IUPD

Hoosiers welcome national champion Baylor for opener

By Tim O Brien and Tim O'Brien · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:56 a.m.

To start the season, Big Ten women's basketball teams like No. 10 Michigan State welcomes University of California-Santa Barbara and Western Carolina University. Illinois faces Loyola University Chicago. And Northwestern prepares for Creighton University. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers have the privilege of playing defending national champions Baylor to start their season. IU will tip off the 2005 regular season against the Lady Bears at 6 p.m. Saturday in Assembly Hall.

I'm waiting to be impressed

By Ryan Phillips · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:54 a.m.

I 'm issuing a challenge right now. If the Hoosiers want to impress me in their opening game tonight against Nicholls State, they have to accomplish a few easy tasks. In a matchup like this one, winning simply isn't enough. When you're playing a tiny school that happened to go 6-21 last year while playing in the Southland Conference, you need to make a statement. Nicholls State's football team came to Bloomington in early September and nearly pulled one of the biggest (and most embarrassing) upsets in school history. But luckily you can't run the triple option in basketball, so I think we're OK.

After 2 injury-filled years, Kline ready to make impact

By Brian Janosch · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:53 a.m.

During his freshman year, Sean Kline threw Assembly Hall into a frenzy with a between-the-legs slam that won him the Hoosier Hysteria dunk contest. In his junior year, Kline threw Assembly Hall into a frenzy of a different sort -- one of heckels and boos.

Old Oaken Rivals

By Matt Mattucci · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:52 a.m.

Hoosier fans clad in black and red stormed the rain-soaked Memorial Stadium field after the game. They leapt out of the stands and made their way to one of the goalposts, pushing and tugging away at it in a mass of celebration. With a 13-7 victory, IU was able to weld its bronze block "I" onto the chain of the Old Oaken Bucket. That was four years ago.

Collapse of consensus

By Alyson Brodsy and Brian Stewart · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:52 a.m.

The debate surrounding the Bush administration's decision to deliver a decisive and final blow to Saddam Hussein has occasioned many unserious and unfair charges among opponents of that momentous decision. The origins of the Iraq War have been reduced by partisan Democrats to a short narrative. Their theory, crudely stated (how else?), is: sinister neoconservatives persuaded an inexperienced, illegitimate president in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, to "lie us into war."

Boycott of the week

By Alyson Brodsy and Ayesha Awan · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:51 a.m.

It seems America is going through a "Boycott-of-the-Week" phase. Personally, the Abercrombie and Fitch boycott put a smile on my face. I actually did not think it was possible for any mass group of teenagers to go against the (pointlessly) popular Abercrombie. The boycott was a form of protest against shirts that displayed slogans such as "Who Needs Brains When You Have These?" which many young women felt was derogatory and a bad influence on impressionable young girls.

Playing obese

By Alyson Brodsy and Amanda Dorman · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:51 a.m.

Lately, it's not so easy being super model Tyra Banks. Banks, the woman who has made a career out of strutting her stuff on the runway in little else than skimpy lingerie, is used to turning people's heads in admiration. But Nov. 4, heads turned for a completely different reason. This time, there was laughter, stares and blunt comments.

An 'A' for racial diversity

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:50 a.m.

The Black Coache Association recently commended IU with an "A" for its football hiring practices.

Pentagon denies chemical weapons used on civilians

By Alyson Brodsy and Robert Burns · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:50 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny an Italian television news report that it was used against civilians. Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Pentagon spokesman, said Tuesday that while white phosphorous is most frequently used to mark targets or obscure a position, it was used at times in Fallujah as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants.

House Democrat calls for withdrawal from Iraq

By Alyson Brodsy and Liz Sidoti · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:49 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- An influential House Democrat who voted for the Iraq war called Thursday for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, another sign of growing unease in Congress about the conflict. "It is time for a change in direction," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., one of Congress' most hawkish Democrats. "Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region."

Amish, Mennonites begin rebuilding after tornado

By Alyson Brodsy and Charles Wilson · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:47 a.m.

CANNELBURG, Ind. -- Amish and Mennonite volunteers have begun rebuilding houses stripped by a tornado that carved a swath of destruction through rural southern Indiana. Before officials had even completed their damage assessment, hundreds of volunteers from both faiths swarmed the littered hillsides and battered rooftops Wednesday morning.

