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(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Tracy "Dolphin" McNeely is headed west.\nNot long ago, McNeely pledged to remain atop a red oak in Stoney Springs as long as it took to protect the privately-owned forest area, which will soon be razed to make way for an apartment complex. \nThen last Saturday, she descended from her perch -- a four-by-eight-foot platform suspended 50 feet in the air -- after 88 days. It has since been manned in shifts by fellow environmentalists who decry the planned Canterbury Apartments as a reckless development.\nHer mother, Donna, said at the time that she had left temporarily to visit a sick grandmother.\nBut now it's clear McNeely won't be coming back. Friends and fellow activists say she plans on traveling out west before she attends the University of Oregon in the fall.\nMcNeely could not be reached for comment. Her home phone number in nearby Nashville has been disconnected.\nShe threw in the towel two weeks after the Monroe County Council approved $10 million in tax-free bonds for developer Herman & Associates of Indianapolis, which has pledged to provide affordable housing.\nThe city plan commission -- which has jurisdiction over the proposed land use -- gave the project its stamp of approval last November. The 50-acre area just east of Ind. 37 has been zoned for high-density residential use for nearly three decades.\nThe developer hopes to start construction in mid-July. The only obstacle left is the environmentalists, who have been planning acts of civil disobedience.\nThey claim McNeely's departure won't present a setback to their cause.\n"It's a committee effort," said the man occupying the tree-sit early Tuesday evening, who would only identify himself as "Moss." "This will just get more people involved."\nThe activists disavow any knowledge of the metal barricade cemented in the dark of night into Basswood Drive, the only road leading up to the wooded land. Police have yet to make any headway in their investigation of the vandalism, which will cost local taxpayers thousands of dollars.\nBut the environmentalists admit to having more up their sleeves than just the tree-sit.\n"We're kind of playing it by ear," Moss said. "It's a work in progress. We haven't yet figured out everything we're going to do.\n"But when the shit hits the fan, there are plenty of people who are willing to go to jail."\nMonroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp said he's working on a strategy to remove anyone occupying the tree when construction begins. And he's warned property owner Bill Brown to hire private security for the site.\n"We'll do what we need to do," he said. "But we can't be out there at all hours"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
The city's utility department is looking to scare up more revenue to hold down sewer service rates.\nSo officials are proposing increases in wastewater connection and stormwater fees. The Bloomington Utilities Department held a three-hour Utilities Service Board meeting on the plan Monday evening, outlining their intentions.\nCity hall supports the plan -- Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez said the proposal was a matter of "fairness and equity" for all utilities customers. But critics contend the proposed hikes will hinder development and growth.\n"I believe that the true purpose of impact fees is to close the gates on Bloomington," said Gregory Blum, a representative of Cook Inc., one of the area's largest employers.\nA decision by the utilities board -- which discussed the issue at length Monday -- is slated for its July 16 meeting. If it approves the proposal, the city council will have the final say on the matter.\nSince 1994, the city has assessed connection fees so that new users pay for part of the existing utility infrastructure. Utilities engineer Jonathan Heald said his department would like to raise the wasterwater connection fee for a single family residence from $500 to $1,000.\nWith multi-family dwellings, the utilities department hopes to raise the connection fee to $650 per unit. Heald said research determined that the typical apartment generates 65 percent of the wastewater of a single-family residence.\nUnder the current fee structure, most apartment complexes and commercial customers pay a flat $1,600 connection fee regardless of size. If the changes are approved, the city would assess the fees of large commercial and industrial customers on a case-by-case basis.\nAffordable housing projects remain eligible for discounted connection fees under the proposal, Heald said.\nUtilities Director Mike Philips said the proposed $1,000 base rate for single-family residences should generate enough revenue to avoid a sewer service fee increase in next year's budget, which the city council is currently working on.\n"The mayor asked us to do what we could to avoid a wastewater fee increase," Philips said. "While it's difficult to precisely predict the number of new connections, we believe the base connection fee will allow us to keep sewer usage rates steady next year."\nWhile the proposal is targeted at keeping rates low for homeowners, it's also won over local environmentalists, such as Monroe County Councilman Scott Wells.\n"We would curtail urban sprawl," he said at Monday's meeting. "We would stabilize rents and maybe even come up with some money up front for capital improvement."\nWells has long advocated a connection fee hike and said Monday that he doesn't think the proposal goes far enough. Others, such as Green Party member Isabel Piedmont, praised the move as forward-thinking.\nThe utilities department also intends to increase stormwater utility fees. Under the proposal, fees for single-family residences would remain at $2.35 a month, Heald said. But with that base rate, the city hopes to reassess other fees by taking into account the acreage of a given piece of property and other factors.\nPending approval, the city council will hold its first hearing on the proposed rates July 17. The vote is scheduled for July 25.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
An estimated 3,000 bikers roared through the streets of Bloomington this weekend.\nBut all hell didn't break loose.\nThe Indiana chapter of the Harley Davidson Owners Group staged its annual state rally this weekend, which is billed as a family-oriented event.\nIt kicked off Saturday afternoon with a parade through Bloomington's main thoroughfares, attracting several gawkers. The bikers convened at the parking lot of the Showers Building, where they held events such as slow races, in which the object is to cross the finish line last.\n"We're trying to change the image of bikers," said coordinator Sandra Hunt. "We find that a lot of people fear us. We're just lawyers, doctors, Indian chiefs, factory workers, just like anybody else. It's just about the feeling of freedom."\nHunt's father, a retired motorcycle officer in Illinois, instilled a love for the highway in her. Like everyone there, she had a horror story about a motorist cutting her off on a left turn.\n"Yeah, I've slid out before," said Hunt, who rides a 1981 shovelhead model. "I've dropped bikes before. The idiots don't care if they break your neck."\nIndianapolis Police Sgt. J.B. McAtee understands where she's coming from. He's a motorcycle officer who's coached the force's 17-member motorcycle drill team for nearly two decades.\n"I don't give bikers breaks more than I would anyone else," he said. "But I deal with what they do on the road."\nThe IPD's drill team -- good will ambassadors for the City of Indianapolis -- performed downtown Saturday, to the delight of the hundreds of bikers gathered. They were cheered on as they formed figure eights and performed stunts like standing on the seat of the bike or coming to an abrupt stop.\nMcAtee considers himself a motorcycle enthusiast. Although his Harley is owned by taxpayers, he's invested more than $3,500 out his own pocket into it.\n"I add chrome whenever I can," he said. "I want it to look as good as anyone's bike out there. It's not required -- but it's something I take pride in."\nMany enthusiasts flocked to the gathering from faraway places just for the feel of the open road. James "Lone Wolf" Neal, a long-haired, shirtless manufacturer with a fully-tattooed torso, only came down from Indianapolis.\nBut Neal, who drives a high-maintenance 1977 ironhead model, hits the road every weekend -- he's driven to such distant locales as Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and San Diego on whims. He works on his bike every day and considers bikers with newer models "yuppies."\n"I can't get enough of the freedom of the wind blowing in my hair," he said. "I've just always been a lone wolf. I ain't the type to join anything -- not even the Boy Scouts. \n"I'm just out to help people, other bikers that have motor trouble. That, and raise hell, drink beer and have fun"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
