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(02/05/10 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU received $247.6 million in support from the private sector in the 2009 fiscal year, ranking 21st in the nation for Total Voluntary Support. The money benefited all IU campuses with non-governmental research grant funds.IU’s ranking dropped from past years because of the normal ups and downs of fundraising as well as the economy’s effect on 2009 giving, said Gene Tempel, president of the IU Foundation.“We know from research at the IU Center on Philanthropy,” Tempel said in a press release, “that there is a correlation between the stock market and giving and between personal income and giving. Both of those indicators declined in 2008 and 2009.”IU President Michael McRobbie added that the amount awarded as grants to faculty researches is the second highest in the University’s history.
(02/04/10 12:47am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>When junior Cat Mitchell returned to her Campus Walk apartment after winter break, she didn’t expect to find her TV, DVD player, DVDs and her roommate's desktop computer, monitor, printer and speakers missing.Since the break-in, the only thing that has been replaced is her roommate’s computer, which her parents’ insurance covered.“If you don’t have renter’s insurance with Campus Walk, there’s not much you can do,” said senior Caroline Mathis, Mitchell’s roommate. “I had renter’s insurance last year, but I didn’t get robbed so I didn’t renew it.”When a landlord rents to students, he has homeowner’s insurance, but in almost all jurisdictions it won’t cover the tenants, said Randall Frykberg, director of IU Student Legal Services. So if a house burns down or floods, the house is covered, but the renter’s personal belongings are not.Students can often register for renter's insurance through their car insurance company or their parents’ insurance, Frykberg said.Hoosier Court apartments requires their tenants to purchase renter’s insurance.“It’s mainly to cover them and to cover us,” said Beverly Rahe, property manager for Hoosier Court. “Last year we had a group turn off their heat and it ended up freezing pipes and flooding four apartments.”Renter’s insurance can often be as cheap as $10 a month, Frykberg said.“The reason renter’s insurance is cheap is because it’s not very often that people get broken into or their house burns down,” he said.Students also need to be aware of what their insurance covers, Frykberg said. For instance, replacement coverage will buy someone a new piece of property, but otherwise tenants will only be reimbursed for what the item is worth, and the property often isn’t worth as much two years down the road.Students should also take down serial numbers of all their electronics so police have proof of purchase and a starting point when investigating the missing items, Frykberg said. IU Student Legal Services can look over students’ insurance policies for no charge if they aren’t sure what it covers.“One of the reasons we exist is because insurance policies are not easy to read,” Frykberg said. “Insurance companies make money by not covering things. Sometimes there will be exclusions for things. The best advice is to read your policy.”Although Mitchell and Mathis didn’t have renter’s insurance, they did have the serial numbers to some property they reported to the police. But they don’t expect to get it back. They said their best bet might be to search pawnshops in neighboring counties.“Some burglars are really stupid,” Frykberg said. “If you put a really vivid description on Craigslist, people can call the police.”What to know before rentingLEASE LENGTHSMost Bloomington leases are signed for one year, but some are open-ended, meaning both the tenant and the landlord reserve the right to terminate the lease at any time.Some leases include an automatic renewal clause, in which the lease is automatically renewed unless tenants give written notice 30 to 60 days in advance of the end of the lease.LEASE CLAUSES TO LOOK FORJoint and several liability clause Under most leases, roommates are “jointly and severally liable,” which means that if one roommate doesn’t pay his or her share of the rent, the other(s) will have to pay it or be evicted.If your lease doesn’t have a jointly liable clause, it generally means that landlords rent individual rooms and will often have the right to replace any person who has been evicted with a roommate of their choosing.Savings clauseSome leases will have a savings clause making you liable for rent after you’ve been evicted, meaning you will have to pay your monthly rent until the lease ends even though you can’t live in the house or apartment.Acceleration clauseThis clause says that once a tenant breaches the lease terms, he or she owes the rent for remainder of the lease term immediately. However, when a tenant breaches a lease, the landlord legally must re-rent the property as soon as possible in order to minimize the amount of money they will lose.Attorney’s fees clauseThis is written into most leases and means that if a landlord hires a lawyer for any reason, brings suit against the tenant and wins, then the tenant will be responsible for all of the landlord’s attorney’s fees.“Lock-out” clauseAllows a landlord to gain possession of a home without an eviction order. These clauses are rare, especially since lock-outs are illegal under Indiana law.Co-signer clausesThese require a co-signer, typically a student’s parent. Some landlords require a co-signer for international students. However, this clause may violate Indiana law.
(01/22/10 5:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>There were 11 boxes of donated food and medical supplies sitting in the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Thursday morning that director Bradley Levinson didn’t know what to do with.But now a 20-foot cargo ship that the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation uses will be donated to transport the supplies to Haiti, Patrick O’Meara, IU vice president for international affairs, announced at Thursday’s Haiti forum.Levinson had sent an e-mail the day after the earthquake stating that CLACS would be a donation site for Haiti relief items, but by the next day it became clear that the infrastructure was so damaged that it would be impossible to send food to Haiti, at least for a while.“We knew that eventually we’d find a way, but now we know we can do it sooner and on a bigger scale,” Levinson said.However, Beth Gazley, assistant professor of public and environmental affairs, warned that it’s possible to give gifts with negative effects, including drugs past their expiration date, used eye glasses, baby formula and used coats.“Medicine and food are needed, but it’s better to allow agencies themselves to purchase the supplies,” Gazley said. “If you’re going to provide support through the container that will be sent, make it count. The best gift is a cash gift.”Before the forum began, students passed out blue ribbons to show support for the country, an idea that was only being discussed Thursday over coffee as the brains behind the event sat in CLACS putting together the final details for the forum “Decoding Disaster: Understanding the Haiti Earthquake of 2010.”Less than a week earlier, the same group of people first met to begin planning the forum and dividing into committees to plan other benefit events. Committees have emerged for benefit concerts and dinners, including a Caribbean benefit dinner on Feb. 17, Levinson said.During the forum, Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan stressed that the needs in Haiti will outrun news coverage by a long shot, and that we’ve already witnessed a global failure by not investing in Haitian technology and infrastructure.“Look at New Orleans: It’s still recovering, but we don’t hear about it except on the anniversary of the event,” Kruzan said. “The problem is ignorance. I’m relatively in contact with representatives at the federal level, and I’ve never thought to bring up issues in Haiti. Now I will.”David Tezil, a graduate student and Haitian Creole instructor, spoke of Haitian stories he has heard in the last week. One professor was found dead with a piece of chalk in his hand because he died while trying to teach college students.“Tonight I can see your support toward the Haitian community. We can dream again,” he said. “I’m so grateful to be the voice of the Haitian people. They can’t say thank you.”Both Tezil and graduate students Wideline Seraphin and Solfils Telfort spoke of the Haitians’ work ethic and how education is key to creating a better life for themselves. Seraphin said her mother, who was born in Haiti, never stopped working a day in her life, and her mother’s hopes are in her children’s futures.“Being Haitian is something I wear as a badge of honor,” she said, while choking back tears. “We are Haitian, we are proud and we will keep going.”
