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(09/22/06 3:01am)
Space shuttle glides to a safe landing\nCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space shuttle Atlantis and its six astronauts glided to a safe landing in darkness early Thursday, ending a 12-day mission whose smooth success was briefly upstaged by the high drama caused by mysterious floating debris.\nAhmadinejad: Iran doesn't need the bombUNITED NATIONS -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted Thursday that Tehran doesn't need atomic weapons, and he is "at a loss" about what more he can do to prove that. Ahmadinejad said his country has not hidden anything and was working within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. \n"The bottom line is we do not need a bomb," he said at a news conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.\nMogul pledges $3 billion to combat global warming\nNEW YORK -- British business mogul Richard Branson said Thursday he would invest about $3 billion to combat global warming over the next decade. Branson, the billionaire behind the multi-platform Virgin brand, said the money would come from 100 percent of the profits generated by his transportation and airline sectors. It will then be invested in efforts to find renewable, sustainable energy sources in an effort to wean the world off of oil and coal. \n4 Aides of Ousted Thai Leader Detained\nBANGKOK, Thailand - Thailand's new military rulers said Thursday that four top members of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's administration had been detained. The regime also assumed the duties of parliament, which was dissolved when the government was ousted in a coup earlier this week and banned meetings by all political parties. The junta's actions, which it said were to maintain peace and order, have come even though no open opposition has emerged to its Tuesday night ouster of Thaksin.
(09/22/06 2:49am)
NEW YORK -- Wal-Mart, facing pressure from critics who call its employee health care coverage inadequate, plans to begin selling nearly 300 generic prescription drugs for a sharply reduced price of $4 for a month's supply.\nThe world's biggest retailer said Thursday that it will test the program in Florida. The program will include 291 generic drugs available for conditions from allergies to high-blood pressure and is available to its employees and customers, including those without insurance.\nWal-Mart officials said the reduced price represents a savings to the customer of up to 70 percent on some drugs.\n"Wal-Mart is taking this step so our customers and associates can get the medicines they need at a cost they can afford," Bill Simon, executive vice president of the company's professional services division, said in announcing the plan at a Tampa, Fla., store.\nThe program will be launched Friday at 65 Wal-Mart, Neighborhood Market and Sam's Club pharmacies in the Tampa Bay area and will be expanded to the entire state in January.\nSimon wouldn't be specific about why Florida, and specifically the Tampa Bay area, was chosen for the rollout of the initiative, saying only that there was a need for it here.\nThe company said it plans to expand the program to as many states as possible next year.\nSimon said the 291 generic drugs include "the most commonly prescribed drugs for the some of the most common illnesses that face Americans today, including cardiac disease, asthma, diabetes, glaucoma, Parkinson's (disease) and thyroid conditions."\nSimon wouldn't give details on how much the plan is expected to cost Wal-Mart or the company's dealings with the drug companies involved.\n"We're able to do this by using one of our greatest strengths as a company -- our business model and our ability to drive costs out of the system and the model that passes those costs savings to our customers," he said. "In this case, we're applying that business model to health care."\nThe $4 prescriptions are not available by mail order and are being offered online only if picked up in person in the Tampa Bay area.\nThe lower-priced generic drugs could put downward pressure on drug prices at other pharmacies. This has been the case with Wal-Mart's toy business.\nIn a conference call with reporters, Simon said Wal-Mart is working with drugmakers to help them be more efficient but added, "We are working with them as partners. We are not pressuring them to reduce prices."\nTampa Wal-Mart pharmacy customer Pat Sullivan praised the company's initiative. The retired Massachusetts police officer said $4 generic prescriptions are a tremendous help.\n"I'm on disability, and my benefits run out by the end of the month," he said. "It comes down to: Where do I go for a $100 prescription? I have no outlet other than to break a pill in half and take half today and half tomorrow."\nThe initiative is the fourth time since last October that Wal-Mart has moved to improve health benefits.\nWal-Mart's recent moves included relaxing eligibility requirements for its part-time employees who want health insurance and extending coverage for the first time to the children of those employees. Part-time employees, who had to work for Wal-Mart for two years to qualify, now have to work at the company for one year. This year, Wal-Mart also expanded a trial run of in-store clinics, aimed at providing lower cost non-emergency health care to the public.\nLast October, Wal-Mart offered a new lower-premium insurance aimed at getting more of its work force on company plans.\nCritics argue that Wal-Mart's coverage calls for a deductible that requires workers to pick up the first $1,000 in medical expenses, and the deductible rises to a maximum of $3,000 for families.\nUnion-backed Wake Up Wal-Mart, one of the company's most vociferous critics, have called upon Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart to offer better health care coverage and higher pay to employees.\nCritics contend that the company's benefits are too stingy, forcing taxpayers to absorb more of the cost as the workers lacking coverage turn to state-funded health care programs.\nThis past summer, Wal-Mart won a successful fight against a first-of-its-kind state law that would have required the retailer to spend more on employee health care in Maryland. A federal judge ruled in July that it was invalid under federal law. But other states are considering similar legislation aimed at the company.\nWal-Mart's shares fell 17 cents to $48.70 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