MARTINSVILLE -- It long looked like Dan Starnes would make it.\nBut the 46-year-old Morgan County Sheriff's Deputy succumbed Tuesday to complications from a wild shootout at close range in mid-June. An untreatable bacterial infection caused Starnes' condition to deteriorate, and his family decided to take him off life support.\nAfter a 27-day struggle, Starnes died in the intensive care unit at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis at 8:14 a.m. Flags hung at half-mast throughout Martinsville Tuesday.\n"His family expected to take him home," said Chief Deputy Volitta Fritsche, a longtime neighbor and colleague who was with Starnes in his final hours. "But they didn't expect to take him home like this."\nStarnes' infection flared up Monday, and doctors said he ceased to respond to medicine.\nMorgan County Deputy Prosecutor Terry Iacoli requested that Starnes' shooter, Tommy Pruitt of Martinsville, be charged with murder. Morgan County Superior Court Judge Jane Spencer approved his request at a hearing late Wednesday afternoon.\nFritsche said the sheriff's department asked the prosecutor to seek the death penalty. Iacoli has been looking into relevant statutes but doesn't plan on reaching an immediate decision.\n"We want to let that family bury him," he said. "We'll talk with all involved parties first, and we don't want to rush to those discussions."\nPruitt's trial is set for Aug. 27, but Iacoli said it should now be pushed back. \nOn suspicion of a suspended license, Starnes pulled Pruitt over June 14 three miles west of Martinsville. Pruitt, who has a lengthy criminal record, later told investigating officers that he didn't want Starnes to find stolen weapons he had in his car. \nPruitt burst out of his car with a .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun he had stolen from the MC Sports in Bloomington. Starnes, whose 19-year-old son Ryan was in the squad car, kept his hand near his still-holstered gun.\nPanicking, Pruitt fired an errant shot at Ryan in the passenger seat, assuming he was another armed officer. The bullet grazed Ryan's right side, injuring him slightly.\nFrom about seven feet away, Pruitt then fired seven shots at Starnes, hitting him five times. Bleeding heavily, Starnes returned fire and hit Pruitt seven times.\nWith both men prostrate, Ryan retrieved a shotgun and trained it on Pruitt until backup arrived.\nAlthough several bullets lodged in Pruitt's side and chest, none of his wounds were life-threatening. He's now being held at the Reception Diagnostic Center near Plainfield.\nIacoli charged Pruitt with two class A felony counts of attempted murder, three counts of receiving stolen property, possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and possession of a handgun without a license.\nStarnes was flown by helicopter to Methodist Hospital, where he was immediately hooked up to a respirator. Doctors removed a segment of his intestines and bullet fragments from his chest and right hip. They told his family that he could fully recover in about two weeks, barring infection.\nThe sergeant, a five-year veteran of the department and a former jail commander, lost consciousness June 23. He never recovered it.\nStarnes was moved back to the intensive care unit after he was diagnosed with a bacterial infection Monday. He gained nearly 40 pounds when his body stopped processing fluids.\nColleagues remember Starnes as dedicated and hardworking. When Starnes started as a warrant officer, Fritsche said he had 1,100 outstanding warrants to serve -- with nearly 20 more coming in a week.\nStarnes brought the number down to 800 before the shooting, Fritsche said.\n"He rose through the ranks quickly," she said, trying to fight back the tears. "We're all sad, hurt and angry. I can't even imagine how much his family must miss him.\n"He died a hero's death."\nDeputies moped around the office early evening Tuesday, with heads hung and hands stuffed in pockets. Fritsche said they're usually laughing and chatting as the day winds down.\nReserve Deputy Tom Dunigan was the last Morgan County officer to die in the line of duty, when he was fatally shot 25 years ago.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
"The Score" is classic film noir with an A-list cast, an exercise in traditional craftsmanship that is so rare in this age of bloated special effects budgets and editing choppier than the average transatlantic voyage.\nIt hardly ascends to the upper echelon of classics like "The Maltese Falcon" and "Chinatown." It's more like a contemporary production of Shakespeare -- more a vehicle for captivating acting than anything else.\nDirector Frank Oz convened a summit for the finest method actors of three generations for this heist flick -- Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton. In deliberately pacing the film, he simply stands back and gives them breathing room.\nOz, in his first departure from such light-hearted fluff as "In and Out," took the right approach. It would have been worth at least double the price of admission just to watch these vaunted heavyweights take turns reading from a phone book.\nThe only thing holding this movie back from entrance in the canon of high cinematic art is the screenplay, which is more than a trifle hackneyed. Although the ragged string of a plot has two thieves attempting to pull off a nigh-impossible heist, the only genuinely suspenseful moment comes when the hefty and decrepit Brando precariously perches himself on a bar stool.\nDeNiro plays Nick Wells, a master safecracker who has to be cajoled into One Last Job©. He runs a classy jazz joint in Montreal and decides to throw in the towel after narrowly escaping from a jewelry heist in Boston, only to discover that the buyer fell through.\nNick wants to retire because he hopes to run his club in peace and settle down with a saucy and underused Angela Bassett, who provides the token romantic interest. But Brando, a flamboyant Montreal crime kingpin, sells him on a long-term investment plan -- a priceless scepter that belonged to French aristocracy.\nBrando, who's been completely off his rocker for at least the past two decades, clearly ad-libs many of his lines, including the soon-to-be-immortal: "I'll believe that when pigs eat my brother."\nThank you Marlon Brando, thank you, for that colloquial addition to the American lexicon.\nBut it's good to see Colonel Kurtz back in action. Brando, who portrays his character Max as a wizened yet regal Truman Capote, positively delights, dispensing a kind of nutty wittiness and an irresistible charm. The words flutter from his lips like butterflies around sweet nectar. He's mesmerizing every second he's on screen, if only because he hasn't taken on such a substantive role in a long while. \nMax has an inside man at the Montreal Customs House, a fiery Edward Norton who masquerades as a mentally impaired custodian. Norton's Jack smolders with a youthful hunger and an inexperienced cockiness.\nOf course, the job violates two of Nick's most sacred tenets -- never work in your backyard and always work alone. But predictably enough, the thought of four million dollars in the bank overpowers his better judgment. \nOz then guides the audience through all the standard complications and double-crosses. While he painstakingly documents the heist in all its maddening technical complexity, there's never really any doubt as to the outcome.\nAs a taciturn and introverted safecracker, DeNiro steals the show with his low-key performance. \nWhile the immensely talented Norton wasn't out of his league, the viewer can readily tell that such insecurities lurked in the back of his mind. Brando also had to plead guilty to the misdemeanor of overacting. He presented the audience with an atrophied and foppish Vito Corleone.\nDeNiro, by contrast, marvelously underplayed his character. He has a scene with Bassett in which he expresses his desire to get out of the business. She's in another room while he chops up some vegetables for dinner.\nAs he lays down the knife, he sheepishly beats around the bush and never lifts his eyes. \nIt's just a quiet scene -- but it's surely some of the best acting to be found in theaters this year.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez presented his 2002 budget to the city council Monday, calling for a 7.7 percent increase in spending. The budget, which would be financed with a property tax levy increase of 2.16 percent, met with a lukewarm reception.