(01/21/10 4:59am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Ace Pawn Shop manager Chris Banol and TomCats Pawn Shop store clerk John Eller have seen their share of stolen items that turn up for sale. Although Eller said half of 1 percent of the items in his store are stolen, he still has to answer to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office regularly. Both shops, which are regulated by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions, are responsible for keeping items for 10-day periods before they can be sold to customers. “The first thing people do when they get something stolen is call a pawn shop,” Eller said. “We send in a list on CD-ROM to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office of everything we collect. Only Monroe County gets our records. Thieves aren’t the smartest people. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be stealing. But they know how to manipulate the system. They’ll go to the county over.”Banol said a lot of the stolen items that arrive at Ace Pawn Shop are taken from student housing while students are away for semester breaks. For instance, this past break, Banol said there was an upswing of these items, the most unusual ones being power tools. “A lot of people just take them from open construction sites,” he said. “It’s like a theft of opportunity.” Items are tracked by a case number and a form with the owner’s personal information, but the process of getting them returned to their original owner is futile if they don’t take the time to record the serial and model numbers of all valuables and keep them in a safe place, Banol said. “Always copy down a serial number when you buy something,” Eller said. “There’s not enough of that. There’s not much we can do if somebody says we’re missing a black laptop.”Banol expressed a similar sentiment. “People can’t just come in saying they’re missing a PlayStation 2, because there are 10 billion of those. So claims require a current ID and a thumbprint,” he said.
(01/19/10 2:43am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Even after a Beatles Tribute Band performance, Bloomington music fans still want more.The Funky Monks performed their 14th Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute show Saturday night at the Bluebird.“We’ve got a supportive crew here that makes it to most of the shows,” bass player Jeff Genualdi said. “We know if it’s a slow night we can rely on them to be here.”Genualdi started the band six years ago because he was a big fan of Flea, the Chili Peppers’ bassist, and recognized that there are a lot of tribute bands but there aren’t a lot of Chili Peppers tribute bands in the Midwest. Since then, the band has made about 20 stops in Bloomington including the Bluebird and IU Dance Marathon.“We’ve found that college towns are the niche for this band,” said Genualdi, who was dressed head to toe in Lakers gear. “When we play at a college town or fraternity event, we always get an enthusiastic response. We always do well here at IU. When we’re here we want to give it our all.”IU alumna Beth Brown celebrated her 24th birthday at the Bluebird. Besides being an enthusiastic Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, she’s also been attending the Funky Monks shows since she turned 21. Beth Brown and her friend Sara Brown, an IU graduate student, stayed after the concert to talk with the band members, who she considers to be her friends. The girls pride themselves on coming to every show and standing in the same spot.“They interact with the crowd a lot,” Brown said. “They keep up with the songs and they cover them very well. They have a lot of energy, and they’re a lot of fun.”During the Funky Monks two-and-a-half hour set, their performance included covers of the songs “Californication,” “Tell Me Baby,” “Road Trippin,”“Snow,” “Dani California” and more.“If you can get a good cover of them, then that’s great,” said senior Nicky Wharton, who has seen the Funky Monks perform before. “I come to the Bluebird a lot. The crowd is pretty chill. They are always really into the band.”As the band ended their performance and offered to have drinks with anyone who was willing to stay after, the audience began chanting, “One more song!” The Funky Monks came back out to perform “Wonder Wall” by Oasis, but the drummer took over the microphone instead, throwing his drumsticks to the audience.The band also played songs by artists that influenced the Chili Peppers, including “Hey Ho, Let’s Go” by the Ramones.“Since the Red Hot Chili Peppers never really tour, it’s really cheap and pretty awesome,” said IU senior Danie Leatherman. After the show, band members talked like old friends to the fans who stayed after, Miller Lites in their hands.The members talked about the Colts win and Indianapolis’ lack of big name hockey and baseball teams. Singer Ryan Machnica also did his impression of Arnold Schwarzenegger doing Eminem.“They’re very fun and personable,” Sara Brown said. “They will stay and talk as long as they can until they get kicked out.”
(01/14/10 4:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Newly bonded sorority pledges walked in from the cold and enthusiastically embraced friends they had recently met before participating in the first annual Inspiration Rally.Women trickled into the Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall entrance in packs of matching sweatshirts while others scrambled to find a seat after purchasing a last-minute Starbucks coffee.“We wanted to make it more of a pep rally and get everyone excited instead of just having someone talking at them,” said Annie Raeder, outgoing president of IU Panhellenic Association. “We also wanted it to be student run so other organizations could get involved.”Greeks Go Green, an organization that has at least one member from each greek house, did a skit in which an eccentric fan of sustainability, Mr. Green, harassed a hot dog vendor for not promoting sustainability. The organization promotes recycling in greek houses and works to outreach to the greek and campus communities.Ladies First, IU’s all-female a cappella group performed their renditions of “Yesterday”, “Wonderwall”, “Alone” and “Lady Marmalade”.The girls were also shown a video that was made for last year’s Greek Awards followed by a speech by Provost Karen Hanson.IU’s greek history dates back to 1845, Hanson said. Eighteen U.S. presidents since 1877 and 76 percent of U.S. senators that have served in the U.S. Senate were members of the greek community. “Great leaders can lead their vision with passion,” Hanson said. “Nothing great was ever achieved without hard work. ... No leader has all the answers all the time.”Hanson encouraged students to get involved in other organizations on campus while they are here, allowing their sorority life to be the building blocks to their next four years.“Each of you has the potential to lead. Take advantage of these opportunities; serve on your chapters councils,” she said. “While you’re at Indiana University, take time to explore. Your new sorority affiliation has already led you to make new connections.”The girls have spent the majority of their time together since Bid Day. Tuesday was designated sisterhood night where chapters did rituals or get-to-know-each-other activities. Wednesday was the rally followed by a possible dinner with a fraternity, Raeder said.“It was fun to just cheer for our new sister representatives in Panhellenic,” said freshman Samantha Clodfelter, a new sister of Pi Beta Phi. She said her sisters enjoyed a Hawaiian dinner Tuesday night and an around-the-world activity with their sophomore pledge class to get to know their new sisters.“The main goal is getting them excited about the greek community, but also showing their chapter pride,” Raeder said.
