1000 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(09/26/06 2:58am)
GOSHEN, Ind. -- The Indiana Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of a man sentenced to life in prison for the 1998 killing of a Goshen police officer.\nIf Frankie Salyers, 27, wins the appeal, he could face a sentence of 45 to 65 years in prison, rather than the current life term he's serving at the Indiana State Prison.\nThe Indiana Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on his appeal Oct. 3 at the court's Statehouse chambers in Indianapolis.\nElkhart Circuit Judge Gene Duffin sentenced Salyers in May 2005 to life in prison. The sentencing came 6 1/2 years after Salyers shot and killed Goshen Patrolman Thomas Goodwin in a Goshen mobile home park.\nSalyers' appeal attorney, Greg Kauffman, asked the state Supreme Court to review the sentence, citing his client's severe mental problems.\nSalyers, who killed Goodwin on Dec. 11, 1998, told police that day he was trying to commit "suicide by cop." In early 1999, Duffin found Salyers incompetent to stand trial because of his mental problems.
(09/26/06 2:57am)
INDIANAPOLIS The first radio spot for Democratic state Rep. Dave Crooks doesn't mention his opponent in the November election, but it does take shots at Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.\n"Mitch Daniels is going around changing our clocks, and he let foreign companies take over our highways," a woman says in the ad. \nIt looks past the election, saying that's when "we get rid of a bunch of boys who were just rubber stamps for ol' Mitch."\nThe "boys" refers to Republicans who control the House, 52-48. All but a handful helped Daniels win passage of statewide daylight-saving time. And it took 51 of the 52 to pass a bill letting Daniels lease the Indiana Toll Road to a private, foreign venture. No House Democrat voted for it.\nThe ad illustrates a core of the Democrats' strategy for winning back the House: Link Republicans to a governor who has pushed through contentious initiatives and whose poll numbers are lagging.\n"It's on him and his policies and the rubber-stamping of those policies by House Republicans," said House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend.\nThere's no doubt that Daniels has irked many people with some of his initiatives.\nStatewide daylight-saving time has been an emotional and divisive issue in Indiana for years -- a reason that numerous attempts to pass it failed for three decades. Daniels said it would eliminate confusion and improve commerce, and he twisted enough Republican arms to get it done.\nA recent statewide WISH-TV telephone poll showed that of 800 likely voters, 49 percent opposed statewide daylight-saving time, while 44 percent supported it. Seven percent weren't sure. The margin of error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.\nAll House Democrats voted against the bill that led to a 75-year lease of the toll road in northern Indiana for $3.8 billion. Daniels said the money will help fund hundreds of highway projects, but Democrats said it was a bad financial deal and argued that a major state asset should not be run by a foreign entity.\nThe WISH-TV Indiana Poll showed that 55 percent opposed the lease, while 39 percent backed it. Some GOP lawmakers from toll road counties have acknowledged that many of their constituents are angry. Longtime Republican Rep. Mary Kay Budak of LaPorte, Ind., has said her vote for it cost her the May primary election.\nRegarding Daniels' job performance, only 33 percent gave it a "fair" rating, while 24 percent called it "poor." Nine percent gave him an excellent rating and 29 percent rated him as good. Five percent were undecided.\nThose numbers suggest state Democrats are taking a page from their national counterparts, who are "equating every Republican with George W. Bush," said James McCann, a political science professor at Purdue.\nWhether the strategy works remains to be seen. Legislative races often boil down to personalities and local issues, McCann said. But it's possible Daniels could hurt some Republicans.\nDaniels has certainly turned off Dale Shake of Washington, Ind., who said he was a lifelong Republican who voted for Daniels in 2004. He said he received a poll call that asked him to rate the governor's performance one a scale of one to five.\n"I came back and said, 'Do you have anything below that one?'" said Shake, 65. \nHe said he was upset about the northern Indiana toll road lease -- even though he lives in Daviess County in southwest Indiana -- and the time switch.\nHe said he had known and liked Crooks' Republican opponent, Ron Arnold, for years. But because of Daniels, he's going to vote for Crooks.\nDaniels said Democrats were misrepresenting his record and making some false claims.\nDaniels touted his record, saying a budget deficit he blamed on Democrats had been erased; many inefficiencies and wrongdoing in state government had been eliminated; and a huge transportation funding gap had been filled by money from the toll road lease.\n"Indiana was sitting still. I thought that was a mistake, so we've acted," he said.\nRepublican House Speaker Brian Bosma said it is "a concern to us when the governor's numbers are not what he wants and the president's numbers are not what we want, but both are great leaders nonetheless."\n"But this election is not about that," he said. "It's about who can lead at the local level, and the Republicans out there are way ahead in that regard"
(09/26/06 2:56am)
