Community Arts

New film series explores nationality, race

Lovers of unique and controversial cinema will be happily surprised if they wander into The Cinemat any Thursday night in April, as they will find the first-ever German and Turkish series in Bloomington.

GATOR-MADE

INDIANAPOLIS -- As Joakim Noah came off the RCA Dome floor Monday night, he turned to the corner full of Florida fans and flexed every inch of his seven-foot wingspan. Those arms had just risen up and tallied 16 points and six blocked shots -- an NCAA tournament record. Now, finally for Gator fans, those arms spread out and welcomed Florida to its first NCAA tournament title celebration.

National championship game blog

6 p.m. -- I arrive in Indy. Only three hours from game time, I still get a parking spot immediately and spend no more than five minutes driving around downtown. That's convenience. It's hard to ignore the majesty of the Final Four, though. Capitol Street in Indy is absolutely loaded with pedestrians, one of whom I almost run into as a I take a good long look at the RCA Dome's exterior decorations. It took about 3 minutes after I got back into town, and my eyes, glazed and droopy from the weekend, are immediately opened.

Rollins stretches hitting streak to 37 games

PHILADELPHIA -- Jimmy Rollins stretched his hitting streak to 37 games Monday with a double in the eighth inning of Philadelphia's season opening 13-5 loss to St. Louis. Rollins ended the 2005 season with a 36-game hitting streak, the ninth-longest over one season in big league history, and the longest in the majors since 1987, when Paul Molitor hit safely in 39 consecutive games. Rollins extended his streak by lining a 3-0 pitch off Adam Wainwright down the right-field line. He got a standing ovation from those remaining among the sellout crowd of 44,614 at Citizens Bank Park, tipped his hat to the fans and made sure he got the ball for a keepsake.

Winning streaks becoming commonplace for Nets under IU grad Lawrence Frank

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Nobody can start the Nets on a winning streak quite like coach Lawrence Frank. In the last 30 years, New Jersey has been on a 10-game winning streak or better all of five times. The last three all came under Frank, and two of those were this season -- something only the Nets have done. Now New Jersey is on a 12-game roll, two victories away from the franchise record set, perhaps not coincidentally, when Frank took over for the fired Byron Scott two season ago. And to think Frank was the subject of job-security whispers as the Nets struggled early in the season.

IU strays from Big Ten play against Aces

Coming off of a successful opening weekend of Big Ten play and a day off Monday, the IU softball team is playing with Aces. And they're not playing cards. The Hoosiers will take on in-state rival Evansville Purple Aces today in Bloomington -- their first matchup with a fellow Indiana team this season. IU, off to its best start since 1997, has seen a quick turnaround after playing four games last weekend to open the Big Ten part of its season. The team scored victories against Ohio State and Penn State, whom they had not beaten since the 2004 season. Even with the quick turnaround, IU coach Stacy Phillips said she was not worried about the effects it might have on her team.

Hoosiers take hot bats into Evansville

Four games into the Big Ten schedule, the IU baseball team returns to Indiana today, but remains in the midst of an 11-game road trip as it takes on the Evansville Purple Aces at Charles H. Braun Stadium. While even mid-week non-conference games are important for IU coach Tracy Smith's team, they serve a different purpose than the four-game conference series that lies ahead at the end of the week.

President throws out 1st pitch

CINCINNATI -- Perhaps it was the pitching practice he got over the weekend or inspiration from the new baseball bat that outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. gave him. President George W. Bush had lots of oomph in his arm to throw out a strong first pitch for the Cincinnati Reds' home opener. Bush became the first sitting president to throw a ceremonial pitch in Cincinnati as the Reds took on the Chicago Cubs. The ball to catcher Jason LaRue was high and off the plate, but Bush called it "my best pitch, which was kind of a slow ball."

The Catcher and the Lie

Welcome to Opening Day 2006. The sun is out and baseball is on television at 1 p.m. -- giving me yet another excuse to miss class. Forget 2001. This is the year of Barry Bonds. And whether you hate him or really hate him, what Bonds does during every at-bat will shape what kind of a season this will be remembered for. So without further ado ... I present Opening Day 2006.