(01/11/10 5:48am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jonathan Herz, an IU junior, was described as a social butterfly of the Chicago North Shore and was known to make friends with basically everyone he met.“The main thing that made Jon special was that he always wanted to be with you,” said Zach Richardson, a friend of Herz’s since kindergarten. “He’d wake up after spending the night with us and send out a mass text to get breakfast. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell him no to breakfast. If people were willing, he was ready.”Known as Jon, the 20-year-old student died Dec. 17 from a self-inflicted injury at his residence in Smallwood Plaza, said Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Jeff Canada. BPD officers were called to the scene because Herz was reported to be severely injured.A BPD detective did an investigation by interviewing Herz’s friends and decided that Herz was alone when he died based on a surveillance video provided by the residence, Canada said.Though drugs were found in the residence, BPD is still waiting on the results of a toxicology report to determine if there were drugs in Herz’s body.No suicide note was found, and many of his friends described Herz as a happy person. He and longtime friend Nicole Rovner talked the day before and made plans to hang out during break and spend time with his new baby sister. The day that he died, he texted his dad and told him he couldn’t wait to see his family and he loved him.Herz had plans to attend a ski trip with friends, including Rovner, during winter break. He had a zest for life, said Rovner.He was also a member a of Phi Kappa Psi, and he planned to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, during spring break for a leadership retreat that his fraternity members chose him for.Herz planned to major in economics and wanted to stay in Bloomington this summer so he could work on a minor in business. He previously opened an Ameritrade account and was interested in stocks, his father, Thomas, said. He was also interested in real estate and spent last summer interning at an insurance agency with his uncle.Although Herz didn’t live in his fraternity house, he came to visit almost every day because it gave him the chance to be around others, said IU junior Chris Held, Phi Kappa Psi president.“He was one of the nicest people I ever met in my life,” Held said. “He was always into pleasing others before pleasing himself. I think that’s the general consensus in our house.”The fraternity was very important to Herz, and he had told his father he wished he’d picked an apartment that was closer to the house.He recalled dropping Herz off at the fraternity house at the beginning of Herz’s sophomore year and being disturbed by the filth that he saw in the house, worried his son wouldn’t be happy there. He told Herz they could find an apartment for him instead.However, the two went on to Target, and when they came back to the house, it was cleaner. “Maybe he told the guys to clean it up for me,” his father said.Herz continued to tell his father how excited he was to live in the house and that it would be OK.“He’d just turned 19, and he knew me so well,” his father said.Herz also had a warm spot in his heart for his baby sister, Hannah, who was born in June.When Herz went to meet his new sister in the hospital, he was afraid to hold her at first – maybe he was worried he would hurt her, his father said. However, once his father placed Hannah in his arms, Herz wouldn’t let go.“During the summer,” Herz’s father said, “he would go to work, he would walk through the door, grab Hannah and not let go of her for four hours. He was a very, very warm person.”Herz grew up in Skokie, Ill., but moved to Wilmette, Ill., when he was in the eighth grade. Although he went to New Trier High School, he had friends in many of the surrounding high schools including Notre Dame, Loyola and Niles West.“He didn’t go to my high school,” said Roxy Elster, a friend of Herz’s since their freshman year of high school, “but sometimes I forgot that because everyone at my high school knew him. ... He always put a smile on my face. Everyone I introduced him to just loved him.”Herz had a diverse friendship with many people, including Richardson, who started out as Herz’s enemy in grade school.Herz grew up in high school, Richardson said, and his friends gave him a hard time, but he knew they loved him.“Jon was a goofball in high school. He was always the friend we could get to do the dare,” Richardson said.During the fall of Herz’s junior year, he decided he wasn’t happy with the way he looked, and he completely changed his diet and started working out regularly, a habit he continued into college.Going to college really brought out the true Herz, Richardson said. Because Herz rarely was able to see his friends from home, he would be really excited when he finally saw them.“He drove me crazy,” Richardson said. “He’d ask me about what I’d done, and before I was done, he’d ask me about the next thing.”Herz loved being around people. His favorite place to eat was Sarkis. His father said he isn’t sure how much Herz actually liked the food, he just loved an excuse to be with his friends.Although Herz came off as a goofball, he also loved having deep conversations with others, said Will Haben, a friend of Herz’s for five years. He’d be at a party and he’d begin to have deep intellectual conversations with the people around him, said Heather Martin, a friend of Herz’s since kindergarten.“It seems like with our group of friends,” Richardson said, “he’s come up every time we hang out. But it’s not depressing; he still makes us laugh. He is with us all the time in his jokes and in his laugh.”
(12/19/09 8:57pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Robert Gates,U.S. Secretary of Defense, spoke of fond IU memories while giving his Commencement speech Saturday.“As you know better than anyone, IU is a good place,” Gates said during his speech. “IU will always have a very special place in my life. By the way, I’m glad to see Nick’s is still going strong, serving hungry and thirsty students.”Gates, who received his masters in history from IU, spoke of how he met his wife at IU in 1966 on a blind date, and how he talked with a recruiter from the CIA while he was on campus, which jump-started his career in American intelligence and defense.He spoke of how IU led him into a life of public service and how the University can do the same for this winter’s graduates.“Over this past decade, doing one’s duty has taken on a whole new meaning,” Gates said.He spoke of men in this year’s graduating class who have served for their country, but he mostly emphasized the importance of this semester’s graduates’ roles in public service.“Our country has been engaged in Somalia, the Balkans, has seen Sept. 11 and a war in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “Evil people will always be with us, and they must be dealt with using courage and sacrifice. I ask you, Indiana University class of 2009, to come help us serve the American people.”However, some were not pleased with the University’s decision to invite Gates to speak or that the administration decided to give him an honorary degree.Alex Smith chose not to walk at graduation Saturday in protest of the Commencement speaker.“I don’t want to take part in a ceremony with a man who’s tried to create an American empire with violence, and I don’t think we should ensue that in our graduates,” said Smith, who was holding a sign that read “I won’t walk with a warlord.”A group of about 20 people making up organizations including the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, Progressive Faculty and Staff Caucus, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, among others stood outside the south entrance of Assembly Hall to protest the University’s invitation and decision to award him with an honorable degree.“I’m here because I think it’s a travesty of a University to give an honorary degree during war time to a war policy maker,” said David Keppel, a member of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition.However, many graduates were not bothered by the University’s choice to invite Gates to speak including Lauren Stall, who was receiving her degree in biology. She said she felt she could relate to Gates because he was an IU alumnus.“He was very passionate about moving into the public sector,” said Matt Mason*, a graduate in finance who said he agrees with Gates’ policies.“He was right about our generation having to step up.”Following Gates’ address, IU President Michael McRobbie spoke of the changes IU has seen throughout the years and how IU graduates, which are represented in 50 states and 150 countries, are prepared for those challenges.“Our world has changed dramatically even in the last 50 years,” McRobbie said. “But most of you today were not yet born ... President Barack Obama wasn’t even born.”He emphasized the importance of global learning and understanding to today’s college graduates, noting that IU students have the opportunity to take courses in 70 languages and that IU ranks 11th in the nation for the number of students who study abroad. He also mentioned that this semester’s oldest graduate, age 67, and its youngest graduate, 20, are both international students.“Our students recognize that their futures rest on their understanding of other languages and cultures,” he said.McRobbie closed his remarks by saying that IU has prepared its graduates for the challenges to come and that “You are now the authors of that story of human progress.”