I should trust the bus schedule to be accurate and informative, but it's not. I should trust my doctor to always prescribe the best medicine, not the one with the sexy, 27-year-old drug rep, but he doesn't. I should trust the FDA and current safety precautions, but 166 people have contracted E. Coli. I should trust my Uncle Roger, but he's always suspiciously missing when the cat turns up dead. \nProfessors should, by no exceptional stretch of the imagination, be able to trust their students -- but they can't. \nA Rutgers University-Center for Academic Integrity study found that more than 40 percent of 18,000 college students knowingly and willingly plagiarized someone else's work. Statistics like this one are a damning testament to the reality that people have cheated and will continue to do so as long as they think they can get away with it.\nSo far, one of the most effective methods of rooting out plagiarism has been a Web site many students are familiar with: TurnItIn.com. A professor will create an inbox to which a student uploads a paper. The paper is then scanned and compared to "in-house copies of both current and archived internet content," which essentially means "everything we could find on the Internet ever." But the more valuable resource -- which makes TurnItIn unique from say, Google -- is a database that contains 22 million previously submitted papers.\nAt face value, the goals of the experiment are sound: Deter plagiarism and teach students how to properly credit their sources. However, students at McLean High School in northern Virginia are the latest in a growing number of students protesting the regular use of TurnItIn. The Committee for Student's Rights objects to TurnItIn making a profit off of students' work, calling it an "infringement of intellectual property rights," according to the Washington Post. \nLast year the Bloomington Faculty Council voted to continue the license agreement with TurnItIn, which costs the University almost $25,000 a year, according to a March 2, 2005, Indiana Daily Student article. Multiply that figure by 6,000 institutions in 90 countries, and you realize just how massive TurnItIn's operation really is. \nThe question students are asking themselves is: Why is TurnItIn making money off a database entirely composed of our own sweat, blood and tears? Published or not, a student's work is his or her own. Although the paper in question is not being reproduced and sold, TurnItIn is still utilizing the text for profit. \nSupporters will attest that TurnItIn also protects students from other students. Cheating is not always a two-way street. A paper left in a library printer is easy pickings for anyone who walks by.\nThe solution, as always, is a compromise of both worlds. Instead of having the BFC spend $25,000 a year to reduce academic dishonesty, the University should be building its own non-profit essay database. Participating colleges and high schools would only pay for maintenance and upkeep so that no third party is making money off of students.
(09/26/06 2:53am)
Last week I came before you a proud and confident man. This week -- older, wiser and threatened with death because of my words about the IU sociology department -- I come to you equally as cocky.\nThis week is all about the future. What does it hold? What can we expect now that I claim to be the best candidate for IU president? For a sneak peak of what is to come after President Herbert's departure, I've taken the liberty of providing you with what will be my first address to the IU population after taking office. Here it is:\n"Students, faculty, staff, uptight and interfering donors:\n"It is my pleasure to stand here as your chosen leader. This office commands integrity, compassion and virtue, three words that I have recently referenced in a dictionary. Now that I know their definitions, I will strive to act like I care about them. \n"We are quite literally at a crossroads at this institution. Highways 37 and 46 intersect somewhere near our great campus, and I suppose this is what a crossroads is. The motto of this state says that Indiana is the crossroads of America, which must mean that every road in the country intersects somewhere in a cornfield. This is good, for no other legitimate reason exists for people to come to Indiana. \n"I must admit that I am largely a foreigner to your state. I hail from Washington, and not the one with Bushes and shrubs, but the one with pine trees and mountains. It is upon these mountains that we build trust, and I come before you to ask you to trust me in my new role. Allow me to present to you my top priorities:\n"First, I promise to bring you more school dances, a longer lunch period and more dodge balls for the playground. This strategy got me elected student body president in middle school, and it will not fail me now. Some of you might be thinking that higher education doesn't need dances, lunch periods or playground equipment, but the Bloomington Faculty Council has already called the jungle gym -- so tough. \n"Second, every student shall receive free tickets to IU football games. What's that you say? You don't care about the football team? Well, neither do I. That's why we shall band together and scalp these tickets in the parking lot for large profits. We will use the money to build an unnecessarily large $55 million sports complex that only gets marginal use. Any remaining money will go toward a giant gold statue of Bobby Knight that will be worshiped on a daily basis.\n"I know that I have large shoes to fill. I only hope that I can accomplish half the very few and unmemorable things the previous administration has accomplished. To paraphrase Steven Colbert, the president who governs best is the president who governs least, and by this standard, President Herbert has been exceptional. Thank you, and God bless IU"
(09/26/06 2:51am)
