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Today\nWhat: Medical Seminar Series: "Multifunctional DNA Repair Proteins: Moonlighting or Multitasking?"\nWhen: 4 to 5 p.m.\nWhere: Jordan Hall, room 009
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Today\nWhat: Medical Seminar Series: "Multifunctional DNA Repair Proteins: Moonlighting or Multitasking?"\nWhen: 4 to 5 p.m.\nWhere: Jordan Hall, room 009
A $40 million endowment grant to the Center on Philanthropy at IU will help certify the center as one of the nation's top institutions of its kind for years to come. \nIU President Adam Herbert announced Nov. 21 that the gift from Lilly Endowment Inc. will help permanently underwrite a portion of its future operating expenses, according to an IU media release. \n"We are deeply grateful for this extraordinary gift. This is the largest grant the Center on Philanthropy has received since its founding in 1987," Herbert said in a statement. "Over the past two decades, the center has become internationally renowned as a leading source of research-based knowledge about philanthropy and the management of nonprofit organizations. ... Today's gift positions the center for even greater levels of achievement."\nThe philanthropy center, based at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, hosts one of the largest numbers of graduate students studying and researching how people donate money and the ways in which philanthropy and nonprofit organizations operate, according to the release. \n"We are grateful to Lilly Endowment for the strong vote of confidence in the center that this grant represents," Gene Tempel, executive director of Center on Philanthropy, said in a statement. "Giving to the center benefits far more than just a single organization; it has a multiplier effect that helps ensure more effective giving, more effective fundraising and more effective nonprofit organizations literally around the globe. \n"These funds will form a permanent base from which we can continue to help provide leadership to a rapidly developing field and play a key role in preparing the next generation of philanthropy professionals and scholars," he said.
Everyone has a time of year that's special to them. For some, it's Restless Leg Syndrome Education & Awareness Week; for others, it's Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month. Well, this weekend was my special time. \nI ate broccoli cheese casserole with my long lost extended family. I listened to my aunt talk relentlessly about her new kitchen cabinets with unwavering interest and concentration. And, most importantly, I shopped. A lot. \nMy first shopping excursion took place at midnight on Thanksgiving night; the second was Friday afternoon, and the third was Saturday evening. Here are the tales I have to tell:\nThursday night was probably the most hazardous to my health. Two friends and I trekked to the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets in Michigan City, Ind., for the midnight madness sale around, well, midnight. I distinctly recall my friend Jay asking if we were going to be the only ones there, considering it was past America's bedtime and -- gasp! -- Michigan City doesn't even have a Hollister.\nHow wrong we were. Not only were we not the only ones there, but I think my unborn children and Kevin Federline were the only people who didn't show up to the party. The place was madness. \nMy goal for Thursday wasn't so much shopping for myself as it was staying alive. Our SUV got cut off at least six times while we hunted for parking, probably by some fat family trying to catch a deal at the Hickory Farms sausage outlet. The Coach store had a line of ladies so long you'd think they were giving away free Smirnoff Ice and an autographed picture of Vin Diesel with every purchase. My boys bought some ties and sweaters at the Ralph Lauren store while I hid in fear from the mutinous crowd in a tiny dressing room, and then we got the hell out of there.\nFriday wasn't a real shopping trip either. It was more like foreplay for Saturday's excursion. I did, however, pick up a great pair of metallic flats (a hit this season) at DSW, everyone's favorite shoe warehouse. And, after avoiding countless fleece faux pas at Old Navy, I managed to pick up an extra-long gray zip-up sweater and some knee-high argyle socks -- my No. 3 weakness after jalapeno poppers and babies wearing FUBU.\nNow, if Friday was fondling, then Saturday was hot, hot sex. My charitable mother and I drove all the way out to Schaumburg, Ill., to go to Woodfield Mall -- or The Mecca, if you prefer. It's an homage to the ancient god of Nordstrom's.\nMy first attack occurred at Forever21, of course, where I tried on enough empire waist dresses to clothe a small village. Everything is longer this season; dresses now double as tops, and even standard cardigans have become longer, four-button "grandpa" sweaters.\nAnd when Madonna sang "Gonna dress you up in my love," she was probably talking about the 2006-07 holiday season because heart details are still all over the place. Buttons, bags, tunics -- they're all feeling the love, which, I must admit, is more appealing than that dumb skull trend.\nH&M was all about skinny pants and the military look, except for Madonna's collection, which was all about 1985 and tracksuits. Thankfully, there were lots of sweaters and coats to warm up to, a nice contrast to my skanky Forever21 selections.\nAs far as shoes go, my hopes and dreams were shattered when I fell in love with a $69 pair of mustard yellow boots at Steve Madden that turned out to be $169. I might as well have stomped my feet and told the Steve Madden salesgirls that they weren't invited to my party. Luckily, Bakers came to my rescue with a $59 pair of brown leather ankle boots, but I'm still not sure if I'm allowed back in to any Steve Madden store in North America. \nI left the mall with enough heavy bags to beat and mangle the male model who poses in front of Abercrombie wearing a winter coat and rock-hard pecs, so I suppose it was a successful trip.
Girls can play a lot of angles. There's the blond angle. There's the twin angle. There's the damsel-in-distress angle. There's the good-girl angle. There's the bad-girl angle.
