Robinson said. “They’re not really plugged in. They’re about half the population of the city, and they do play a huge role.”Bannon said the city has set up tables on campus to survey students and talk to them about the good and bad aspects of Bloomington. She said she hopes students will participate because, even if they are visitors, they will likely return at some point to visit their old school. “It really is important what you think,” she said. “We want to be sure what you return to is what you enjoyed most about your time here.”
(02/21/12 1:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s 1 p.m. on a Sunday, but inside Jake’s Nightclub, it might as well be Saturday night. The lights are low and warm, and two women walk onto the raised stage, one in a tight, black leotard corset and heels, the other in a long, blue sequined dress and elbow-length red gloves. Rhinestones stud the base of the second woman’s false eyelashes.Music starts, and the two women stop to stand next to each other on stage. The corseted woman begins to take off the other woman’s gloves with her teeth. This is the dress rehearsal for the Bloomington Burlesque Brigade, the city’s only burlesque troupe. The two women — who go by the stage names Vixen Vajazzle and Scarlet Nopantson — will perform in shows at 10 p.m. and midnight Saturday at Jake’s Nightclub. Doors open at 9 p.m.The Brigade was founded in 2009, but the group it grew out of was founded in 2001 by Jada B the Emcee. Jada B said the original group, called Verbal Terrorism Productions, was founded in reaction to 9/11. “When you bomb a place, it’s theatrics,” Jada said. “So we were like, what pushed these people to go to such extremes? And what kind of other theatrics could you use to get your point across?”The group was originally a poetry and performance group. Jada said she thought about bringing burlesque into the mix, but was hesitant. “Bloomington was, like, not even ready for that at that point in time,” Jada said. “And there wasn’t the infrastructure, in terms of people.”In 2009, Jada received the chance she needed to bring burlesque to Bloomington. “The health center was actually doing this thing called Sex Week,” Jada said. “They knew that I did stuff around town. ... They asked me to do something for Sex Week, an artistic event. I think really they were thinking really small, but they said, ‘We have a lot of money.’ And I said, ‘Oh, really? I would like to do a burlesque cabaret.’ They were on board.”The event in 2009 was a huge success, Jada said, and the official Brigade was born from that event. Scarlet said she knew Jada for years through the queer community in Bloomington, before she joined the Brigade. She said burlesque is a much different experience than other performances she has participated in. “I’ve been performing in different ways for a while,” Scarlet said. “But burlesque is a lot more satisfying than acting for me because I get to control so many different aspects that I couldn’t before.”She found she could control her own costumes, choreography and concepts for her routines, Scarlet said. The women also typically purchase these items themselves. Although they are paid a bit for their performances, Scarlet said, for the most part, the women work regular jobs during the day. “We have full-time jobs, most of us,” she said. Vixen also took a while to join the Brigade. She said she spent time debating whether to join. “It takes a lot of nerve to get up there and perform your art that way,” Vixen said. “First, I started stage kittening, which is where you pick up clothes after the performers. So, I did that for a while and kind of worked my way into it.”During the dress rehearsal, Scarlet said she still gets nervous before shows, but not as much as before her first performance. “The nerves never go away,” she said. “But the first one’s just, ‘Don’t freeze up,’ ‘Oh my god, are they going to cheer for me? I hope they cheer for me,’ and ‘Oh my god, I’m getting naked.’”Although burlesque shows consist of skits, singing and other performances, nudity and stripping are often part of the show. Scarlet said the nudity doesn’t bother her as much now. “It’s really empowering to have people yell and clap for you and genuinely enjoy what you’re doing,” she said. “It’s a sexual type of performance, and people are looking at your body, and I think it’s nice to be appreciated.”Vixen said she also still gets nervous before shows, but that she finds yoga helps her, as well as deep breathing. “I don’t think the nerves ever totally go away, and that’s really part of the fun of it,” she said. “It’s an adrenaline rush.”For the show this Saturday, Jada is trying to ease the performers’ nerves with the dress rehearsal and by making sure everyone has the routines down. Jada said their events typically draw about 200 people per show. She said of those 200, 100 are a result of Jada’s recruiting and advertising, 50 come from the girls’ recruiting and the remaining 50 are completely new customers.Vixen said many of her friends know she does burlesque as a hobby. “Most of my friends know and have been very supportive,” she said. “My family knows and has been supportive.”Then Vixen laughed. “But it’s not usually the first thing I discuss with someone,” she said.
(02/15/12 2:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When she was in school, Ruth Hickman didn’t know she would end up with the job she has today, mostly because, at the time, her job as Monroe County’s election supervisor might not have existed. “There probably wasn’t one,” she said. “But as elections got bigger and populations just increased ... that’s a lot of stuff to keep track of and a lot of parts.”Monroe County has almost 95,000 registered voters. Hickman, along with County Clerk Linda Robbins, is in charge of registering voters and delegates for elections. With the upcoming elections this year, her office has been especially busy.“During a presidential year, or a year where there might be registration drives, then they might accept huge volumes of registrations, and then they enter them into a statewide voter registration system,” Hickman said.She said she has been especially busy this past month.“I think I had probably more than 200 filings here and there this last filing period,” she said.Filing for the May 8 primary election ran from Jan. 11 to Feb. 10.Another major component of what her office does is register delegates, the people who actually cast votes in elections on behalf of the voters. Her office registers delegates to the state conventions, where, for example, delegates will vote for the Republican candidate Indiana will vote for to run nationally.She said that, given the numerous Republican candidates fighting to run in the national election, there has been more interest in being a Republican delegate, as these delegates will get to help decide who gets the party nomination for the presidential election. “They’re filing to be a candidate to be a delegate to go to the state convention,” she said. “They like the idea that their name appears in writing on a ballot with a presidential candidate that they’re supporting.” Hickman is not new to working within the election process. She has worked in the voter registration office for five years and assumed the post of election supervisor last year. “I’ve been involved in the election process for a long, long time,” she said. “And really, this was the only part I hadn’t been involved with, and I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I give this a try?’”She said she worked in the office during the 2008 presidential election.“The general election of 2008 was amazingly crazy, and I just loved every minute of it,” she said. “There’s just an incredible amount of parts. And the amazing thing is, there’s an incredible amount of people who volunteer, there’s an incredible amount of people who are paid a stipend, and yet they come back year after year.”