Money. Moola. Cashola. Dinero. Dough. No matter what you call it, it sucks not to have any. And not having money may soon be the norm for IU students -- more so than it is now. \nLast week, Interim Provost Michael McRobbie announced that the cost of an IU education could increase at a faster rate that previously projected. But before the trustees and administration raise tuition another arm and leg, they need to consider if the inflated costs of attending IU will outweigh the benefits of Hoosierdom.\nOne of the main reasons cited by McRobbie for the increase is the hope of attracting and retaining more top-tier professors. This seems legitimate enough. Despite the fact that we would like everything to be free (and trust us, we do), we realize professors aren't cheap. Not only does IU have to pay their salaries, but it also has to provide top-level research facilities for them. As the old saying goes, a researching professor is a happy professor, and we want them to stay happy -- not just for the sake of our grades, but also for the overall quality of our education.\nIn the process of jumping through hoops to attract and retain faculty members who are at the top of their fields, though, IU must remember why the faculty are here to begin with: the students (right?). And it is the students who will be footing the bill for this latest increase. \nNow, we understand that higher education's share of the state budget has been decreasing, reducing the amount that IU gets per student and forcing the University to transfer the cost to individual tuitions. And we know that while the proposed increase may prove an annoyance to middle and upper income students, it shouldn't hurt those from lower income families. (In fact, according to Adam Herbert's Sept. 17 guest column for the Indianapolis Star, "the average out-of-pocket cost to attend IUB for the lowest-income Hoosier students has fallen by $1,943 since 2004"). \nHowever, all this said, more accountability would be nice. We'd like to make sure that tuition's increasing increases are, indeed, going to attracting the best professors possible rather than being frittered away on academic fads or other superficial expenses. Would it be possible to specially earmark these funds for their stated purpose? Build new facilities that enable professors to research their hearts' content and attract new professors to the University. Do this and we will put up with the tuition increases -- even though we aren't thrilled about them. \nWe will wince as we have to work overtime to make up those extra bursar payments, and we will gripe about the extra expense. But as long as penny pinching today will guarantee a quality education that will put us ahead later, we say go for it. And one day, when we are sitting on the sunny shores of our personally owned tropical paradises, sipping our piña coladas, we will think back to our days at IU and say, "It was worth it"
(09/25/06 4:16pm)
"I feel like many of the Big Ten teams this year, Indiana is very solid. They have a complete team with excellent players in all positions. Their goalie is excellent and has a very good presence in her area. Indiana will give every Big Ten team a hard-fought match. They, like all of our teams, will be asking for leadership players to step up and for many players to help with the scoring."\n--Dean Duerst, Wisconsin
(09/25/06 3:59pm)
Booze is a funny thing. It betrays us, makes us sick and induces reckless behavior. We drunk dial, we go home with boys we shouldn't, we spend money we don't have on cab fares and bar tabs and we dance all night in uncomfortable shoes (inevitably causing blisters to be dealt with the next morning alongside hangovers). For these things, I blame alcohol. \n"I'm never drinking again ... ever," my roommate lied. She threw up three times after sampling a little too much Everclear the night before. She traditionally drinks beer, and, unfamiliar with the potency of this particular libation, drank herself sick. So I can't blame her for lying. She probably thinks right now, staring at her bile in the toilet bowl, that she will never drink again. However, by next Friday, she'll be back at it. \nHow do I know? I've been there, of course. I won't tell stories (a lady never drinks and tells); let's just say that there was many a time I should have been benched. However, not only am I still in the game, I'm a starter. How? I've gone through intense conditioning, made many mistakes on game days and I had to learn from them.\nWhy, though, is this a team I even want to play for? It seems as though it would be better to be on some sort of Saturday night Balderdash squad. It takes me back to a simple truth: Once alcohol came into our lives, things that might have been fun before became less fun. You can argue me on this one all you like, but I won't listen. Drinking changed fun. \nIn considering my pre-booze life, I recalled my days of middle school: the dawn of "boy-girl parties," where we would all dance (yes, we even slow danced) sans alcohol. We just wanted to dance, and we wanted to dance with members of the opposite sex. We'd play truth or dare (which was basically a way to justify kissing), and no feelings were held back because of sobriety. \nDid we have it right back then? Has alcohol stunted our social and emotional growth to the point of an inability to have the kind of fun we used to have in middle school? And, trust me, middle school was just as bad for me as it was for you, if not worse -- I wore headgear. However, sometimes I am nostalgic for a sweeter time, a time before this social crutch. \nBut here's the simple truth ...\nWill I stop drinking? Don't be ridiculous. I like it, and it's my team. Drinking can turn an average night into a great one. And even if I wanted to go back to the days when my mouth was more familiar with orthodontia than alcoholic beverages, I couldn't. Social interaction is irreversibly different now. Accept it, move on and be somewhat responsible. Just think of my roommate -- she won't stay away because drinking rocks. If retching up your insides for hours won't deter you from something, nothing will.