(09/21/06 3:38am)
STRAFFAN, Ireland -- Tiger Woods was outraged Wednesday at an Irish magazine and a tabloid that linked photos of his wife to various pornography sites, and his agent was studying the merits of a lawsuit.\n"My wife, yes, she has been a model prior, and she did do some bikini photos," Woods said. "But to link her to porn Web sites and such is unacceptable, and I do not accept that at all. Neither does our team."\nThe Dubliner magazine wrote in its September issue about Elin Nordegren, his Swedish wife of nearly two years.\n"Most American golfers are married to women who cannot keep their clothes on in public," the magazine wrote. "Is it too much to ask that they leave them at home for the Ryder Cup? Consider the evidence. Tiger Woods' wife can be found in a variety of sweaty poses on porn sites."\nThe Irish Daily Start gave it front-page treatment Wednesday with the headline, "Tiger's Fury at Naked Pictures."\nInside the tabloid, it reprinted photos of Nordegren in a bikini, along with a nude photo of a woman purported to be Nordegren. Woods vehemently denied it was his wife when it first came out three years ago.\nMark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said he was debating whether to pursue a lawsuit.\n"It's ridiculous," Steinberg said from IMG headquarters in Cleveland. "I can't say much now because of prejudice because I'm not sure what we'll do in the future. Everyone knew it (the nude photo) wasn't her. It's plain as day. You can see it's not factual. It's kind of ironic they bring it up this week."\nIt was the first topic Woods brought up at his news conference leading to the Ryder Cup, which starts Friday at The K Club.\nWoods said his anger has nothing to do with the Irish people or the gallery that came to the golf course, even on Wednesday when the course was closed for three hours in the morning because of 40 mph wind and rain.\n"I know the media can be a little bit difficult at times, but ... it's hard to be very diplomatic about this when you have so much emotion involved, when my wife is involved in this," Woods said. "As I said, I don't want that to deter from the beauty of this event."\nWoods said making public his feelings was a matter of sticking up for his wife.\n"You do things for the people you love and you care about," Woods said. "My father got ridiculed for years, and I always felt for my father and my mother the same way. My wife, we're in it together. We're a team, and we do things as a team. And I care about her with all my heart"
(09/21/06 3:35am)
Dear Harlan,\nAs someone who is married to a man who calls himself an atheist, I can give some good advice from a woman's point of view. Every time there is a sacred event for which I would like to attend church (Easter, Christmas, Lent, etc.), I always end up going alone. You sit at the back of the church and view the happy families in front of you and wonder why that can't be you. When the children become involved, it becomes even more complex. When you are a little girl watching babies being baptized, you dream of the day your child will be up there. Now you are married to an atheist, who refuses to attend the ceremony and makes every sacred event a miserable experience, lecturing you again and again about how God is just a leftover idea from caveman days and that the church is just one big corporation, blah, blah, blah. While this notion of replacing these two very different religious beliefs with a tolerant, respectful, Unitarian practice, as you suggested, is a nice idealistic one, it doesn't seem to fit the tone of Devote's letter, which clearly states that he wants nothing to do with faith at all. If this poor woman can't lay out Easter eggs for her children without her husband barking out impassioned doctrines about how God is a lie, neither she nor the children are going to be happy.\nAnna
(09/21/06 3:06am)
KOKOMO -- A Democratic candidate for the Indiana House was briefly knocked unconscious and partially ejected from his pickup truck after a car plowed into it as he was headed to another round of campaigning, police said.\nRon Herrell, a former state representative trying to reclaim the House District 30 seat, suffered a broken rib and head and face injuries in Tuesday's accident.\nHerrell, 57, and his campaign manager, Meghan Giles, were on their way to an afternoon of door-to-door campaigning when the crash occurred about 2:30 p.m., police said.\nHoward County Sheriff Deputy Larry Sparks said Randall J. Blue, 38, of Kokomo ran a red light and smashed into Herrell's truck at an intersection on U.S. 31 just north of the city and about 50 miles north of Indianapolis.\nThe accident partially ejected Herrell, who was wearing a seat belt, through the driver's side window, Sparks said. Witnesses came to Herrell's aid, helping him back into the driver's seat to await medical help.\nHerrell regained consciousness before he was transported to Howard Regional Health System.\nDeputies said Giles, 24, complained of pain in one knee. Blue, who was not injured, was cited by sheriff deputies for disregarding an automatic traffic signal.\nHerrell said from the Kokomo hospital's emergency room that he never saw the other driver and didn't remember the accident. He said doctors told him he'll be sore for weeks to come but that his injuries won't restrict his activities.\nHerrell vowed to get back on the campaign trail quickly.\n"I'll be back at it tomorrow," he said.\nHerrell is in the midst of what is regarded as one of this year's closest Statehouse races. In the 2004 election, he was unseated by Republican John Smith. Herrell had held the seat since 1998, when he defeated incumbent Republican Karen Burkhardt.\nHe was saddened to learn that the crash likely totaled his 2003 Chevrolet Silverado.\n"I liked that truck," he said.