Armon Bassett knows how to control the point of attack. Problem is, the freshman guard doesn't always show it.\n"In those two games in Indianapolis, Armon didn't know whether he was on foot or horseback," said IU coach Kelvin Sampson, referring to last Monday's game against Lafayette College and last Tuesday's against Butler. "He looked over there and saw Dick Vitale and ESPN, and he didn't know whether he was pitching or catching. He's a freshman. But he's getting better. Look at him (Sunday)."\nAnd so it goes for a freshman adjusting to the level of collegiate play. At times this season, Bassett has been fantastic, running the show for the Hoosiers. And at other times, he's looked a bit confused. \nOn Sunday, in IU's 90-69 win against Chicago State University in Assembly Hall, Bassett was all brilliance. \nAt one instance in the first half, he went up for a 15-foot jumper and decided mid-air to dish it off to a wide-open D.J. White in the lane. D.J. threw down a thunderous two-handed slam.\nThe two were at it again in the second half. Bassett streaked down the lane and dished it to an open White with a little more than five minutes to go in the game. And what was the result? Why, it was another two-handed monster slam. \nOn the next Hoosier possession, Bassett slashed down the lane once more. This time, he opted for a keeper, made a layup and drew a foul. He hit the and-one attempt to complete the three-point play. \nBassett wasn't just feeding it to IU's big man. With just over two and a half minutes left in the game, he took it from one end of the court to the other and dished it with one hand to IU's little man, Errek Suhr, who was coming down the wing on his right. The senior drew a goaltending call on his layup attempt. It was another two points for IU, courtesy of Bassett's brilliance. \nThe Terre Haute native nearly achieved a double-double, scoring 10 points and tallying nine assists for the game.\nLance Stemler, who is quickly becoming the Marshall Strickland of this year's squad for his ability to hit the open shot (he even has Strickland's old No. 22 jersey to boot), described Bassett's play this way: "He's solid with the ball, and he makes smart plays. He finds the open guys and runs the team. He does it in practice. He's just solid."\nBassett started in lieu of senior point guard Earl Calloway and played 29 minutes to Calloway's 12. Sampson said he saw more confidence out of his lineup by starting Bassett and freshman Joey Shaw, who started in place of Rod Wilmont.\nIf Samspon thought nerves hindered Bassett's play in Indianapolis, the first-year coach should start Calloway in IU's next game of the season, a Nov. 28 tilt with Duke University in Cameron Indoor Stadium. I'm thinking the atmosphere there might be a little more intense than a barely half-full Conseco Fieldhouse composed of mostly IU fans. \nBut for now, Sampson knows Bassett's got some swagger after Sunday's win. \n"Armon will have a little more bounce in his step (Monday)," Sampson said.\nOnly today, coach? With a performance like Sunday's, Bassett has the right to strut all the way up to the Thanksgiving dinner table.
WEST LAFAYETTE -- The good guy was gunned down Saturday at high noon outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse. The West Lafayette townspeople rejoiced as the bystanders from Bloomington recoiled back to reality. A man on horseback was quickly dispatched to Quarry Land with one message: Hoosier down, Boiler up. Same as it ever was.\nWith all said and done, the Hoosiers had three games, three chances to change. But the football team failed to make the miracle happen, and now Hoosier heroics lie desolate throughout the Bloomington landscape. \nThere are intangibles, certain intricacies people possess. Intangibles are the reasons that all results are reached. Simply put, those intangibles, which wield winners, did not lie inside the crimson hearts of these Hoosiers. That desire designates a sixth win and a 13th game. Instead, Saturday it was the same as it ever was.\nWest Lafayette is the antithesis of Bloomington. It's a barren wasteland of brick. It is an ugly campus masked only by its excess of male students. In a way, PurDude is a sort of Bizzaro Bloomington. But the boys of Brickville made losers out of our Hoosiers. As I previewed before the Minnesota matchup, these improbable champs pumpkin'd into chumps and shattered the Cinderella dream of a bowl berth. \nThen again, perhaps the Hoosiers' dreams died at the hands of bad timing. The game's noon starting time was misconstrued as the stroke of midnight. The spell has broken, and with it, every form the football team has taken this season has fallen apart. The wagons' wheels are broken and the S.S. IU has sunk straight to the ocean floor. These once-rocket men prematurely exploded as their shelter was stripped away. \nA question was posed to the IU football players a few weeks ago. Their answer is a 13th straight year bowl-barren in Bloomington -- same as it ever was. \nThere I found myself inside a press room of Ross-Ade Stadium. I watched as the media harassed a hoarse-voiced coach Terry Hoeppner. I watched a man whose face defined the word exhaustion answer to talking heads full of finely tuned what-if questions. It was then that I asked myself, "How did I get here?" Letting the days go by, I assumed that the arrival of coach Hep would halt the historic mediocrity of IU football. But what I found out while sitting inside that press room Saturday is that this type of change isn't easy.\nThe two years I have covered the IU football team provided me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I have seen this team stun the Kentucky Wildcats, only to lie down stunned by six straight losses in the remainder of its Big Ten schedule. I have seen this team sign its season away to the Southern Illinois Salukis, only to serve a hot dish of humiliation to the nationally ranked Iowa Hawkeyes weeks later. But out of the dust came the dismal, and I am left disappointed. The good guy was gunned down Saturday at high noon outside the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, and for two years, I've witnessed the man packing the pistol. \nOn Saturday, the Hoosiers were stopped on 4th-and-1 on their final offensive play of the season. They needed one yard. They needed one game. But they fell short, as I finally realized how I had gotten here.\nSame as it ever was.