(12/10/09 5:21am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Dalai Lama will visit Bloomington in May for the second time since he appointed Arjia Rinpoche as director of the Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center.His Holiness, who will give three teachings at the IU Auditorium, has called the cultural center – which was established by his older brother and former IU professor, Thubten J. Norbu – the Kumbum of the West, or the religion’s monastery of the West.“People might think he only comes here because of his older brother, but even though his older brother has passed away, he’s still coming to visit the center,” Rinpoche said.There are two main concepts in Buddhism: compassion and wisdom. His Holiness, who has visited Bloomington five times, will speak about “The Heart Sutra,” discussing how to practice wisdom in today’s life.His Holiness is known for respecting other religions by inviting other leaders to his teaching ceremonies and having interfaith prayers. During his last visit in 2007, he had a peace conference. “In the West, Buddhism is very new. When he talks, he always says, ‘I’m not converting you; I want you to keep your own religions,’” Rinpoche said. “Some people say ‘I don’t care what his teachings are, I just want to see the Dalai Lama.”But for the cultural center, the Dalai Lama’s visit is more than just a two-day teaching, it’s an opportunity to bring in people from all around the world to Bloomington and to the center’s 108 acres.In 2007, the hotels in town were full, Rinpoche said, and the largest percentage of attendees were from out of town, traveling as far as California, Europe, Taiwan, Japan and Mongolia. “When His Holiness comes to Bloomington you are bringing all people of the United States here,” said Sudhaka Koneru, treasurer and board member for the center. The Dalai Lama’s visit can largely be attributed to the center and his appointment of Rinpoche as the director of the culture center in 2005 after his brother became too ill to run it. As a child in Tibet, he was taught by the 10th Panchen Lama, one of the highest spiritual leaders in Buddhism.“His appointment didn’t just start a few years ago, but since his studies as a child,” said Lisa Morrison, media and public relations coordinator for the center. “We are living history right now, and it’s very hard to articulate that.”Though the two days will bring in a large revenue, the Dalai Lama doesn’t want the center to make money off his teachings, and if they do, he asks that it be given to charity, said Koneru.However, the center does receive money from donations and fundraising that they use for construction. People will also sponsor events and the center will organize VIP receptions as fundraisers.Rinpoche and members of the center are still organizing events for the two days His Holiness will be in town. There will be a variety of teachings for specific groups of students from a variety of countries. The groups, which could range in size from four people to more than 100, will have the chance to ask His Holiness questions.Rinpoche also said there could be high-profile people in attendance. In 2003, Muhammad Ali came to Bloomington to meet the Dalai Lama.“Once he talks and you listen, your mind is calm and you feel like practicing what he said,” Koneru said. “I’ve attended four of his teachings. Each time I’m a different person.”
(11/17/09 6:15am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Bobbie Summers has a six-page list sitting on her desk filled with the names of people she can’t place in Martha’s House.The 28-bed temporary shelter for residents of Monroe, Owen and Lawrence counties has been at capacity since January, said Summers, the facility’s director.“We just go weeks and weeks where we’re at 28 beds, and one bed opens up, and I have four people asking for the space,” Summers said. “We have just been really full.”Before the economic downturn, there were weeks where there would only be 19 people in the shelter, and it wasn’t full for long periods of time, she said.Today, the waiting list is full of crossed out names of people who no longer need shelter – they’ve either found other residency or been let into Martha’s House. To further help the ones who received a spot, the shelter increased the number of days a resident could stay from 90 to 120 in February.Because Summers can’t house all the people that come to her door, she’s been doing what she can to find alternative housing. She often suggests shelters such as Backstreet Missions. There’s a network of people in the community who allow others to temporarily sleep on their couches, and when things get bad, Summers suggests people sleep in their cars, if they have one. “I’m trying to make sure that when they’re on that waiting list, they’ve got something until they can get in here,” Summers said. “Not all of them do though. I hate to admit that.” Other centers such as the Monroe County United Ministries – which provides temporary assistance to families that are not homeless, such as helping them pay their utility bill for a month – have felt the pressure of more people in need, said Development Coordinator Rebecca Stanze.The ministry has seen a 20 percent increase in the number of people they have seen this year compared to last, she said.“There are a lot of people who are looking for employment and can’t find it,” Stanze said. “Some people that we see come in once, and we never see them again. Other people have chronic problems where they haven’t figured out how to balance their lives.”While living in Martha’s House, residents are expected to find jobs within 30 days and save money so that when they are ready to leave, they have savings to help them pay their expenses.“With our economy right now, it’s almost impossible to get a job within 30 days, but we expect them to,” said Tonya Rakhimkulova, a case worker for Martha’s House. For those with disabilities or a criminal record, the job market can be a vicious cycle. It can take years for a person to receive disability benefits once they’ve applied, Rakhimkulova said. Many people are afraid to accept a job because their chances of receiving disability benefits decreases.Although trying to apply for disability benefits and not being able to get a job prohibit the flow of residents from leaving the shelter, Rakhimkulova stressed she doesn’t want to push people out too early. “Some people get a job, stay two weeks and then leave, even though I encourage them to stay and save money,” Rakhimkulova said. “Then, they might lose their jobs and end up back at the shelter. I try to make people have a cushion in case they lose their job.” Even if the economy gets better, Summers said there will always be people who need the shelter.“Since January 2009, it seems the rules are completely changing, and more and more people are finding themselves in crisis,” Summers said. “I get calls every day from families that are finding themselves on the verge of being homeless.”
(10/14/09 5:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>While students settled into campus the week of Aug. 24 at Purdue University, officers stood at crosswalks educating pedestrians about Indiana traffic laws and giving out 100 tickets to drivers for not obeying the laws.Purdue University and West Lafayette police officers combined forces this year to start an education program for traffic safety on and off campus in an effort to reduce the number of pedestrians injured – a program that Purdue University Police Chief John Cox said IU could imitate.“We found out that one of the biggest misconceptions is people don’t know when to cross the street,” Cox said. “It gave students the idea that they can walk out into the crosswalks and people will stop for them, but that’s not the case.”During the week, officers worked overtime at five different crosswalks, three of which were new and two of which had recently been repainted.Officers partnered with city engineers to add mid-block crosswalks, or crosswalks placed in the street between intersections. Each crosswalk cost about $5,000 and was paid for by Purdue University and the city of West Lafayette.Yield signs were also installed near the crosswalks.Though the officers got the ball rolling, it was both a campus and city effort, Cox said. The Purdue University Student Health Center offered to pay for educational flyers, and the residence halls and student government got involved.“The city, University and police departments might have started the process, but the University all the way to the Mayor’s office and even student government helped with this,” Cox said.Since the program was implemented, two pedestrians have been hit by cars. Cox said there aren’t a lot of pedestrian crashes on campus, but even one is too many.In May, an international student died after being hit by a car near campus, which is one reason West Lafayette Police Chief Jason Dombkowski said they started the education initiative.“We have people who come from different countries where these rules are already implemented, and then they get here and they’re terrified,” Cox said. “We’re teaching pedestrians that the liability relies on them.”Implementing a program at IUIU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger said it’s hard to compare campuses and know if Purdue’s program would work at IU because the infrastructure and roadway structures are different. However, he said if any program is going to work at IU, it’s going to be an educational program.“There needs to be a conscious effort by pedestrians, drivers, roller bladers and cyclists,” he said.Minger said he doesn’t like the idea of ticketing people for not following crosswalk laws. When you push people, they will often push back. It’s much easier to get people to voluntarily follow the rules, he said.Still, Minger said IUPD wouldn’t be opposed to helping out with an educational program, but staffing is the issue. At the moment, IUPD is having a difficult time getting enough full-time officers to police on a daily basis, let alone having them work overtime to police crosswalks.During the day, IUPD has only four officers working. But sometimes they are understaffed to only two or three officers, and they have to call officers in to work overtime. At Purdue, Cox said officers face a similar situation, and they had officers work overtime in order to patrol during the first week of classes. Purdue tries to put six officers on daily patrol instead of IU’s four.“Rather than have police do it, I’d rather it be someone like volunteers ... something where the community is policing itself,” Minger said. “The population should take responsibility for the people.”Mitch Rice, a member of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Commission, said he agrees that Bloomington doesn’t have the ability to have officers patrol crosswalks, but he thinks IU could implement a crosswalk and signage program similar to Purdue’s.“Enforcement doesn’t seem to work, so one of the things we’ve done is used paint to say ‘This is for the bicyclists’ and ‘This is for cars,’” Rice said. “In Bryan Park, we painted stripes on the two streets there that have no sidewalks. There are people walking up and down those streets with their children all the time. Why? Because the cars don’t go where the paint is. They just don’t do it.”Both Cox and Dombkowski said that while they think Purdue’s system could be implemented on most campuses, programs need to be tailored to specific roadways, and the community needs to ask where crosswalks are essential.“I think you need to look at the big picture and look at pedestrian traffic flow,” Cox said. “I think you can adapt this program to any area. You can’t put a crosswalk anywhere. You have to look at the data.”Dombkowski, an IU alumnus, said Purdue’s campus layout is similar to IU’s.“There are almost the same quantity of students and people crossing the street,” Dombkowski said. “We have areas similar to Third Street, where people just cross everywhere. Our focus wasn’t on places where people cross everywhere, but instead we focused on crosswalks in hopes that people would use them correctly.”
