Herald-Times articles

Plane crash kills five; IU music students were returning from rehearsal in Lafayette
By Marcela Creps, James Boyd, Steve Hinnefeld and Anne Kibbler
Herald-Times Staff Writers
April 22, 2006

Indiana University and its Jacobs School of Music are grieving this weekend over the loss of five graduate students who died in a plane crash near the Monroe County Airport.

Authorities identified the five students as Robert Clayton Samels, Zachary J. Novak, Garth A. Eppley, Georgina H. Joshi and Chris Bates Carducci.

IU master's student Joshi, 24, of South Bend, was listed as the pilot of the single-engine Cessna 206 that crashed Thursday night near the Monroe County Airport after a flight from Lafayette.

Federal investigators said a final ruling on the cause of the accident could take up to a year, but a preliminary report should take about a week.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Ed Malinowski said a team from his department and the Federal Aviation Administration would focus on three things.

"We're going to be looking at the plane, the pilot and the weather," Malinowski said.

The students were returning from a rehearsal for a concert in Lafayette.

"It's a tragic loss for the university family," IU President Adam Herbert said at a news conference at the Van Buren Township Fire Department.

"The faculty, staff and students in the School of Music are very close," he said. "It's a family atmosphere. The students are taking it very hard."

The students had flown to Lafayette to rehearse for a concert of that city's Bach Chorale Singers. The concert, scheduled for tonight at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Lafayette, was canceled.

Gwyn Richards, dean of the music school, was meeting Friday evening with family members of the students who were killed.

IU Dean of Students Dick McKaig said the university was making grief counselors available to students who knew them. "As we become acquainted with who their friends were, we'll reach out to them," he said.

Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Joe Watts said the plane disappeared from radar about midnight. Watts said the wreckage was found just south of the Monroe County Airport -- now officially called Kisters Field -- at about 4:15 a.m. Friday.

The crash site is a densely wooded area southwest of the intersection of Kirby and Airport roads, south of a train trestle there.

Rescue officials reported there was no fire and the badly damaged aircraft was found upside down.

From the air, the visible wreckage was concentrated in a very small area. The remaining pieces had not been moved, and may be left in place until as late as Sunday.

Authorities said the pilot activated the lights at the airport from the cockpit but never landed.

Malinowski said the flight is believed to have left Lafayette sometime around 11 p.m. Joshi had logged an estimated flight time of 40 minutes for the trip.

Until it disappeared from the radar screens of both Terre Haute and Indianapolis air authorities, everything had been routine, but Malinowski said he and Federal Aviation Administration officials had yet to review any communication recorded between the plane and air traffic control towers.

A massive search for the plane began with several calls from the 5200 block of West Ind. 45 reporting a low-flying plane at about 11:40 p.m.

Callers described "the spit and sputtering of an airplane," and the sound of "extreme acceleration unusual for a plane coming in for a landing," Ellettsville Deputy Fire Chief Mike Cornman said. Some reported hearing a loud boom.

"I was sitting at my computer and heard a loud plane fly over," Cristina Brooks said. "(I) heard the engines rev twice before the sound." She said the noise was like a loud "pop."

Cornman, the official spokesman for the Van Buren Fire Department, said a transponder signal from inside the airplane was picked up by Civil Air Patrol aircraft that were flying over the site.

"We had about 60 people out searching the area, but with the plane's transponder, we were able to triangulate the plane's position and eventually locate it," Cornman said.

'I couldn't sing. All I could do was cry'
by Andy Graham
April 22, 2006

Natasha Komoda turned and pointed toward the green lawn bisected by walkways behind Indiana University's Musical Arts Center.

"I was just hanging out with him yesterday, right over there," she said. "We were waiting for rehearsal to start."

Zachary Novak was Komoda's choir director her first semester as an IU voice major last fall, and she said she saw him on campus "every day."

Until Friday.

Friday afternoon, Komoda came into IU's Jacobs School of Music for a lesson, and overheard classmates talking.

It wasn't until then she knew the names of the five people killed aboard the plane that crashed outside Monroe County Airport Thursday night - Novak, Georgina Joshi, Robert Samels, Garth Eppley and Chris Carducci.

"People were talking and said, 'You don't know?' And they told me the names," she recalled. "I couldn't sing. All I could do was cry."