(09/25/06 4:27am)
MINNEAPOLIS -- The Chicago Bears and their defense are still in charge of the NFC North for now.\nAfter a rough afternoon against a suddenly stingy Minnesota defense, Rex Grossman threw a 24-yard touchdown to Rashied Davis right after the 2-minute warning, rallying the Bears (3-0) past the Vikings 19-16 Sunday.\nAntoine Winfield returned one of Grossman's two interceptions for a fourth-quarter touchdown, and Ryan Longwell's third field goal with 7:27 remaining gave Minnesota a 16-12 edge. But Grossman came through with his first career fourth-quarter scoring pass after Chester Taylor lost a fumble with 3 1/2 minutes left, and Adewale Ogunleye recovered at the Vikings' 37-yard line.\nThis was the first win at the Metrodome since 2001 for the Bears, who committed 10 penalties for 82 yards and looked very beatable up until the end. Robbie Gould kept them in it by kicking four field goals.\nThe Vikings (2-1) got the ball back with 1:45 left, but they failed to convert a first down. Brad Johnson's heave on fourth-and-2 at his own 46, with Ogunleye in his face, was thrown well past Troy Williamson up the sideline.\nGrossman completed 23 of 41 passes for 278 yards and the late touchdown. Muhsin Muhammad caught nine balls for 118 yards, and Thomas Jones rushed 19 times for 53 yards.\nGould made a 41-yarder in the first quarter, but the Bears were forced to punt on their next three possessions. Then Dwight Smith intercepted a badly underthrown ball by Grossman, who was under pressure from Darrion Scott, and returned it from the Vikings 38 to the Chicago 32.\nGrossman brought the league's best passer rating into the game after throwing for 551 yards and five touchdowns in victories against Green Bay and Detroit. But the Packers and Lions didn't provide much resistance, and Grossman didn't look ready for Minnesota's persistent rush.\nHe threw six straight incompletions during a stretch just before he was picked off by Smith, and almost every time he connected with one of his receivers, the target was wide open somewhere in the middle of the field. Darren Sharper dropped a sure interception early in the second quarter that likely would have turned into a touchdown.
(09/25/06 4:27am)
KENNER, La. -- The brother of Indianapolis Colts receiver Reggie Wayne was killed Sunday when the delivery truck he was driving crashed into a highway guardrail.\nRashad Wayne was pronounced dead at the scene, said James Gallagher, a spokesman for the Kenner Police Department.\nPolice responded to a call at 10:15 a.m. Sunday about a wreck on westbound Interstate 10. Officers found a Capital City Produce Company truck stopped in the highway's right lane and found the 32-year-old Wayne in the cab with a severe head injury.\nA preliminary investigation determined that the truck was traveling in the left lane on the upramp of the interstate bridge, but crossed three lanes as it started fishtailing and then hit the right retaining wall, Gallagher said.\n"It slid along the top of the wall on its side a short distance before landing back on its wheels across the lanes leading to Interstate 310," he said.\nRashad Wayne is from Baker, a bedroom community north of Baton Rouge. An autopsy will be performed later to determine the exact cause of his death.\nHis brother, Reggie Wayne, a New Orleans native, is in his sixth year with the NFL. The Colts played in Indianapolis Sunday, but the team did not address the accident and told The Associated Press after the game that a statement was pending.