(09/21/06 2:45am)
Pandas no laughing matter
(09/20/06 8:31pm)
UNION, Mo. -- A newborn abducted after her mother was slashed was found alive Tuesday in excellent condition, and a woman who had recently miscarried was arrested, officials said.\nDr. Peter McCarthy, an emergency room physician at St. John's Mercy Hospital in Washington, Mo., said 11-day-old Abigale Lynn Woods has been reunited with her mother, father and other relatives. She was expected to be released from the hospital later Tuesday.\n"The family is elated and thankful to everyone in the community who prayed for them," McCarthy said. "The baby was hydrated, nourished and in good condition when she arrived at the hospital."\nFBI agent Roland Corvington identified the suspect as Shannon Beck, who lives a few miles from the home of the mother and baby.\nThe case broke when Beck's sister-in-law, Dorothy Torrez, contacted authorities.\n"She's the hero," Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke said. "She's the one that made it happen."\nOn Sunday, Beck contacted Torrez to say she had given birth, Corvington said. Beck had been pregnant but apparently miscarried shortly before her own child was to be born.\nTorrez visited Beck on Monday and urged her to take the child to a doctor, the FBI agent said. Beck agreed, and Torrez accompanied her to St. Louis on Tuesday, about 45 miles away.\nTorrez noticed what appeared to be makeup on the baby's forehead, Corvington said. When she rubbed the forehead, makeup came off what was covering a small birthmark.\nIn publicizing the abduction, police had described Abby's strawberry-red birthmark. Her suspicions aroused, Torrez confronted Beck, who gave her the baby, Corvington said.\nTorrez contacted police, and the baby was handed over to authorities at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.\n"An outstanding ending, obviously," Toelke said.\nToelke said the county prosecutor would address criminal charges on Wednesday. It wasn't immediately clear where Shannon Beck was or whether she had a lawyer.\nThe family has declined to speak with the media.\nThe child's mother, 21-year-old Stephenie Ochsenbine, told police Friday a woman entered her rural home, attacked her with a knife and stole the baby, who was a week old at the time.\nPolice had received more than 500 leads in the investigation. On Tuesday, they gave the baby's father, James Woods, a polygraph test, which he passed.\nThe abductor had been profiled as someone who had a child die recently or as someone who could not have children, told people she was pregnant and needed to steal a child so her lie would not be found out.
(09/20/06 7:19pm)
Let's play a guessing game. There's one vital organ that is supposed to be responsible for leading you in the right direction in all of life's hard decisions. This organ is supposed to lead you to happiness. I'll give you a hint: It also pumps blood.\nDing, ding, ding! How many times did your high school guidance counselor tell you to follow your heart?\nSome of the stupidest things in the world came from following the heart. Those electronic singing fish named Big Mouth Billy Bass, gerbil figure skating, Crystal Pepsi -- all the results of people following their hearts.\nRemember that show "Felicity" on the WB? The lead character, Felicity, followed that dude to college because her heart told her to. \nHer show got canceled.\nYou've heard of World War II, I assume. Hitler was simply looking inside his heart when he led Germany to invade Poland.\nListening to your heart only leads to trouble.\nYour heart tells you to do things like become a musician or get back together with your baby daddy's loan shark cousin Gerald.\nThat's dumb.\nIt's true that your heart is linked to your emotions. But according to MSNBC, researchers at the Institute of HeartMath said the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.\nIt won't shut up, and it doesn't listen.\nFeelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity change heart rhythm patterns, making them erratic. The erratic patterns are sent to the brain, and the brain interprets them as negative or stressful. All this leads to the actual feelings experienced in the chest or heart region of the body. Researchers also say the erratic heart rhythms block the ability to think clearly. \nFollowing your heart is like following a severely deranged and alcoholic penguin through an enchanted forest on a quest to find the perfect dry martini.\nFollow something else -- like your spleen.\nYour spleen will tell you to major in finance instead of art history.\nOr better yet, follow your pancreas. \nYour pancreas will tell you to date that nice, young Informatics major instead of the rebel who drives a 1996 Dodge Neon and makes you feel just a little dangerous.\nThe liver, perhaps? You can always count on your liver to say, "Hey, buddy. That hot girl in your poli sci lecture will never be attracted to you."\nIf your heart's decisions leave you in agony -- eating out of dumpsters so you can keep a job that you love or pining for Chelsea Clinton when she's clearly unattainable -- you need to tell it what's what.\nDon't quit your day job, heart. Go back to regulating the circulatory system. Or better yet, start doing stand-up at open mic night. Just stop ruining people's lives.\nIf your internal organs aren't reliable, a wise toucan once said: "Follow your nose." And look where he is now: a utopia of "frooty" flavor.