I love airports. Since I was a small child, airports have meant more to me than simply a means to a destination; they are destinations themselves. Friday, I was able to experience once more the miracle of flight and the bustling energy of airports as I winged my way across the country to sunny Arizona. \nOver many years of traveling, I have noticed that airports have a distinct culture. The face of the population in these transportation hubs is always dynamic; the exchange of travelers is quick and unending. \nEach individual has a unique purpose for being there. But that purpose, though personally disconnected from other passengers' motivations, brings them all through a common process to a common center of activity. The high energy of thousands of people at any given moment, coming and going, is infectious. Even when experiencing layovers and long security lines, there is still a sense of urgency, a buzzing hum of anticipation. \nI thrive on that energy. Though beaten and exhausted from a long week of exams and little sleep, the infectious energy of the traveling collective kept me awake, alert and excited during my six hours of layovers in Indianapolis and Chicago. I was at peace knowing that though I was not physically moving, I was that much closer to my final destination. The transient nature of the situation, in accord with the frenetic energy, allowed the opportunity for silent reflection, people-watching and conversations that could never occur elsewhere. It is those moments, impossible to attain at such a heightened level in any other place, that make me so thrilled to find myself in a terminal.\nSadly, many people don't share my eager attitude about airports. The energy that I find so exhilarating is the same energy that inspires agitation and negativity in a great deal of travelers, especially during the holidays. Though the feverish anticipation can keep us alert and excited, that same anticipation can explode into a blind rage when we are forced to adjust our itineraries because of weather or human error. \nThere were three separate occasions Friday when people were literally screaming at each other over perceived transgressions in boarding line protocol. I saw various instances of frazzled travelers reaming desk attendants about delays that were obviously out of their control. Snide remarks, loud complaints and passive-aggressive idiosyncrasies flew like arrows. Their negative responses to the pressure of traveling made a situation of potentially awesome possibilities downright awful for themselves and those around them.\nSo as many of you brave the crowded holiday airports this week in the process of celebrating Thanksgiving break, remember to be kind to your neighbors in line. Be careful of small children and people who are dealing with fears, challenges and family drama. Take delays in stride, recognizing that it is all part of your own unique journey through life. We're all in this together, so don't let petty disagreements stir up cloudy energy and sour your own experience. \nBask in airport culture and enjoy your well-deserved break. Happy Thanksgiving!
Congratulations if you're reading this. As we both know, many of our fellow students checked out early for Thanksgiving break. Cheers to us nerds who are left over and damn-well planning to be the sole attendee of art history class tomorrow afternoon.\nStill, you are probably headed home in a day or two and are likely aware that extremely awkward situations have great potential to arise. Going back to a place that has probably changed little, while you might have changed a lot, makes for some deeply confusing and obnoxious interpersonal situations. Lucky for you, I'm compelled to address and name a few of these situations, free of charge (though I will expect your crescent roll at dinner).\nAnd you can trust my advice -- Dr. Phil is my sister-in-law. \nBring it:\n1. Overly curious relatives\nIt is likely you will participate in some sort of celebration involving homemade food items with five or 300 of your closest family members. My mother, for example, is one of seven children, all of whom mated like good Catholics. Since then, even some of their kids have mated. So every Thanksgiving, an exponential number of people (aged 2 months to 91 years) turn out for my family's feast. One or two of my aunts and uncles will inevitably ask me if I have a boyfriend. Are you dating anyone? No? Why not? What's wrong with the boys at IU? What's wrong with you, you fat slut? Why don't you try eHarmony.com?\nDealing with these questions isn't easy or fun. What I usually do is answer them calmly and then express feigned confusion about my sexuality. The conversation ends there.\n2. High school peer encounters\nHome is where your heart is. Unfortunately, it is also where some of your high school peers work at the local Bob Evans and where many will come back for the same turkey-killing holiday. If you're like me, you still have a few best friends from that era you would like to catch up with, but otherwise, you'd rather wash Saddam Hussein's cars than run into high school alumni. But you will. And while it will be entertaining for 10 minutes to see who gained 200 pounds, who has five children and who still hangs out at Applebee's on weekends, it will be devastatingly awkward to see these people. \nWhat I usually do is say hello -- and run.\n3. Avoiding energetic children\nBecause of my bizarrely large family, there are certain relatives from the under-10 crowd who still see me as a playmate during family parties. As it turns out, playing billiards games with ever-changing rules, football with tiny plastic figurines and racecar board games are not things I want to do ever in my life -- especially with people who pick their noses and smell like syrup.\nWhat I usually do is ... play anyway. It beats defending the validity of your gender studies major to Uncle Closed-minded.\nYou're on your own with everything else. Good luck and good eating.