Komoda, who graduated from Bloomington High School South last spring, spoke as she gathered with three friends outside the music school annex building. One was a freshman from New Jersey, Sarah Mostov, who said, "It's just so strange. So sad.

"We were just with them, here in Bloomington, yesterday. Georgina was in a master class with me."

Mostov said Joshi had been particularly looking forward to an upcoming performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the choral students.

Komoda said she'd carry extra emotion when on stage from now on.

"I'm a voice major, and opera is all about profound emotion," she said. "It's about conveying those big emotions, life and death and love and heartbreak, about the truth of those things.

"That's what we're portraying on stage. Now, every time I go on stage, those emotions will be that much more real for me."

Other students wandered by, individually and in groups. Some stopped to read a notice on the annex doors, and the color drained from their faces.

The notice was from Jan Harrington, chairman of IU's choral department, and it began:

"Today's rehearsal for the Beethoven's Ninth Chorus will not take place in order to allow us time to try to digest the tragedy …"

It went on to advise students that their peers and faculty members would be gathering later Friday afternoon at the Musical Arts Center to comfort each other, counsel each other and grieve.

Komoda, thinking again of Novak, said: "I can't believe he's gone. In fact, it's like he isn't really gone. It feels like his spirit is here."

Coroner says plane crash victims died instantly
by James Boyd
April 23, 2006

The five Indiana University grad students who perished in a Thursday night plane crash all died instantly, a Monroe County deputy coroner said.

Nicole Meyer said autopsies on all five victims were performed late Friday and Saturday, both at Bloomington Hospital and at the Terre Haute Regional Medical Center.

Those killed were identified as Georgina Joshi, Chris Carducci, Garth Eppley, Zachary Novak and Robert Samels.

"We'll have to wait for toxicology results, but our preliminary investigation shows all five died instantly of blunt force trauma," Meyer said Friday.

The shattered Cessna 206 that crashed just south of the Monroe County Airport Thursday night was still at the crash site Saturday.

Officials from Cessna and from the plane's engine manufacturer were expected to examine the wreckage either Saturday or today.

National Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Ed Malinowski said his agency would be working with the Federal Aviation Administration to determine what caused the 11:40 p.m. crash.

Malinowski said investigators needed to complete all the necessary aspects of examining the remains of the plane while it was still intact on the ground. Local law enforcement agencies have been given the task of trying to locate witnesses.

But the top priority for aviation officials is to get as much work done on the ground as possible.

"We have to look at perishable evidence on scene," Malinowski said. "We can go over witness statements anytime."

Several residents in the vicinity of the crash site reported hearing a low-flying plane rev its engines twice, followed by a crashing noise.

Malinowski said a preliminary report of the NTSB and FAA's findings should be completed by the end of next week.

A far more detailed report will then be forwarded to a federal review board, which will issue a probable cause of the crash in anywhere from six months to a year.

Music school mourns silenced voices

Students lost in plane crash praised as great artists
by Nicole Kauffman
Hoosier Times
April 23, 2006

BLOOMINGTON -- April 21, 2006, will forever be remembered as the day Indiana University lost five students in a tragic plane crash.

For the IU Jacobs School of Music, it also will be remembered as the day the blossoming careers of five talented singers were cut short.

On Saturday morning, voice professor Timothy Noble stood in the lobby of the Musical Arts Center, staring off into the distance.

"It's so surreal to me. I'm having a tough time getting my hands around this," he said.

The music world will never know what could have become of graduate students Robert Samels, 24; Zachary Novak, 25; Chris Carducci, 27; Georgina Joshi, 24; and Garth Eppley, 25.

But this much is clear to those affiliated with the school: Each of the students had a distinctive voice; their performances were easy for critics to praise; and their dedication was clearly to the art of singing and not to the ego.

"This is a highly accomplished student body, and these students were the best of those," said School of Music Dean Gwyn Richards.

Samels is described as a brilliant triple threat.

He conducted, sang and composed. His opera, "Pilatus," was written for his friend, Carducci, and premiered in September in the Indiana Memorial Union. It received good reviews, despite being a completely student-created production.

"That performance was one of the best things I'd ever seen here," said Mary Ann Hart, chairwoman of the voice department.