(02/15/12 2:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s Girl Scout Cookies season. This means the traditional Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs are once again for sale. Although this year marks the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts of the United States of America, there are some changes. Girl Scouts have decided to take their cookie sales into the future by using technology. If people are having problems locating cookies, said Deanna Potterf, the media contact for the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, there’s now an application to assist them. “They can register where they’re having Girl Scout Cookie sale booths,” Potterf said. “They upload that information into this online tool, and then that information is put on our Girl Scout Cookie app. (Consumers) can search and look for Girl Scout Cookies being sold in their area.”The app is available for smart phones, and it’s free. It’s called FindCookies, and a user can either use his or her current location or enter a city, state or zip code to locate cookies. The app will then provide a list of registered cookie locations, along with the hours Girl Scouts will be there and directions. It can also be used to see where cookies will be up to a week ahead of time. “Last year was the first kind of big year for the cookie app, and it’s been really popular this year,” Potterf said. “We had an increase in sales last year.” There’s another possible increase, as well — in price.Girl Scout Cookies prices can vary based on where the cookies are being sold, and there is no real national regulation in that pricing, Potterf said. “There’s nothing really governing how much a package of Girl Scout Cookies costs,” she said. Different councils regulate different geographical Girl Scout areas. “Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, we serve 45 counties in Indiana, 41,000 girls,” Potterf said. “We are chartered by Girl Scouts of the USA.”In this region, which includes Monroe County, Girl Scout Cookies are being sold for $3.50.But in the north, the price is different. Julie Somogyi, the director of integrated marketing and communications for the Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, said their cookies are being sold for $4 a box.She said their own board members decided on this price by evaluating their geographic area, and that the price depends on which vendor the cookies are being bought from. “There are actually two licensed Girl Scout Cookie bakers,” Potterf said. “And they’re licensed by our organizations. One cookie baker is called Little Brownie Bakers.”This is the vendor used by the Girl Scouts of Central Indiana. The second vendor is based in Richmond, Va., and is called America’s Best Cookies, Potterf said.Prices from these two vendors might vary, causing the overall price to change. “It depends on which of the two vendors the council elects to go to,” Somogyi said. “We have Thin Mints across the board, for example. There are, I believe, four cookies that both vendors must provide, and then they can round out with a couple of different options.”Despite variations in cost — and despite the present economic conditions — Potterf said they’re expecting sales to increase this year once again, as they did last year. “Right now, what we have as far as facts is initial orders,” Potterf said. “Initial orders were up. We were up in the amount of Girl Scout Cookies that were sold, and we’re hoping that cookies will be up again this year.”Potterf also said all proceeds from cookie sales, aside from paying the vendors, stay in the community.
(02/10/12 5:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Despite the recent nationwide economic slump, the Super Bowl provided a financial boost to many Indianapolis restaurants. With the influx of visitors from both around the state and around the country, business owners experienced more business and greater revenue. Stuart Robertson, owner of MacNiven’s Restaurant and Bar located on Massachusetts Avenue downtown, said this was true for his business. “Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty normal days, and things picked up a bit on Thursday night,” Robertson said via email. “Around 1 p.m. Friday was when it started to get busy, and it stayed that way all the rest of the day. We have a door guy on for St. Patrick’s Day, our busiest day of the year, and we had one on from 1 p.m. Friday until after the game on Sunday night. Most of the time, we could only let people in if we were letting people out at the same time.”Several other restaurants — particularly those closest to the Super Bowl Village — did this as well. Doormen would lock the doors behind customers and then let several new people in every time people left. An official at one of these stores said the purpose was crowd control.“I was here all weekend,” Robertson said. “The place was packed, the people were great, polite, well-behaved. The vibe was electric.”Britni Fischer is the manager for the Starbucks located on Monument Circle. She said her store also experienced much more business.“It was really exciting,” Fischer said. “There was a lot of energy, and customers were great. We saw of course tons of people from the suburbs of Indianapolis but also lots of people from out of town.”She said her store also saw several celebrities during the week. “We had Stephen Baldwin in the store,” she said. “There was a Conan O’Brien sighting. But I think that was about it.” Although Fischer declined to give actual numbers for the increase in revenue or business, she said there was a definite increase. She also said they brought in extra help to handle the crowds.“We were lucky enough to borrow a lot of different partners from Indianapolis stores, and that helped us out considerably,” she said. Data for the business overall during the week is not yet available, but Dianna Boyce, director of communications of the Super Bowl Host Committee, said anecdotal evidence of positive gains for restaurants abounds. “Many of them extended their hours and made sure that they had staffing in order, made sure they had supplies and food ordered,” she said. “We really have gotten some very positive feedback.” She said she believes the effects extend beyond downtown and even beyond the Super Bowl. “Certainly it had a ripple effect that was beyond Indianapolis,” Boyce said. “I do think that the time and the sweat and the energy that most people put into that certainly will have long-term benefits. People will come back that maybe hadn’t been here before.”In the future, Boyce said it wouldn’t surprise her if Indianapolis was asked to play host to other large events. “I think it opened the eyes of the world that Indianapolis is a viable location for a lot of things, if we can do a Super Bowl,” she said.But for the event of the Super Bowl itself, Robertson said he was satisfied with how his business and staff performed.“Before the recession, I would take my staff to the Rawhide Ranch for a night over Memorial Weekend,” he said. “We stopped doing it. It would be all my staff and their partners, we would rent the entire property and have a huge party. It was great fun. With the way the staff performed this past weekend ... I’ll be calling the Rawhide Ranch.”