This week we turn to Borat, whose "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is making the rounds in every corner of America. From the very first frames of "Borat," it is apparent that Sacha Baron Cohen, the satirist in question, seeks to shine the mirror on hapless Americans. This has been lauded as a great Swiftian exercise to expose the typical American as a well-meaning fool and a brash knave.\nAt certain moments, he pulls off this task very well, leaving you with the faint wish that what you had just seen didn't occur in daily American life. When Borat tells of his native Kazakhstan, the wordless reaction of many seems to be: "Well, I guess they don't have much huntin' down there." But after a while, this message is shown to be rather hollow because of the very people on whom the joke is supposedly being played.\nIf Cohen's aim is to satirize red-state conservatives as ethnocentric dolts, he fails in this. By the movie's end, they are shown to be admirably open-minded and thoughtful, while it is Cohen who implicitly gives off an aura of chauvinistic elitism. Odi profanum vulgus ("I hate the vulgar crowd") is a fitting slogan for this mindset.\nAs someone who would treat as defamation any characterization of himself as a populist, I nevertheless must borrow here from the conservative intellectual William Buckley, who once said he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the first 2,000 members of Harvard's faculty.\nThe waters of Borat's snobbery are deep but far from pure. The prankster seems to miss the hilarity of his own routine. The only crass member of the cast is Borat himself, who ranks as a clown but not quite a comedian. The thigh-slapping moments are not few, but for all the caricatures of traditional Americans being narrow-minded rednecks, they in fact seem exceedingly tolerant -- indeed, pedantically and painfully tolerant -- of Borat's antics. \nI always try to be as lenient as I can when dealing with posers because I think it's tough being an original satirist poking fun of unvarnished Americans these days. It is generally a bad rule to take comic shtick and turn it into sociology. Borat's single biggest liability, therefore, is not that he isn't funny. He can be. The problem is that he often doesn't know when to stop, and this makes it hard to take Borat seriously as social commentary and almost as hard to take it lightly as satire.\nAt least for your humble correspondent, traveling the world has always hammered home one of Winston Churchill's marvelous adages: "When I am abroad, I make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home." The great advantage of this film is that it allows one to defend his fellow countrymen without going abroad. In this case, the joke seems to be on Borat.
Among all the holidays, Thanksgiving is a particularly inspired one. It honors no given religion, yet it is profoundly spiritual. It has a slick commercial element -- after all, it kicks off the holiday shopping season, and many of us spend Thanksgiving Day watching blockbuster movies and TV. Yet we celebrate it by sharing a dinner with family and friends and, if you're involved the way you should be, by helping the less fortunate. \nHowever, most remarkably, Thanksgiving asks all of us to take stock and reflect on how good our lives actually are. This seems to fly in the face of human nature. We all have gripes and worries, weaknesses and jealousies upon which we fixate. We often don't realize how happy our days are as we're in the midst of living them -- only later, in the soft-focus lens of memory. And we on the editorial board, being professional complainers, are particularly bad about this.\nBut that doesn't mean there aren't things for which we are deeply thankful. So as you prepare to take off to visit with your family -- or stay here and spend the holiday with your friends -- here are a few items to keep in mind while you carve the turkey (or tofurky or ham or whatever):\n• For starters, we live in beautiful surroundings, both on campus and off. The artist Thomas Gaines famously named IUB one of the five most beautiful campuses in the nation in his 1991 book, "The Campus as a Work of Art," and the town of Bloomington receives regular accolades for its picturesqueness. Campus might not be at its finest now, in the period between autumn's colors and winter's snow, but soon, we should be back to living in a postcard.\n• In its latest rankings, U.S. News & World Report named IU the No. 70 university in the United States -- which might not sound so impressive until you realize that, as of 2005, there were 2,618 accredited four-year U.S. colleges and universities (according to the Association of American Colleges and Universities). This puts us in the top 3 percent of universities nationwide in what is generally regarded as the country with the best system of higher education in the world. Not too shabby.\n• We suspect that many of you will differ on the degree of thankfulness with which you view the last election. Yet we can all be thankful that we live under a political system that, for all the tricks and machinations of political parties, politicians, lobbyists and donors, still must bow to the will of we humble voters. Our governmental institutions work far more often than not, our economy is steadily growing and, while we might be at war abroad, here at home we are at peace. That's more than could be said for the country when Abraham Lincoln made the holiday official in 1863. \nLastly, if all else fails, there is one thing for which we IU students can always be thankful: We don't go to Purdue.