(09/25/06 4:26am)
PITTSBURGH -- Carson Palmer wasn't about to lose this one. Not against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team he says he hates -- the team he spent eight exhausting months rehabilitating his mangled knee mostly for the chance to face.\nAlternating between brilliant and awful, the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback threw two touchdown passes to T.J. Houshmandzadeh less than a minute apart midway through the fourth quarter following Steelers turnovers, and the unbeaten Bengals rallied for a 28-20 victory Sunday against the Super Bowl champions.\nOnly three games into the season, the Bengals (3-0) own a two-game lead in the AFC North over the Steelers (1-2), who couldn't withstand a second mediocre game in seven days by their own rehabilitating quarterback.\nBen Roethlisberger, recovering from an offseason motorcycle accident and appendicitis attack, was an ineffective 18-of-39 for 209 yards and appears to be lacking strength on his downfield throws. The game ended when Roethlisberger was intercepted for the third time, this time by Kevin Kaesviharn, on a third-and-10 from the Bengals' 16 and with Pittsburgh trying to drive for the tying score.\nPalmer -- whose focus has been on this game almost since the moment Kimo von Oelhoffen tore apart his knee by rolling atop it early in the Steelers' 31-17 playoff victory in January -- had three fumbles and two interceptions, yet withstood them with four touchdown passes. He went 18-of-26 for 193 yards and now has seven touchdown throws in two games in Pittsburgh since December, both victories.\nWith the Bengals scoring 21 points off Steelers turnovers, Palmer twice hit Chris Henry for touchdowns in a first half largely dominated by Pittsburgh. Then, after the Steelers seemed in control even while leading only 17-14 in the fourth, Palmer took advantage of fumbles by punt returner Ricardo Colclough and running back Verron Haynes to hit Houshmandzadeh on touchdown throws of nine and 30 yards only 54 seconds apart. Houshmandzadeh had missed two games with a heel injury.\nThe Colclough fumble at the Steelers 9-yard line, recovered by Tony Stewart, was the turning point. An inexperienced returner, Colclough tried to catch a tumbling punt that was aided by a strong wind with his hands over his head but never controlled it, and the Bengals scored on the next play. Rookie Willie Reid was supposed to be the Steelers' punt returner but was deactivated for a third consecutive game -- a move coach Bill Cowher might now regret.\nThe Steelers, coming off a 9-0 loss Monday to Jacksonville in which they ran for only 26 yards, couldn't have gotten off to a much better start. They drove 80 yards for the first of Willie Parker's two short touchdown runs, a 3-yarder less than six minutes into the game. Parker ran for 133 yards.
(09/25/06 4:25am)
The IU women's volleyball team started Big Ten play by upsetting No. 19 Michigan Friday in Ann Arbor, Mich. \nThe win could not carry its momentum over the weekend as Michigan State handed the Hoosiers a loss Saturday - giving them a split on their first Big Ten road trip of the season.\nTo begin the weekend, IU beat Michigan 3-2 despite what IU coach Katie Weismiller called a slow start.\n"It took a while for us to settle in," Weismiller said in a statement. "But everyone stuck with it and pulled out the victory." \nTwo sophomores led the way for IU in the victory over the Wolverines. Outside hitter Erica Short led the offensive attack with 16 kills. Defensive specialist Juli Pierce turned in 21 digs to lead the team defensively. \nThe Hoosiers also tallied 23 blocks, the third-highest total in team history. \nIU could not repeat the performance that earned it a victory against Michigan when it took on Michigan State Saturday, dropping the match 3-1. \n"It was definitely a tough night," Weismiller said in a statement. "We looked good, but we made too many unforced errors down the stretch."\nThe Hoosiers could not match Michigan State's output of kills. The Spartans notched 73 kills to IU's 67, but the largest disparity between the schools was dig totals. Michigan State totaled 74 digs, while IU managed just 48.\nOnce again, Short led IU offensively with 24 kills and was joined in double digits by three other Hoosiers. Junior Gabrielle Allison added 13 kills, sophomore Emily Zulauf had 12 and junior Annie Moddrell contributed 10. Pierce had 11 digs to lead the defense and junior Lauren Ditteon added 10. \nThe Hoosiers are now 10-4 on the season and 1-1 in Big Ten competition. IU will take on No. 2 Penn State and No. 12 Ohio State at home Friday and Saturday, respectively.