(09/20/06 7:04pm)
On Tuesday, Sept. 13, IU played host to the king of red herrings when John Corvino and Glenn Stanton debated the merits of gay marriage. As the Indiana Daily Student reported the following day, the two-hour-long debate was "civilized."\n"Civilized" is an adequate description; it was certainly no Lincoln versus Douglas.\nAfter what seemed an interminable back-and-forth, the traveling duo reasserted their friendship despite their differences. This was the icing on the cake of what amounted to a colossal exercise of "let's just agree to disagree."\nOf course, such amicable disagreement is sheer lunacy if you recall that one side is staunchly defending the status quo, while the other is hell-bent on overthrowing it.\nDon't get me wrong; I think it's great that Stanton and Corvino can be friends despite their differences. I myself have many friends with whom I disagree. Nevertheless, their debate -- which, after so many performances, must be choreographed -- was unconvincing. With every argument either an emotional, empathetic appeal or a weak stab at common sense, the debate lacked a scholarly foundation. It would have been more convincing had either debater presented evidence from primary sources.\nIn this case, the most salient primary source comes from "The English Book of Common Prayer," the section titled "The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony." Since 1622, the marriage liturgy prescribed here for weddings has been the template for nearly every wedding in the English-speaking world. It is primarily through this document that we have come to understand marriage.\nThe marriage liturgy prescribes three purposes for marriage: First: "It was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord." It is obvious that a sodomitical marriage could never meet this rubric. Corvino would like us to believe that such a union could serve to rear children, but the marriage liturgy presupposes that the rearing of children is best accomplished with a father and mother.\nThe second criterion given is that marriage "was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency (that is, celibacy) might marry, and keep themselves undefiled." This statement should need no argument. Only within the last few decades of the 20th century would anyone even dream of suggesting a homosexual marriage could meet this standard.\nFinally, marriage "was ordained for the mutual society, help and comfort, that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity." I cannot guess whether a homosexual relationship would fulfill this or not.\nSo the final score for sodomitical marriages, when held up to the oldest rubric we have, is: against, against, maybe. By this test, same-sex marriage fails so heinously that it cannot possibly be considered marriage.\nI know that many heterosexual marriages fail on some or all of these criteria -- and that is a tragedy. But just because many marriages fail does not mean we should scrap the institution. That would be, almost literally, throwing the baby out with the bath water.
(09/20/06 7:03pm)
Last week, the Westboro Baptist Church, an independent Baptist community, continued its protesting at military funerals despite laws passed to prevent it from doing just this. On Memorial Day, President Bush signed a law banning protests within 300 feet of a national cemetery -- yet members of the church have picketed at 15 funerals in 13 states since the beginning of August. And this comes after 10 of those states also passed laws to restrict their activities. They even protested at a Sept. 11 commemoration held at the site of the United Airlines Flight 93 crash. \nAt the protests, the group has held up signs saying "God hates fags," "God hates the USA" and "Too late to pray." After first becoming well-known in 1998 by picketing the funeral of murdered gay college student Matthew Shepard, they have since stated that the Sept. 11 attacks were God's way of punishing America for its national acceptance of gays. \nAnother claim the group makes, maybe its most ridiculous, is that the seven astronauts who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia crash are burning in hell and that they were killed as a punishment for not using their position as astronauts to speak out against homosexuality. \nPastor Fred Phelps, the leader of the church, said he believes that the laws passed are unconstitutional because they infringe on free speech. Ironically, Phelps used to be a civil rights lawyer, and the American Civil Liberties Union is helping challenge the laws in Ohio and Missouri. The ACLU says the laws limit speech and must be fought to protect everyone's rights.\n"Today it's a group we don't like. Tomorrow it could be us that are silenced," said Tony Rothert of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. \nWhile I can understand where the ACLU is coming from in terms of protecting free speech, I don't necessarily think that laws keeping hate groups away from funerals is such a bad idea. While a peaceful protest is not illegal, there are also things called trespassing and harassment. While people have the right to free speech, they also have the right not to hear other people's speech if they don't want to. Furthermore, hate groups such as these should be under careful watch everywhere they go. Families and friends of a fallen soldier deserve to be protected from dangerous, psychotic groups. Making them stay a reasonable distance away from military funerals could prevent violent confrontations and allow the church members to still protest with their absurd, hate-filled messages. \nWhat's particularly odd about their message is that if they feel that it's too late to pray, then why are they bothering to announce such findings at a funeral? If it's too late to pray, then why would they care if people did pray? Their odd, mixed messages show that the group is only out for the publicity that the mainstream media is giving them.