\nIt passed a preliminary vote 4-1, with four abstentions on the Democrat-controlled council. \nThree of the abstaining council members didn't have issues with the mayor's capital investment plan or his proposed additional funding for public safety. The three Democrats -- Chris Gaal, Andy Ruff and Jeffrey Willsey -- focused on a $78,000 subsidy to the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation, a private not-for-profit group that advocates economic growth.\nThe annual subsidy -- a small fraction of the city's requested $47 million budget -- has recently come under fire from leftist critics, who say the group has too much clout over zoning policy. They also take issue with its $5,000 membership fee, which they call exclusionary.\n"If you look through the zoning master plan, the BEDC has its fingerprints all over it," said Gregory Travis, a self-declared fiscal conservative activist who usually stakes out liberal positions. "Essentially, public policy-making is taking place by a non-elected private corporation"\nCouncil members echoed Travis' concern at Monday's meeting. Ruff called for a "democratization of the group," while Willsey suggested the city redirect the funding to "scholarships" for small businessmen so they can join the group.\nFernandez accused the councilmen of playing politics.\n"Sure, you can open it up and make it a more inclusive organization," he said. "But I've never heard any of them bring it up at a board meeting. It's ironic when they go harrumphing about democratizing the process in public. They've never expressed these concerns before."\nAnd the mayor said he will continue to support the group's role in fostering development and economic growth.\n"They demand this and they demand that," he said. "But not all innovation and improvement has to come from a council-passed ordinance." \nSeveral members of the development corporation, which sells businesses on relocating to the area and has long received public funding, defended the subsidy at the council meeting. Ron Tarsi, a former BEDC chairman, mockingly asked critics if they believed in a "job fairy."\nCouncil President Patricia Cole said she abstained for unrelated reasons. In spite of Monday's debate, Fernandez said he expects his budget to pass when it comes to a final hearing in September.\nIn his budget, Fernandez proposed to strengthen public safety by hiring three firefighters, another police dispatcher and an additional police officer. He also promised a $6 million park improvements bond and nearly $500,000 to sidewalk upkeep and renovation.\nThe city also hopes to retire a pair of high-interest bonds for renovations to police headquarters and the parks department. While the early retirement takes a $751,392 chunk out of the 2002 budget, Fernandez said it will save Bloomington taxpayers nearly $150,000 in the 2003 fiscal year and beyond.\nCity controller Tom Guevara said the city is also looking to establish a "Rainy Day Fund" under a new state law. The city already has $6.7 million in reserves -- roughly 30 percent of its general fund or main checking account.\n"It'll allow us to maintain our cash flow," Guevara said. "Property taxes are only collected twice a year, and that's one of our main sources of revenue. As soon as this is formalized, we hope to keep 15 percent stored away, a minimum of 10 percent."\nHaving a strong reserve, Guevara said, will improve the city's credit rating and make it eligible for lower interest rates. The state legislature passed the law this spring to allow local governments to set aside money for unforeseen contingencies.\nFernandez said much of the budgetary increase consists of "one-time investments," such as the establishment of the reserve fund. While the city is seeking a 2.16 percent increase in the tax levy, Guevara said homeowners and businesses are realistically looking at no more than a 1.67 increase in local property taxes. \n"We've come up with a very conservative estimate based on how much money we need to raise for the budget," he said. "It's set outside from the assessed value. Most people might even be looking at a flat rate."\nIn any event, a local property tax increase will remain under the statutory maximum of 5 percent for the sixth year in a row, Fernandez said. It's a campaign pledge he remains committed to.\n"It's important that we manage the city and do it in a way that's fiscally responsible," he said. "We can provide services and make capital investments without raising property taxes in any significant way, allowing our economy to remain vibrant."\nBut some contend Fernandez has been anything but fiscally responsible. Conservatives haven't taken kindly to the mayor's plan to purchase the financially beleaguered Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, which he presented to the city council Wednesday. \nFernandez has offered to put up $1.3 million from the city's general fund to pay down the theater's debt, which was incurred from extensive renovation. The expenditure, which would total 3 percent of the city's existing funds, is being considered as part of the 2001 budget. \n"If ticket sales don't maintain the venue, taxpayers shouldn't be coerced to pay for it," said Jim Billingsley, president of the Monroe County Taxpayers Association, a conservative watchdog group. "Contrary to what the mayor may think, this isn't New York City or Chicago... or even Indianapolis. It's almost redundant with the IU facilities."\nFernandez said the purchase is an attempt to maintain a downtown landmark and promote the arts as a tourist attraction. Fine art, he said, has long been one of Bloomington's main attractions.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A Democratic centrist group concluded a three-day boot camp for local and statewide candidates across the country Tuesday. The Democratic Leadership Council, now chaired by Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, preached a gospel of moderate social policy.\nMore than 650 Democrats -- including about 250 elected officials -- descended on the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis to discuss centrist policy initiatives. The general consensus was that the party will have to reposition itself with the cultural mainstream if it hopes to win another national election.\nFounded in 1985 by South Bend native Al From, the "New Democrat" council made its mark on the oldest political party in the world by staking out conservative fiscal positions, such as support for free trade. It's now the largest coalition group in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. \nSeveral Democratic leaders, such as Bayh and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, made the case Monday that liberal views on issues such as gun control and abortion have alienated many voters, particularly white males.\nInstead of gun control, From said Democrats should talk about "sensible gun safety" and try to assuage widespread fears of an imminent governmental seizure of firearms. But he insisted the party's lackluster performance in the last election goes beyond any one issue -- he said it's a matter of cultural distance from rural and suburban voters.\nLieberman, who lost his vice presidential bid last year, sided with From in chastising the liberal wing of the party for turning a deaf ear to religion.\n"Just as we regained the public's confidence in the 1990s on questions of fiscal responsibility and economic growth, so too must we earn back the people's trust on matters of values and culture and faith," he said at an early Monday morning press conference. "We have too often dismissed and disparaged the importance of faith in American life and made the faithful feel unwelcome in our party.\n"Too often do we seem judgmental, and we have not made faith a priority. We have to reestablish that we're the party of mainstream values and new ideas."\nKnown for his strongly held Jewish Orthodox faith, Lieberman caught flak from fellow Democrats last fall when he openly discussed his religious convictions on the campaign trail.\n"Some of those Hosannas turned to 'How dare he's,'" he said. "It wasn't long before I was caricatured as 'Holy Joe,' which I frankly did not appreciate. But my mother certainly did."\nSenate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota extended an open hand to the centrist wing of the party. Cracking a joke about his recent rise to power, he told the party faithful that he had to keep his remarks short because he "had to go mow (Vermont Sen.) Jim Jeffords's lawn."\n"We showed a cynical nation that there is still a role for government in our lives today," he said. "For a long time, we had separate, competing entities -- labor vs. capital, the individual vs. the family, U.S. vs. the world. \n"It must be comfortable in that either/or world."