(09/25/06 4:12am)
The game began as the rain continued. Sloppy weather conditions were exceeded only by sloppier football play as the Hoosiers played their final nonconference game against the University of Connecticut Saturday. Soon it grew clear as the skies grew cloudy that this would not be a high-scoring game. Things seemed set for doom in the gloom. \nThen, with 6:05 left in the first quarter, freshman Kellen Lewis replaced junior quarterback Blake Powers. It seemed like a sign from the skies above -- the rain stopped for the first time since the night before, the sky opened up and the clouds parted. The weather, like the Hoosier faithful at Memorial Stadium, waited and watched. \nIt was the return of Lewis at the snap. The Hoosiers' future was here in the present, ready to put the Huskies past them. IU converted a first down for the first time in the game after an 18-yard gain by freshman running back Demetrius McCray. With a fresh set of downs in front of them, the Hoosiers -- \nbehind Lewis -- appeared ready to take care of business. \nFirst down and 10, Lewis took the snap. He stepped back looking for a receiver and found one deep down the left sideline. Lewis flung his arm forward as fans watched the ball soar into the air ... and straight into the hands of Connecticut linebacker Danny Lansanah, who returned the ball 39 yards -- the other way -- for the game's first score. \nHey, at least Lewis threw a touchdown pass, right?\nIf you're not laughing at that, you might want to check your funny bone. Though there was nothing funny about the outcome of Saturday's game, everything was comical.\nComically crappy, that is. \nI thought the defense would let us down, but, as with most things, I was wrong. The defense was impregnable, while the offense was immovable. The only factor more frustrating than the lack of offensive productivity was the back-and-forth baton passing of the quarterback role between Powers and Lewis. At times it seemed as if the coaches were standing in a circle on the sideline, flipping a coin to see who would be the quarterback for IU. \nHeads -- Powers; tails -- Lewis. Neither the head nor the tail of this Cream and Crimson creature could put an offensive number on the scoreboard.\nOn any given Saturday -- on this given Saturday -- on any given possession, a different quarterback could appear. Forget a quarterback controversy in Quarry Land; IU is in a quarterback crisis.\nSo behind the dual arms of quarterback Blaklen Lewers, the game took a turn for the taboo. The IU defense downgraded UConn's running back duo, as the IU offense failed to put up one point despite the efforts of two quarterbacks. Blaklen Lewers threw more interceptions than IU had rushing yards because the Hoosiers did not accumulate a single yard on the ground. IU waited until Connecticut scored its second touchdown to finally score its first. By the final whistle, the final outcome had not left a dry eye in the crowd because the torrential downpour hardly let up.\nMy father once told me a man's ability to weather the bad times is in his ability to laugh when those times are at their worst. Here the Hoosiers are at .500 after a 2-0 start to the season, and after awhile you can't help but laugh at how comical things have gotten. \nYep, things sure are comical in Quarry Land ... comically crappy.
(09/25/06 3:02am)
--From IDS reports \nIU President Adam Herbert is appealing to the IU community for the return of his digital camera.\nHerbert attended the James Brown concert at the IU Auditorium Tuesday night where he left the camera, valued at about $500, unattended for a few minutes. When he returned it was gone.\nThe president said he is more concerned about the sentimental value of the camera than how much it cost.\n"The thing I miss most is I had pictures of my dog that had just passed on there," Herbert said. "I hadn't had a chance to download the pictures yet."\nHerbert is asking whoever has the camera to return it to the IU Auditorium, no questions asked.
(09/25/06 2:59am)
I've always found that common sense is useful in life -- which, in a university classroom, often puts one in the minority. One such moment occurred roughly one year ago this week -- in an introductory journalism course, of all places. This still ranks as one of the most infuriating conversations with a professor I have ever been party to (and I'm something of a connoisseur). \nIn the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the hot air of political correctness enveloping this classroom was oppressive. Institutional racism, we were told (both by the overpaid instructor and the overpaid mayor of New Orleans), disqualified any criticism of the looters on the scene. After Katrina, the store-bought line was that if you dared employ any term but "victim" to the chaps wading through the water loaded with state-of-the-art electronic equipment, you might be a racist. Add to that the further complication made by the Louisiana National Guard units that were on duty "over there" instead of serving "our own" communities. \nAfter protesting for too long under my breath, I decided that I would not fall into this absurd deluge timidly. I inquired if the lecturer could advise me when "compassion for the downtrodden" might translate into solidarity with Iraqis fighting, not for air, but for life and limb. And meanwhile, I informed him, I will not be labeled a "racist" by someone who insists on abandoning the "Ay-rabs" -- "closing firehouses in Baghdad and opening them in New Orleans," to quote Sen. John Kerry's formulation -- as if, somehow, innocent Iraqis are helping to fleece the poor and needy "at home." \nDialectic argument of this kind, I then discovered, carries little sway in some classrooms and among certain professors. On the day my prof and I shared our little in-class chat, I was scolded for being so rude as to excoriate his syllabus. It wasn't long before I was forced out of the course, concluding my brief enrollment in the School of Journalism. \nIf we imagine that we have a truly liberal university, we are suffering from a dangerous delusion. We should know how to take assaults by those who reflect contempt for the very notion of free expression. This begs the question: What good is "having" the First Amendment if one cannot speak freely? It is true -- some will be "offended" by the expression of words and ideas, even notoriously erroneous ones. No harm in that, I say. "The best test of truth," Oliver Wendell Holmes once riposted, "is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market."\nI tell this story to illustrate that it is time to call a halt to those who would enforce homogeneity of thought. I felt obliged when I rebuked my teacher, and feel obliged now, to protest at an academic community that pays lip service to openness while, in practice, demands conformity. Many quarters of campus are very distinctly weighted against unwelcome truths, on what people think but do not say, or worse, do not want to hear. For shame.