WASHINGTON -- Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 if the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has his way.\nRep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq.\n"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," Rangel said.\nRangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, said he will propose a measure early next year.\nIn 2003, he proposed a measure covering people age 18 to 26. This year, he offered a plan to mandate military service for men and women between age 18 and 42. That proposal went nowhere in the Republican-led Congress.\nDemocrats will control the House and Senate come January because of their victories in the Nov. 7 election.\nAt a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, "I don't see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft," said Rangel, who also proposed a draft in January 2003, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq.\nSen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Standby Reserve, said he agreed that the U.S. does not have enough people in the military.\n"I think we can do this with an all-voluntary service, all-voluntary Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. And if we can't, then we'll look for some other option," said Graham, who is assigned as a reserve judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals.\nRangel, the next chairman of the House tax-writing committee, said he worried the military was being strained by its overseas commitments.\n"If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft," Rangel said.\nHe said having a draft would not necessarily mean everyone called to duty would have to serve. Instead, "young people (would) commit themselves to a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals," with a promise of educational benefits at the end of service.\nGraham said he believes the all-voluntary military "represents the country pretty well in terms of ethnic makeup, economic background."\nRepeated polls have shown that about seven in 10 Americans oppose reinstatement of the draft and officials say they do not expect to restart conscription.\nOutgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in June 2005 that "there isn't a chance in the world that the draft will be brought back."\nYet the prospect of the long global fight against terrorism and the continuing U.S. commitment to stabilizing Iraq have kept the idea in the public's mind.\nThe military drafted conscripts during the Civil War, both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System trains, keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 -- now about 16 million -- from which to supply untrained draftees that would supplement the professional all-volunteer armed forces.\nRangel and Graham appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- Warmly greeted by world leaders in Vietnam, President Bush drew a different reaction Sunday at his upcoming stop in Indonesia, where thousands angrily protested America's policy in the Middle East and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nThe White House said it was confident about security precautions for Bush's visit Monday despite police warnings of an increased threat of attack by al-Qaida-linked groups.\nThe president was to spend just six hours in Indonesia, most of it at Bogor Palace, a presidential retreat outside the capital of Jakarta and far from the scene of protests Sunday where Bush was denounced as a "war criminal" and "terrorist."\nWhile President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, Bush is highly unpopular in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.\nWrapping up three days in Vietnam, Bush was taking a quick look around the city once known as Saigon. He planned to drop by the stock exchange, meet with business leaders and visit the Pasteur Institute for a briefing on its research on HIV/AIDS and other public health problems.\nIt was Bush's first appearance on the world stage since his Republican Party lost control of Congress and was rebuked for the unpopular war in Iraq.\nThe White House said Bush was pleased by the results of a 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi although the administration was left struggling to explain how it ended.\nTo Bush's dismay, he was unable to deliver a promised agreement on normal trade relations with Vietnam. It was snarled in Congress, but the administration expressed confidence it eventually would be approved.\nVietnam's economy is booming, the fastest growing in Asia, and the country is the world's second-largest exporter of rice. But the benefits have not reached most people. The per capita income is less than $700 a year.\nIn a city usually teeming with motorcycle traffic, streets were cleared for Bush's motorcade. As he rode by, people waved, laughed and cheered. It was a contrast to the subdued reaction of residents in Hanoi, where Bush participated in the summit and conferred with the leaders of China, Russia, South Korea and Japan.\nThe White House said it was satisfied with the summit statement prodding North Korea to return to nuclear disarmament talks and urging nations to keep the pressure on by enforcing U.N. Security Council sanctions.\nBut the administration was at a loss to explain why the statement was simply read as part of the chairman's wrap-up statement and not issued as a written document. Another oddity was that the section about North Vietnam was not translated into English when the statement was read.\n"He read it in Vietnamese, but for whatever reason the translation was not given in the consecutive English translation at the time," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "We have double checked. The Vietnamese said, 'Yes, he did read it.'"\nBush met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss strategy for yet-to-be-scheduled talks with North Korea. The administration sent U.S. envoy Christopher Hill to Beijing for further consultations.\nIn their public remarks, Bush and Putin celebrated a U.S.-Russia agreement for Moscow's entry into the World Trade Organization. Bush said Russia's admission to the group was "good for the United States and good for Russia."\nWith Putin and Hu, Bush also pressed for a U.N. Security Council resolution to pressure Iran to abandon nuclear weapons. It was unclear whether Bush made any headway in persuading China and Russia to drop their reluctance to go along.\nDescribing Bush's discussions with Putin, Snow said the leaders did not discuss specifics "but they understand that you need a strong resolution that will send the Iranians the clear message that we're not only united, but serious, and at the same time are going to offer them the opportunity to have civil nuclear power, which is of some importance to the Iranian people"
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Syria's foreign minister arrived in Baghdad on Sunday, the highest ranking official from his country to visit since the U.S.-led war began in 2003, at a time when Syria is increasingly seen as key to helping stem the insurgency.\nThe sectarian violence continued Sunday, with the deadliest attack in the southern Shiite city of Hillah, where a suicide bomber in a minivan lured day laborers to his vehicle with promises of a job then blew it up, killing 22 people, police said. Police later announced the arrest of three insurgents who had planned the attack -- two Egyptians and an Iraqi -- and said the suspects claimed the bomber was Syrian.\nSyrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, in his first visit since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, promised to cooperate with Iraqi authorities struggling to control chaos that threatens the country with civil war. But Moallem called for a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces.\n"We believe that a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq will help in reducing violence and preserving security," Moallem said.\nAttacks by suspected insurgents in other areas of Iraq killed more than 30 people and wounded at least 75. Gunmen also kidnapped one of Iraq's deputy health ministers from his home in northern Baghdad, officials said.\nBoth the Iraqi government and its U.S. sponsors have repeatedly accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross into Iraq. Syria denies the charge, saying it is impossible to control the long desert border.\nMoallem's visit is a major step toward restoring diplomatic relations severed more than a quarter-century ago. He was to meet with the Iraqi leadership, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.\nThe Bush administration is under growing pressure to ask adversaries such as Iran and Syria for help in trying to avoid the collapse of an increasingly violent Iraq.\nNegotiating with the two countries would entail a major policy shift for President Bush, whose reluctance to talk to them -- and U.S. adversaries in general -- has come under increasing criticism.\nFormer Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who advised Bush on the Iraq war, said military victory is no longer possible and joined calls for the U.S. government to seek help from Iraq's regional neighbors, including Iran.\n"If you mean, by 'military victory,' an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control and sectarian violence under control in a time period that the political processes of the democracies will support, I don't believe that is possible," he told the British Broadcasting Corp.\nMoallem denied that his visit was related to any U.S. overture.\n"I did not come to Iraq to please anyone. I came here to please the people of Iraq and the people of Syria," he said.\nFollowing the Hillah bombing, crying and screaming Shiite women searched the scene for their sons. Some blamed Sunni Arab insurgents for the attack. Others said Hillah's police do not provide poor people such as day laborers with adequate security.\n"The ground was covered with the remains of people and blood, and survivors ran in all directions," said Muhsin Hadi Alwan, 33, one of the wounded day laborers. "How will I feed the six members of my family when I return home without work and without money?"\nMohammed Abbas Kadhim, 30, said he was thrown several yards by the explosion.\n"I couldn't see or hear for a few minutes as I was lying on the ground. People were racing everywhere looking for their missing sons, brothers, friends -- all of them shouting 'God is great.'"\nThe blast shattered windows and ripped holes in concrete stalls and storefronts nearby. Some business owners were using brooms to sweep away debris from the blast. Others stood nearby, surveying the damage as if in a daze.\nAs medics carried stretchers into the nearby hospital, residents lined up outside offering to donate blood. Dr. Mohammed Dhiya, the hospital's manager, said all the city's doctors were called to work.\nHillah has been the site of many deadly bomb attacks, including one in February 2005 in which a suicide car bomber killed 125 national guard and police recruits.\nElsewhere in Iraq, 24 civilians, five policemen and a soldier were killed and 58 Iraqis were wounded in a series of attacks by suspected insurgents in the cities of Baghdad, Mosul and Baqouba, police said.\nU.S. and Iraqi forces also killed 12 insurgents and detained 11 and freed eight Iraqi hostages while conducting raids in Baqouba and two villages near Kirkuk, police said. A local al-Qaida in Iraq leader and his son were killed by Iraqi forces in a village 60 miles north of Baghdad.