IU group's discovery a link to the past

An archaeologist based at IU's Stone Age Institute and Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of Technology is leading a group of researchers who recently found the nearly complete cranium of an early human ancestor in Gawis, Ethiopia. Sileshi Semaw's group is part of ongoing research in the Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project area, which began in Ethiopia in 1999.

CAMPUS QUIZ

City suffers storm damages

About 3,600 Bloomington residents were still without power Monday afternoon from a storm that swept through Bloomington Sunday night, downing trees and closing roads -- and it might not be finished yet. Duke Energy Indiana spokesperson Angeline Protogere said about 14,000 people in Bloomington and 121,000 Indiana residents experienced power outages from the storm.

Destruction reported across state

WASHINGTON, Ind. -- Jhona King gasped when she saw her storm-damaged house for the first time Monday, its roof dotted with holes and debris scattered on the ground alongside her property. "Lord, it's crazy," the 27-year-old Washington resident said. "I guess I'll repair the roof and keep on going. I'm glad it didn't take my whole house down." Residents throughout much of central and southern Indiana spent Monday assessing the damage from a powerful line of storms that was being blamed for as many as 27 deaths elsewhere in the Midwest.

9 U.S. troops killed in western Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Four American troops were killed by hostile fire, while five others died and three were missing after their truck rolled over in a flash flood this weekend in separate incidents in western Iraq, the military said Monday. In violence targeting Iraqis, a suicide truck bomb exploded Monday near a Shiite mosque in northeastern Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after evening prayers, killing at least 10 people and wounding 30, police said. The U.S. military said it was "using all the resources available" to find the two Marines and a sailor who were missing after Sunday's accident, which occurred near the Asad air base in Anbar, near the Syrian border.

Jury: Sept. 11 conspirator is eligible for capital punishment

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be executed, deciding that his lies to FBI agents led directly to at least one death in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "You'll never get my blood, God curse you all," Moussaoui said afterward. He sat in his chair and prayed silently as the verdict was read. The only person to face charges in this country in the nation's worst terrorist assault, Moussaoui now faces a second phase of his sentencing trial to determine if he actually will be put to death. That phase is set to begin Thursday morning.

Storms, tornadoes kill at least 27 in Midwest

NEWBERN, Tenn. -- Thunderstorms packing tornadoes and hail as big as softballs ripped through eight states, killing at least 27 people, injuring scores of others and destroying hundreds of homes in the South and Midwest on Sunday. Tennessee was hit hardest, with tornadoes striking five western counties Sunday and killing 23 people. Most of the deaths were along a 25-mile path stretching from Newbern, about 80 miles northeast of Memphis, to Bradford, officials said. The Highway Patrol sent teams with search dogs to the area Monday to check for survivors in what remained of damaged homes and businesses.

STORM

Stabbing results in arrest

Bloomington police arrested Bloomington resident Randy D. Butcher Saturday evening on preliminary charges of aggravated battery and possession of a controlled substance after he allegedly stabbed a man in the stomach. Bloomington Police Department officers met with a 24-year-old man in the Bloomington Hospital emergency room Saturday afternoon who was being treated for stab wounds, said BPD Detective Sgt. David Drake, reading from the police report. The man reported that he had visited a residence on South Rockport Road earlier that day, where he got into an argument with a woman in the apartment.

Local doughnut shop fills hole in stomach

For decades, doughnuts have been a staple food for Americans, though often hidden in the shadow of apple pie. Yet these sticky slices of heaven have become big business, as companies like Krispy Kreme and Dunkin' Donuts have seen their revenues surpass $500 million each, for a combined $1.3 billion in 2005, according to the companies' Web sites. Despite the daunting presence of these large companies, small doughnut shops still manage to find their way into the business landscape. With a 40-year history in the Bloomington area, Cresent Donut Shop has maintained its niche in the community, despite increased competition from the larger companies.

Informatics program compares Google results in different countries

Google is not unique to America, but the version Americans use is. The School of Informatics created a program to visually contrast search engines such as Google and Yahoo! and their results in different countries, said Filippo Menczer, associate professor at the School of Informatics. Results might vary because of censorship laws, and the same keywords will not necessarily yield the same results in any two countries. With the program, Chinese search engines can be accessed with American versions simultaneously, and results from both can be displayed on a computer screen. Menczer, along with computer science student Mark Meiss, developed the program, CenSEARCHip.