Region

IU 'best fit' for Bloomington South quarterback

By Matt Mattucci · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:39 a.m.

With his high school football career now in the books, Bloomington High School South quarterback Ben Chappell won't have to travel far to start his college football career next fall. In fact, a seven-minute car ride will be all he needs to go from a high school star to a Big Ten quarterback.

Wisconsin combats Big Ten Halloween parties

By Mike Malik · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:39 a.m.

Students making the trip north to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the Halloween weekend festivities might want to think twice about putting on that French maid or Mario costume. A recent letter from the Dean of Students office at Wisconsin to all the Big Ten schools states the implementation of two policies that will be carried out this weekend in an effort to discourage out-of-town students from attending the annual bash.

Duos advance at Wilson/ITA Midwest Regional

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:38 a.m.

The Wilson/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Midwest Regional Championships provided few bright spots for the IU men's tennis team. One of those bright spots was the stellar play by the team's top doubles pair of seniors Neil Kenner and Dmytro Ishtuganov. Seeded No. 12 in the doubles draw, the duo reached the quarterfinals but lost a tight 9-8 (5) set to the top-seeded, No. 19 ranked team of Jeremy Clark and Jakob Gustafssen from Louisville.

Ratliff out indefinitely after injury

By Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:37 a.m.

Sophomore guard A.J. Ratliff is out for an undetermined amount of time with an injury to his right thumb, which occurred during Monday afternoon's practice.

Kelley awards innovative Indiana businesses

By Sonia Rana · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:09 a.m.

A new awards program from the Kelley School of Business honored 62 Indiana companies last week, and more than half of the finalists in the program were life science firms.

Frat row home to campus ministry

By Jessica Levco · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:08 a.m.

When Stephanie Michael attended IU five years ago, she lived in a residential house with her Christian Student Fellowship friends. Worship services took place in academic buildings, but professors complained their singing was too loud. When more students found out about CSF, they wanted to live in the house, too. The CSF base was growing, but there wasn't enough space for everybody.

Late news and civil rights

By Adam Aasen and Alyson Brodsy · Wednesday, Oct. 26,2005 12:08 a.m.

In our increasingly instantaneous news cycle, the old-fashioned print newspaper has a few disadvantages that can be seen quite often. The biggest of all is the deadline. One single issue of a newspaper takes massive amounts of preparation. Some stories and designs are worked on for months before they appear in a paper. It's an extensive process and it's one that starts all over when breaking news occurs.

Life's a party. Plan it.

By Alyson Brodsy and Joanna Borns · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 11:28 p.m.

When the bride is about to walk down the aisle with chewing gum in her mouth, it's one of the wedding planner's many duties to stick out a hand and tell her to spit it out. Pat Bailey, a Bloomington wedding planner, once instinctively held out her hand to receive bridal gum right before a ceremony started. She says she would expect no less dedication from her two interns junior Rachel Schiff and senior Angie Botos.

Sex offender to return to Indiana

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 11:19 p.m.

EVANSVILLE -- A fugitive sex offender caught after being profiled on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" was scheduled to face child molesting charges in Indiana courts next week. Detectives from Evansville and Posey County plan to travel to Fargo, N.D., on Friday to pick up William Carl Davis, 33, and bring him back to Indiana.

Supreme Court project creates new jury database

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 11:17 p.m.

A project to boost the efficiency of Indiana's jury service will go online in January, allowing court administrators to reach a wider cross-section of society and avoid sending jury summons to the wrong addresses. Currently, nearly half of the addresses used to call Hoosiers to jury duty are incorrect -- a situation that wastes taxpayer dollars when jury summons are mailed to outdated addresses.

Indiana woman dies while diving in Caribbean

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 11:16 p.m.

COLUMBUS, Ind. -- An Indiana woman died and a former Hoosier was injured when a weekend diving trip went awry off the Caribbean coast of Belize. Abigail Brinkman, 28, was among four people who had been missing since Saturday, having apparently tried to swim to land after their boat began drifting out to sea. A fishing vessel found three survivors and Brinkman's body Monday, said a man who answered the phone at her parents' home and identified himself as a family friend. The divers -- two men and two women -- apparently had devices that allowed them to stay afloat during their three-day ordeal at sea. The three survivors were taken to a hospital in Belize City, Belize police spokesman G. Michael Reed said.