(02/07/12 5:08am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two hundred years ago on Feb. 7, 1812, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake rattled the Midwest, marking the largest quake in U.S. recorded history. The town of New Madrid, Mo., at the earthquake’s epicenter, was destroyed, and portions of the Mississippi River appeared to flow backward because of the quake. Now, on the 200th anniversary, educators and activists are spreading awareness of earthquakes, natural disasters they said are often overlooked in the Midwest. Brian Blake, earthquake program coordinator at the Central U.S. Earthquake Consortium, is one of the leaders of the “Great Central U.S. Shakeout,” which is taking place today around the Midwest. Currently, Indiana is leading the way in participation with 500,000 participants taking part. More than 2 million people are participating in total. “Last year was our first year doing it, and it grew out of a program that they started in California in 2008,” Blake said. “Basically, the whole idea behind it is to build public awareness about earthquakes and to increase knowledge of what to do during earthquakes.” Schools and independent groups have coordinated public events in which participants will take time to “drop, cover and hold on.” This is the motto for the event, as these are the steps to take in the case of an actual earthquake.“Drop to the ground basically, before the earthquake drops you, and then take cover under a sturdy table if you can, and then hold on until the shaking stops,” Blake said.One common misconception, Blake said, is that during an earthquake it’s best to stand in a doorway or to immediately try and get outside.“If you try and run in a big earthquake, the ground can move up and down and side to side, and it can do it simultaneously,” Blake said. “So if you’re running, there might not be ground there after a couple steps.”Blake said the most important thing is to protect your head and neck during a quake. But before a quake happens, he said everyone should take the time to secure heavy furniture or objects in his or her home.“The best time to prepare is before it happens,” Blake said. “Some easy things people can do are moving bookshelves away from your bed, moving heavy objects from higher shelves to lower shelves. Things like that can go a long way from preventing injuries and damages.” Michael Hamburger, an IU professor and leader of the IU PEPP Earthquake Science Institute, said preparations like this could prove important because earthquakes are fairly common in southern Indiana. “A 5-magnitude earthquake occurs every five, 15, 20 years in our area,” Hamburger said. “Magnitude 6 earthquakes, which are potentially significantly destructive ... occur every 100 years.” Hamburger said if another big quake occurred on the New Madrid zone in Missouri, the effects would be felt in Bloomington.“It would definitely be felt, and its effects would depend quite strongly on where it was located,” he said. The quakes in this region remain a bit of a controversial mystery to scientists, Hamburger said.The region is in the middle of a tectonic plate, where quakes occur much more rarely.“One of the characteristics of earthquakes in the Midwest is they tend to be felt and cause much more damage over large areas,” Hamburger said.Blake said the organizers of the Shakeout are hoping that by having this event, people will be able to practice what to do during an earthquake. That way when the next quake comes, people won’t panic.“We want people to practice it so they know what it’s like,” Blake said. “I mean, we teach children at schools how to stop, drop and roll and what to do for tornados and stuff like that ... and it really becomes second nature to them. When it comes time for an earthquake or when an earthquake happens, we want folks to be in the same position.”
(02/07/12 5:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In 2011, Indiana public universities, including IU and Purdue University, faced state-funding budget cuts. The cuts resulted in a 3-percent decrease in funding for Purdue and a 5.5-percent reduction in funds for IU. These cuts led to increased tuition for some schools and staff firings at others.For IU, those cuts included a decrease of 483 staff and faculty, said Neil Theobald, vice president and chief financial officer for IU. “This year’s budget cut for IU-Bloomington was $10.4 million, or 5.5 percent,” Theobald said in an email. “In response, IU implemented an early retirement program. Today, IU employs 483 fewer faculty and staff than it did in January 2011. About one-half of this decrease is among IU-Bloomington employees.” Thomas Gieryn, vice provost of faculty and academic affairs for IU-Bloomington, said the cuts in the past year were almost exclusively in clerical and support staff on campus, rather than faculty members such as professors.“I can assure you that the vast majority of the people who took early retirement were support staff,” Gieryn said. “If you look just at tenure and tenure track, we’ve got an increase in 14 faculty, from 1,442 to 1,456.”Theobald said many of the staff who left chose to take the early retirement plan, and that it was “voluntary, so it was not targeted by school.”The early retirement plan they both reference is a new plan available to IU employees. Al Diaz, executive vice president for business and finance and the treasurer for Purdue, said Purdue also has a new, optional early retirement plan available to employees. “About 400 people decided to take it,” Diaz said.He said Purdue worked with IU on the early retirement plans, and he believes them to be similar. At IU, the plan is called the Early Retirement Incentive Plan. It offers financial and health care benefit incentives for University employees to retire earlier, therefore saving the University money.Another step Purdue has taken to reduce costs is curtailing hiring until further notice, Diaz said. “We simply said, ‘OK, you can’t hire for the next six months,’” Diaz said.All of this is an attempt to keep student tuition down, he said. Purdue’s tuition has increased due to the state budget cuts, but many new programs are in place to help create new revenue for the school and aid students in meeting the new raised tuition. One of these is the Decadal Funding Plan, which is aimed at increasing revenue for the school beyond tuition and state funding by cutting costs and increasing research commercialization, among other methods, according to the plan’s website. Another initiative at Purdue is the move toward trimesters, which would allow students to finish school more quickly and cheaply. Unlike Purdue, IU has actually hired new faculty this school year, Gieryn said. “From last year to this year, we hired 73 new people,” he said. “We had 71 resignations or retirements or deaths. ... We certainly had some faculty who took early retirement, but their numbers were so small that they were offset by the hires.”Diaz said what makes the cuts so hard on Purdue this time around is that they followed a previous round of even more severe cuts. “This budget cut ... came on the heels of the 8-percent budget cut we faced last biennium,” he said. “It puts us back to a decade ago.”
