Region

Summer abroad leaves Gerling with lessons in life, volleyball

By Jackie Faine and Jacqueline Faine · Tuesday, Sept. 27,2005 12:18 a.m.

IU senior outside hitter Rachel Gerling has been all over the place lately -- making kills at the net, lunging for deep digs and shutting out the opposition with her blocks. She has been making a name for herself with an impressive 3.20 kills per game, 37 service aces, 158 digs and she is the third best blocker for the Hoosiers, averaging 1.02 blocks every time she steps on the court. This past summer, the six-foot senior added another notch to her resume -- a trip to Italy. "I studied studio art and Italian in Florence," Gerling said. "But the best part of the whole trip was getting to experience things that a normal tour wouldn't have given me."

Daniels' highway plan calls for I-69 extension

By Alyson Brodsy and Mike Smith · Tuesday, Sept. 27,2005 12:14 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels announced a sweeping highway plan Monday that would extend Interstate 69 from Indianapolis to Evansville -- possibly funded in part by tolls -- upgrade parts of U.S. 31 and impose higher fees on the Indiana Toll Road. Daniels also suggested the possibility of leasing the Toll Road and an extended I-69 to a private venture, which would receive the tolls and operate and maintain the highways. Those and some other possibilities in the plan would require legislative approval.

Woman overcomes odds, leads full life

By Jessica Wolfe · Tuesday, Sept. 27,2005 12:12 a.m.

For Betsy Higgins, leading a normal life is defying the odds, as she lives with the developmental disorder Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a genetic condition that causes delays in intellectual and physical development, and occurs in about one of every 800 births, according to the National Association for Down Syndrome. Today, although some of her abilities are affected by Down syndrome, she enjoys many of the same activities and deals with many of the same day-to-day pressures as other 32-year-olds. She successfully juggles the responsibilities of her job at T.I.S. Bookstore, both paid and volunteer work at the not-for-profit Stone Belt Arc, located on 10 Street, and singing in her church choir at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church -- not to mention having fun with family and friends.

Oprah to revive 'The Color Purple'

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Sept. 27,2005 12:03 a.m.

NEW YORK -- "The Color Purple," a musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, will have Oprah Winfrey as a producer and investor when it opens on Broadway in December. In Winfrey's first Broadway venture, she will contribute more than $1 million of the musical's $10 million production cost, The New York Times reported Sunday on its Web site. The musical, which has been revised since receiving some bad reviews when it opened in Atlanta last year, will be called "Oprah Winfrey Presents: 'The Color Purple.'"

Hoosiers remember James Dean; childhood recalled

By Alyson Brodsy · Tuesday, Sept. 27,2005 12:02 a.m.

FAIRMOUNT, Ind. -- Nearly 50 years after his death, some of James Dean's former classmates are counting on his enduring fame to help save their decaying alma mater. Fairmount High School alumni gathered Saturday in a 1950s-era gymnasium behind the decrepit, 103-year-old building for their sixth annual reunion. Inevitably, talk turned to their movie star classmate. Wilma Jean Underwood Soultz-Brown, a classmate of Dean's, said she and others don't remember him as a Hollywood legend but as someone who "was just like the rest of us." "He drove the tractor when we had class parties out at the Winslow Farm -- and we always had a hay ride," she said. Soultz-Brown supports the idea of saving the original school building, which includes the auditorium where Dean first gave speeches and performed in plays overseen by the school's drama teacher, Adeline Nall.

eBay: The ultimate business simulator

By Alyson Brodsy and David Weisburd · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:59 p.m.

Editor's note: This is the second column in a six-column series giving advice to beginning entrepreneurs. In my opinion, the creation of eBay has been the cause of the greatest entrepreneurial revolution in the history of the world -- a revolution that has proved greater than the creation of the Internet, the typewriter and even the quill pen. The reason I'm partial to eBay is because my first successful venture was an eBay business I started in eighth grade. My company, Viddiot, specialized in selling used video games to buyers on eBay. The lessons I learned selling on eBay have proved priceless. I highly recommend starting an eBay business because it will teach you how to market your product, interact with customers, deal with electronic payments and deal with suppliers.

Oregon wine enters Asian market via Disney

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:57 p.m.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon wine has won the keys to the Magic Kingdom -- in the People's Republic of China. When the new Disney theme park opened in Hong Kong last week, Oregon wine was featured on the exclusive wine list. The deal helps put Oregon wine "on the Asia map," said Brian Liu, international trade manager with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. In January, Oregon sent its first wine to China, shipping 1,250 cases of the state's signature pinot noir to the world's most populous nation. It's a difficult market to penetrate because unlike in neighboring Japan -- where red wine sales recently overtook sake sales in Tokyo -- wine is still an oddity in mainland China, sold mostly in five-star hotels and high-end restaurants. If Oregon winemakers succeed in tapping into the Chinese market, it could spell huge gains, say industry experts. Overall wine sales in China are between $7 billion and $10 billion, according to the U.S. Foreign Agricultural Service.

Kwame Jackson of 'The Apprentice' to speak at Union

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:56 p.m.

The runner-up from the first season of "The Apprentice," Kwame Jackson, will present "Lessons from the Boardroom" at 7 p.m. Thursday in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union. Jackson has Wall Street experience and a master's in business from Harvard University. Since appearing on "The Apprentice," Jackson has co-founded Legacy Holdings LLC, a diversified holding company positioned to engage in real estate development, fashion, television and film production. The event, sponsored by the IU chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants and Kappa Alpha Psi, is free and open to the public.