Samels was so busy -- even hosting his own show on WFIU -- that people at the school wondered if Samels ever slept, said Jan Harrington, chairman of the department of choral conducting.

"That energy is only something you find in great human beings and great artists," he said.

Carducci, one of Noble's students, had the kind of talent that could have taken him in any number of directions, Herald-Times music critic Peter Jacobi said. He could have performed in musicals, and he could have joined a solid opera company.

"Chris had marvelous stage presence, and he was a fine baritone that really developed over the last year," Jacobi said.

Novak directed choirs at First United Methodist Church, and he was studying with associate professor Brian Horne.

"He was well-loved in the school, and he was on his way to having a career in conducting," Noble said.

Joshi's voice was versatile, and one that stood out among the 400 voices Hart heard during audition season.

"She had a dusky quality to her voice that was absolutely not generic soprano. She could engage people's imagination," Hart said.

Eppley also was a student of Noble's, and he had his first major role in "Midsummer Night's Dream" in November.

"He was just coming into his own," Hart said, with a smile. "The tenor voice is most fragile and difficult to train, and he just got his high notes. You could see him just loving it."

All five musicians were lucky to have realized what their lives were supposed to be; it's rare, she said.

"These kids couldn't be denied it, they were just going to do it," she said.

When Noble saw Carducci for the last time less than a week ago, the young man was smiling and looking handsome in a black suit.

"I thought, 'I'm so proud of that young man,'" Noble said.

In memoriam

Tonight's performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the IUOratorio Choir and the IUPhilharmonic will be dedicated to the five plane crash victims. The performance is 8 p.m. at the Musical Arts Center and is free to the public.

As further plans for memorial services and performance dedications are formalized, they will be listed at http://www.music.indiana.edu. There will also be a link for people to write memories and post photos in memory of the deceased.

Five talented voices silenced by crash
by Anne Kibbler and Steve Hinnefeld
April 22, 2006

His rich tones and smooth delivery soothed many a listener who tuned in to WFIU, Indiana University's public radio station, whether to listen to the news or to "Cantabile," a showcase of the human voice.

Robert Samels' own voice was silenced Thursday night in a plane crash near the Monroe County Airport. Samels died in the accident, along with Georgina Joshi, Garth Eppley, Chris Carducci and Zachary Novak. All were graduate students at the IU Jacobs School of Music.

Robert Samels

Samels, 24, from Medina, Ohio, was working toward a doctorate of music in choral conducting. He also was a composer, a bass-baritone and a conductor.

In the past music season, he premiered his opera "Pilatus" and performed the role of Bottom in Benjamin Britten's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

A graduate of Bowling Green State University and a student at IU of Costanza Cuccaro, he was scheduled to perform in three roles this summer for the Wolf Trap Opera Company. He was also well-versed in the oratorio repertoire, and last spring he was a semifinalist in the annual competition of the Oratorio Society of New York.

Samels began working at WFIU in 2002, serving as an announcer, a writer for the musical game show "Ether Game" and the creator of "Cantabile" to showcase "all things vocal." Christina Kuzmych, the station's general manager, recalled meeting him.

"He just said hello and I could tell right off, this is a voice the microphone is going to love," she said.

George Walker, a WFIU producer and classical-music host, said Samels was extraordinarily talented and hard-working.

"He was really delightful to be around," Walker said. "He was smart, well-informed, always working on a number of things - but always ready to help, ready to talk, to listen, to laugh."

Tuesday's "Cantabile" time slot at 10:12 p.m. will offer the Metropolitan Opera National Council's Grand Finals Concert in memory of Samels and the four other victims of the crash.

"All of these five people were incredible talents," Kuzmych said.

Georgina Joshi

Joshi, 24, from South Bend, believed to be the pilot of the plane, graduated with a bachelor's degree in music from the Royal College of Music in London. She was pursuing a master's de-gree in voice at IU, studying with associate professor Alan Bennett.

Joshi played Clorinda in the school's production of "Cenerenta," and last fall she played Despina in Mozart's "Cosi fan Tutte." She sang for the gala opera night at the Beaumaris Festival with the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, and she also performed at the Bloomington Early Music Festival and in a number of solo roles at the School of Music.