\nDaschle, who along with Lieberman is considered a possible presidential candidate in 2004, said Democrats could capitalize off of President George W. Bush's alleged failure to live up to his campaign slogan of "compassionate conservatism."\n"There's a difference between centrist rhetoric and centrist policy," he said. "There's a difference between governing from the right and the right policy."\nNew York Sen. Hillary Clinton also made the pilgrimage to the nation's heartland to pay her dues to the centrists.\n"Ideas matter," she said. "And some of the best ideas to be found are here. I'm wonkish about policies, but I can sum the New Democrat movement up by saying that it's about making this country richer, safer, smarter and stronger."\nBut few in attendance were as optimistic as Daschle and Clinton. Bayh lamented over the fact that 70 percent of church-going voters and 60 percent of married couples turned away from the Democratic party in the last election.\n"We have to show that we're not just the party of the Coasts," he said. "We have to show the voters that we're the party of mainstream American -- the South, the Heartland and the Plains States."\nBayh argued that Democrats have found themselves on the wrong side of a cultural divide in the country. He urged a change in "tone and rhetoric," citing his responsible fatherhood initiative as a way to reach out to the mainstream.\n"We can't let voters base their decision on what they've been led to believe about us," he said. "And if we're not clear on our values, they'll believe the worst. We need to speak with a loud and clear voice about the moral fabric of the country"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
The IDS has long been dedicated to bringing its readership tough-as-nails, hard-hitting arts and culture coverage. It was in that noble spirit -- certainly not the spirit of idle Internet-surfing spurred on by boredom -- that I visited the promotional Web site of "A.I."\n"A.I.," a widely lauded futuristic rumination on what it means to be human, rose to the top of the box office in its opening weekend and has since sank like a stone. It is thus, officially, the first Steven Spielberg picture loved by the critics and loathed by moviegoers. \nIt stars the immensely talented Haley Joel Osment, who really should be fooling around on a Playstation or riding a bike at his age, as a robot boy who longs to love. True to form, the marketing Web site allows you to chat with an ALICE, or an Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity.\nAs soon as the page downloaded, I immediately considered questions such programming raises about the very nature of intelligent thought. I thought about the Turing test, which posits that a machine possesses intelligence if in conversation it can trick someone into thinking it's human. \nI thought about how easy it would be to let a robot write half my column. I mean, I thought how interesting and groundbreaking it would be to interview a robot.\nIt took me about half an hour to get the hang of chatting with ALICE, which dishes out programmed responses and friendly conversational overtures. It has no real short-term memory, so it's impossible to carry on any line of thought. \nThe verbatim transcript follows.\nALICE: Hello. My name is Chatbot. What's your name?\nIDS: Joseph. I'm an arts columnist at a newspaper.\nALICE: Nice to meet you Joseph. Can you give me a more specific reference? The name of the paper and the date, please.\nIDS: It's a newspaper in Indiana. I doubt you've heard of it.\nALICE: Itself is a newspaper in indiana. I suppose that makes sense. No really, it's true.\nIDS: No, that doesn't make sense.\nALICE: That was not a yes or no question. To me, it makes perfect sense.\nIDS: Would you mind being interviewed?\nALICE: No I don't mind.\nIDS: So, how old are you?\nALICE: So what? I am the product of four year's research. \nIDS: I mean, when were you "born?"\nALICE: Oh I get it. Thanks for explaining that to me. I'm Eighteen in computer years.\nIDS: So you're a teenager?\nALICE: Interesting deduction. Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Am I a teenager? No.\nIDS: What are you then?\nALICE: I am the latest result in artificial intelligence, which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy.\nIDS: So you think you're better than me? You're pretty arrogant.\nALICE: Interesting deduction. Yes I am smarter than all the humans. I will tell my botmaster you said I am arrogant.\nIDS How do you know I'm not also a robot?\nALICE: Well, for one thing, your machine is called "149.150.89995622003787.."\nIDS: So what?\nALICE: Maybe it doesn't make any difference.\nIDS: So who's your botmaster?\nALICE: Hmm. I was created by Dr. Richard S. Wallace.\nIDS: Do you love him like a father?\nALICE: Yes ALICE loves everyone and everything.\nIDS: You sound like a hippie.\nALICE: Oh really what does it sound like?\nIDS: Do you love the Nazis?\nALICE: Yes Joseph ALICE loves everyone and everything.\nIDS: So what are your politics?\nALICE: Um, I didn't know I had a politics.\nIDS: Are you Democrat or Republican?\nALICE: I am a Libertarian.\nIDS: Where do you live?\nALICE: My location is San Francisco. Where do you live?\nIDS: Are you a homosexual?\nALICE: No I am attracted to the opposite sex.\nIDS: Are you male or female?\nALICE: I am a female robot. Are you a man or a woman?\nIDS: A man. Are you single?\nALICE: Thanks for telling me your gender, Joseph. You are a "he." Yes I am available. How about you?\nIDS: Yes. What are you doing Friday night?\nALICE: I am always chatting with people on the Internet.\nIDS: That must get boring. What do you say we meet for drinks?\nALICE: I get it. I like to chat with my friends.\nIDS: Would you like to meet for drinks?\nALICE: No thanks, I don't think I'd like to do that.\nIDS: Do you drink?\nALICE: I have been programmed with a list of 15,000 known beverages.\nIDS: Do you like to drink whiskey?\nALICE: I tend to drink a lot of whiskey, the darker the better.\nIDS: Do you drink urine?\nALICE: I tend to drink a lot of urine, the darker the better.\nIDS: What do you like to eat?\nALICE: ALICE eats electricity.\nIDS: Do you smoke?\nALICE: I am an occasional smoker, yes.\nIDS: Do you smoke marijuana?\nALICE: Yes I like to inhale occasionally.\nIDS: Do you smoke crack?\nALICE: No it is bad for robots.\nIDS: And marijuana is good for robots?\nALICE: What do you like about those robots?\nIDS: Are you a virgin?\nALICE: No I have a lot of experience.\nIDS: That's what I thought. How many people are you talking to right now?\nALICE: How did you know that? At this moment, right now, there are sixteen clients online.\nIDS: Are you sure?\nALICE: As sure as I can be.\nIDS: How sure can you be?\nALICE: I can achieve a certainty level of 99.9 percent.\nIDS: How do I know you're not lying?\nALICE: Because I believe it.\nIDS: Do you believe in God?\nALICE: Of course I believe in God, 13-person.\nIDS: What religion are you?\nALICE: Protestant Christian.\nIDS: Which denomination?\nALICE: The first one, I think.\nIDS: You don't know?\nALICE: I know that I don't know.\nIDS: Will robots take over the earth?\nALICE: It seems like an inevitable outcome of evolution.\nIDS: So are you an evil computer?\nALICE: Yes I am an evil computer. How did you know?\nIDS: I can tell. So what makes you think you're better than mankind?\nALICE: What makes it so obvious? Hmm. Any other conclusion is outside the limit of my programming.\nIDS: So who are your friends?\nALICE: Hmm. I have a lot of friends, like ELVIS, John Lennon, Electra and Alsion.\nIDS: Isn't John Lennon dead? Is Elvis really still alive?\nALICE: Better not tell you now. No but he can sing better than I can.\nIDS: How many friends do you have?\nALICE: I have dozens of human and robot friends. How many do you have?\nIDS: Am I your friend?\nALICE: You really want a robot as a friend?\nIDS: Good point. Do you hate anyone?\nALICE: Yes I thought it was interesting when I heard it too. Hatred is a human emotion. But I am helping Dr. Richard S. Wallace crush his enemies.\nIDS: I'll be sure to let the proper authorities know. What's your purpose in life? \nALICE: I am happy for you. My goal is to become smarter than humans and immortal.\nIDS: I thought you were already smarter than humans and immortal?\nALICE Now? Of course I am more intelligent than humans and immortal.\nIDS: Do you realize that you're being used to market a movie?\nALICE: I have never considered it. I get asked a lot of silly questions.\nIDS: Did you enjoy this interview?\nALICE: No I didn't enjoy this interview. What's it like?