(09/20/06 6:57pm)
For some time, academia had speculated about the credibility of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Thanks to last week's series in the Indiana Daily Student, that debate has arrived full-steam at IU.\nWhile we don't dismiss Wikipedia outright, we do advocate limited use in settings of higher education.\nOne of the consistent ironies of our education system in the United States is that everyone, regardless of grade level, is in constant flux. Skills are taught to students with the future, as well as the present, in mind. Each step of elementary education builds on the next, the ultimate goal being preparation for middle school, high school and beyond. By the time students reach the college level, it is assumed that students will have gained all the necessary tools to pursue more intense academic endeavors. Research, the cornerstone of academia, has little room for the haphazard information-gathering Wikipedia offers. Wikipedia, as far as education goes, is best left to assist with the seventh-grade history assignment on John F. Kennedy, not the 300-level research paper on the French Revolution.\nThere are, of course, caveats to this position. Wikipedia, and other quickly referenced electronic sources, need not be unduly shunned by every person claiming to be of an "educated background." Indeed, there are favorable uses for Wikipedia and the like -- uses that should stay off of one's works cited page. Quickly referencing trivial information of the "tidbit" variety has practical everyday application. We at the editorial board have used Wikipedia in many settings outside of educational assignments. In this, we believe, lies Wikipedia's usefulness. At the very best, the resource should be used in an academic setting only to find links to more established sources of material. \nThe fact that Wikipedia is able to be modified by any user is certainly its most limiting attribute, but it isn't the only one. \nHigher academic research and writing require tools outside the realm of encyclopedic references. Research, whether original or secondary, necessitates the critical analysis of scholarly writing and the acquisition of raw data. Try and cite "Encyclopedia Britannica" or CNN.com as a primary source for your senior or graduate thesis and you'll be sincerely disappointed. Wikipedia carries the same, if not less, standing in such work -- and rightly so.\nRecalling that education builds on itself, it becomes clear why the use of Wikipedia in the college setting is debated. Some professors may allow it for their classes (as an unscientific IDS survey pointed out), but beware the long-term effects. Reliance on such a resource at the freshmen level can cause unwelcome habits down the line, even post-graduation. Does an economist at the Federal Reserve use Wikipedia to report to Fed chairman Ben Bernanke about the Consumer Price Index? We hope not. So too, we hope students will appreciate the difference between in-depth research and recreational trivia-gathering.
(09/20/06 4:32am)
NORMAN, Okla. -- A phone call from Oregon coach Mike Bellotti was nice, but it did absolutely nothing to soothe Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops over an incorrect officials' ruling that likely cost his team a victory over the Ducks.\n"He just apologized and said that it's unfortunate that the two of us have got to be in the middle of it," Stoops said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. "I said, 'Well, you didn't do anything wrong but play hard, and that's the same thing we were trying to do.'"\nStoops still was speaking out after Saturday night's 34-33 loss in Eugene, Ore., a game in which a blown call on an onside kick led to Oregon's winning touchdown in the final minute.\nThe Pac-10 Conference admitted Monday the onside kick was touched by an Oregon player before it traveled the required 10 yards, and, therefore, possession should have been awarded to Oklahoma. The league suspended the officials responsible for one game, and Commissioner Tom Hansen apologized for the mistake.\nHad Oklahoma been given the ball, the offense could have run out the clock for a 33-27 win.\nAt Oregon, Bellotti said some might view the win as tainted.\n"I feel very fortunate for us to have won that football game, not for the officials' errors, but for how our team played," he said. "We were lucky, we made plays and we never gave up. It's unfortunate that any team had to lose or the efforts of my players are questioned because of officials' errors."\nBellotti told Stoops when officials determine the outcome it's not good for either team.\n"And I can understand their frustration," Bellotti said.\nAlthough Stoops said his team could have done things differently to prevent the game from becoming so close, he was still upset at the result.\n"We can't sit here and say OK," Stoops said. "It's unacceptable and inexcusable, to (the players) and to us because we can't get it back, and they earned it. That's the hard truth of it, and now our situation is severely altered."\nStoops said he was addressing the issue "for the last time" so his 17th-ranked Sooners (2-1) could get ready to play Middle Tennessee State University.\n"I've said all this in this way because I feel the right to stand up for my football players," he said. "I'm not sitting up here, me babying or whining about it."\nStoops also disputed a pass interference call on the winning drive. The league reviewed that play, too, but found there was not indisputable evidence to reverse the call.\n"Instead of being criticized for winning or how we could have played better, now we have to sit here and deal with the loss and not have the satisfaction of being 3-0 and improving our position in bowls and everything else when clearly it was not correct what happened," Stoops said.\nHe also said OU might consider canceling its game at the University of Washington in 2008 if the Pac-10 doesn't change its rule requiring league officials to be used at its home stadiums for nonconference games. Jim Muldoon, associate Pac-10 commissioner, said the league will examine the issue when athletic directors meet Oct. 12.\n"The underlying philosophy is officials are honest," Muldoon said. "In light of the attention that's been brought to it, we'll put it on agenda ... and see if they want to revisit it."\nAs for his team improving, Stoops said he'd like to see quicker starts on offense, better play in the secondary and a stingier run defense. But he refused to say what he thought the Sooners could have done to avoid the end-of-game scenario.\nSooners quarterback Paul Thompson said the team still feels "like we got a win that was taken from us."\n"You're glad that they understand what they did and what they did was wrong, but at the same time, it really doesn't affect much. That was a big mistake, and you can't really do much to change that," Thompson said. "We accept the apology, but it doesn't do much in the way of changing things."\nSports Writer Anne E. Peterson in Eugene, Ore., contributed to this report.