Garth Eppley

Eppley, 25, was a tenor studying with Distinguished Professor of Music Tim Noble. He grew up in Wabash. He earned a bachelor's degree in voice performance from Anderson University.

His IU Opera Theater roles have included the Second Man in Armor in "The Magic Flute," the Lawyer in "Peter Grimes," and chorus in "A View from the Bridge." He also was a frequent soloist with the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, most recently in the role of Pilatus in Arvo Part's "Passio."

With the Bach Chorale, Eppley performed Handel's "Solomon," Rachmaninoff's "Vespers" and the Festival of Sacred Choral Music. Last summer, he participated in the Charley Creek Vocal Workshop, an intense program of aria and song study.

Zachary Novak

Novak, 25, was pursuing a master's degree with a major in choral conducting and a minor in voice, studying with associate professor Brian Horne.

Novak graduated from Anderson University in 2004 and had performed with the Anderson Symphony Orchestra and the Carmel, Calif., Bach Festival.

In Bloomington, Novak had served for the past year and a half as the worship coordinator for the First United Methodist Church. His job included directing the children's choirs and the adult Wesley Choir.

Jimmy Moore, associate pastor of the First United Methodist Church, said Novak was a wonderful singer who also played the piano and the organ. "He led the children with vigor," he said. Although Novak was with the church only a short time, he quickly endeared himself to everyone there.

"I don't think I've ever met a more beautiful or passionate person," Moore said. "Zack was full of wit and grace, and he was among the most conscientious colleagues I've ever had. We will miss him tremendously. He was great fun, and I am so sad."

Moore said ministers at the church have prepared information for parents to take so they can comfort their children and answer their questions at an age-appropriate level. Ministers also will talk with children during Sunday school about Novak's death.

Chris Carducci

Carducci, 27, a native of Monroe, Mich., graduated from Bowling Green State University with a bachelor of music degree in education. He was studying at IU with Noble.

Carducci recently appeared at Carnegie Hall, where he presented selections from Wolf's "Italienisches Liederbuch" for the Marilyn Horne Foundation's "The Song Continues … 2005."

Carducci performed with the IU Opera Theater as Prosdocimo in "The Turk in Italy." Other roles included Mozart's Count Almaviva and Guglielmo as well as the title role in "Gianni Schicchi," Malatesta in "Don Pasquale" and Sid in "Albert Herring." He also performed in comic sketches for WFIU fund drives.

He twice won the Dr. Marjorie Conrad Peatee Art Song Competition and had been a resident artist with the Toledo Opera. He also had performed with the Carmel Bach Festival, Michigan Opera Works and the Perrysburg Symphony.

He starred in the fall as Pontius Pilate in "Pilatus," an opera by Samels.

A faint signal, a grim search
by James Boyd
April 22, 2006

The signal was faint at first, nothing more than a rhythmic ping. But it got louder for a second. Then it got softer.

From a Civil Air Patrol plane just a few hundred feet overhead, a small squadron of four Terre Haute airmen heard the Emergency Locator Transmitter beeping below.

They crisscrossed the airspace near where a Cessna 206 had reportedly gone down off the south side of Runway ILS 35 North.

On the ground, Bob Burke, president and owner of BMG Aviation, was listening for the beep, too.

"Most aircraft have an ELT on board," Burke said. "And it's usually an impact that sets it off."

Burke and a few Van Buren Township firefighters headed out to the area in a black pickup truck, tuned in on a radio frequency that emits the homing signal.

All the while, he was on the phone with the father of Georgina Joshi, the 24-year-old Indiana University student believed to have been piloting the downed plane.

Joshi's father had been informed that she was missing and wanted to come to the scene as fast as he could from his residence in South Bend.

"I said 'Stay home; don't fly down.' I was just begging him to stay home," Burke said.

He eventually persuaded Joshi's father to stay put until they found something.

"All we had to go on were several witnesses who said they had heard something go down," Burke said.

That was just after 11:45 p.m.

By the time the Civil Air Patrol planes were in the area, several hours had passed.

"Flying above the fog, they got a really, really faint signal," Burke said. The pilots triangulated an area where the signal was believed to have been coming from and relayed the information to Burke.

"We went to that sector, got out and started walking around," he said. "We began picking up the signal and tried to home it in."