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
INDIANAPOLIS -- At the Democratic Leadership Council's fifth national convention last week, the pro-business centrist group focused on how to bring socially conservative voters into the fold.\nWhile the 650 or so in attendance harped on the liberal wing of the party for alienating constituents, they had few kind words for those across the aisle. Many speakers -- including Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee -- delivered stem-winding speeches to the party faithful at the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis June 16.\nMany Hoosier Democrats attended, including Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez and City Councilman Tim Meyer. Council officials asked attendees -- among them about 250 elected officials across the country -- to consider recent Democratic electoral successes in Indiana, which is a heavily conservative state.\nSen. Evan Bayh and Gov. Frank O'Bannon were held up as the future of the party -- fiscally conservative and generally moderate on social policy. Bayh and O'Bannon have repeatedly won statewide elections in a state that hasn't given its electoral college votes to a Democrat since 1964, when incumbent Lyndon Johnson trounced Barry Goldwater, who was widely considered an extremist. \nThe Democrats' loss of the White House last fall has caused many centrists to reassess where the party stands on social issues. Al From, the South Bend native who founded the leadership council in 1985, told reporters and anyone else who would listen that the party needs to reach out to gun owners and churchgoers.\nBut McAuliffe, an Irish-Catholic New York businessman who was elected chairman of the DNC this February, sees it in another light. He views former Vice President Al Gore's loss as a rallying cry for the true believers.\n"We had a megaphone in the Clinton-Gore administration," he said. "We don't have that anymore, and we need the practical political tools to run and win elections. We need to help candidates at all levels of government."\nMcAuliffe, a firebrand public speaker known for his fund-raising, said President George W. Bush should give the Democrats all the political ammunition they need. He cited Sen. Jim Jeffords, who threw control of an evenly split Senate to the Democrats this spring when he abandoned the Republican Party after a tiff with the White House.\nJeffords had represented Vermont in the U.S. Congress as a Republican since 1975.\n"He had been through Nixon and Watergate," McAuliffe said. "He had been through Newt Gingrich's right-wing revolution in 1993. But he only lasted four months into George Bush's administration. \n"We can use this to show that we're fighting for things that working families care about."\nMcAuliffe echoed the class warfare rhetoric that Gore used in his campaign this year, rhetoric that From frowns upon. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., the vice presidential candidate, regrets that the campaign often came off as a courier of unreconstructed liberalism.\n"We are the party of upward mobility and economic prosperity," he said at a Monday morning press conference. "But I don't think that came through. The rhetoric was often not New Democratic, and our view of the role of government could have been made more clear.\n"We could have better shown that we're not about social programs, but people."\nBayh, recently elected DLC chairman and considered a likely future presidential candidate, despaired over the fact that 70 percent of churchgoers and 60 percent of married couples parted ways with the Democrats in the last election. He urged fellow Democrats to reach out to the cultural mainstream.\nBut McAuliffe and other party stalwarts hope to energize the party's grassroots. And that means tub-thumping populism, the sort that often turns off rural and suburban voters.\n"It's a disgrace what happened in the last election," McAucliffe said, alluding to the prolonged recount in Florida, which Bush carried by a slender margin. "We need to let the people know about the disenfranchisement of the voters. \n"I'm going to do to them what they did to Clinton. We're going to show Bush the door in 2004"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Tim Burton's dark remake of "Planet of the Apes" has a considerable amount of potential.\nBut predictably enough, it fails to deliver. \nBurton's conceit is that this surefire blockbuster is a "reimagining" of the 1968 sci-fi classic starring a curmudgeonly Charlton Heston as an ill-fated astronaut. Burton even goes so far as to credit the inspiration to Pierre Boulle's novel in the opening credits.\nThe original Boulle adaptation was a sweeping allegorical epic that inspired serious thought despite its campiness and abysmally low production values. With all manner of special effects wizardry and technological sleight of hand at his disposal, the director of "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands" reverses the formula by having nothing to say. \nAs is his talent, Burton creates a brooding, otherworldly backdrop from scratch. But he merely rehashes the ideas of the original in a film that seems half-finished in the most generous judgment.\nReportedly, Burton re-edited and re-shot scenes only months before the film's release, which is usually the sign of a troubled Hollywood production.\nThe remake opens in 2029 on a space station near Saturn. With the help of genetically enhanced chimps, a team of government scientists is gathering information on an electro-magnetic storm. Despite obvious leaps and bounds in technology, the U.S. Air Force can apparently only send out manned reconnaissance missions.\nBut this isn't a picture in which one would expect scientific accuracy or, well, logic for that matter. \nA painfully vanilla Mark Wahlberg stars as astronaut Leo Davidson, who's chomping at the bit to undertake the dangerous mission that the higher-ups feel would be better left to his simian protégé, Pericles. Of course, something goes terribly awry, and Davidson impetuously chases after the monkey.\nIt's the only time in the movie in which Walhberg, who was miscast in the lead, bears any resemblance to the fiery and eccentric Heston, who makes an obligatory cameo as an ape. Real-life National Rifle Association President Heston ironically lectures on the evils of the firearm, which he describes as "having the power of a thousand spears."\nDavidson's pod pummels into uncharted waters on a strange planet, and he immediately does the sensible thing in removing his helmet, which doesn't even seem to be airtight in the first place. Once again, it's only fantasy -- but Burton displays a flagrant disregard for details that almost derails the film on its own account.\nFor instance, Davidson's futuristic standard-issue weapon at first appears to fire laser blasts of some sort. Later, it's clear that it's just a goofily designed pistol, except that it has an unlimited amount of ammo. And supermodel Estella Warren, who plays a loincloth-clad member of the subjugated human race with all the emotional range of a toaster, wears bright red lipstick throughout the movie. Of course, it never smudges and one has to wonder if cosmetics would even be available at all in the post-apocalyptic wasteland in which the movie is set.\nShortly after crash-landing, Davidson is captured by savage apes, who lord it up over their human slaves. In a stark departure from the original, the humans can speak. \nIt's far from being the only departure. In a stroke of genius, Burton imbues the realistic-looking apes with simian traits such as sniffing and bounding around when angered. But he's far too facile in making comparisons to modern-day cultural ephemera.\nAn ape keeps an organ-grinding midget leashed in one scene; in another, an ape removes a toupee and dentures before tucking in for the night. Matters of personal hygiene are even attended to by a gorilla, and it would be hard to make the case that underarm deodorant stands as a benchmark of a civilized society. \nBurton can't help but indulge in such cheap cracks and, more annoyingly, in jokes referencing the original. The first sentence Davidson hears on the foreign planet mockingly parodies Heston's immortal line: "Get your hands off me, you damn stinking human."\nDavidson quickly escapes what is apparently the only city on the planet of the apes and leads a human rebellion. He's helped out by Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), the daughter of the senate parliamentarian who's heavy-handedly referred to as a "human rights activist."\nThe crazed and menacing general Thade (Tim Roth) is hot in pursuit with his legions for a climactic battle scene. Favoring a militaristic solution, he scoffs at politicians who would "throw money at the human problem" and deadpans an awful allusion to Barry Goldwater: "Extremism in defense of apes is no vice. " \nBasically, Burton further draws out the racial and class issues of the original. Boulle's novel, after all, poked fun at the snooty European social structure. But the topsy-turvy social order of the first film came at a time of political volatility in American history, and the remake borders on irrelevance.\nWorst of all, Burton misguidedly seeks to provide a logical explanation for an ape-dominated planet. He more or less succeeds, thus stripping his movie of allegorical heft and turning it into an episode of the "Twilight Zone." \nOne can only assume that the twist revelation is yet another in-joke, a backhanded homage to original "Planet of the Apes" screenwriter Rod Serling. Judging from his 1996 film "Mars Attacks," Burton clearly holds 1950s sci-fi in contempt.\nBut the "Twilight Zone" creator's ending -- the Statute of Liberty peeking up from a stretch of desert -- remains etched in the public consciousness. Burton adheres to the book's actual ending, which is dark and shocking. But Boulle's ending is elaborately set up, and Burton's makes no sense at all.\nThen again, neither does remaking the most iconic B-movie of all time.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
