Region

Going-away party

IU fans wanting to wish the IU men's basketball team luck and watch the final practice before its trip to Atlanta for the Final Four this weekend can attend an open practice and pep rally today at Assembly Hall. The doors open to the public at 4 p.m., and fans can sit on the East side of the arena to watch the final minutes of practice.

'RBI Baseball' hits a homerun

Welcome back

A little more than 12 hours after falling short in the NCAA championship game, a tired IU men's basketball team returned to Bloomington around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday and received a warm welcome from several hundred Hoosier fans. The IU faithful welcomed the team bus back from the airport and followed the Hoosiers inside Assembly Hall, where seniors Dane Fife and Jarrad Odle addressed the gathering of fans and media.

Team readies for conference tournament

If you had to label IU men's basketball coach Mike Davis as either a pessimist or an optimist, you would have to go with the latter. In an up-and-down season, Davis has spent much of this year with a positive outlook. He hit a low after the loss to Southern Illinois, but he has been optimistic since.

Skateboarding rolls into mainstream

Some say Bloomington has a skateboarding dilemma. The activity is resurfacing as a mainstream sport. But, with its growing popularity, some who participate in the sport say they are having a hard time finding places to skate where they won't get into trouble.

Cyclists ready for men's Little 500

Let's get one thing straight about Saturday's Men's Little 500: Nobody will lap the field like the Cutters did last year. This year's field is too deep and the riders are too evenly matched for one team to dominate the race. Unlike last year when only a few teams had a chance, a number of teams could take the checkered flag.

Hey real slackers, don't get up for this

Go home, already!

Is anyone else tired of these so-called activists who protest all around town and campus? Take, for example, the Starbucks protesters who were out near the coffee shop two weeks ago -- a year after Starbucks was built. That place is packed almost constantly. It doesn't look like the protests are working. But do the protesters get the hint? They're still out there with signs that say "Stavebucks," chanting to shut the shop down. They don't realize they are wasting their time and have been for a year.

Coalition for transgendered stages first public lobbying event

For three days in May, three dozen transgendered individuals took to Capitol Hill to tell their stories. They were stories of heartache, of disappointment and disillusionment, of confusion and stigma.

Al Qaeda lab suggests effort to make chemical weapons

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Materials left behind in a compound used by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, including a booklet offering advice on how to survive a nuclear explosion, suggest the terrorist group may have been trying to develop chemical arms and other unconventional weapons.

AOL lawsuit without merit

A federal lawsuit has been filed against AOL Time Warner alleging that America Online has allowed hate speech to go unsanctioned in Muslim chat rooms. The class-action lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court in Virginia holds that the Internet-provider giant has violated federal civil rights laws. It asks for an injunction requiring AOL to prevent members from sending messages contrary to its terms of service agreement, which bars hate speech.

Morning after pill still distributed

Planned Parenthood will begin offering free emergency contraception to rape survivors this month. The family-planning center will continue to sell the pill to the public for $29.

Around The Region

Nine indicted in alleged drug ring Poultry truck explosion deliberate Indiana businesses receiving tax bills Report: Indiana guard ranks near bottom

Red Bull under investigation

The popular drink Red Bull, sometimes mixed with vodka, might have adverse side affects many students aren't aware of. "I started drinking it because I wouldn't sleep much...after drinking it, I could stay up all night and have fun," sophomore Corey Gavin said.

Skrape: Drops of Jupiter

Not so much goodbye, but good luck

Movies can provide us with a great way to look at life. One of my favorite movies is "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." One thing that I always remember from that movie is something that Ferris said. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around every once in a while, you can miss it."

Does father know best?

Why do others hate us?

The devil himself couldn't have dreamt up this week's horror. Needless to say, this is hardly the end, but the beginning of something terrible. As I think about the people on the airplanes that were used to kill thousands, as I watch replays of the World Trade Center towers crashing, as I see the smoldering hole in our defense building, as I wonder what is to come, I can only think, "Why?" "Why do so many others hate us?"

New lead in Behrman case

Authorities are looking into a new lead in the Jill Behrman case. Behrman, a 19-year-old lifelong Bloomington resident who had just completed her freshman year at IU, went out for a bike ride on the morning of May 31 last year. She never returned. Her bike turned up later that day in an Ellettsville cornfield, more than 10 miles away from where she was last seen. Bloomington police and the FBI have since been investigating the presumed abduction.

Tensions mount as countries debate responsibility for presumed death of pilot

As the standoff between the United States and China enters its second week, no resolution is in sight to the conflict that started with the collision of a U.S. EP-3 Aries II spy plane and a Chinese F-8 fighter jet in international airspace. This is shaping up to be President George W. Bush's first major foray into foreign relations -- an area in which he seemed to be weak during his election campaign.