Walking in the direction of the signal, Burke and the firefighters eventually found the disintegrated aircraft and its passengers.

It's something Burke said he had prepared himself for.

"When you arrive at something like that, you hope there's the possibility you can help somehow," he said.

They called in the emergency crews. There was nothing else they could do.

"I've been up for so long that I don't know what to think about it," Burke said.

"I'm worried about how it's going to feel tomorrow."

IU student diagnosed with mumps; recent cases reported in Midwest; Health center official says outbreak unlikely- - but possible
by Dann Denny
April 22, 2006

The country's largest outbreak of mumps in more than 20 years has arrived in Bloomington.

An Indiana University student has been diagnosed with the disease, according to Hugh Jessop, director of the Indiana University Health Center.

But Jessop feels the odds of the disease turning into an outbreak in Bloomington are slim.

"The student did not come to the health center, but we've been told the student experienced symptoms two weeks ago," he said. "If that information is correct, then the window of opportunity for the disease to spread has probably closed."

But because the recent mumps epidemic in the Midwest has been linked closely to university communities, Jessop said students, faculty and staff -- particularly those individuals who have direct student contact -- may still be at risk of contracting the disease.

Mumps is highly contagious

Mumps is a highly contagious viral infection spread by coughing and sneezing.

Jessop said people with mumps are contagious for about a week before and two weeks after the onset of symptoms.

He said mumps primarily affects the parotid glands located below and in front of the ears.

The infection can cause swelling in one or both glands; pain with chewing and swallowing; fever; weakness and fatigue.

Symptoms typically appear two to three weeks after exposure, but roughly 20 percent of infected people show no symptoms.

The CDC encourages those experiencing symptoms to stay home from work or school -- and to avoid close contact with family members -- to reduce the likelihood of spreading the disease to others.

Outbreak across Midwest

The mumps outbreak began in Iowa in December and has since spilled into states throughout the Midwest.

More than 1,100 cases have been reported in eight Midwest states, and the numbers are growing.

The Iowa Health Department's Web site shows more than 800 cases in that state alone.

More than 350 additional cases have been reported in seven other states -- Minnesota, Kansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Missouri and Oklahoma.

In Illinois, the number of mumps cases has mushroomed in recent days to 81 - 42 confirmed; 39 probable.

In response to the outbreak, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is making 25,000 doses of its measles-mumps-rubella vaccine available to help states with their vaccination efforts.

Though the mumps outbreak has mainly affected college students, health officials predict there will be some extension of the outbreak into communities at large.

Usually not serious

Mumps is rarely serious. None of the 1,100 cases thus far has been fatal, and only 20 people have been hospitalized.

But mumps can develop into serious problems -- such as meningitis, encephalitis, hearing loss, or inflammation of the testicles or ovaries.

Mumps during the first trimester of pregnancy may increase the risk of miscarriage, and testicle inflammation may cause infertility.

Vaccinations

IU health center officials are recommending that students, faculty and staff throughout the IU system get immunized if they were born during or after 1957 and have not received two measles-mumps-rubella vaccines.

The CDC recommends two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine -- the first at 12 to 15 months and the second at 4 to 6 years.

Health center officials said people born before 1957 are considered immune to mumps because exposure to the disease was common when they were young.

The vaccine is not 100 percent effective. The effectiveness of the vaccine is 80 percent after one dose, 90 percent after the second dose.

The CDC says many mumps cases in the recent multistate outbreak have occurred in people who received both mumps vaccines.

If you don't know whether you've been vaccinated, another dose of vaccine won't hurt you.

You also can have a blood test to check for mumps antibodies from a previous vaccination or exposure.

The mumps vaccine is not recommended for pregnant women, women who plan to get pregnant within the next four weeks, or people who have had a life-threatening allergic reaction to gelatin or the antibiotic neomycin.

Jessop said all IU Bloomington students are required by state law to have had two MMR immunizations.

"They can enroll without having had the immunizations," he said. "But they must be in compliance before the end of the first semester to stay enrolled."

In brief

A mumps outbreak that began in Iowa and is now spreading across the Midwest has come to Bloomington.

But health officials feel confident the Indiana University student who's contracted the disease will not trigger an outbreak in Bloomington.