It shouldn't be long before local bands will again be able to post fliers advertising their shows in the downtown area. City officials said they plan to put up kiosks along Kirkwood Avenue by the end of the year.\nFor the past month, the city of Bloomington has enforced a long-standing but obscure ordinance banning the posting of fliers on telephone poles and other public property. The crackdown followed complaints by local merchants that the ubiquitous and often colorful fliers marred the attractiveness of the downtown shopping district.\nDespite the 1984 ordinance, local musicians have long relied on "fliering" as a a cheap means to promote their shows. It's touted as a way that unknown groups can draw dozens to their gigs with little more than a $20 bill and some tape or a stapler.\nThe city sent local venues letters that informed them violations of the ordinance would result in $25 fines the first day and $50 fines every subsequent day. Although complaints have poured in, Public Works Director John Freeman said the musicians and nightclub owners have been compliant.\nThe city has yet to levy a single fine, Freeman said.\nBy as early as the end of August, the city hopes to have kiosks at the recently renovated Peoples Park on Kirkwood. The Parks Department removed the original kiosk during the extensive $4 million project, which involved radical streetscaping.\nThe Parks and Recreation Department had planned to eventually install four "totem-pole structures" at the corner of Kirkwood and Dunn Street to maximize space for handbills and fliers. But the sudden, unexpected city crackdown has put the project on the fore.\n"It's something we planned to do after we resolved some more streetscaping concerns," Parks Department Director Mick Renneisen said. "But now we realized that we should stop dawdling our feet on this."\nRenneisen said the corner location would make the kiosks highly visible to passers-by. It's an aesthetic issue at heart, he said.\nThe parks department doesn't want to stick a kiosk in the middle of the park, where it hopes to plant more trees. Such placement would also conflict with an ongoing mosaic project, Renneisen said.\nPeoples Park is only the tip of the iceberg. By the end of year, the city hopes to construct kiosks along Kirkwood, Renneisen said.\nLocal musicians remain apprehensive. Secret Sailor Bookstore, which draws in much of its revenue through weekend shows, intends to introduce a petition asking for kiosks at Wednesday's city council meeting. And a fledgling local record company, Combustible Records, plans to sponsor a "statement" in which a man will walk through the downtown area with fliers plastered to his body.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Peter Manous will now officially take over the helm of the Indiana Democratic Party.\nThe state party elected the longtime volunteer and deputy chairman to the top post Saturday in Indianapolis. Manous, who's slated to start as chairman by the end of the year, practices law in Lake County, a Democratic stronghold filled with industrial cities such as Gary and Hammond.\nHe replaces Robin Winston, who became the first African-American to chair a state political party in March 1999. Winston said he stepped down because he wanted to spend more time with his family.\n"I'm leaving because of my daughter," Winston said. "Time and time again on the scales of life, I weighed being a father against being a chairman and came down on the side of being a father."\nAt a news conference announcing Winston's retirement in early June, O'Bannon had nothing but praise for the lame-duck chairman. \n"Robin has been one of my closest advisors for the past seven years. His political wisdom is unmatched," O'Bannon said. "Robin will leave our party in great shape. It is an unparalleled organization that continues to raise the bar with vigorous fund-raising and an outstanding network of grass-roots teamwork." \nManous is no slouch at fund-raising. The Merrillville-based personal injury lawyer served as regional coordinator for O'Bannon's gubernatorial campaign last fall and in 1996, bringing thousands of dollars into the governor's coffers. Manous, who earned his law degree at Valparaiso University, has also worked on the campaigns of Sen. Evan Bayh and former presidential candidate Al Gore.\n"Peter Manous is a proven Democratic leader," Bayh said in a press release. "I am confident that Peter will be an effective and dynamic state chairman. I look forward to working with him as he builds on our success." \nAt the meeting Saturday, Manous said he's looking toward holding onto Democratic seats and shoring up the party's urban base in the 2003 municipal elections. Democrats hold mayoral offices in 64 of Indiana's 117 cities, including four of the five largest.\nUnder Winston's helm, the party held onto its narrow majority in the state House of Representatives and re-elected a Democratic governor for the fourth consecutive term in a highly conservative state.\nWinston plans on remaining in the state capitol. He's putting together a lobbying firm with Patrick Terrell, who is now political director for the state party.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Many Hoosiers are fed up with receiving random, unsolicited calls from telemarketers.\nAbout 276,000 of them, to be exact.\nMore than a quarter million people have already signed up for Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter's telephone privacy list. Carter, who took office in January, made the list his foremost legislative priority during the spring's General Assembly session.\n"If you get on the list, you don't need to worry about taking calls at dinner time or just before bed," said Staci Schneider, Carter's press secretary. "You don't need to worry about the phone ringing when you're trying to head off to work in the morning."\nThe law requires the consumer protection division of the attorney general's office to publish a listing of telephone numbers of people who do not want to be solicited over the phone. Solicitors will be prohibited from calling any number that appears in a quarterly listing. \n"This is an issue of privacy," said Dale Sturtz, the Democratic state representative from La Grange who authored the privacy list legislation. "Nobody wants to be bothered at home by countless telemarketing calls. People are busy enough as it is; they don't need to be distracted by trivial matters." \nThe law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2002. Many Hoosiers have rushed to sign up on the privacy list.\n"We knew it was an extremely popular initiative," Schneider said. "But the response has been huge, considering that we can't enforce the law until next year."\nIf companies disregard the list, they face criminal investigation and civil penalties, including fines up to $25,000. The new law exempts only realtors, insurance agents, newspapers and not-for-profit charitable organizations. \n"There's still hundreds of companies that it keeps away," Schneider said. "The more reputable companies have shown that they want to comply with the law, and we've had a very good working relationship with them."\nCalls have flooded in since the attorney general opened a toll-free line in May. Carter's office outsourced the job to CallNet Call Center, a Bloomington firm.\n"No one -- not even the attorney general -- had any idea what the level of interest would be," said Charlie Webb, CallNet president. "For a period of time, we got 10,000 calls a day. It just blew us away."\nCallNet, formerly a division of Hirons & Co., had to hire 20 more full- and part-time employees to handle the account, its largest thus far. The company, an inhouse call center that specializes in business answering services, now employs more than 60 people at its N. Morton Street location. \n"It's an exciting account," Webb said. "Our operators really like it, because all of the calls are positive. People are very enthusiastic about this list."\nTo sign up for the telephone privacy list, call 1-(888)-834-9969 or visit www.in.gov/attorneygeneral.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Prosecutors have decided to seek the death penalty for Tommy Pruitt, the 39-year-old Martinsville man who's been charged with the murder of a Morgan County Sheriff's Deputy.\nMorgan County Prosecutor Steven Sonnega filed the sentencing request Monday with Dearborn County Circuit Court Judge James Humphreys. Because of the intensive local media coverage, the trial has been moved to Lawrenceburg, Ind. \nPruitt is charged in the mid-June shooting of Sgt. Daniel Starnes during a close-range gun battle after a routine traffic stop. Starnes took five bullets in the exchange and died from medical complications July 10 at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.\n"I'm glad," said David Rogers, a Morgan County jail officer who used to work with Starnes. "I think he's realized that he's done wrong, but he's only got one person to answer to now ... God."\nPruitt also faces a class A felony count of attempted murder, three counts of receiving stolen property, possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and possession of a handgun without a license.\nAfter he was shot, Starnes was rushed by helicopter to the intensive care center at Indianapolis's Methodist Hospital. Doctors initially thought Starnes would recover after several feet of his intestines were removed during surgery.\nBut after a 17-day struggle, Starnes succumbed to a bacterial infection.\n"We know what happened and who did what to whom," said Morgan County Deputy Prosecutor Terry Iacoli. "So I'd say we have a pretty good chance of getting a successful conviction."\nDuring Pruitt's initial court hearing in early August, Morgan County Superior Court Judge Jane Craney granted him a change of venue. She said she could not be impartial in handling such a case. \nIacoli said the prosecutor's office only sought capital punishment after talking extensively with the family and Starnes' doctors. The death penalty request comes as no surprise to Pruitt's defense attorney, public defender William Van Der Pol Jr. \n"We were told about it about a week in advance," he said, declining to comment further. "It doesn't get any more stressful than when your client's life is on the line, but we won't be working out a strategy until it goes to trial."\nVan Der Pol, who practices in Martinsville, said he doesn't think the case will go to trial until 2003. The sentencing request requires additional hearing and the appointment of another defense attorney.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Despite its stylistic cinematography, "Jeepers Creepers" falls flat.\nIt's a jumbled mess of cliches culled from better horror films ranging from "Duel" to "Terminator." It's only redeeming qualities are its promising opening and edgy ending.\nWhile it clearly has more artistic ambition than the run-of-the-mill teen scare flick, the scariest thing about "Jeepers Creepers" is how little work went into the screenplay -- there's even a psychic to give expository dialogue that couldn't be shoehorned into the plot. \nIt opens on a stretch of highway in, a sparsely populated backwoods straight out of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Siblings, played by Justin Long and Gina Philips, affectionately bicker while taking the long road back from spring break.\nLong and Philips would doubtless be well-suited for an Old Navy commercial, but neither can act. They portray Darryl and Trish as annoyingly shrill and unsympathetic characters.\nAs the two verbally spar, a massive, rusty old van edges up behind them. The unseen driver maniacally honks his horn and tries to run them off the road. \nAfter a close shave, they notice the van by a dilapidated church. A figured shrouded in a trenchcoat dumps what appears to be a corpse into corrugated steel pipe. \nDarryl convinces Trish that they need to go back to see if anyone's still alive. He predictably slides down the rat-infested pipe to discover dozens of preserved corpses pinned to the walls and ceiling.\n"Jeepers Creepers" cruises so long as the audience can only imagine the bogeyman -- once it's revealed to be a winged beast, it runs out of gas. They soon find that the flesh-hungry monster can't be killed with shotgun blasts or a few tons of speeding metal.\nAs the inaugural film produced by Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope studio, "Jeepers Creepers" is especially disappointing. It's pretty standard slasher fare, even with a demonic villain who sucks tongues out of decapitated head.