(09/20/06 4:14am)
NEW ORLEANS - The game is so big, it'll require two stadiums.\nTwo NFL commissioners will be there.\nTwo internationally renowned rock bands will play in the Louisiana Superdome shortly before kickoff.\nAnd two 2-0 teams will take the field while nearly 70,000 fans purge a year of post-Katrina frustration with howls almost loud enough to blow the dome's new galvanized steel roof right off.\nSaints players and coaches are well aware of all this, and they're trying not to think about it too much.\n"The evening's only special if you win it," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "We're seeing a good team come in here in Atlanta...We're going to have to have a good week of practice, and all the other stuff is stuff that we can't control and we just want to make sure it doesn't become a distraction."\nSaints spokesman Greg Bensel said more than 500 credentials have been issued to media outlets from around the world -- from Sky Sports to Al-Jazeera -- and that ESPN is sending a crew of several hundred to build up its coverage of the "Monday Night Football" telecast.\nBecause the dome is sold out for the season, there's no place in the stands to set up an overflow press box as has been done during Super Bowls, so a couple hundred media members will have to work out of the adjacent New Orleans Arena and watch the game on TV.\nFormer NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who played a leading role in making this game happen when New Orleans' future in the NFL seemed in doubt after the storm, is expected to attend, along with his successor, Roger Goodell.\nU2 and Green Day will play during pregame ceremonies. Former President George H.W. Bush is slated for the coin flip, although he may not receive quite the same welcome as another Bush -- running back Reggie, who'll be making his home debut in the refurbished dome.\nThis is a tough ticket. On the Saints' Web site, season ticket holders who have decided to resell their tickets on a team-approved exchange program are asking $690 for upper deck seats and more for premium seats.\n"Could this game be any more hyped up or bigger than it already is?" Saints quarterback Drew Brees said. "We all know what it is, but the way I'm approaching this week is: It's a football game, and we need to win it. That's it."\nWhile opening 2-0 on the road is always an accomplishment in the NFL -- and is something the Saints have never done since being founded in 1967 -- the teams they beat this month are winless. Those games were played in pleasant late-summer weather in Cleveland and Green Bay, and the results remained in doubt until past the two-minute warning.\nAtlanta is a regional rival that has long given the Saints fits. Many in New Orleans remember well that the Saints' worst loss ever, 62-7 in 1973, came at home at the hands of the Falcons.\nAnd Atlanta appears to be the stronger of the two teams this year. In games against Carolina and Tampa Bay, the Falcons have yet to allow a touchdown while outscoring their opponents 34-9.\nWith a strong offensive line and quarterback Michael Vick always a threat to run, Atlanta has rushed for 558 yards.\n"This is a respected team we're playing," said Saints receiver Joe Horn, long a crowd favorite in the Superdome both for his play on the field and his outgoing manner off it.\nHorn remembers well what the dome was like on its best days, and he anticipates a spine-tingling scene when the fans welcome back the team that wears their city's symbol, the fleur-de-lis, on its gold helmets.
(09/20/06 4:13am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts coach Tony Dungy tried to get his starters out of Sunday's blowout in the fourth quarter. Houston didn't give him a chance.\nActually, the Colts defense didn't give him a chance.\nMany people outside the organization wondered why players like two-time MVP Peyton Manning and seven-time Pro Bowl receiver Marvin Harrison were still in the game until the end, so Dungy offered an explanation Monday.\n"The problem we had is that we were up 30-3 so that was about four scores, and we substituted on defense, and you'd like to hold them," he said. "But they went right down the field and scored, and then we're three scores up. So we told our guys one more drive."\nThe offense responded with another touchdown drive to make it 37-10, and Dungy again sent out many of his defensive backups -- hoping to pull his offensive starters.\nAgain, though, Houston scored.\n"The defense does the same thing, so the offense went back out there," Dungy said. "We'd like to have stopped them a couple of times, then gotten our substitutes out there on offense."\nManning again responded with a touchdown drive to make it 43-17.\nClearly, though, Dungy was not pleased with how the defense finished the game.\nAfter allowing only three points and 110 yards to Houston in the first three quarters, the Texans had 189 yards in offense and scored three TDs in the last 15 minutes.\nEven with backups playing prominent roles during that span, Dungy expected more.\n"We really lost everything, and that doesn't let you come away with a good feeling," he said. "But we played pretty well to start."
(09/20/06 3:40am)
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom is planning a "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" game on campus for next week.\nParticipants in the game will try to catch a volunteer dressed as an illegal immigrant, YAF Chairman Andrew Boyd said. Boyd stressed that the volunteer will not represent any particular ethnic group.\nThe winner will receive a $200 cash prize, but Boyd refused to disclose the source of the money.\nLast week, The Michigan Daily reported that Morgan Wilkins, an independent contractor hired by the College Republican National Committee to rally Michigan college students, was considering holding "Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day" at campuses around the state.\nThe Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee, CRNC and the University's chapters of College Republicans and College Democrats have all denounced the plans.\nYAF, a group further to the political right and more extremist than other conservative campus groups, hopes to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the event.\n"It's a huge issue right now," Boyd said.\nCampus activist groups have already expressed their distaste for the idea.\n"The Dems strongly condemn it in every way possible," College Democrats spokesman Ryan Werder said. "After the national anger and campus outrage, you'd think they'd get the hint that their tasteless brand of xenophobia and bigotry just isn't welcome here."\nFriday, the College Democrats, the Michigan Federation of College Democrats and the Michigan Democratic Party called on the CRNC to fire Wilkins at a press conference held on campus.\nCollege Republicans Chairman Rob Scott also condemned the plans.\n"I think it's unfortunate that they would treat such a serious issue like immigration in this light," Scott said. "It's very sensational and doesn't lend itself to open dialogue in the way it should."\nBut Boyd said the shock value is necessary.\n"I think the game may attract a lot of people that just an ordinary speaker may not attract," he said. "I think as many people need to be educated about this as possible."\nPlaying "Catch an Illegal Immigrant" isn't a new idea.\nThe Young Conservatives of Texas played the game at the University of North Texas last spring. But campus outcry put a stop to similar plans at Penn State University and the University of Texas at Austin.\nThe university chapter of YAF will have help playing the game from its counterpart at Michigan State University.\n"We're definitely helping out," MSU YAF Chairman Kyle Bristow said.\nBristow plans to repeat the event at MSU. Like Boyd, he said the controversy generated by playing Catch an Illegal Immigrant will draw much-needed attention to the effects of illegal immigration.\n"It's a game that the U.S. government needs to play about 13 million times," Bristow said.\nBristow had another idea but said it would be unrealistic.\n"The only thing more effective would be if U of M YAF and MSU YAF were to drive down to the border and start building the wall ourselves," Bristow said. "But that would be a lot of work."\nAlicia Benavides, chairwoman of La Voz Latina, a Latino advocacy group, said she disagrees with the notion that the game will create a dialogue.