(02/06/12 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It’s cold and raining, but everyone is looking to the sky. Families huddled under umbrellas have faces turned upward, and nobody seems to speak. They’re all waiting and watching. Then, a low roar ripples through the crowd, and far above, a man and a woman glide down a zip-line strung from a nine-story tower to a platform on the other end of the street, right in front of the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. The couple begins doing back flips and somersaults in mid-air as the crowd screams in approval. For a moment, these zip-liners have managed to capture the attention of the Indianapolis Super Bowl Village. Hundreds of thousands of people traveled from across the country to Indianapolis to take part in the Super Bowl celebration. Some of the visitors were a little more local. Kelly King and Lucian Anderson, the two zip-lining crowd-pleasers, traveled from Broad Ripple in Indianapolis. “This is our third time to do this,” King said after she’d unstrapped from her harness. “It’s just an adrenaline rush. It gets better, and it gets easier, and you have more fun.”The two of them had been standing in line since 4 a.m. to get tickets to zip-line. Anderson said they had to come back so that his children could experience it as well. “It was so much fun that I said, ‘We’re going to hang out at four in the morning to make sure they get tickets,’” Anderson said.Aside from the adrenaline, he said the view from the zip-line was also spectacular, particularly while scaling the tower.“When you’re at the top of the tower, you have an incredible view of Lucas Oil (Stadium). You have an incredible view of the city,” Anderson said. The village had attractions other than just the zip-line, and it drew people from all over. While walking through the crowd, snatches of conversation in German and French could be heard along with English. News crews laden with cameras and microphones peppered the mobs of people.On nearly every street corner, evangelists stood on boxes with megaphones, shouting Bible verses and holding up signs with messages of repentance. Then there were the scalpers — people selling tickets, and even more people holding signs reading that they needed tickets. Don Brice, a Bloomington native, ended up selling his tickets to the Super Bowl. “We’re season ticket holders for the Colts,” Brice said. “We were sitting here with a couple of people ... and they were willing to pay over $2,000 a ticket. And that’s about two and a half times what the tickets cost me.”Brice came up to visit the village, and he said he was impressed with how Indianapolis handled such a large event. “I think they did a great job,” he said. “The Super Bowl Village is nice. It’s more for younger people in the evening with bands and stuff. The Super Bowl Experience was more for young kids, a lot of interaction things with the young kids. But it’s nice.”Indianapolis shut down all of the streets closest to the circle to allow for pedestrian traffic. There was a strong police presence, with groups of officers from various departments clustered on corners and between barricades to help direct foot traffic. There were also performers. People on stilts with long red-and-white-striped pants wobbled through the hordes of people. A troupe of college men in blonde wigs and neon track suits waited in line for food. Musicians were out, hoping to make some extra money by performing for passersby.“Lonie G” is a saxophone player who said he frequently performs in downtown Indianapolis. He decided to perform during Super Bowl weekend, blasting away on his saxophone with its case open at his feet. Every couple of minutes, at least one person would drop a dollar or two into it. He said he’s earned more than usual with the extra crowds.“I would say there’s more people out enjoying themselves today,” he said. “People are out here having a wonderful time.” Despite the weather, people still decided to visit the village Saturday. The city provided heating stations with heat lamps where people could stand to keep warm and to stay out of the drizzle.Still, for many, the Super Bowl Village being so close to home proved to be an opportunity not to be passed up, rain or sun. This was the case with the zip-liners, King and Anderson. They said they hadn’t planned on coming back for the actual Super Bowl weekend, but they couldn’t stay away. “We said we weren’t coming down,” King said. “We’re not ever going to get any sleep. We might actually not hit the beds until tomorrow at 10.”
(01/27/12 4:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Last month, the IU basketball team brought home a huge win against rival team Kentucky, then No. 1 in the country. But some unexpected winners came out of the event — businesses on Kirkwood Avenue. After the win, students who weren’t already on Kirkwood to watch the game rushed to the street, spilling out of bars and restaurants and celebrating the win in a block party. In all of the celebration, more money was spent at the businesses located on Kirkwood, resulting in higher-than-usual financial gains. Nick’s English Hut was one of the businesses to experience a jump in sales, said Susan Bright, the bar’s financial analyst. “It was electrifying,” Bright said. “It was like we were in the NCAA Final Four game, and we had just won. “I’ve been there for Final Four games, so I can compare the Kentucky game to a Final Four game in like 1987, and it was exactly the same.”Bright said the game drew more fans than usual, with people lining up to get into Nick’s to watch the game, and spectators spent more than they might have on a normal Saturday.“Compared to a normal Saturday, I wouldn’t say it doubled sales for the day, but we probably had a 40 percent increase,” Bright said. “And it wasn’t just after the game. It was before, during and after.” Another bar on Kirkwood, the Crazy Horse, also experienced financial gains, said General Manager Brian Radermacher. However, for them, the gains were more long-term than immediate.“It’s hard to say for just that day, but I think the increase you’re going to see is in the games following that game,” Radermacher said. “It’s nice to see more people coming in from out of town.”Radermacher said now that IU is winning, people are more likely to travel to Bloomington to watch the games, either at a bar or at Assembly Hall. Crazy Horse has seen a decrease in sales in previous years because of the IU basketball team’s losses, Radermacher said.“Now, we again feel we have a chance to win every game,” Radermacher said. “That is where we’re seeing an increase in sales.”Radermacher said this has been a trend he’s noticed in basketball games since the Kentucky game, and he also said he thinks the team’s wins have helped commerce throughout Bloomington.“I think it’s helped all the businesses around town,” he said. “I think it’s helped Bloomington in general. There’s a buzz in the air now, and it’s nice. It’s nice to have it again.”
(01/25/12 5:12am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>For several years, the cost of college has increased annually, and so has the amount of student loans. Student loan debt is expected to exceed $1 trillion in the near future, surpassing the national credit card debt, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The average student in Indiana graduates with $27,000 in debt, compared to $25,250 nationally. The state has the eighth-highest average debt in the country, and 62 percent of recent graduates had debt.Within the state, IU has the greatest amount of debt, with the average debt per student at about $28,000, while students at Purdue University graduate with a little more than $26,000 and students at Ball State graduate with $24,000, according to the Project on Student Debt. Matt Reed, a policy analyst for the Project on Student Debt, said that since the first debt report in 2006, his team has seen increases every time the survey has been taken. “There’s national data that shows increases in borrowing starting from the early ‘90s up until the present,” Reed said. There are several factors that could explain the increase, Reed said. One is the general state of the economy. Rising costs and cuts in federal scholarship opportunities also contribute. “As the costs continue to rise faster than inflation and family income, and grant aid doesn’t always keep up, we have seen greater borrowing,” Reed said. Roy Durnal, the interim director for the IU Office of Student Financial Assistance, said the University is doing several things to try and bridge this gap between costs and funds. “Over the past several years, IU has significantly increased gift aid offered to undergraduate students,” Durnal said.Gift aid — or aid available to students as scholarships for exceptional grades or as a supplement for students with financial need — has increased 77 percent from the 2005-06 school year. But 55 percent of IU-Bloomington students still graduate with at least some debt, according to the Project on Student Debt. Durnal said another way to curb debt is to take advantage of all of the credit hours a student is allotted in a given semester. “The flat tuition rate at IUB means you’re paying the same tuition for 12 credit hours as you are for 17 credit hours, so students should work together with their academic advisor to maximize their credit hours each semester,” he said.Reed said another important factor is thinking about what type of loans to take out if loans are simply unavoidable. “If you need to borrow, first find all you can in grants and scholarships,” Reed said. “And if you need to borrow, take out federal student loans and look at federal parent loans before even considering private student loans.”Federal loans have built-in safety guards for students, including fixed interest rates and payment rates that can be adjusted based on the income a recent graduate student makes after college, Reed said. The programs make sure that if students don’t get jobs right away, they will be able to pay their loans without the loans being a burden, he said. Reed said although the idea of debt can be overwhelming, a university education is, on average, an investment worth making.“People who have college degrees have higher employment rates and higher earnings, and taking out federal student loans can therefore be a great investment, as long as you take out a moderate amount,” Reed said.