Sex offender poses as IU baseball scout; Ohio man, 76, was collecting information from young men at DeKalb High School
by Doug Wilson
April 22, 2006

A registered sex offender grabbed the attention of Indiana University officials this week by falsely telling young males he was a scout for the Hoosier baseball team.

According to police, a 76-year-old man approached boys at a high school baseball game in northeastern Indiana Saturday and gathered home addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses by telling the boys he was an IU baseball scout.

The incident occurred at DeKalb High School, between Auburn and Waterloo, according to DeKalb County Sheriff John Dennis.

The man involved is from Bryan, Ohio, just across the state line, and is listed by the Williams County (Ohio) Sheriff's Office as a sex offender.

"He's absolutely not affiliated with Indiana University at all," IU Police Lt. Jerry Minger said.

Police in DeKalb County and at IU didn't learn of the incident until a couple of days after it happened.

No charges have been filed against the man because he didn't break any laws by talking to the boys.

Minger said because the man's previous offense - which is listed as sexual battery on the Williams County Sheriff Office's sex offender registry - occurred in the 1980s, there are no stipulations about whether he can be around young people.

"I warned him to stay out of my county, although I can't force him to stay out," said Dennis, the DeKalb County sheriff.

Minger said that in checking with law enforcement officials in northern Indiana and Ohio, he heard that the man had business cards printed up that had the IU logo on them and indicated he was a baseball scout.

Minger advised IU lawyers that the university may have legal issues with the man for misrepresentation and copyright infringement

Former IU student sentenced on drug charge
by Bethany Nolan
April 22, 2006

A Bloomington man has been sentenced in connection with a November drug bust by Indiana University police.

Andrew R. Magdovitz, 20, of 504 E. Cottage Grove Ave., pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of maintaining a common nuisance. A charge of possession of marijuana was dismissed by plea agreement.

In return, Magdovitz was sentenced to 360 days in the Monroe County Jail with all but 30 days suspended. He was given credit for two days served and ordered on probation for 330 days, court documents show.

Magdovitz was one of six arrested last fall after a lengthy investigation by IU police. Police had received a tip that a substantial amount of drugs would be sold at a residence on North Lincoln Street, where three of the men lived.

With a warrant to search the house, police found a quarter-pound of marijuana, smoking devices and paraphernalia, along with more than $2,000 in cash, police said. At a second house, they found more marijuana and cocaine, police said.

At the time of his arrest, Magdovitz was an IU student. His enrollment status was unclear Friday.

Only one other co-defendant in the case has been sentenced to date. Igor Zharovsky, 20, who now lives in Illinois, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of maintaining a common nuisance in March. Charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana were dismissed, court documents show.

He was sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment with credit for one day served.

Half a wheel is enough; Kappa Kappa Gamma edges Kappa Delta at the finish line to win women's Little 500
by Jim Gordillo
April 22, 2006

Jess Sapp knows the Little 500 inside and out.

And like a baseball team's saving its bullpen ace, perennial power Kappa Kappa Gamma did a great job of keeping the speedster from Fishers in reserve until the very end.

The senior responded like a veteran who has won this race before, putting herself in perfect position to nip Kappa Delta's Lauren Ziemba by half a wheel to hand her sorority a record fifth win in the 19th Women's Little 500 Friday at Armstrong Stadium.

Kappa Kappa Gamma last won in 2004 by keeping Sapp fresh and did so again this year by using her for less than 20 laps.

"I knew we had a good chance at the win, but it feels so great to be able to finish strong again," Sapp said. "I was very surprised. Lauren Ziemba is an amazing rider and I didn't know she was right there on my wheel. The finish was exactly like my sophomore year."

The top four teams separated themselves from the pack by the 91st lap and were bunched up on laps 98-99 to set up the final sprint.

It was Sapp and Ziemba who pulled ahead on the backstretch, then really took off heading into turn three, leaving Alpha Gamma Delta and Alpha Phi behind.

"I knew that I wanted to be inside. That was key," Sapp said. "But at the same time, I didn't want to pull them around the track. I didn't want to have inside and go 100 percent because they'd beat me at the end."

Kappa Delta has never won the race. But Ziemba, a senior from Munster participating in her third Little 5, said her team is still thrilled with second place.