Decision to change Marshall Field's name to Macy's met with bitterness

By Alyson Brodsy and Don Babwin · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:54 p.m.

CHICAGO -- It has always been much more than a department store. It's the magical place where parents brought their children to see the windows at Christmastime, where those children grew and did the same with their kids -- stopping, of course, to visit the one true Santa Claus. It is Marshall Field's. Or simply "Field's" to everybody in Chicago. For longer than anyone can remember, Marshall Field's has been one of the few constants in an ever-changing city. With its famous clock, the store that was built in stages between 1892 and 1914 is as much a part of the city's landscape as Wrigley Field and the Sears Tower.

Remotely controlled

By Alyson Brodsy and Colin Dugdale · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:51 p.m.

The sun was a giant lemon, plump and ripe in a deep, Smurf-colored sky. As I mowed the grass one serene day last August, I watched the sunlight bounce across cumulonimbus cotton balls, hopping from cloud to cloud like a meteorological kangaroo. That's when my neighbor, a peer of mine, drove by my house and yelled, "Faggot!" The word was startling, like a kick in the groin, and shot through my pride like a bullet. The sky's shade quickly sunk from Smurf to smut. It was like he had reached into the sky itself and begun squeezing the lemon right over me, allowing the droplets of tart juice to fall into an open wound. I was livid.

RHA recycles

By Alyson Brodsy and Megan Robb · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:49 p.m.

IU turns out a lot of trash. To deal with waste from building construction and management of dorms and dining halls, many universities, including IU, have departments devoted to recycling and conservation efforts. It's not as common, however, for a Residence Halls Association to publicize and support those efforts. IU's RHA is doing exactly that. Bravo.

Universal victims

By Alyson Brodsy and Precious Sanders · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:48 p.m.

A report by The Associated Press this past weekend revealed 150,000 medical patients in India last year were foreigners, many of them from the United States. Why would an American travel all the way to India for medical services? It's cheaper. As of 2003, Americans paid 79 percent more for health insurance than they did in 1996. The average employee also paid $1,008 more for family coverage. But here's the real kicker: The average American, even with medical coverage, is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy, according to a Harvard University study.

Foreign students under surveillance

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:46 p.m.

During a speech to the Heritage Foundation last week, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney called for stricter surveillance of foreign students attending American universities. Romney highlighted the need for a coalition between state and federal authorities to gather more intelligence by subjecting foreign students who come from countries affiliated with terrorism to stricter surveillance and by wiretapping mosques. A federal database tracking international students' majors, addresses, visas and dates of entrance into and departure from America already exists. While Romney acknowledged that federal authorities alone have the authority to survey students at the present, his speech failed to describe what type of additional information the database should include. In fact, his speech failed to refer to the database at all. His silence concerning the specific terms of his proposal summarized in his speech to the Heritage Foundation suggests he hasn't taken the time to inform himself about the issue before his stirring call to action.

Roberts heads to likely confirmation

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:42 p.m.

WASHINGTON -- John Roberts, hailed by supporters as "the brightest of the bright," cruised Monday toward easy confirmation as chief justice while President Bush hinted that his next pick to the Supreme Court could be a minority or a woman. "Diversity is one of the strengths of the country," the president said. Roberts, the president's first pick for the Supreme Court, is assured of getting an overwhelming confirmation vote by the Senate later this week, making him the nation's 17th chief justice.

Soldier guilty for maltreatment at Abu Ghraib prison

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:41 p.m.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted Monday by a military jury on six of seven counts. England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.

Sharon wins narrow vote in key Likud referendum

By Steve Weizman · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 11:39 p.m.

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon survived a major challenge to his leadership in the party he helped found, narrowly claiming victory Monday in a vote widely seen as a referendum on his rule and the recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The victory capped a dramatic comeback for Sharon, who has been vilified by Likud Party hard-liners for his recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and who had been trailing in recent opinion polls. Sharon's supporters said the victory meant the prime minister would push forward with his peace efforts.

BREAKING NEWS: Student diagnosed with bacterial meningitis

By Alyson Brodsy · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 7:03 p.m.

The IU Health Center issued a public health alert today after a student was dignosed with bacterial memingitis. The student, an 18-year-old freshman, is in critical conditon at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. Officials are meetings tonight at 8 p.m. in Briscoe Quad, the student' s residence, to hand out oral doses of Cipro to any students possibly affected.

Brother honors Comiskey with paper cranes

By Carrie Ritchie · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 7:03 p.m.

Daniel Comiskey walked down Kirkwood Avenue in complete solitude early Saturday morning. He was going to the Buskirk-Chumley Theater to see if the 1,000 paper cranes he had hung from the marquee as a display during the Lotus Festival in remembrance of his sister, Kate, had survived the wind and rain of the previous night.

LotusFest

By Annysa LaMantia and Anyssa LaMantia · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 2:09 a.m.

The intersection of Washington Street and Kirkwood Avenue was ablaze with color Friday and Saturday as community members gathered for this year's LotusFest.

IUSA to vote on proposed budget

By Hannah Lodge · Monday, Sept. 26,2005 2:09 a.m.

IU Student Association Congress members will cast their votes Tuesday to accept or reject the proposed 2005-06 IUSA budget, which relies on nearly $80,000 of student money.