(08/06/09 1:03am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Though sponsorship is down, and the University isn’t funding its own IU Day at the state fair, the smell of deep-fried vegetables and the sound of country music will still fill the Indianapolis air this month.“A lot of companies are cutting back. There’s no question about that,” said Andy Klotz, director of public relations at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. “Our sponsorship is just a touch down from last year’s, but this year we’re also receiving new ones. We’ll ride this out like everybody else.”Sponsorship is down from $1.5 million last year to $1.3 million this year, but Klotz said the event has budgeted to bring in 900,000 people compared to last year’s 860,000 attendees. IU presenceInstead of spending the usual $200,000 to $300,000 on IU Day like the University did the past three years, IU will spend $50,000 on sponsorship.The IU School of Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Dentistry and the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation will partner with Clarian Health and provide a variety of free screenings for visitors.“We were trying to find a role for the University where we are actually giving something back,” said Valerie Pena, executive director and chief of staff for the IU Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations. “I would actually love to see this partnership grow. I think we could add the optometry school. At the end of the day, we could affect someone’s life with this.”IU students, faculty and staff will be conducting the tests, which will vary from blood pressure, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder screenings to body mass index, flexibility and glucose screenings.“The beauty is there’s a huge number of screenings,” Pena said. “Our students are also very active in this part, which didn’t happen before.”IU is also sponsoring a trolley for the 17 days of the fair, and each campus will have its own booth at the Toyota Expo Hall, which is filled with information from universities throughout the state.Traditional Arts Indiana – a partnership with IU and the Indiana Arts Commission – will also present a fiddle contest featuring bluegrass to western swing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Pioneer Village Opry House.“We never wanted to cancel our sponsorship because we wanted to show our support for the fair,” Pena said. “Maybe it won’t have quite the sizzle when you hit that one street with all the booths on IU Day, but before we were only there one day, and now we’re there every day.”4-HThe fair is also adding five days this year to accustom all the 4-H events and members showing their sheep, swine, rabbits, poultry, horses and cattle.“We had many events we called pre-fair events, which were mostly 4-H,” Klotz said. “We wanted to give these people an opportunity to enjoy the fair and not just visit for their event.”The fair has spent $9 million to renovate two of the three 4-H exhibit halls during the past five years, and renovation is beginning on the third hall.“4-H is a huge reason for the fair. We love our relationship with our 4-Hers,” Klotz said. “We try to put their exhibits in a wonderful, welcoming environment because it’s like the Super Bowl of 4-H.”Food and entertainmentEach year, there are about 120 different food stands serving delicacies attendees will be tempted to try. Though the fair receives a percentage of the sales from each vendor, the majority of the sales go to the individual vendor, and the vendors have to reapply each year to sell their corn on the cob or their funnel cakes.“By and large, we get most of the same vendors to come back every year,” Klotz said. “We’ve got everything covered from deep-fried vegetables to state fair bakery creams.”Though buying food can get a little pricey, the fair also offers a free stage with a lineup including MC Hammer, Bucky Covington, Howie Day, the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge and the Timberworks Lumberjack Show.“For entertainment, we look at things we think would be interesting to people who come to our fair,” Klotz said. “If things are really popular, we’ll bring them back like last year’s lumberjack show. It was so popular every show was sold-out.”The Hoosier Lottery Grandstand will also be home to Keith Urban, Kelly Clarkson, Journey, Jason Mraz, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and others.New this year is the Indy Super Pull, which will bring back the tractor pull to the fair for the first time in two decades.The fair also started a Facebook account last fall and a Twitter account two months ago at which free tickets are given away. New event information is often released on the Twitter account first, Klotz said.“It’s just a great place for family entertainment,” Klotz said. “Generations of Hoosiers come down to show their animals and take in the food they can only find here.”