(01/24/12 3:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Indiana is the odd one out among most neighboring states because it doesn’t have a statewide smoking ban. But some legislators are hoping this situation will change by the Super Bowl. Jon Macy, coordinator for the Monroe Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalition, said there is a push in Indianapolis to pass statewide legislation before the heavy influx of out-of-towners arrives.At 23.1 percent, Indiana has the fifth highest rate of smoking nationally, according to smokefree.gov.“Basically, they don’t want to be embarrassed when people come to Indianapolis and there’s no ordinance that prohibits smoking in bars,” Macy said. “I think it’s at least 25, maybe getting close to 30, states have comprehensive laws, so Indiana’s kind of falling behind.”These new ordinances would make it illegal to smoke in places such as bars and restaurants, along with places where this practice is already banned, such as bus stops and places of employment. Monroe County has much stricter ordinances than the rest of the state, and the county actually led the Midwest in this initiative, Macy said.“Bloomington was one of the first cities in the entire Midwest to pass a comprehensive law like this,” Macy said. “Bloomington’s law was in place before Chicago.”In 2005, nearly all locations in Bloomington went smoke free, including 21-and-over bars and clubs. It’s also illegal to smoke on the IU campus, aside from designated smoking areas, and at bus stops. Smoking is also prohibited in places that serve any kind of food or beverage in Bloomington, which may be why there are no hookah or cigar bars in the city.“This is just my hunch, that it would be difficult for a hookah bar to survive financially just on the tobacco product,” Macy said. Pete Giordano, director of Community and Family Resources in Bloomington, said that overall, businesses in the city experienced minimal change in the amount of business they received after the ban. He also cited fear of lost business as one possible cause for the lack of a ban statewide. “I think there’s a lot of misconceptions on what the impact on businesses would be,” Giordano said. “Most saw no overall impact, or an increase.”Giordano said Nick’s English Hut saw an increase in business after the ban went into effect in Bloomington.“I think a lot of people just didn’t want to go into smoky bars,” Giordano said. Macy said there appears to be much support for a statewide ban, but other issues may prevent it from happening.“We just kind of have to see how the legislative process plays out,” he said. “The other problem we’re having is the other legislative issues, like the right-to-work deal, are taking all the attention. It’s such a hot topic that even the Democrats have walked out or are boycotting, so if they don’t have a quorum, they can’t even vote.”To vote on the statewide ban, a majority of representatives currently in office must be present for the vote. Given the other current controversies, the ban might not even go to vote. Giordano is hopeful that a ban will be passed soon, but he said there may not be enough time between now and the Super Bowl for an effective ban to go into place. He also said he is hopeful Indiana will soon join its neighbors in a ban.“If they can make it work in New York City,” Giordano said, “we can probably make it work here.”
(01/20/12 4:33am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>He was the pledge class president for his fraternity, Phi Kappa Sigma. He was the executive director for alumni relations for the IU Student Association and he was a top fundraising committee member for IU Dance Marathon in 2009. This past fall, he made his debut in Big Man on Campus as Mario in a live re-enactment of the video game Super Mario Brothers.Logan Good graduated this winter from the Kelley School of Business, and he’s now working at the Fortune 500 Company Western & Southern Financial Group selling life insurance to clients. Now that he’s graduated, Good said he is striving to make a difference in the greater Bloomington area, and he’s using education and life experiences as a vehicle to get him there. “Specifically what I’m looking to do is to protect other families and make sure they’re sound financially,” Good said. “The first way is looking forward and assuming that everything goes right. Then there’s the other side, the protection side, which I guess I have a stronger connection to.” For Good, this job isn’t just about selling life insurance. He’s selling security — the same security that he was given as a sophomore in college. “Essentially, it’s like I’m paying it forward almost, giving other families the same opportunities that I was afforded,” Good said. If it hadn’t been for life insurance, Good said he wouldn’t have been able to complete his college education.Good’s family lives in the northern suburbs of Chicago. His mother, Jami Good, is a photographer, and his father, Steven Good, was the CEO for the major realty group Sheldon Good and Company.In the midst of the housing crisis in 2009, Good’s father committed suicide. Good was a sophomore in college at the time and was home for winter break. When his father passed away, Good’s family was left with seemingly little future financial security.“We couldn’t even pay for a headstone at first,” Good said. “When you can’t even pay for your father’s headstone, it’s kind of a shock to the system.”The funeral was four days before Good returned to IU. “I have two brothers, so we were at the funeral,” Good said, “and we were all huddled in a circle, and my two brothers were really upset, and we were basically like, ‘We’re fucked. What are we going to do?’”“I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to go out, we’re going to work our asses off and we’re going to kick ass. We’ll be fine.’” Immediately following his father’s death, Good’s family didn’t know how they were going to afford tuition. Then they found their answer: life insurance. “My dad was thoughtful enough to be responsible and take out a life insurance policy,” Good said. “After my dad passed away, the policy took force, and it really made me that much more thankful. It was tough grieving and everything, but on top of grieving, imagine being kicked out of your home and not being able to go to school.”After his father’s death, Good’s drive for philanthropy deepened, and he came back to school determined to succeed. “I’d study at the library until three, four in the morning, and most kids walking out would be like, ‘Oh, this is horrible, why am I here, I wish I was out,’” Good said. “But for me, walking out, I’d look up and have this grin on my face and be like, ‘I am so thankful I have this opportunity to study my ass off until three in the morning and be miserable with the books.’” Upon graduation, Good knew he wanted to make a difference with his career as well. For a while, he considered moving to a city and working for a big-name company.“Being a Kelley student, too, there’s always the notion of doing something sexy when you get out of school,” Good said. “Like going and working in a big city, and going and living in some tall tower. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes, people lose focus of what is really important.” Good interviewed many places but said his current job just began to make sense. “Essentially what I’m doing is I am advocating for families,” Good said. “It’s amazing because I can do it right away, and I believe in what I’m doing. What I’m helping people with profoundly changed my life and changed the outcome of it.”Jesse Carnicom, the district sales manager for Western & Southern who hired Good, said he and Good had an immediate connection to one another. “We had an interview scheduled at the business school there, and we immediately connected because of his story,” Carnicom said. “The first thing I identify is whether someone wants to enter this industry because of money or because of passion.”Carnicom came from a similar background as Good, with his father dying when he was a teen. His mother left him and his sister some time later, when he was just 16 years old. Unlike Good, his family did not have any life insurance, and they struggled.He placed Good into an accelerated program and said Good should be a manager for him within the next few years.“His ability to be sincere and to communicate his story when he’s talking to a prospective client or family ... it’s impossible for him not to make it,” Carnicom said. Good said that as awful as some events in his past were, they’ve shaped him into who he is today and made him more thankful. He poured himself into his education, and now he’s pouring himself into his career. He said he refuses to let any event hold him back.“A lot of people, I feel like, when something happens to them, it would be easy and tempting to run from it and try to avoid people, but for me it’s quite the opposite,” Good said. “At the time it feels like your world is falling down, but as bad as things might be at the time, just accept them and move forward and have faith in yourself.”
(01/19/12 4:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Much of Southern Indiana is covered with woods. It’s not uncommon to see forest wildlife here, such as squirrels, opossums or deer. But some believe these woods are home to a much larger creature: Bigfoot. Last fall, a string of recent sightings sparked a visitation from the Animal Planet reality show “Finding Bigfoot.” Mike Bardsley is the owner of the Indiana Bigfoot Awareness website and said he has had several encounters with Bigfoot in Kosciusko County in the northern half of the state.“At fist, I was only really interested in finding out who else, where else and when other people in this immediate area might have had a sighting or encounter, after my middle child and a couple of friends had two different sightings take place ... in the fall of 2003,” Bardlsey said via email. “I’ve been pretty much around the whole state, as there have been reports from the north state line to the Ohio River. Many go back decades.”Bardlsey said he has only had one visual sighting personally, back in 2009 during Fourth of July weekend, while at a research site with members of his group. He left the campsite in his car early in the morning after recording 28 vocalizations for about two hours. While driving, he began to pull to the side of the road but then decided not to and continued. However, as he came back onto the road, he saw something. “Thinking it was another deer like I had just missed over on another road, I backed off the gas at about 20 mph and went to high beams,” Bardsley said. “That’s when I realized I was looking at a large, hair-covered black creature who began running off the road to the south.”He said it was approximately 6.5 feet tall but might have been as tall as 7 feet. “It was a very profound moment to see one after talking to quite a few people over the course of investigating the phenomenon who had told me about their encounters,” he said. Bigfoot is not a new legend. Stories of Bigfoot with several different names date back thousands of years, since the beginning of man, said Rhettman Mullis, an academic and field researcher for Bigfootology.Bigfootology is a nonprofit organization dedicated to using a multidisciplinary approach to make sense of Bigfoot.The members also operate with the assumption that Bigfoot exists, which changes how they interpret the data. They know he exists; they’re just trying to figure out what kind of species they’re dealing with. “We have artifacts going back thousands of years,” Mullis said. “In every Indian tribe around the world, Bigfoot goes by different names. Each Indian tribe has its own specific name.”These names can include Sasquatch, Yowie, Meh-Teh and Mountain Man, among others. “I actually have a hypothesis that a lot of our lore that we talk about these days is actually Bigfoot related,” Mullis said. “We have the boogeyman, we have the wildman, we have the ghouls in the woods. In England, we have the enchanted forests that would speak. Well, that’s all typical Bigfoot behavior. You go out into the woods, and you think you hear people talk. Well, you’re not psychotic. You’re probably hearing a few Bigfoot talk.”One of the main goals of Bigfootology is to create a species profile for Bigfoot. Mullis said many members of their group believe Bigfoot build nests, live in family groups, are approximately 7 feet tall, are covered in hair and are omnivorous. Mullis is also spearheading the idea that Bigfoot are diurnal, or active during the day, rather than nocturnal. “Most incidents happen during the day,” Mullis said. “They build refuges away from men. So if they’re truly nocturnal, that means they’re sleeping during the day. That means, since we don’t go to their nests, how could we be seeing them?”Mullis said based on the topography and forestation in southern Indiana, it would make sense for Bigfoot to live here, and Bardlsey agreed. “Based on the number and consistency of reports coming out of the southern portions of the state, and meeting and talking with many who have had first-hand, personal experiences, I just have to believe that grown, rational people can be telling the truth about what’s happened to them,” Bardsley said in the email.One common misconception with Bigfoot is that he is a monster. Mullis said the vast majority of reports involving Bigfoot are non-confrontational. However, Bigfoot is an animal like any other, and therefore, when cornered or threatened, he could respond violently. “Most people don’t want to talk about the horror stories because we don’t want people to get the wrong impression,” Mullis said. “Most horror stories actually happen with women. There’s a significant history of kidnapping, rape. As a matter of fact, that’s the most common story amongst every tribe, especially in North America. They’ll have women that will be taken and they will be bred with.” Mullis also pointed out there are several stories of Bigfoot helping humans as well, including rescuing children and injured hikers. “There’s stories about good and bad,” Mullis said. “So I tell people to be careful, because they’re just an animal like everybody else.” Bardlsey said he’s been convinced of Bigfoot’s existence through his own experiences and believes one day we will inevitably find Bigfoot to exist, but perhaps we aren’t ready yet.“I’m hoping for now, until we know more about them, they’ll remain hidden from humankind,” Bardsley said. “We don’t have the greatest track record of dealing with things we don’t really understand.”