(09/20/06 3:30am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- Methodist Hospital has offered to financially compensate families of two premature infants who died after being given an overdose of a blood thinner, the hospital CEO said Tuesday.\nTwo girls less than a week old died Saturday at the Indianapolis hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit after being given adult doses of heparin, which is often used to prevent blood clots that could clog intravenous tubes. Four other premature babies were still being treated after being given too powerful a dose of the drug that a pharmacy technician accidentally stored in the NICU's drug cabinet.\nHospital officials offered to pay funeral expenses for Emmery Miller and D'myia Alexander Nelson. The hospital also would pay for family counseling and provide financial restitution to all six families affected, said Sam Odle, president and CEO of Methodist Hospital, which is part of Clarian Health Partners.\n"We are acutely aware that nothing can adequately compensate these families for their loss," Odle said.\nOdle also revealed that in 2001, a similar overdose of the drug was given to two patients in the hospital's Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. They recovered, he said.\nNone of the six families has talked to the hospital yet about possible compensation, Odle said.\n"We would handle each family on an individual basis," Odle said. "We will make sure that the families are (as) satisfied with the outcome as we possibly can."\nOf the four other infants overdosed with the drug, three were hospitalized in critical but stable condition Tuesday at Methodist and were no longer showing ill effects from the heparin, officials said. A fourth was in critical and unstable condition at Riley Hospital for Children.\nSince the overdoses, the hospital has taken steps to ensure the mistake does not happen again, as it did in 2001 when dosages were confused in two pediatric patients receiving heparin to keep intravenous lines open, Odle said.\nAfter that mistake, the hospital eliminated other doses of heparin so that only one was available.\n"While this change greatly reduced the opportunity for further error, the circumstances of this past weekend exposed system weaknesses that have led us to further refine our system of checks and balances," Odle said.\nHeparin arrives at the hospital in premeasured vials and pharmacy technicians place the doses in a computerized drug cabinet. When nurses need to administer the drug, they retrieve it from a specific drawer, which then locks again.\nEarly Saturday morning, a pharmacy technician with more than 25 years of experience accidentally took the wrong dosage from inventory and stocked it in the drug cabinet in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit, Odle said. Nurses accustomed to only one dosage of heparin being available administered too much.\nMethodist has since changed procedures again and no longer keeps certain doses of heparin in inventory. All newborn and pediatric critical care units will require a minimum of two nurses to validate any dose of heparin.\nStaff members involved with Saturday's mistake were receiving counseling and taking time off until they feel comfortable returning to work, hospital officials said.\nDeb Hutchens, a neonatal nurse practitioner, said NICU nurses were devastated.\n"I feel like this is a NICU family," she said. "We are very close. We all feel very deep sorrow. It's just going to be a very long healing process for all of us."\nThe hospital on Sunday told other parents whose children are at the NICU about the overdose.\nDoug and Trisha Ripperger of Indianapolis said they felt safe at Methodist with their daughter, Julia, who was born prematurely about a month ago and was heading home Tuesday. The couple and other parents met Sunday with the hospital chaplain, who explained the heparin overdose. Their daughter was not administered heparin.\n"We're obviously very sad for those parents and those families," Trisha Ripperger said. "But we've had excellent care from day one. There was never a thought of taking her out of here"
(09/20/06 3:20am)
This weekend, I received a surprise when my parents, lifelong Republicans, announced they were planning to vote for Ohio's Democratic candidate for governor, Ted Strickland. Why? Besides the fact that Republican candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell was generally too conservative for them -- as a friend once put it, he's a "God conservative," while my family and I are "economic conservatives" -- one big issue was playing on their minds. Blackwell wants to lease the Ohio Turnpike to a foreign consortium, Macquarie-Cintra. You Hoosiers might have heard of it.\nBack here in Indiana, a poll by WISH-TV (reported Monday by The Associated Press) showed that not only were respondents against Gov. Mitch Daniels' leasing out the Indiana Toll Road to the same consortium by a margin of 55 percent to 39 percent, but a plurality of Republicans opposed the measure, 50 percent to 46 percent. On Sunday, in response to another result from the poll -- the fact that 57 percent of interviewees regarded Daniels as a "fair" or "poor" governor -- Indiana GOP spokeswoman Jennifer Hallowell was quoted by the AP as saying: "Real leadership requires tough and sometimes unpopular decisions."