Fire -- State Fire Marshal Roger Johnson, left, makes a phone call while firefighters work inside of a home where four people were killed in a house fire in North Vernon, Ind., Sunday. There was no immediate word on how the fire started. The fire occurred at a home near the downtown area of North Vernon, about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.
In 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal. This was one of the most crucial elements of American democracy, created back when our nation was an emaciated baby with a big head. (But not cute like TomKat's or Brangelina's baby. Probably more like what I imagine Conan O'Brien and Calista Flockhart's pilgrim love-child would look like.)\nWell, what most history books neglect to mention is what happened after that. Thomas, angry with not being able to find a winter coat that accentuated his rockin' biceps, added a footnote to the Declaration of Independence. It said, "All men are created equal -- but all coats most certainly are not."\nThat's right. After the pilgrims and the Indians broke bread and passed out because of tryptophan, they sure didn't wake up at 5 a.m. to make it to the Kohl's early bird extravaganza sale for Christmas napkins and bargain treadmills. \nBut fortunately, corporate America has eaten our morals, and Thanksgiving is now more about guerrilla warfare shopping than cranberry sauce and awkward conversations about the Home Shopping Network with your Aunt Eileen. And for most of you volatile shoppers out there, the temperature is dropping and a winter coat is top priority. So what should you buy?\nFirst of all, unlike Bloomington, your hometown's mandatory winter uniform probably isn't a black North Face fleece, so let's break those shackles loose. \nThere are oodles of coats to choose from this winter, and they'll all keep you feeling toasty but looking even hotter. Military coats are the cat's meow of November. They're great both short and long, especially paired with a nice knee-high boot. Typically, they have brass buttons and a built-in belt -- great details that set you apart from the crowd.\nNext in the hierarchy comes the classic peacoat. It works in wool, tweed or corduroy and emanates an air of sophistication, even if you're wearing one of those silk-screened golden retriever sweatshirts underneath. And hey, peacoats worked for sailors! Even the ones with scurvy probably got laid when they wore their peacoats. \nWhen you're looking for either a military-style or a peacoat, try on a few with empire waists. It's an easy way to dress up a casual coat without making it too swanky to sport at the local White Castle. \nIf none of these tickles your furry fancy, there will always be the classic trench coat. The trench is like that guy who always drunk texts you at 1 in the morning to see "what up." He'll get the job done, but he probably won't cuddle afterward. Similarly, the trench is a great backup, though it won't keep you as warm as a one-night stand with wool. Wear it with a thick sweater, though, and you'll never know the difference.\nFor those die-hard puffy coat martyrs out there, I have not forgotten about your cause for zippers and faux-fur-trimmed hoods. If you have already sold your soul to the nylon/acrylic devil, at least try hunting for a vintage-style puffy coat. Avoid solid colors, especially bright, traffic conductor colors. That's just asking for it. Also, there is such a thing as too much puff. If strangers keep asking you, "Where is your igloo?" or make jokes about how you make the U.S. budget deficit look small, you better shed some synthetic pounds.\nSo Happy Thanksgiving, everyone, and have a happy (and safe) day-after-Thanksgiving shopping slaughterhouse. Let's hope that black eye matches your new winter wardrobe. Thomas Jefferson would be so proud.