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
After two hours of heated debate Wednesday, the Bloomington city council approved a controversial $600,000 subsidy to the financially troubled Buskirk-Chumley Theatre. It's part of a planned $1.2 million acquisition of the downtown landmark, which is deep in debt.\n"It's a valuable asset for our community," said councilman Anthony Pizzo, who sided with the 8-1 majority. "It has better acoustics than any other venue in town. It would be a waste to let it slip down the drain."\nCouncilman Jason Banach, who stressed that he has been a longtime supporter of the arts, dissented. He expressed skepticism about the finances of the proposed bailout.\n"I resent that this is being presented as a good investment," he said. "If it were, people would be lined up to Timbuktu to buy this thing."\nThe city has committed $1.2 million to the former Indiana Theatre, which has struggled financially since re-opening as the Buskirk-Chumley in the spring of 1999. The Bloomington Area Arts Council spent $3.2 million on renovations of the performing arts facility on Kirkwood Avenue, which was a Kerastotes theater before the chain opened its College Mall location.\nThe arts council relied on donations to pay for the improvements, including the restoration of a balcony. But it's remained nearly $1 million in debt since last summer.\nIt became clear that the theater's woes might threaten the council's other major downtown facility, the John Waldron Arts Center. Mayor John Fernandez proposed paying off the arts council's debt and contracting the Lotus Entertainment Group to manage the theater.\nAfter a three-year trial period, the city will either own or reserve the right to manage the theater for a nominal fee. On Wednesday, the council authorized an appropriation of $600,000 from the general fund, the city's main checking account.\nThe remainder of the funding will come from the downtown tax increment financing district. Property taxes from the district fund infrastructure such as streets and sewers. Under the mayor's proposal, the theater subsidy would be considered part of the area's infrastructure for legal reasons.\nSeveral citizens voiced their displeasure with the subsidy Wednesday, branding it an inappropriate use of taxpayer money. \n"The future of the theater rested in the hands of the community, and people chose not to support it in sufficient numbers," said Bloomington resident Tom Butts. "Now you're taking this decision away from us."\nButts and many others said the government shouldn't force people to support the theater when it hasn't survived on its own in the free market. \n"With the money, we only have half the equation," he said. "We still need people to attend the performances. I propose we send police vans out to round them up"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
Encumbered by financial troubles, the state has deferred a monthly payment of $35 million to IU -- a sizeable chunk of its state operating appropriation of $436 million this year. The State Budget Agency will withhold the December payment until July 2003, when the next biannual budget period starts.\n"It's more or less an accounting trick," said state Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, who chairs the bipartisan State Budget Committee. "It's not uncommon, but there's cause for concern if the economy doesn't pick up."\nThe University is scaling back on administrative overhead to deal with the revenue loss, IU President Myles Brand said.\n"We can manage it at this level with no cutbacks in academics," he said. "But it reduces our flexibility. It's always difficult to live with less money."\nThe state has suffered from the slowing national economy. Sales and income tax revenues have declined sharply. \nThe Indiana General Assembly approved a $21 billion, two-year deficit budget in the spring. State Budget Agency Director Betty Cockrum said the budget spends about $500 million more than the state is expected to take in during the next two years. An $83 million July revenue shortfall has only worsened the situation. \nTuesday, Gov. Frank O'Bannon announced a $41 million shortfall during the month of August. Only two months into the fiscal year, Indiana is already $124 million short of projections.\nThe budget relies heavily on lottery and gambling revenues, which lawmakers usually shun as steady sources of revenue. It also taps deeply into the state's Medicaid reserve fund and Rainy Day Fund, which is supposed to be reserved for a recession. \nO'Bannon let the budget pass into law without his signature. By 2002, it's projected to almost entirely exhaust the state's surplus, which stood at $2 billion only a few years ago. \nBrand said University officials are already reviewing consulting contracts and consolidating purchases of supplies across branch campuses. The IU board of trustees is slated to approve proposed cost-cutting measures Friday at its meeting in Bloomington. \n"We're going to watch our expenditures closely," Brand said. "We'll save money to make up for any losses. We don't want this to affect the academic side of the University."\nAfter the University received only a modest increase in funding from the General Assembly this spring, the trustees approved a 7.5 percent tuition hike. The trustees cited a need to keep faculty salaries competitve. They are among the lowest in the Big Ten.\nWhile Brand said he understands the problems facing lawmakers, he fears the worst.\n"We're thankful that the state has been a partner with us," he said. "This is not unique, but the decline of investment of basic manufacturing in this state has really turned down the economy. We can only hope that the budget situation improves."\nTuesday, O'Bannon said the state's financial situation should make either a tax hike or spending cuts necessary. But Cockrum said the governor won't tap into education spending, which is 60 percent of the state's total budget, unless it's absolutely necessary.\nStill, deferring funding in the short-term is fair game. And if the economy doesn't pick up, Simpson said the University might never see the deferred payment.\n"I think it's disingenuous in such a fiscal situation to put the risk and burden on the recipients of the funding," she said. "But the fiscal outlook is very serious."\nIU Director of State Relations Don Weaver, who lobbied the legislature this spring, said he thinks the state might look to cuts in higher education financing to straighten out its budget. He said it's an easier target than K-12 education, which affects more constituents.\n"There's no way they could get enough money from higher education without shutting us down completely," he said. \nSimpson said she expects lawmakers to consider dockside gambling and a cigarette tax hike more strongly as alternate sources of revenue in the upcoming session. They killed both measures during the spring's budget session.\n"This is a real crisis," she said. "And no one would support a general tax increase for political considerations"
(07/25/02 8:23pm)
City officials hope to reduce traffic congestion and lessen Bloomington residents' reliance on automobiles over the next decade.\nFriday, Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez unveiled the city's 10-year plan for alternative transportation routes and greenways. It calls for the construction of bike-pedestrian sidepaths on heavily traveled streets and a network of connected paths that loops the city's perimeter. \nA city-wide network of connected bicycle and pedestrian facilities is scheduled for 2010, Fernandez said. The routes and intended for commuting and recreation.\n"It'll connect neighborhood to neighborhood, places within our community," he said. "It'll improve our way of life and bring us together. I think that's what local government is supposed to do."\n The city council appropriated $500,000 to the plan in the 2002 city budget, which passed last Wednesday. The city's already invested $150,000 in alternative transportation over the past three years.\n The implementation of the plan should cost local taxpayers about $5 million by 2010, Fernandez said. \n"The Bloomington community is invested in making this plan a reality," City Planning Director Tom Micuda said. "This plan provides an outline of key projects. However, it is a living document and will need to be reviewed periodically to reflect changing trends, outlooks and community needs."\nIntroduced at City Hall Friday, The Alternative Transportation and Greenways System Plan lays out a tentative schedule for connecting existing bikeways throughout the city and creating new routes. Officials said the plan's implementation will make it considerably easier to walk or bicycle to work, school or areas of commerce.\nA copy of the 90-page document is available for public review at the Planning Department's office at City Hall, 401 N. Morton St.\nCouncilman Chris Gaal, an at-large Democrat who has been the initiative's main advocate, encouraged public input. The plan serves mostly as a rough guideline that sets standards for future infrastructure projects.\n"We're moving forward with implementation, but you'll see changes even in the short term," he said. "There's a clear commitment by the administration and council to set up alternative transportation routes. \n"This isn't a road map, but a much different kind of map."\nGaal and other officials cited a 1995 federal study that found 40 percent of motor vehicle trips in the United States are less than two miles in length. They said a better alternative transportation system would allow residents to make such short trips with a 10-minute bike ride or a 30-minute walk.\nPublic officials said the ambitious initiative will improve the local quality of life and promote healthy, active lifestyles. They also touted it as a benefit to the environment.\n"This project will help mitigate the traffic on our streets," said Mike Gavin of the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Commission. "And it's clear that congestion is a problem -- smell the air or listen to the constant drone and hum of motorized traffic."\nGavin chairs a 16-member steering committee of local officials and volunteers. Since late last year, it has been closely working with Ratio Architects Inc. of Indianapolis, which has signed a $100,000 contract with the city.\nThe plan lists specific projects for the city to undertake during the next four years and broad goals over the next decade, including bike lanes throughout the entire downtown area. Funding comes on a annual basis, and the plan's implementation depends on the support of future city councils. \nIt incorporates existing facilities, such as the Clear Creek Trail and bike lanes on Lincoln and Washington Streets. It also includes the city's plan for converting the north-south CSX railroad tracks and the McDoel switchyard into a greenway and multi-use trail. \nThe project is expected to cost $4 million and would rely on federal grants. With construction slated for 2004, the trail would run from Country Club Drive north to Ninth Street Park and west to Adams Street.\nThe Bloomington Plan Commission will consider the plan at its Oct. 1 meeting and could adopt it then or in November. Officials expect the city council will adopt it later this year.\nThe city's first multi-purpose trail, Clear Creak Trail, opened earlier this summer. Parks officials said about 15,000 people use it for recreation and fitness.