(09/25/06 2:58am)
Thirty-six percent of American high school students believe that the media has too much freedom and should be screened by the government before going to press. This figure represents the most troubling facet of the trend I touched on last week: the growing attraction toward censorship. More than one in three students fail to recognize the intent of the First Amendment and the protection the press affords. Granted, teenagers aren't exactly the most wise or experienced demographic (when I was their age, I thought communism was a good idea and pleather pants looked fantastic), so they are not to be held fully responsible for their horribly skewed perception of freedom. They are quick to band together against the establishment when freedom of expression is threatened, but so many are now calling for a nasty concept known as prior restraint. Why? Because children learn by example. \nLet's have a quick refresher course on freedom of the press, shall we? Not so very long ago, a group of brilliant people (albeit white, male elitists) came forth and designed a beautiful balance of federal powers where each branch of government has its eye steadfastly on the others. It was then proposed that the public be given even further power to check the government. This proposal materialized as the First Amendment, where the sweet rights of speech, press, petition, religion and assembly stand side-by-side. The press in particular was envisioned to be the shadow always lurking behind the government, keeping it in line and holding it responsible. With this provision, the government cannot force the press to go through any prescreening or censorship process. For now.\nCurrently, our freedom as an unfettered watchdog is under very real attack, mostly from the Bush administration and its propaganda-spouting supporters. If you pay attention to conservative media criticism outlets like Accuracy in Media and Fox News, among others, you would notice that seemingly, at least once a month, they call for the imprisonment of journalists who expose some ugly, yet very true thing the administration has done. The president himself has been quoted multiple times voicing his opinions about the free press -- that we are treasonous America-haters, who are unpatriotic for telling the truth about his presidency. Well Mr. President, the framers of our Constitution must have been treasonous too, because that's exactly what they intended the press to do. Of course the Bush administration wants to gag those charged with exposing corruption; the appalling litany of their trespasses alludes to how much they still have to hide. \nBe careful, America. Look at today's youth, and be very concerned. They are the distilled mirror for the older generations. They are calling for censorship because they have been convinced by their parents, teachers and leadership that holding the government accountable is wrong. We are not teaching them to "love freedom," as all of George Bush's addresses make some saccharine allusion to. No, we are teaching them to fear freedom, and in that fear rings the death knell of democracy.
(09/25/06 2:57am)
My eyes produce more eye crust than the average person's -- I could bake pies with the amount I pick from my eyes some mornings.\nAlso, I have a condition called "hyperhidrosis," which means I have more than a normal amount of overactive sweat glands under my arms. I have a prescription antiperspirant to counter the moisture.\nSo, that's disgusting. \nI'm sure I've diminished my chances of being pursued by a male, at least in the next several months. Still, I can think of no more effective way to illustrate the concept and the image of the "laminated body" that the media project and that young people buy into every day -- very unfortunately.\nThe laminated body is the guy on GQ who's dapper and looks sharp even with scruffy hair and "vintage" jeans (that we know came from Banana Republic). Or it's the perfectly tanned and clean-cut teen in Venus razor ads promoting the idea that women who use the product will "reveal the goddess" in her. \nPeople with laminated bodies don't poop or sneeze or eat or fart, and they certainly never sweat. They have perfect bodies. Bodies with no attachment to the outside world. Bodies we want. Bodies we can never, ever have.\nI know I'm not the only one who perspires excessively. I've seen plenty a friend -- even female -- with lovely puddles of salt gracing their T-shirts' underarms.\nAnd we're ashamed of it! We're all devastated when we fart among acquaintances around whom we're not ready to express our small intestines' functions. And I pay tens of dollars for my prescription deodorant every year to hide my sweaty pits (which, very unfortunately, I didn't come across until after middle school. Try being 5-foot-8 and 110 pounds with a sweat problem among 12-year-old boys. Talk about intense character building.)\nIn a culture where ladies are supposed to "glisten" and appear shiny and sexy when it happens and where men are supposed to pump iron daily but never look greasy, the accumulation of sweat beads on the upper lip, having excessive hair on limbs, being gassy, carrying booger crumbs that are stuck in our nose hairs and smelling like 10-day-old Pizza Hut after a long run are cause for some major insecurities, despite their prevalence among just about every human being on the planet.\nThe bottom line: We are people. We are not bodies, and we -- both men and women -- will never obtain the ideal body projected to us in magazines and on television. Always remember not to passively consume such media texts. And keep in mind that it's possible that a person's mind, motivation and personality are more important than his or her physical appearance.\nNever mind. That's ridiculous.\nJust remember that you're not the only one with an appalling hygienic disorder -- if you have one. \nBesides, it can make for a neat party trick. Trust me.