Activists: Army 'distorts' truth about nerve agent disposal

By Alyson Brodsy and Rick Callahan · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 11:13 p.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Activists from six states accuse the Army of distorting the facts in a recent letter rejecting their proposal that the waste from a deadly nerve agent being destroyed in western Indiana be disposed of on-site. Last month, several watchdog and environmental groups urged the Army to abandon plans to ship millions of gallons of wastewater to a DuPont Inc. plant in New Jersey for treatment and eventual discharge into the Delaware River.

Disaster burnout, donation fatigue

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:55 p.m.

When the tsunami hit South and Southeast Asia last winter, student groups at IU-Bloomington raised awareness for the horrific tragedy and turned out their pockets for its victims. Many of the funds raised were sent to the Red Cross and other worthy humanitarian organizations. Again this fall, when the devastation of Hurricane Katrina became apparent, student groups played host to fund-raisers and benefits to contribute to disaster relief.

Scary books, movies leave mark on children

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:47 p.m.

SOUTH BEND -- When she was a little kid, Kimberly Wheaton, now 11, swore she'd never set foot in Texas. After seeing the horror film "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Kimberly wanted to hide. "I'm never going to Texas because they never caught (the killer)," she said. Though Daniel Contreras, 12, loves reading "Goosebumps" books now, he remembers being scared of them at age 6 when older kids told him about a man who cuts off people's heads in one book. With Halloween just a scream away, experts remind us that what might be fun for older children and adults can be a long-term nightmare for young children.

Retro nights come to Axis Nightclub

By Jimmy Rae · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:45 p.m.

Retro Night at Axis Nightclub in Bloomington has been a big hit for more than five years. The idea started with deejay Pam Thrash's Retro Lunch Hour on local radio station B97 in 1999. Thrash, was approached by Dave Kubiak, owner of Bluebird and Axis nightclubs, to recreate Retro Lunch Hour in front of a live audience at Axis. Kubiak and Thrash haven't looked back since. "I really never expected it to be this popular for this long," Thrash said. "I figured when I started Retro Lunch Hour and then Retro Dance Night in 1999 that it would go strong for about a year and then I'd need to come up with another lunch-hour idea. I had no idea how successful it would become and how long it would last; it's still going strong."

Southern Indiana theater to reopen after fire

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:45 p.m.

WASHINGTON, Ind. -- A theater standing since 1881 was expected to reopen in a little more than two weeks after an electrical fire damaged sections of it. The Sept. 18 electrical fire was mostly contained in the attic of the 124-year-old Indiana Theatre, although there was some smoke and water damage, and firefighters had to cut a hole in the roof to access the fire.

Illinois professor turns molecules into artwork

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:44 p.m.

URBANA, Ill. -- Emad Tajkhorshid's wife probably wouldn't let him pick the paint for the living room; he admits he's bad with colors. But that didn't stop organizers of an art exhibit in New York from inquiring about visual handiwork by Tajkhorshid and his colleagues at the University of Illinois' Beckman Institute.

Matt Nathanson performs for IU students at Alumni Hall

By Pat Giese and Patrick Giese · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 10:42 p.m.

A man with stiff hair, held in place by what seems to be pounds of styling gel, sits at a table with a blank sheet of paper and a black permanent marker scratching his eyebrow. He's scheduled to take the stage in 15 minutes, and the task of putting 18 songs on paper seems insurmountable. "I have to go to a computer to see what I've been playing," singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson said.

IU avoids student fees for file sharing

By Allie Townsend · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 1:52 a.m.

This week, Yahoo! closed a deal with Stanford University to provide free legal music access to students. More universities than ever are signing contracts with music download companies, according to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. But, these agreements have not been met with overwhelming support of students. And that lack of student support is exactly why Deputy Information Technology Policy Officer Merri Beth Lavagnino said IU does not offer this service to students.

ACLU analysis finds 21 homicides among deaths of U.S. prisoners overseas

By Alyson Brodsy and Lolita C. Baldor · Tuesday, Oct. 25,2005 1:52 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- At least 21 detainees who died while being held in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed, many during or after interrogations, according to an analysis of Defense Department data by the American Civil Liberties Union. The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.