(08/02/09 11:46pm)
Q&A with Abbey Stemler
(08/02/09 11:41pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Second-year law student Abbey Stemler has spent a majority of her summer reading the University’s budgets and manuals for policies and procedures the board of trustees has to follow.Stemler was announced as the new student trustee July 1 and has since been meeting with University officials and voting on student tuition.“Though you’re a student, you’re not really the student trustee. You’re a trustee,” Stemler said. “Same responsibilities as all the other members. That really makes me want to educate myself. I’m not going to be a passive player in the process.” Deciding to applyStemler first thought about applying for the position when she was cofounding a student organization during her undergraduate years in the Liberal Arts and Management Program. She and a few other students were asked to present their organization, the Virtue Project, to the board of trustees.“I thought it was really nice that the University respects students enough to give them a voice on the board,” Stemler said. “To have a student on the board who has full rights and responsibilities is huge.”On the way home from the presentation, professor James Madison, the director of LAMP, told Stemler and her fellow students that if they ever wanted to run for the position, he would support them. The idea was born.“She has a very good understanding of the functions of a University,” Madison said. “She really has a commitment to IU. She loves IU. She’s cream and crimson all the way through.”When applying, Stemler had to meet in front of a student-chaired committee filled with students from the different campuses as well as A.D. King, the previous student trustee. The committee sent 10 names to the governor’s office, where she interviewed with them as well. Once it was narrowed down to three or four names, Gov. Mitch Daniels chose Stemler.“It has been a long time in the making,” Stemler said. “I applied in January, went through a series of interviews, wrote a lot of essays, got a lot of letters of recommendations and studied up on the University, and here I am.”Getting thereAs an undergraduate, Stemler dedicated most of her time to the Virtue Project, an original social entrepreneurship program. The program is based off a mock investment portfolio in which members choose stocks and then ask for pledges from donors to invest in the portfolio. The donor will then give the project an actual donation based on the marketplace value and profit.Last year, the project had about $400,000 in the portfolio and the students donated about $10,000 to the Timmy Foundation.“It took a great deal of work and organization because it’s a very complicated project,” Madison said. “It meant recruiting students from LAMP and finding donors. There were so many different tasks she learned that you can’t learn in a classroom. They spent hundreds of hundreds of hours on it.”Stemler also spent her time coordinating the Hutton Honors College mentor program, and she was president of LAMP’s student advisory board.She came to IU as a first-generation college student and was unsure of her major. Through the Individualized Major Program, she received her degree in anthropology of mental health and illness before deciding to go to law school.“It was a very last-minute decision to go to law school,” Stemler said. “Taking the LSAT in a rush was not a fun process. For law school, it was always IU. I had a strong network of people and I knew I was applying for the student trustee position.” New responsibilityPulling out her iPhone, Stemler has a calendar that already resembles that of a trustee.Last week she met with 11 people, including IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre, Provost Karen Hanson and Athletics Director Fred Glass.“They’ve been pretty intense with getting me oriented,” Stemler said. “I’ve met with the president, the board members and any other person I thought would help me get a grasp on this massive institution.”Though Stemler met many of the board members when setting tuition last month, she has yet to meet the entire board and plans to do so at the Aug. 14 meeting.“When we set tuition, that was my first move or piece of business as the student trustee,” Stemler said. “That was pretty difficult to wrap my head around the first few weeks.” The next two yearsStemler was interning at Bose McKinney and Evans, an Indianapolis law firm, when she found out the news.“I was writing a memo – it was due at 11 – and I got a call at 10:55, and I was like, ‘Are you serious?’” Stemler said. “So then I had to call my parents, but the funny thing was, I couldn’t tell anybody except my parents while they told the other candidates. I had to keep it quiet for five days, and it was awful.”Though Stemler is already on the academic affairs and facilities committees, she said she doesn’t yet know what types of policies she wants to pursue during her two-year term.“I think there were ideas I had about things, but getting more into it,” Stemler said, “I’m seeing that the board is at the 50,000-feet level, and any nit-picky policy things, that’s not the board’s responsibility. I’m sure in the next couple months I’ll find some area where the board can make a difference.”Stemler said if she hadn’t gotten the position, she’d probably be spending a lot more time studying for the GMET, a graduate school test for business. Though she has a lot to catch up on, she said she’s confident in her abilities.“I think Abbey would say she doesn’t know everything, but no trustee knows everything they need to know when they first start,” Madison said. “She has an experience of being a student and a perspective that the other eight members don’t have.”
(08/02/09 11:35pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>With its back frame twisted, Joey Long’s car looked like it had already lost several derby races Friday.“It looks bad, but it’s not going anywhere,” Long said. “This one’s got at least a night, maybe a second night in it. This car, the type of car it is, is 10 times stronger than that striped car over there. It all depends on the frame.”Long and four of his relatives have smashed cars at the Monroe County Fair Demolition Derby since 2001. This year, they entered seven cars.Long’s car took about two weeks to build and is made up of three separate cars. The body is from a Buick, the hood from a Ford and the fender from a Chevy Caprice. Long calls this recycling.“Not everybody does theirs the same way,” Long said. “We bolt ours down to make them safer. It’s how much you want to go through to build a car. You can spend several weeks on a car you want to win, or you can have fun.”Though every car is built differently, the derby rules state that the inside of the car must be stripped of anything flammable, including all the seats and lining. The gas tank must then be put in the back and the battery must be taken from underneath the hood and sit next to the driver.Long installed a roll cage in his car so if someone were to hit the door, the door would not bend in too far and hurt the driver.Most cars are painted and decorated, but the Long family said if it didn’t have very much time to decorate the cars, the family members would just run them with what they have. Carrie Long, Joey’s wife, used the “Twilight” novels as an inspiration for her design, placing symbols and designs from the book covers all along her vehicle. “I’m just a huge fan, and I’ve read all the books twice,” said Carrie Long, whose car was chosen to compete for best design.The derby is the most attended event at the fair, and the fans want to see hard hits and watch someone get flipped over, said Phillip Long, Joey’s brother.“Everybody knows everybody,” Phillip Long said. “You run against your friends. There are a few grudges out there. ... They don’t like each other, and they take each other out.”Andy “Kidd” Roberts has been driving derby cars for the past six years, and he’s raced in Monroe, Spencer and Greene counties.“If you walk up to any derby around here and you say ‘Kidd,’ they know who you’re talking about,” said his father, Tim Roberts.Andy Roberts built his car, as well as his girlfriend’s car, and though they are in the same heat, they said they’d hit each other if given the opportunity.“We have to hit each other. We can’t team drive,” Kidd’s girlfriend Whitney Davis said. “I’m not going to go for him, but if he’s there, he’s there.”Participants must follow a set of rules put in place as safety precautions, including those that state drivers can’t hit the driver’s door of other cars and that the driver’s door must be painted white.“We normally have to disqualify two drivers an evening because of over-aggressive driving – trying to hurt a driver and not their car,” said Wally Hamilton, one of the vice presidents on the fair board. “The adrenaline really gets going on these things, and we have to remind them that there are children and families.”About 80 cars competed Friday in the mud pit, each trying to qualify for one of the 17 spots available in the final feature.Though Joey Long’s car looked beat up before entering and impossible to drive afterward, he still qualified Friday for the final race.“If you build your car right, you can keep it going for a while,” Joey Long said after his first heat as he prepared for the final. “We’re fixing the fan belts, adjusting the carburetor ... basically all the stuff I just messed up.”