(09/25/06 2:56am)
Is IU turning into just another white-dominated institution? A Sept. 15 Indiana Daily Student story concerning a lower amount of black student enrollment this year has people asking whether IU is becoming less diverse. We contend that it is much too early to make any hasty generalizations.\nAt its base, the fact that the black freshman population declined from 412 last year to 345 this year could be alarming. But it is necessary in these instances to step back and take a full view of the situation. Certain questions must be asked.\nIs this just a down year or something more? A more specific question to ponder is whether fewer black students are applying because of some institutional factor, such as a declining reputation for minority programs or an unwelcoming atmosphere for minority students. Or were fewer black students simply not admitted? If so, why?\nTwo things must be considered when issues such as these arise. First, statistics require precision and care. Becoming overtly alarmed by a one-time enrollment drop is probably an overreaction. As Dean of Students Richard McKaig pointed out in last Wednesday's IDS, a trend of several years must be examined. Secondly -- and perhaps more importantly -- one person's diversity can be another person's normalcy. Put differently: The concept of diversity is hard to define. Every person can have a slightly different measure of how "diverse" they believe this institution is. Is diversity based solely on pure numerical values? If so, many otherwise repressive governments are fostering diversity in their countries.\nDiversity, by some rudimentary definition, involves the acceptance of a wide range of ethnicities, religions, cultures and ideas. The question must be posed whether or not the campus climate of IU allows these to be put on the forefront of every student's agenda. Does IU make it possible to interact with and enjoy one another's diverse viewpoints and backgrounds? In large part, yes. The very nature of liberal higher education (not to be used in the political sense) puts students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community in the position to explore experiences normally outside of one's "comfort zone."\nThis is not to say, of course, that more should not be done to promote a diverse atmosphere at IU -- one of the perennial facts about diversity is that more can constantly be done to promote it. And, yet, something that doesn't get as much emphasis is this: The burden of cultivating a diverse campus lies just as much with the students as it does on the administration, perhaps more so. For as many programs as IU sponsors, little can be achieved if students make no effort to accept this diversity and incorporate it into our daily routines. We can whine and holler as much as we want about fewer black students being admitted by University officials, but it does no good as students to turn our backs on the opportunities that present themselves daily to broaden our horizons.
(09/25/06 2:53am)
CLASH -- People run past burning debris after clashes between police and protesters who were staging a sit-in Sunday in Copenhagen, Denmark. Police detained more than 200 people Sunday after a youth demonstration in Copenhagen turned violent, with protesters hurling cobblestones, bottles and eggs at officers in riot gear. The demonstrators were protesting a court ruling last month ordering a group of young squatters to leave a downtown building and hand it over to a Christian congregation that bought it five years ago.
(09/25/06 2:52am)
Check out what's going on with the arts around Bloomington.
(09/25/06 2:52am)
WASHINGTON -- Democrats on Sunday seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November elections.\nThe Democrats hoped the report would undermine the GOP's image as the party more capable of handling terrorism as the campaign enters its final six-week stretch.\nTheir criticisms came in a collection of statements sent to reporters Sunday amid the disclosure of a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded the war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.\nThe report was completed in April and represented a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, according to an intelligence official. The official, confirming accounts first published in Sunday's New York Times and Washington Post, spoke on condition of anonymity on Sunday because the report is classified.\n"Unfortunately this report is just confirmation that the Bush administration's stay-the-course approach to the Iraq war has not just made the war more difficult and more deadly for our troops, but has also made the war on terror more dangerous for every American," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic effort to take control of the House.\n"It's time for a new direction in this country," Emanuel, D-Ill., said in the statement.\n"Press reports say our nation's intelligence services have confirmed that President (George W.) Bush's repeated missteps in