City allows theater to serve alcohol

By Kelly Ginty · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:46 a.m.

Alcohol will continue to be served through special permits at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, despite imminent city ownership. The Bloomington City Council voted 8-0-1, with council member Timothy Mayer absent, to amend a city code that does not allow the consumption of alcohol on city property Wednesday night. The new amendment creates an exception to the rule allowing alcohol at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The Theatre Café inside the theater is run by Bloomingfoods, which obtains temporary permits to sell alcohol at the café several times a year for various events. The only other exception to the rule is the Clubhouse at Cascades Golf Course, which sells beer and wine.

Educators discuss challenges of teaching

By Alyson Brodsy and Rick Callahan · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:46 a.m.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Getting kids interested in science, math and other complex subjects isn't easy for high school teachers, who face the daily challenge of explaining often abstract concepts to their students without boring them. About 500 Indiana educators gathered Thursday to tackle that daunting task during a two-day conference exploring how teachers can spark students' interest in subjects that could eventually help them land high-paying -- and technically demanding -- jobs.

11 women to participate in annual Black and Gold Pageant at Buskirk-Chumley

By Audrie Garrison · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:45 a.m.

Eleven IU women are hoping to earn financial aid Saturday by excelling in public speaking and evening gown attire. Participants of the fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha's 13th annual Miss Black and Gold Pageant will be competing for a $1,000 scholarship at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater Saturday. They will be judged on an introduction (performed in business attire), a talent, a group performance, a pre-performance interview, their GPAs, their community service, the amount of advertisements they sold and their evening gown attire presentation. The top five finalists will also participate in a question-and-answer session, on which they will also be judged.

Mapping system has its day at IU

By Allie Townsend · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:45 a.m.

IU's fifth annual GIS Day mapped its way to the Indiana Memorial Union's Frangipani Room Thursday, celebrating and informing the IU community about one of the country's fastest-growing information technology fields. Representatives from the Indiana Geological Survey, an applied research institution of IU, the IU Geology Library and the City of Bloomington's Information Technology department gathered at the conference to share the numerous uses of the geographic information and imaging systems and global positioning system.

Pope Benedict XVI attends screening of made-for-TV movie about John Paul II

By Alyson Brodsy and Nicole Winfield · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:44 a.m.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI attended a Vatican screening Thursday of a television miniseries on the life of Pope John Paul II -- giving equal billing to the latest biopic on his predecessor after watching a rival production six months ago. Benedict said "Pope John Paul II," which CBS will broadcast Dec. 4 and Dec. 7, provided an important service in spreading the message about the life and works of the late pope.

Designer giving pairs of $215 specialty sneakers to illegal immigrants

By Alyson Brodsy and Elliot Spagat · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:44 a.m.

SAN DIEGO -- The high-top sneakers cost $215 at a San Diego boutique, but the designer is giving them away to migrants before they cross to this side of the U.S.-Mexico border. These are no ordinary shoes. A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

Is Dupont No. 1 party school?

By Alyson Brodsy · Friday, Nov. 18,2005 10:43 a.m.

Even when Bloomington had the No. 1 party school rating due (in part) in to a rambunctious street riot as a result of losing the NCAA men's basketball championship a few years ago, we couldn't compare to the nonstop sex, drugs and drinking described by Tom Wolfe in his fiction novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons."

Satire city: Kill, kill, kill

By Alyson Brodsy and Evan Ross · Thursday, Nov. 17,2005 3:11 p.m.

Last month, satire as we know it ended. The ability to joke at other's expenses died with a whisper out in California with the stroke of a pen. Why, you may ask? Because California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed bill AB1179 into law. That bill will make it illegal to rent "violent video games" to children. This includes game that features "the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being."

Steal this column -- then listen to it

By C. Warner Sills and Alyson Brodsy · Thursday, Nov. 17,2005 3:10 p.m.

During a weekend back home this time last year, a group of what I like to call Evanston street thugs burglarized my small Japanese economy sedan. The aftermath of the heist, although not terribly severe, was upsetting to say the least. The crooks got away with a handful of change from my ashtray, helped themselves to the $40 VCR in my trunk and even indulged in a pack of Orbitz Winterfresh gum. The horror.