(01/18/12 5:10am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>In the past, many Super Bowl host cities have relocated homeless people outside the city.Michael Hurst, director for the Coalition for Homelessness Intervention and Prevention, said the homeless will definitely be staying. “The worry here is whenever there’s something that happens and a person is displaced ... with say the Super Bowl or any other event, that creates an issue because the outreach team doesn’t have access to that individual,” Hurst said. Outreach teams are groups of people from the coalition and Indianapolis police officers, along with other agencies, that keep tabs on the homeless community members, bringing them medical supplies and checking in on them on a daily basis. “If a person is used to staying in a certain place, the outreach folks know where those folks are,” Hurst said.One of the main goals with these outreach teams is to get the homeless to go inside, into shelters or other facilities. Hurst said if a person won’t go inside, it’s often because the person has a mental illness or addiction. The key to getting them inside the shelters is to gain their confidence.“It’s very important to build a trust relationship with those folks, and it takes a very long time,” Hurst said about the subject. During any given night, around 100 or 200 homeless people are not housed in shelters and live on the streets or in camps throughout the city.“For those people who don’t go inside, most of them have mental health or substance abuse issues that they’re dealing with that kind of influence their decision not to go inside,” Hurst said.In light of the Super Bowl, Hurst said his agency met with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and explained why the homeless cannot be moved out of the city. Although IMPD was unavailable for comment, Hurst said they happily obliged the coalition’s request.“(It’s) one of the beauties of what this community has and does with its relationship with IMPD,” Hurst said. “IMPD officers, they have their own outreach program.” One other concern with the homeless population and the Super Bowl is that people may pose as homeless to make a quick buck, Hurst said. He said there are two types of homeless: passive solicitors, who simply sit with signs and cups, and panhandlers, who actively ask passersby for money. Hurst said the key between knowing if they’re homeless or imposters is the time of day they are seen. “At nighttime, the people who are homeless will go into shelters, or they go into camps,” Hurst said. “So when you see people at night holding signs saying they’re homeless or walking up asking you for a quarter, chances are very, very strong that that person is not homeless. “They’re housed. They might have some other issues going on ... but they’re not homeless.” Hurst said IMPD will have an increased presence during the Super Bowl, which will hopefully discourage imposters while adding extra assistance to those who actually are homeless. “That’s one of the beauties of any special event,” Hurst said. “More officers on the street is almost like having more outreach workers on the street.”
(01/12/12 5:06am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bloomington’s unemployment rate has dropped in the past year and is lower than the surrounding counties’, according to the most recent employment report the Indiana Department of Workforce Development released in November.But that doesn’t mean unemployment and poverty aren’t still prevalent issues, particularly in Bloomington, one of the more economically depressed cities in the state, said Jennifer Osterholt, director of the Bloomington Housing Authority.“What our mission is, is to provide safe and affordable housing to low-income families,” Osterholt said of Housing Authority. “We own and operate 310 units of affordable housing on three sites, and they serve the elderly disabled and families.” The organization also helps families pay their rent if they can’t make the payments, with programs in place to help them reach the point where they can pay bills on their own. Osterholt said, despite what the numbers say, she has actually seen an increase in families requesting help. “What happens is once you’re helping a family, you’re signing a year contract,” Osterholt said. “We opened our waiting list for about two hours, and we had about 600 people standing in line.” When it comes to this seeming discrepancy, one factor that needs to be considered is the way unemployment is calculated.Currently, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development reports the numbers it receives from the U.S. Department of Labor, said Valerie Kroeger of the department. Although the unemployment rate for a state might be low, “employment” includes anyone surveyed during the U.S. Department of Labor unemployment survey who did any work at all, for any pay, ages 16 and older. The plain unemployment rate does not account for how much money a family needs to survive or whether that employment is enough to keep it afloat. Osterholt said this issue affects many Bloomington families. “First of all, there are low wages. Extremely low wages,” she said. “And rents in Bloomington are relatively high because of the University. And that’s a double-edged sword. You get outside Monroe County, and where are the major places for employment? There’s that issue to deal with.” More jobs also need to be created, Osterholt said. “It’s an economic factor,” she said. “Until the state of Indiana or the government or whoever creates additional jobs, then folks don’t have jobs.”Osterholt said unemployment and struggling families are still issues that face Indiana. The families that stood in line to get on the waiting list for help from the Housing Authority can attest to that. “In many communities, you get on the waiting list, but you might be on the waiting list for five to 10 years,” she said. “Without work, folks have needs.”
(01/11/12 4:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The December Monthly Revenue Report for Indiana was released last week. The report data showed positive gains for Indiana that exceeded early predictions. Major tax revenues were up 1.6 percent from predictions, and other revenues were up 3.7 percent. Both of these were gains of 9 to 10 percent compared to last year’s revenue. Although the results were positive, Budget Director for Indiana Adam Horst said the gains really aren’t significant. “The result for the month is roughly within a percent of what the target was or what the forecast was,” he said. “It’s kind of on target with the forecast. The trends continue to see pretty good growth in sales tax. We continue to see the gaming revenue struggle.” Gaming revenue consists of revenue collected at casinos, race tracks and similar establishments.These dips or crests below or above forecast are caused by hard-to-predict variables, said Bill Witte, an IU economics professor. Witte said forecasters use a statistical model that includes personal income, as well as variables such as the New York Stock Exchange. “One thing that could clearly improve the forecast was a stock market variable,” Witte said. Horst said the revenue report for January will be more significant because it will more accurately portray any gains in holiday spending for the state. “It’s kind of hard to draw any conclusions about how we’re going to end the year,” he said. Indiana government is also in a legislative session, and it is a non-budget year, Horst said, meaning that they will essentially “stay-the-course” as long as revenues are around target each month. Monthly revenues during 2013 will be of more importance, because there will be new legislators, Witte said. Horst said December’s monthly revenue was near what was expected, but that the gains were a good sign. “Every month we can exceed the forecast, even by a small amount, that’s obviously a positive thing,” Horst said. Witte agreed. “They’re not spectacular,” Witte said of the numbers, “but they’re not disastrous either.”