WASHINGTON -- Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi's handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January.\nA Marylander and 25-year veteran of Congress, Hoyer defeated Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania in a vote of 149-86.\nHis election to the No. 2 job came just a short time after the Democratic caucus put Pelosi in line to become the first woman to be speaker, a position which is second in line of succession to the presidency. It marked a personal triumph for Hoyer.\nEarlier, an ebullient Pelosi declared: "We made history, and now we will make progress for the American people."\nIn remarks after being chosen for speaker, the Californian vowed that after 12 years in the minority, "we will not be dazzled by money and special interests." Pelosi also called for unity in the party, but within moments she put her prestige on the line by nominating Murtha.\nMurtha is a powerful lawmaker on defense matters, and he gained national prominence last year when he called an end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq.\nHe and Pelosi have long been close, and when Pelosi issued a statement supporting Murtha on Sunday night, it raised the stakes in a leadership election within a party that is taking control of the House in January for the first time in a dozen years.\n"I didn't have enough votes, and so I'll go back to my small subcommittee I have on Appropriations," Murtha said after the vote.\nMurtha will chair the powerful defense subcommittee with responsibility for the war in Iraq and the Pentagon budget. "Nancy asked me to set a policy for the Democratic Party. Most of the party signed onto it," he said, referring to pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.\n"I was proud to support (Murtha) for majority leader because I thought that would be the best way to bring an end to the war in Iraq," Pelosi said after the vote.\nPelosi and Hoyer, 67, have long had a difficult relationship. The two ran against each other in a leadership race several years ago. Pelosi won, but Hoyer rebounded more than a year later when he was elected the party's whip.\nHoyer's margin of victory reflected a pre-election strategy in which he showcased support from moderates, veteran lawmakers in line to become committee chairmen and more than half of the incoming freshman class -- the majority-makers whose victories on Election Day gave the party control of the House.\n"Steny was more where the mainstream of where the party was," said Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who will become chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services.\nOf Pelosi's endorsement of Murtha, Frank said, "She's a very smart woman who made an error in judgment."\nThe intraparty battle had preoccupied Democrats, overshadowing Pelosi's promotion to speaker -- a position that is second in line of succession to the presidency.\nMany Democrats were dismayed that the family feud had broken out in the first place and objected to heavy pressure placed on longstanding Hoyer supporters.\nPelosi officially becomes speaker in January, succeeding Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., when the House convenes and formally elects her in the next session of Congress.\nPelosi's selection was more history than mystery; that was reserved for the Hoyer-Murtha faceoff.\nMurtha, 74, was a problematic candidate because of his penchant for trading votes for pork projects and his ties to the Abscam bribery sting in 1980, the only lawmaker involved who wasn't charged.\nFBI agents pretending to represent an Arab sheik wanting to reside in the United States and seeking investment opportunities offered bribes to several lawmakers. When offered $50,000, Murtha was recorded as saying, "I'm not interested ... at this point." A grand jury declined to indict Murtha, and the House ethics committee issued no findings against him.\n"I told them I wanted investment in my district," Murtha told MSNBC's "Hardball" on Wednesday. "They put $50,000 on the table, and I said, 'I'm not interested.'"\nDemocrats also selected James Clyburn of South Carolina as majority whip, their No. 3 post. Clyburn is the second black in history to reach as high as a party whip. Former Rep. William Gray of Pennsylvania held the same title 1989-91. Campaign chair Rahm Emanuel of Illinois was rewarded with the caucus chair post, the No. 4 position for Democrats, for his efforts in leading the party back into the majority.\nMeanwhile, House Republicans, soon to be in the minority for the first time since 1994, met in private Thursday to hear presentations from candidates for their leadership posts. Their election was scheduled for Friday.\nThe caucus leader bid turned into a two-man race between Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and conservative challenger Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana after Rep. Joe Barton of Texas dropped out and endorsed Boehner.\nIn the Democratic race, Murtha came forward for the job despite a record of not always being a leadership loyalist. He often supplied votes to GOP leaders who were struggling to pass bills. The none-too-subtle trade-off: Murtha and his allies would do better when home-state projects were doled out by the Republicans.\nWisconsin Rep. Dave Obey, who will chair the Appropriations Committee, said the divisions exposed by the race doesn't pose a problem for Pelosi.\n"There's such universal respect and affection for Nancy. She's gutsy as hell, and she's willing to take a chance ... push the envelope. "It was bitter between the two candidates, I suppose, but it wasn't bitter among the members of the caucus. People get over this stuff"
Hey, are you ready for this one? IU has played the Indiana State Sycamores four times since 1999. The Hoosiers lost three of them and emerged victorious just once.\nThere was the 72-67 fiasco in Terre Haute last year in which former IU player Marco Killingsworth had almost as many turnovers (seven) as points (10). IU squeaked by ISU two years ago with a 56-52 win Assembly Hall. In 1999 and 2000, IU dropped back-to-back games against Indiana State.\nDisheartening? Sure. Pathetic? Maybe a bit.\nFor the players of Indiana State (and Butler as well) that grew up in Indiana and never got so much as a sniff from the coaching staff at IU, playing against the Hoosiers is a big deal. They want to beat the cream and crimson. They want to prove to IU they're worth something.\n'You want to not recruit us? We're going to try and make you pay.'\nIt's perhaps their biggest game of the season.\nButler has six players from Indiana. Indiana State has seven.\nA.J. Graves of Butler proved a threat Monday and Tuesday night in the NIT Season Tip-Off Tournament. Graves hails from Switz City, Ind. and played high school ball for White River Valley High School. He had dreams of playing for the cream and crimson, but, as he was an undersized guard, IU never came calling.\nThe junior poured in 28 points against another big-name in-state school, Notre Dame, Monday.\nTuesday, although IU limited Graves to 4-of-18 shooting during the Hoosiers' 60-55 loss to the Bulldogs, he still found a way to take it to them. Graves tallied 20 points. He was 10-of-10 from the foul line and added the biggest dagger to the Hoosiers' hearts late in the game. As the shot clock buzzed with five seconds to go in the second half, Graves heaved up a desperation 3-pointer. It bounced off the backboard and into the net. 60-55 Butler. IU had no chance for any late-game heroics after that.\nSo how do the Hoosiers go about combating this sort of inspired play tonight?\nWell, they should start with their heads.\n"We just didn't play smart enough. We got to play smarter with the lead," IU coach Kelvin Sampson said after the Butler loss.\nIU's lead spiked to 12 with 11:45 left in the second half. Six turnovers, a few fouls and some rushed shots later, the Hoosiers were down 50-49. They never led again.\nTalent-wise, Butler is not better than IU and neither is Indiana State, however they can both beat the Hoosiers if IU makes mistakes, D.J. White is held in check and their players compete as if beating IU is like winning a national championship.\n"I don't care what I shoot as long as we get the W," Graves said after Tuesday's game against IU.\nPerhaps that's the anthem for every Indiana kid the Hoosiers have ever overlooked.