(07/30/09 12:45am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Dick McKaig never wanted to be dean.“What I’ve always wanted to do was work with students outside of class, but what I didn’t want to do is be the dean,” he said. “I didn’t want the administrative obligations. I’m not a big fan of budgets and administrative paperwork that goes with the job.”But after 38 years, IU’s dean of students will say goodbye Friday to crusty eyelashes from whipped cream from pies in the face.“It really is an age thing,” McKaig said. “I could have retired last summer, but I was having so much fun in the job that I didn’t want to leave it.”GETTING TO IUMcKaig, a Hoosier born in Lafayette and raised in Anderson, came to IU in 1971 as student government adviser with plans to leave after finishing graduate school.After earning his undergraduate and master’s degrees at Ball State University and spending four years at Wisconsin State University as director of student activities, McKaig said he expected to spend three years at IU working on his graduate degree, but he ended up taking about 10 years to complete it.In 1974, McKaig was promoted to director of student activities after being assistant director since 1972. Later, he was promoted to assistant dean, associate dean and finally dean of students in 1991.“When I got my doctorate, I thought about leaving,” he said. “In the late ’80s I had the presumption that I should look at other options. When I became dean in ’91, I didn’t think about leaving since then.”THROUGH THE YEARSMcKaig remembers a murder, during his first semester as dean of students, that left two students dead. A man who had been stalking a girl living in Eigenmann Hall drove across the country, shot her and her friend and then himself, McKaig said.“That is something that stands out in my memory as something horrific that has happened,” he said. “You can imagine the range of anxieties. It’s all you can do to hold the community together. Because it happened in one of our buildings, there were a lot of security issues we had to deal with.”McKaig was involved in student accidents fairly quickly. He was usually the first University faculty member to contact the family when a student died.“I’m usually calling at a time when they just learned,” he said. “They are almost always still in a state of shock.”Since the first incident in Eigenmann, McKaig had to make his fair share of phone calls to families about the loss of their child.McKaig remembers when Jill Behrman disappeared in summer 2000. “Jill was a very frustrating thing for everyone involved because you didn’t know what was going on,” McKaig said. “It happened over the summer, so the campus was a different place.”McKaig said he remembers dealing with the deaths of five Jacobs School of Music students who died in a 2006 plane crash coming back from West Lafayette.“I can remember very visibly the phone call I received early in the morning that there had been a plane crash,” he said. “Out of all the tragedies I’ve dealt with, it has a special remembrance. It really struck home very hard. They were very gifted.”Though student tragedies were never easy to deal with, McKaig said he still enjoyed the student interaction he received on campus. He said he spent more time on campus than he did in the Bloomington community, which is why he stays involved in Bloomington to equal out his commitments. McKaig is on the Bloomington Volunteer Action Committee, the Bloomington Cancer Society and the Bloomington Rotary Club.“This provides me with an outlet to know people outside the University,” McKaig said. “My neighbors know that from August to May, I tend to be on campus more than in the neighborhood.”THE FUTUREMcKaig’s office is lined with shelves displaying “tricks of the trade,” gifts from students including a glass eagle, glass duck and a large rock sitting proudly on the shelves among 27 coffee mugs from various events he has attended. Every yearbook since 1991, the year McKaig became dean, gathers dust among T-shirts and photographs of his grandchildren. A bulletin board with hundreds of buttons from student activities hangs on one wall while the opposite wall displays plaques from various awards McKaig received.McKaig tried to attend three events each weekend. During football season, he could be found on the student side watching the Hoosiers attempt to defend The Rock.“I was a judge at the freshman beginnings group,” McKaig said of one of his many student involvements. “They have a cookout with various ingredients. I’d never had pasta with peanut butter before. That was interesting.”Now, McKaig said, he is ready to spend more time with his grandchildren, but he isn’t sure he’s ready to leave the IU students behind.McKaig plans on spending a majority of his time with his grandchildren, two of whom live in Phoenix. McKaig said he hopes to disappear to Phoenix for a good part of the year.“I’m going to miss the excitement and challenges that go along with the job and not knowing what will be the next thing I’m dealing with,” McKaig said. “I will miss the student activities. When all is said and done, I’ll probably regret I didn’t get another shot at the Cardboard Boat Regatta.”
(07/30/09 12:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Jan Masters said she thinks playing at the Monroe County Fair is more stressful than playing at the Grand Ole Opry.“You might think you have your chops down and you have all your lyrics down, but then you’ll see a face you know and you’ll think, ‘Man, I should know him,’” Masters said. “That’s what playing in your hometown is like.”Masters, 54, and her husband, Joe Edwards, 75, a Grand Ole Opry veteran of 48 years, travel the country together. Last year, they were on the road for 305 days.“He does 1,000 pushups a day,” said Edwards’ cousin Bud Powell. “That’s what keeps him going.”THE OPRYEdwards began playing at the Opry in 1955 and, at the same time, he was touring with a group of musicians, The Carter Family and Elvis included.“People would boo him,” Edwards said of Elvis.But their manager, Colonel Thomas Parker, had a plan to stop all of that.“Young girls would come around and want to get in, but they couldn’t pay,” Edwards said. “He said they’d let them in for free if they’d stand in the front and scream for him. He’d call all the major airports in the United States and have them page Elvis even though he knew Elvis wasn’t there.”After working at the Opry through ’55 and ’56, Edwards moved back to Bloomington and received a physics degree from IU, but he still worked at the Opry during the summers and whenever he could find time during the school year.“When I looked at how much I’d make in physics, I realized I’d make five times that much playing music,” he said.Edwards returned to the Opry in 1960 after IU and continued to tour across the states and 15 other countries. He began his recording career in 1968, and in 1987 he had a No. 8 song on the charts in New Zealand.“For awhile I was doing two to four recording sessions a week,” he said. “I just didn’t turn anything down. Anything that made me a little money I was going to do.”During his stint, Edwards played with groups such as Grandpa Jones, Bobby Helms, Cowboy Copas, Faron Young, Ray Price, The Country Gentleman and Martha Carson, whom he toured with on and off again until she passed away.“When I went there in 1955, a lot of them had already made it, and they just adopted me,” Edwards said. “It was the golden years. I’d do it all again.”MEETING JANIn 1993, Jan Masters stepped onto the Opry stage singing with the Grand Ole Gospel. Joe heard her sing and invited her to travel to Bloomington, her hometown as well, to perform with him.“It was such an honor to play with Joe Edwards and come home to my hometown and play with him,” Masters said. “He kept asking me to do concerts with him over and over again. A couple years later, we came home for Thanksgiving with his family, and on the way home to Nashville he proposed. So I married a 64-year-old bachelor.”THE EARLY YEARSEdwards’ career started long before the Opry. He used to play the fiddle while his dad played guitar, and then they’d switch, Edwards told the fair crowd Tuesday afternoon.Edwards and his pal Phil Spaulding performed together throughout high school, playing on the local radio station and local TV programs including “Hayloft Frolic” and “The Happy Valley Show.” Spaulding played the keyboard, and Edwards played the guitar and violin.After high school, the two split up. When Edwards left for Nashville, Tenn., Spaulding headed to California and focused on western swing bands.“He comes back up here about three or four times a year,” Spaulding said. “We might perform together, but a lot of times when he’s here I’m on tour somewhere else. We ran into each other in 1955 on the same show, but we didn’t even know we were out there together. He said he was surprised to see us within 2,000 miles of each other.”Just like Edwards, Spaulding still tours. Though he was at the fair Tuesday, he said he’d be performing Wednesday in Sullivan, Ind., and he often averages three shows a week at the age of 76.“It’s a fond memory,” Spaulding said. “If we were both retired and stopped playing, I’m sure we’d miss it, but I don’t see that ever happening. We both pretty much had the idea that this is what we’d do the rest of our life. We carried out our teenage dreams.”COMING HOMEEdwards has pre-recorded digital audio tapes of himself playing various instruments that he plays while strumming along on the fiddle or guitar during current shows. Everything the audience hears – from the guitar to the drums, banjo, mandolin, bass and fiddle – is all Edwards’ work.As well as performing, Masters sets up a booth with clothes and jewelry at many of their performance locations – a business she started several years ago to make a little extra money.“I got a job to support Joe and the lifestyle he’s accustomed to,” Masters said with a laugh. “We do everything together. We work together, we play together.”Though Masters said she and Edwards don’t plan to be as busy as last year, they still have a full schedule. After the fair, the couple will take two days off then head to New Orleans for a week before having August off.“My goal is to still be playing on stage when I’m 100,” Edwards said. “If the next 25 years go as fast as the last 25, I think I’ll make it.”