(01/09/12 12:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Holiday spending exceeded predictions in 2011 despite a sluggish economy, according to a national Gallup Poll study. Self-reported consumer spending increased 4.1 percent during the holiday season, which lasts from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day. The National Retail Federation had predicted a 3.8 percent increase.Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, said Indiana tends to track national trends.“When the season began, projections had an increase of about 2.8 percent over last year,” Monahan said. “And then as the season began, it was really going much better than anticipated.”Monahan said his reasoning is based on his own speculation as well as anecdotes he’s heard from colleagues.He said the nature of the holiday season itself lends itself to spending to buy gifts for friends and family.“People may change their holiday spending budgets, but for the most part they’re going to go out and spend,” he said.Monahan cited “pent-up demand” as a cause for the increase. Consumers may have cut back spending during the year, so they splurged during the holidays, Monahan said.“They were buying items for themselves as well, and I think that’s really part of that pent-up demand,” he said.Monahan said another component of this demand was increased credit card use.“I think with the tough economy people have been…more disciplined with regard to their credit card use and were using debit cards and cash more,” Monahan said.By using credit cards, consumers could put off paying bills and therefore spend more, he said.Consumer Jenn Hugenberg said she went against this trend and spent less this holiday season.“I made sure I got gifts that they wanted and would use but that were cheaper,” she said.Hugenberg said that this wasn’t intentional, however.“It just kind of happened,” she said. “I just feel like I got what I wanted to get people, but it wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be.”The Gallup poll said one factor that remains to be seen is whether the overall profit for businesses will suffer from this season due to deep discounts and sales.“How profitable retails went this year still remains to be seen,” Monahan said.A last factor that needs to be considered is the use of gift cards. It was a record year for gift card sales, Monahan said. Those still need to be redeemed, which will give a boost to profits in upcoming weeks.What all of this means in regard to the economy as a whole remains to be seen. Faith in the economy still remains low among consumers, with unemployment and underemployment still high. Confidence in the government also remains at a record-low among consumers, according to Gallup.Monahan agreed with this.“Hopefully, they’ll be back to shopping in 2012,” he said.
(12/09/11 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An official statement released by Alex Sabol, president of Kappa Sigma fraternity, said the student transported fom the fraternity to a Bloomington-area hospital Wednesday “is healthy and in fine physical condition.”The student had a high blood-alcohol level and was driven in a personal vehicle. Kappa Sig has been suspended pending an investigation of the incident.Sabol also said in the statement that the chapter will fully comply with any investigations and that it plans to use the experience as a learning opportunity. As stated in Wednesday’s press release, a student was taken to the hospital by personal vehicle Wednesday morning with an extremely high blood alcohol level.“We don’t know exactly what happened. All we know is there was an incident that was associated with the men in Kappa Sig,” said junior Will Kragie, the vice president of communications for the Interfraternity Council.Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Activities Steve Veldkamp said IU is conducting an investigation of the fraternity.“We have suspended the fraternity until we can determine if the chapter was responsible for creating circumstances which led to an underage IU student’s hospitalization due to acute alcohol poisoning,” Veldkamp said in an email. “We have been in contact with the national office and the local chapter leadership. They are cooperating fully in the investigation.”“We’re a resource, not a police force,” Kragie said. Senior and IU Student Association Chief of Communications Nikki Suseck said IUSA would not comment until more information is known. IUSA President Justin Kingsolver said the same.In recent years, IUSA has been making a push for a medical amnesty law, which would enable students to call an ambulance or take a student who has overdosed to the hospital without fear of repercussions from the University for the drug or alcohol use that might have occurred. IUSA could not comment at this time as to how this incident will affect that initiative.
(12/09/11 3:54am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Health had the most reported errors of any hospital system in Indiana last year, according to the 2010 Medical Error Report. However, the number of serious medical errors was three fewer than in 2009, from 22 to 19. Medical errors made in IU Health hospitals included eight foreign objects left behind during surgeries, six cases of bedsores, four falls resulting in death or injury and one incident of surgery performed on the wrong body part. Terry Whitson, author of the report, said the title can be misleading. “I think there are two factors,” Whitson said. “If you go down the list of all hospitals and the ones that have the most numbers, it’s mostly the size of the hospital. The second one is the complexity of the procedures.” IU Health is the largest hospital system in Indiana with three separate hospitals: Methodist Hospital, IU Hospital and Riley Hospital for Children. When the volume of patients treated is taken into account, the number of errors is not disproportionate, said Margi Smith-Simmons, the public relations manager for IU Health. “In terms of those three hospitals in 2010, we admitted more than 58,000 patients and that error rate is 0.20 percent,” Smith-Simmons said.Between these three IU Health hospitals, health professionals performed approximately 70,600 medical procedures. Whitson also said the complicated procedures done at IU Health make the system more prone to errors. “If you look at a smaller hospital, they don’t have as many procedures, and they’re not as complex when they do it,” Whitson said. Several changes to the way the report is compiled in recent years may have played a role in the high numbers, Whitson said. For example, patient falls that result in serious injury or disability, rather than death, are included in the total.“By making the definition a broader definition, I believe in 2009 we increased the number from about nine to 17, and probably what that reflects is the change in definition,” Whitson said. Another source of medical errors is pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, Smith-Simmons said. “This is a problem that patients and or families can help address and be aware that these can happen,” Whitson said. Smith-Simmons said that in 2010, there were zero pressure ulcers at Riley Hospital for Children, which was an improvement.Both Smith-Simmons and Whitson said any medical errors are unacceptable, and that IU Health plans to perform an analysis on all the individual errors that occurred in 2010.“Every hospital, any time they have an error, regardless of whether it is one that is reported to the state or one that is not, they will try to do what we call an analysis,” Whitson said. “It’s part of their quality assurance system. Their responsibility is to review any error and to prevent any future errors of that nature.”Smith-Simmons said the reduction in errors from 2009 to 2010 could be considered a positive result for IU Health. “We’re slowly getting better and we’re definitely improving,” Smith-Simmons said.