LOS ANGELES -- The owner of an etiquette business who was handed a plastic bag supposedly containing feces in the hit movie "Borat" says she was told the filming would be used for a documentary in Belarus.\nCindy Streit said she filed a complaint Thursday with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, requesting an investigation into possible violations of the California Unfair Trade Practices Act.\nStreit said a representative from a Los Angeles-based company called Springland Films contacted her Birmingham, Ala.-company, Etiquette Training Services, about arranging an etiquette session for an "international guest from Belarus Television."\nAttempts to find a contact for Springland were not successful. The company had no phone listing, and Streit's lawyers declined to provide copies of the contracts allegedly signed.\nThe attorney general's office had not received a copy of the complaint, spokesman Nathan Barankin said late Thursday.\nStreit said she arranged in Alabama both a sit-down session with Borat, played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, and a dinner party with some of her friends. Clips of both appear in the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit of Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."\nThough awkward at times, Streit said the dinner went well until Borat asked to use the bathroom.\n"I had taught him to excuse himself. He did that correctly and went upstairs," Streit told The Associated Press. "The next thing that happened is that he came down the stairs holding this plastic bag with whatever was in it.\n"My horror was that he had brought a bag of feces to my dinner table," she said.\nSpringland put in writing that the second of two scheduled sessions "will be filmed as part of a documentary for Belarus Television and for those purposes only," said Gloria Allred, Streit's lawyer.\nStreit, 59, said she requested an investigation by the attorney general instead of filing a lawsuit in hopes of setting a precedent that will make movie studios think twice before using other ordinary citizens for "reality movies." However, she said she wouldn't rule out a lawsuit.\nA handful of people who appear in the movie have filed lawsuits or made complaints.
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A Marine lance corporal was sentenced Thursday to a year and nine months in prison for his role in the abduction and slaying of an Iraqi civilian last spring.\nLance Cpl. Tyler A. Jackson, the second member of his squad to be sentenced to prison this week, had pleaded guilty to reduced charges in a pretrial agreement with prosecutors.\nMilitary judge Lt. Col. Joseph Lisiecki issued a sentence of nine years of confinement, but under rules of the proceeding the actual sentence was determined by the pretrial agreement. The 21 months includes six months already served.\nIn a deal with prosecutors, Jackson last week pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Other charges including murder and kidnapping were dropped, and Jackson was required to testify about the incident.\nBefore the sentence was handed down, the prosecutor said in closing arguments that the squad, seven Marines and a sailor, had become a lawless gang intent on killing.\n"They were not a squad of Marines; they were a gang with a state of mind to kill someone," Maj. Donald Plowman said.
A chemical leak that left five people complaining of breathing problems led to the shutdown of a section of Interstate 65 on Thursday, authorities said.\nA 17-mile stretch of the interstate was closed in both directions about 20 miles south of Gary as a precaution at about 10:30 a.m. as hazardous materials responders prepared to neutralize the chemical, sodium hydrosulfite, said Mike Higgins, a spokesman for the Lake County Sheriff's Department.\nThe methods they planned to use could result in an explosion and a large cloud of gas, Higgins said.\nSodium hydrosulfite is a flammable solid that can ignite on contact with moisture such as rain, said Dan Miller, a hazardous materials chemist at Purdue University. Such a reaction produces sulfur dioxide, which he said can poisonous if inhaled.\nTelevision helicopter images showed a backhoe poking holes into a white semitrailer at the edge of the truck stop parking lot surrounded by a freshly dug trench. Workers wearing protective suits performed the work in a parking lot wet from rain.\nThe highway closed about nine hours after the first reports of a gas leaking from a semitrailer at the Pilot Travel Center, a truck stop along Indiana 2 near Lowell, Higgins said. Indiana 2 also was closed.\nA truck had been hauling 40,000 pounds of sodium hydrosulfite, and some of the dry chemical apparently spilled from one of the trailer's containers and mixed with rainwater, Higgins said.\nThe water turned the chemical into a gas and a fog began to develop, Higgins said.\nA police officer who moved truck drivers in the area about 50 yards from the cloud was among five people treated for respiratory discomfort, Higgins said.\nPurdue's Miller said sodium hydrosulfite is a reducing agent used in the textile, leather and pulp and paper industries and in water treatment and chemical processing.\n"It's pretty nasty stuff. I'm glad I'm not cleaning it up," Miller said.