Region

Tree gets the heave

Last week, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill made a decision that was so stupid, I almost lost respect for their basketball team. Almost. For years, UNC displayed Christmas trees in two of their campus libraries. I’d say trees are probably one of the most generalized Christmas – excuse me, holiday – icons we have in this country. Not surprisingly, there was no manger scene on display, and no sign of anything related to the actual beginning of Christmas. If you’re like some students on this campus and have decided a college education deems you intelligent enough to declare the absence of a god, then you may not know what I’m talking about. But for the rest of you who suffer from that disease called “religion” – or even humility – carry on.

Around the Arts

The War on Drugs comes to B-town

Like a silver rocket barreling down a dusty Highway 61, Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs will blow through Bloomington at 10 p.m. Friday at Bear’s Place, playing their third show of a short seven-stop tour. Tickets cost $6.

Singing loud for all to hear

Both young and old, friends and family joined together Wednesday to hear Christmas carols and melodies at “Chimes of Christmas” at the IU Auditorium.

Looking good in ’09

Last week, I gave you five surefire ways to improve your style for the New Year. Well, that was just the first half of my fashion guidance. I’m back with my final fashion column of the semester to give you five more ways to look better in ’09.

IU Center for Urban Policy and Environment to receive $2 million from Lilly Endowment

The IU Center for Urban Policy and Environment  will receive $2 million from Lilly Endowment Inc., during the next three years, IU President Michael McRobbie announced today.

Dance majors take stage in senior project

A new generation of IU contemporary dance majors has been working for the past four years, and now, in an exhibition at the John Waldron Arts Center titled “Roots and Wings,” the students are ready to show what they have learned.

With landfill closing, Monroe County sets goal for more recycling

Employees at the Monroe County Solid Waste Management District said recycling has become a critical goal of the district, especially with the closure of the Monroe County Landfill.

University offers free Adobe software

IU entered into a three-year “Education Enterprise License Agreement” in November which allows students, staff, professors and professors emeritus to download Adobe software from www.iuware.iu.edu.

Hoosiers leapfrog TCU

Everyday, it seems, the Hoosiers face a new challenge. At halftime Wednesday, Tom Crean added one more to the staggering heap: come out with the best start to a second half as they’ve had all season. He described the team’s play following halftime as a “glaring” weakness, and with the Hoosiers coming off of a particularly sloppy first half, it wasn’t clear if they would be up to the challenge.

STRAIGHT BIDNESS: Injury prone

Ivy Tech enrollment surpasses IU

According to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Ivy Tech Community College is now the largest public post-secondary school in Indiana, surpassing IU with 120,447 enrolled students for the 2007-08 academic year.PODCAST: Hoosier Headlines

Alumni game brings in stars from the past

Planned Parenthood staffer ‘no longer employed’

The Planned Parenthood employee involved in an online video that went viral Dec. 3 is no longer employed by the organization, Planned Parenthood announced Wednesday.

MILLER'S LAP AROUND NASCAR: Next season could look very different

RUNNING THE FLOOR: Brief return to normal

It had been months, but it really seemed more like years. This hall – as it’s purported – wasn’t close to capacity, but when those flags hit the parque surface, the floor rumbled like it hadn’t since that dead winter of nine months ago.

Men's basketball pulls it out in 2nd half

Maybe it was freshman Malik Story’s buzzer-beating 3 to end the first half. Maybe it was learning from their last two games against highly ranked opponents.  Whatever the reason, the Hoosiers uncharacteristically came out in the second half on fire, turning a four-point halftime lead into a second half laughter against TCU. “The first four minutes of the second half were really crucial in burying a team,” said freshman forward Tom Pritchard. “That’s what we had to do, and we did it.” In their four losses this season, the Hoosiers have been the ones buried and playing flat in the second half – they were outscored 167-109 in those games. But Wednesday night was a different story.

Gift card exchange

Gift card exchange

While gift cards are traditionally used at the store from which they were purchased, Landlocked Music will now accept cards from any major chain store that sells media items.

Britain to withdraw most troops from Iraq by June

Britain announced Wednesday it will withdraw all but a handful of its 4,000 soldiers from Iraq next year, ending a mission that was unpopular at home and failed to curb the rise of Iranian-backed Shiite militias in the south.