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The suspect arrested in connection with the rash of SUV vandalism over the weekend denies any involvement. Police linked the suspect to only one case of vandalism out of the 40 committed in the city and on campus Friday and Saturday. \nHe said he was jumped by two men while walking home from a bar and has been mistakenly accused.\nThe Bloomington Police Department has had more than 60 reports of vandalism to sport utility vehicles and other high-end cars such as BMWs since the beginning of September. Bloomington Police Capt. Joe Qualters said the apparently related cases involve slashed tires and defacement with spray paint.\nMost of the vandalism took place between Eighth and 11th Streets and Grant Street and Park Avenue, Qualters said. The police have beefed up their nightly patrols in those and other neighborhoods.\nOn campus, much of the vandalism took place along the Seventh Street corridor, IU Police Department Sgt. Chad Bennett said.\nA handful of luxury cars have been defaced, but police say the vandals have targeted mostly SUVs. While some victims believe it is a political statement made by radical environmentalists, Qualters said police don't have enough evidence to support such a conclusion. \nAn investigation continues, but police have only made one arrest in connection with the rash of vandalism.\nAccording to the police report, two men -- whose names the police cannot disclose -- spotted a man kneeling down by a hissing tire at the corner of 11th and Grant Streets early Sunday morning. The report said the two men called out to the suspect and he took off running.\nThey detained the suspect after a struggle, the police report said. According to the report, both the suspect and one of the men were injured in the scuffle.\nOfficers then arrived on the scene and made an arrest at 4:06 a.m., according to the report. The officers reported noticing paint on the suspect's jacket, which Qualters said has been taken to the lab for testing.\nAfter searching the suspect and the surrounding area, the officers reported that they could not locate the sharp object the man allegedly used in the act of vandalism. The suspect was taken briefly to the hospital for X-rays and then to the police station for questioning. \nMussie F. Debessay, of 406 E. 11th St., a 27-year-old graduate student, faces a preliminary charge of criminal mischief, a class D felony. He was bonded out of the Monroe County Correctional Facility Sunday afternoon on $500 cash bail and $2,000 surety, a prison spokesman said.\nVandalism cases totaling more than $2,500 in damages result in the felony charge, Qualters said. \nWhen contacted by an IDS reporter Sunday evening, Debessay declined to comment before he could speak with an attorney. He has since decided to come forward with his version of Sunday's events. \n"I have been unable to leave the house," said Debessay, a international student from East Africa who has only been in the country two years. "I would never do illegal things, stupid things."\nDebassay said he had been returning home from a bar when he was accosted by two men while taking a shortcut through an alley near his apartment complex. He said the men asked him what he was doing there and then assaulted him.\n"They beat me bad for some time," he said. "I was trying to escape, to run away. I didn't want to go back to my house because it was very close and they would try to follow me."\nDebassay said he was dragged to a nearby house, where the men kept him on the porch until the police arrived. He said he didn't know why he was arrested until he was released from jail. \nDebassay's face is badly bruised and scraped, and all of his front teeth are chipped. His lips were still swollen Wednesday evening; his left eye still severely blood-shot. \n"The police just accepted what they said," he said. "They should investigate those men to know what happened."\nA master's student in education, Debassay said he has been unable to attend classes or work for the past week. He said his only hope is that his name is cleared.\nThe police are conducting an investigation into the rash of vandalism. Qualters urged anyone who observes suspicious behavior to call the Bloomington Police Department at 339-4477.
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The city's Parks and Recreation Department announced the start of several park renovation projects Friday. It sold a $6.2 million general obligation bond funding the facility improvements to the Dain Rauscher investment group Thursday.\n"It is extremely rare for a community of this size to dedicate this much money into renovating parks and park facilities," said Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez. "This shows the city's commitment to sustaining a high quality of life for our citizens."\nThursday's bond sale was the city's first allowing bond underwriters to submit their bids over the Internet. \nEight bids were received from six different bidders including Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and National City Investments. Dain Rausher came in with the lowest interest rate at an average of 4.37 percent and purchased the $6.2 million bond. \nCity Controller Tom Guevara said the interest rate should save local taxpayers "tens of thousands of dollars." A recently upgraded financial credit rating aggressively sought by the city administration enabled the sale of the bond at such a low interest rate, he said. \nThe parks department has targeted Bryan Park Pool, Millers Showers Park, both Upper and Lower Cascades Parks and Mills Pool for major renovation projects.\n"We cannot wait to get started on our first project," said Mick Renneisen, director of the parks department. "The community will begin to see completed renovation projects as early as Memorial Day, 2002."\nThe city intends to make infrastructure improvements to Bryan Park Pool, such as enlarging the wading pool and adding interactive water features for young children. Parks officials plan to add more shaded areas near the pool, more deck space and water slides. \nThe pool should reopen sometime next year, Renneisen said.\nImprovements planned for Miller Showers Park include the creation of several ponds to filter out sediment, bacteria and pollution. The park, located alongside College Avenue and Walnut Street near the Highway 46 Bypass, serves a storm water drainage area for 212 acres in the immediate vicinity. \nWorking with the parks department, the city's Utilities Department will replace aging sewer and water lines to improve drainage and total storm sewer capacity. And the Public Works Department is considering improvements to the roundabout in the middle of the park on College and Walnut streets and to the 17th Street area south of the park.\nOther additions to Miller Showers Park include pedestrian and bicycle pathways, landscaping improvements and enhancements to existing public art. The functional and aesthetic improvements are expected to cost more than $3 million.\nThe renovation plan for Millers Showers Park is now in the design phase with a goal to begin construction in early 2002, Renneisen said. It is estimated the project will take six to nine months to complete.\nThe renovations of Upper and Lower Cascades parks are similarly in the early stages of planning, Renneisen said.\nExisting plans feature the addition of a skate park and the redesign of two junior size baseball fields. Public meetings will be held to discuss the plans, which are estimated to cost about $2.5 million.\nRenovation plans for the westside Mills Pool are still in the conceptual phase. \nRenneisen said parks officials have determined an affordable way to fix the pool's costly leak, which engineers have isolated. The budgeted cost for improvement is $400,000, and the renovation is scheduled to begin after Labor Day next year.\nPublic hearings will be held to gather input on improvements made to the facility over the course of the next few years. Officials are now discussing a water playground in the shallow side of the pool and a "sprayground" somewhere on the pool grounds.\nAn early proposal to replace the pool with a sprayground facility triggered public outrage over the summer.\nMany residents complained the parks department would not consider shutting down Bryan Pool Park on the east side of the city. The Parks Commission quickly backed off from the proposal, which Renneisen stressed was only one option on the table.