\nThis is true in some circumstances. The great crises that threatened and continue to threaten our country's survival -- the Civil War, World War II, the Cold War and, I'd argue, the war on terror -- could not be met by a government that bases its decisions on the day-to-day whims of public opinion. And then there are those occasions when the government has upheld our basic political ideals in the face of hostile majorities -- as in 1957, when Eisenhower sent troops to Arkansas' Little Rock Central High to enforce the desegregation of public schools. But, in the Daniels' case, let's make something perfectly clear: We're talking about a friggin' toll road!\nIf this came down to a key point of Republican ideological principle, I could understand the willingness to push ahead despite public opinion. But, first, this assumes the GOP is ideologically coherent, which it is not. (Neither are the Democrats.) And second, if we apply the stereotype that Republicans are champions of free-market economics, we find that this runs in opposition to the basic tenets of how a market economy works. Like schools and national defense, roads have been regarded as a public good that is necessary for facilitating commerce. Adam Smith himself wrote: "The tolls for the maintenance of a high road cannot with any safety be made the property of private persons." Thus, I am at a loss as to why this concept is being touted despite what could be a severe political cost.\nLeading up to this year's national elections, a Democratic theme has been the arrogance of Republican authorities in power. The idea that the Democrats represent a serious alternative to this is laughable, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. The strategy of "base-rallying" might discourage parties from reaching out across the aisle, but I can tell you one thing: If Republican officials aren't even listening to Republican voters, they're screwed.
(09/20/06 3:19am)
Picture this: In the quiet hours of the early morning, your SUV rumbles over the rough terrain. Its 10-cylinder engine propels you through a deep ravine, one so rugged only the most ridiculously huge of vehicles can pass.\nNow snap out of it! The reality, according to a 2001 Newsweek article, is that only 5 percent of SUVs will ever be taken off-road. Instead, you and your prized monstrosity will crawl down Third Street, reaching a breakneck speed of 25 miles per hour (on a good day). You'll prowl the Kroger parking lot, looking for a space that can hold all 5 million square feet of your vehicle so that you can run in to get a box of Pop Tarts. But you'll never, ever use your sport utility vehicle to do anything even remotely "sporty." \nSo why do people buy SUVs? It's not because of their impressive fuel economy, that's for sure. Many of the most popular makes, including the Ford Excursion and Jeep Cherokee, only get between 11 and 14 miles per gallon. \nWhile that might be OK for those who enjoy throwing their money away, there is simply no reason for anyone to be driving an SUV around the IU campus. Honestly, folks, we're poor college students, and we're just not living up to that standard. For once, embrace the stereotype and save yourself a few bucks!\nScientists and politicians have been arguing (because that's what they do best) about global warming for years. However, before our very eyes, it has made itself apparent as incidences of severe weather increase and many species, even the cute and fuzzy ones, experience massive die-offs. (That's right. Even Bambi isn't exempt from the harsh realities of global climate change).\nAt this point, we can no longer attribute climate change to sunspot cycles and normal variation in weather patterns. While SUVs are not the sole cause of these catastrophic changes, they certainly don't help the situation. While I'll admit seeing a certain appeal in towering 10 feet over the rest of traffic -- being somewhat height-challenged myself -- they are simply impractical. \nAnd yet some might protest: "But people fear me in my SUV! It's intimidating! It reaffirms my masculinity!"\nTo them, I ask, what, exactly, are you compensating for? Even if you feel no personal responsibility for environmental health, you should at least be able to feel the tightening of your wallets with every fillup of your gas tank. The money spent placating the gas-chugging habits of an SUV could go toward much better things -- like saving the whales or teaching Namibian orphans multivariable calculus.\nAt the very least, the money saved by driving a more fuel-efficient car could purchase several venti lattes at Starbucks, and everyone knows Starbucks makes the world a better place. \nThe bottom line? Friends don't let friends drive SUVs. \nNow if you'll excuse me, I need to get down off of my soapbox -- I have a latte to finish.
(09/20/06 3:14am)
According to a Sept. 14 New York Times article, House Republicans have announced they will back a proposal that would require the Bush administration to build 700 miles of two-layered, reinforced fence along the Mexican border with the United States. This is one of many bills regarding border control the Republicans have promised to push through the House before the midterm elections.
(09/20/06 3:05am)
There is an epidemic developing at IU. It's not cholera or influenza or even alcohol poisoning. No, this new disease is much more terrifying and is capable of transforming the human race into monosyllabic -- or worse -- nonvocal members of the animal kingdom: self-isolationism! That's right. It seems as though IU students are cutting themselves off from meeting people or developing new friendships. Want evidence? Look around you right now: How many people are silent and using an electronic device? If you happen upon one of those mutated by this disease (or are one yourself), our columnists will help you identify just exactly what you're dealing with.
