Region

A night at the movies

IU Sing's 70th annual competition debuts Friday night when "IU Sing 2002: A Night at the Movies" opens at 7:30 p.m. Each year 2,000 to 3,000 students take part in this event and devote months of practice to entertainment and competition. Run by the IU Student Foundation, IU Sing donates all proceeds to scholarships for students putting themselves through school. This year's performance is a landmark in IU Sing's history, as it will yield the millionth dollar committed to scholarships.

Bush keeps option open with Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Wednesday President Bush left open the option of a military attack on Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. Bush said the Iraqi president "needs to understand I am serious." A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that Bush's top advisers and agencies of the government had been directed to develop and refine a full range of options.

Legality of U.N. court challenged

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Faced with graphic images from a ruthless campaign of ethnic cleansing that prosecutors say he masterminded, Slobodan Milosevic lashed back Wednesday at the U.N. court, challenging its legality, in his first comments at his war crimes trial.

Walk-on leads team to successful season

IU's men's track team is full of athletes who run without a scholarship. There are a limited number of scholarships available and many positions to fill. One of these walk-ons to the team has helped play a large role in the teams' success this season. Junior Matt Harris is a 60 meter hurdler who currently ranks fourth in the Big Ten. He also is the school record holder with a time of 7.98 seconds.

Injured sophomore springs back into action

Just over one month into his season, sophomore Coyte Cooper went through what no athlete wants to experience. At the Midlands Tournament at the end of December, Cooper strained his knee and partially tore his MCL. The injury kept Cooper out until the start of the Big Ten season. Throughout the recovery process, Cooper managed to keep a clear focus.

Lack of Jeffries too much for Hoosiers to overcome

So this is what life is like without Jared Jeffries. IU hobbled through Wednesday night's Big Ten matchup with Wisconsin. Jeffries, who sprained an ankle in a win against Louisville Saturday and bruised his thigh earlier in the week, hobbled through warm-ups. Then, the Big Ten's leading scorer sat and stood during the game before somberly walking off the Assembly Hall floor after the Badgers upset No. 22 IU 64-63. Not once did he remove his red warm-up jacket or his candy-striped pants.

Badger comes home

Coming home isn't a big deal anymore for Charlie Wills. Wills, an Angola, Ind. native, came back to the Hoosier state Wednesday, content with the thought that coming home again isn't important. You couldn't tell. Wills, a fifth-year senior, lit up IU for a game-high 17 points Saturday as Wisconsin upset No. 22 IU 64-63 in Assembly Hall.

DiNardo's first staff announced

Start with two high school coaches. Add the son of IU's all-time winningest football coach and the younger brother of the school's athletics director. Throw in some sprinkles that include someone who experienced the Notre Dame coaching fiasco from the inside, a coach from Graceland and a running back coach who spent a season in the XFL. And top it off with two well-traveled coordinators.

Dalai Lama cancels visit to IU

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, has canceled his North American tour which included a visit to the IU Bloomington campus in April due to illness from exhaustion. The Dalai Lama was to dedicate the opening of the Chamtse Ling Temple and the Youth Program at the Tibetan Cultural Center as well as give a talk at IU's Assembly Hall.

Lecture discusses Afghani women

Starvation is commonplace in Afghanistan, but hunger is not the only threat to the lives of its people. Afghans are put in danger every day due to the presence of 10 million landmines installed between 1979 and 1989, when Soviets occupied the country.

Rep. seeks third term for district

Monday, Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington announced her intention to seek a third term as state representative for District 60. Welch said there had "never been a question" that she would seek to extend her term. "It is very gratifying to make a difference in people's lives," Welch said. "During the last session, I was able to be involved with two bills that affected people."

Around The Region

EVANSVILLE -- Officials overseeing the proposed Interstate 69 extension from Evansville to Indianapolis are considering a new route in the Evansville area. The latest option could have less of an impact on archaeological sites near the Ohio River than the other nine proposed routes traversing southwestern Indiana, officials say.

News shrinks, editor despairs

Newspapers are shrinking. A reader holding a newspaper wide open used to boast a wingspan of 54 inches, but it's closed in to 50 inches for about 41 percent of 529 U.S. newspapers, according to a Newspaper Association of America survey. You've seen it if your hometown paper is the Kokomo Tribune, Chicago Tribune or Evansville Courier & Press. You'll see it in the IDS within a couple years if the trend forces all papers to conform based on standard advertisement dimensions.

The soundtrack to relationships

Today I did a little experiment. I counted the number of people wearing headphones. I stopped at 28 after a guy almost got flattened by one of those wonderful buses. It's funny how putting two earpieces on makes avoiding interaction as simple as dodging eye contact with thousands of strangers brushing by. There is something comforting about knowing I can crank my new MP3 player up and enter another world.

Grow-A-Date™ replaces Teddy

It's Valentine's Day, and that means thousands of guys and gals are getting their hearts broken by the romantic interest of their lives. I feel sorry for them, but I feel even more sorry for the teddy bears. Thousands of poor, pitiful stuffed bears are given this day to people who don't want them, and the miserable creatures are destined to spend the rest of their nonexistent lives on the top shelf of a dark, lonely closet. This is incredibly depressing.

Student voting is essential

The system of government in America is historically unique. In America, citizens themselves decide who will make law and sometimes, in the case of initiatives, decide what the law will be. All political power rests in the hands of the people. Voting is more than the privilege of a citizen; it is the solemn duty of each individual to give the ballot his political voice. Universal suffrage was a long time coming. The Revolutionary War was fought to give landed men a vote in their government. Susan B. Anthony and the suffrage movement in the early part of the last century gave women the vote after 140 years of disenfranchisement.

More than blank tapes and leather jackets

Iron Maiden: classic, thinking man's metal

Lots of electronics, not enough music

Musical fervor with crescendos