(07/29/09 10:42pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Allan Gurevitz said he thinks the fish currently living in the Runcible Spoon bathroom are the happiest he’s ever seen. He’d know. He feeds them.Gurevitz is the janitor, and every night as customers trickle out of the restaurant, Gurevitz sweeps the floor, cleans the bathrooms and feeds the fish in the tub.Besides caring for the fish, Gurevitz is also responsible for the mural that is slowly taking over the bathroom.The fish have inspired an array of art in this unsuspecting location, from the wall collages to the mosaic tiles on the floor.“I have a sense of how far I want to take it, but I don’t know what it will actually look like,” he said. “It’s mostly looking at pictures and seeing what’s there and looking at it. It’s not that conscious. ... People tell (the owner) stuff about the fish. They ask about the fish as if they are the most important thing. People want to have them. Maybe they need them.”Gurevitz is also the artist of the mural in the bathroom and two other collages throughout the restaurant.The mural, a mixture of images Gurevitz has cut out of magazines and compiled through time, started on one wall with images of fish, dolphins and other sea-like creatures. Once the door began to compile graffiti, Gurevitz began to cover it up with his collage. It has now overtaken a majority of the room, and gradually, less and less white wall is visible.“I think a lot of collages people do are chaotic because they think they’re easy to do, and they don’t pull it all together, and that’s a big part of it,” he said. “You don’t know necessarily yourself what you’re doing, and you definitely don’t know how it’s going to come out until it’s done.”Rumor has it that in the 1980s an employee left for vacation and asked to leave a fish in the bathroom. When the employee never came back, the previous restaurant owners simply let the fish live there.“Since then we’ve just maintained it,” said Regen O’Neill, who bought the restaurant with her husband in 2001. “We have to try and maintain it because we do get a lot of visitors. Some people look at it and just think it’s weird, and some people are freaked out by fish. I think it adds to the quirkiness of the bathroom.”For visitors who don’t know about the fish, it can come as a bit of a shock.“I was surprised the first time,” said Alexandra Gorlin, who has been coming to the restaurant for the past five years. “I wasn’t taken aback though, I was just sort of like, ‘Are those fish?’ I think it goes with the sort of spirit of Runcible Spoon.”Besides underwater creatures, the walls are covered with images of statues, masks, Egyptians, Jesus Christ, flowers, monsters, snacks, bats and a plethora of magazine clippings. Gurevitz even took rocks from the Jordan River and placed them in the tub.“I don’t know if that’s legal,” he said.At one point, a visitor put two black-and-white stickers on a plastic dispenser in the bathroom. Gurevitz said he liked what the stickers were saying, but he thought he could add to it. Now the dispenser is just one more thing that is covered with Gurevitz’s collage. “I can look at it and still see new things,” he said. “It’s like looking in the mirror, but your reflection keeps changing. You can never really get to the bottom of it.”There are also handmade tiles covering the floor created by Danielle Urschel, a regular customer of Runcible Spoon. She created the original tiles, which had waves on them, but replaced them about a year ago with images of multicolored fish, some resembling a goldfish and a gray, red and transparent fish currently in the tub.“People will come through and say, ‘We’re just using the bathroom,’” O’Neill said. “Little kids, once they discover it, will make three or four trips to the bathroom even though it’s probably not necessary. People won’t use the other bathroom.”The bathroom has gone through different levels of changes. Besides the artwork, the fish have been stolen or visitors have put their own fish in, Gurevitz said. The two fish that currently live in the tub were born in the pond that used to be outside the restaurant about three years ago. The tub currently has a filter system and has to be cleaned every other month.“It never had to be cleaned before the filter system,” Gurevitz said. “The tub was all green on the bottom and people would get freaked out, but I thought it was beautiful because it was ecologically clean.”Joe Loop, a customer who has been coming to the restaurant for years, has seen the transformation the restroom has undergone and appreciates the amount of maintenance the owners have put into it.“It’s quite attractive,” Loop said. “There’s a lot of oohs and ahhs when people bring their friends in. The first thing they do is show them the bathroom.”
(07/27/09 12:45am)
The Court.
(07/27/09 12:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Besides wearing her tiara and trying to attend as many fair events with her court as possible, the Monroe County Queen, Makenzy Hamilton, will also spend a lot of her time grooming and showing her two horses.Hamilton decided a week before the show she’d trade her cowboy boots for high heels. She bought her dress at the last minute because she wasn’t sure she’d have time to enter the pageant, let alone be fair queen, and show her horses Tuesday and Thursday.“I was standing up there, and I was thinking that it will be great for whoever wins,” Hamilton said. “They said it was contestant 31, and I was like, ‘Wow, I’m glad she won.’ And then I was like, ‘Wait ... that’s me.’”Though Hamilton said this is her first time getting all “girlied up,” and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to walk in her high heels, she’ll now be competing in the Indiana State Fair pageant in August.“She’s 100 percent tomboy. I did not expect it,” her mother, Rebecca Hamilton, said. “We were getting stuff together to leave and then we were like, ‘Really, that’s our daughter?’”The competition is based 50 percent on the interview process and then on professional wear and evening attire. There is a swimsuit competition, but the queen and her court are not judged based on that portion. Hamilton said during her five-minute interview, all she talked about was her horses.“We’re very busy during the fair, especially with the horses,” Hamilton said. “We have to get them ready the night before. You’re out there all day, hot and sweaty and making sure their stalls are ready and decorating their stalls.”Most other girls said they were excited for Hamilton.“I really love Makenzy Hamilton,” said Taylor Kerr, fourth runner-up. “I obviously wanted myself to win, but I’d want her to win if I couldn’t. We were the last two to go, and we thought that was a big deal.”The 32 girls participating in the pageant had less than a week to prepare for the more than 2-hour-long show.On Tuesday, the girls began learning the opening show and spent most of their week preparing, putting in two to six hours each day.“I helped them with the dance and how to walk and turn,” said last year’s fair queen, Julie Johnston. “The first night you have to do a lot of organizing so the show goes well.”Johnston, who met the girls Tuesday at the Queen’s Tea, said Hamilton and her court have a long week cut out for them.“I attended every event and every show,” Johnston said. “I showed pigs, and I was in the derby. It’ll be relaxing, but it’ll be a lot different than last year.”Though all the girls in the pageant are members of 4-H and have a full week ahead of them, Hamilton said she still doesn’t think it has hit her how busy she’ll be.“I guarantee I’ll wake up tomorrow and be like, ‘I don’t know what to do, Mom, I need your help,’” she said.