"When we got on the backstretch I realized it was going to come down to Jess and myself," Ziemba said. "I said to myself, 'I can do this. This is my event.'

"So we sorted out our places and gave it my all when I came around that corner. And unfortunately I was an inch too short. But I'm still in pure joy."

Alpha Gamma Delta's Kirstin Olson, from Maine, said she was "tired a touch" and couldn't keep up when Sapp and Ziemba took off sooner than she expected. But she still beat Alpha Phi for third place.

"I knew I had to have a good position going into it," Olson said. "I just tried to stay on the outside and still catch a draft and then when she and Kappa Delta pulled off, I knew I couldn't beat them at all.

"I was thinking, 'You've got to beat Alpha Phi, you can take them, you can take them.' So you come around turn three and give it all you have and hope that it's enough."

Official results were not available, but the rest of the top 10 as posted on the scoreboard showed Cycledelics in fifth, followed by Alpha Chi Omega, Belle Volce, Kappa Alpha Theta, Athena and Road Runners.

Kappa Kappa Gamma's win actually played out the way they planned it.

"It was not absolutely perfect, but it was as close as you can get," said Bill Naas, KKG's coach along with Marc Kase. "They all did what they were supposed to do, so we didn't get in any trouble and weren't scrambling."

The rest of the KKG team - Colleen Groth of Indianapolis, Caroline Andrew of Lafayette and Anna Gartner of Park Ridge, Ill. - could only look on in excitement after Groth took it to lap 96, then handed things off to Sapp.

"We were so surprised it went so well," said Groth, a sophomore in her first Little 5. "We knew that if I could crank out those last hard laps and set her up for a good position, she'd be able to finish it.

"When she did it, I was like, 'Oh, wow," Groth said. "It was so surreal. A lot of teams could have won. It's 30 percent strategy, 30 percent training and 30 percent luck. We're very fortunate."

Tragedy casts shadow

Tragedy haunted the women's Little 500 race for a second year in a row Friday.

Not only did the Delta Zeta riders remember sorority mate Nichole Birky, who died last week of unknown causes, with a release of pink and white balloons, but a moment of silence was also held to honor the five Indiana University music students killed in a plane crash at Bloomington Airport late Thursday night.

Kappa Kappa Gamma won the race not far removed from their own period of mourning.

In 2005, they rode with heavy hearts, finishing third barely a week after sorority member Ashley Crouse was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

"When they released the balloons, it brought back so many emotions of when they released the balloons for (Crouse) last year," said KKG rider Jess Sapp. "I thought a lot about her right before the beginning, her smile and how excited she was to be here."

ATO cruises at Little 500; Arnesen sets tone as Alpha Tau Omega wins race by 35 seconds
by Jim Gordillo
Hoosier Times
April 23, 2006

BLOOMINGTON -- Wrecks, penalties and bad exchanges in the first 35 laps all conspired to give the fastest rider in this year's Little 500 a perfect opportunity to take control of the race for his Alpha Tau Omega team.

A bad exchange by Phi Gamma Delta was Hans Arnesen's cue to bolt away from the pack in shocking fashion before the crowd at Armstrong Stadium Saturday.

And by the time the Minnesotan's terrific 41-lap opening set was done, two-second penalty and all, he had lapped the field, and ATO was plenty strong enough to hang on post their third men's Little 500 victory and first since 1971.

"I've never seen it determined so early like that," said Arnesen, who saw the Corleones lap the field six years ago to win by 27 seconds. "I knew it could be done, but I didn't know it was going to happen that early.

"We had talked about riding a very aggressive race, and we wanted to try and make something happen. But we didn't plan on any specific lap of doing it."

ATO's winning time of 2:08:11 was 35 seconds better than Dodds House, the largest margin of victory since the Cutters won by 37 seconds in 1992.

The rest of the ATO crew included Brian Laiderman of Missouri, Briggs Patterson of Ohio and freshman Steve Ziemba of Munster, who watched his sister Lauren get edged out by half a wheel in the women's Little 500 the night before.

"Our first strategy, I would have been out there a lot more, maybe 70-80 laps," Ziemba said. "But with the lap we had on everyone, it changed the whole dynamics of the race. All we had to do was keep the lead and we were gold.

"But we couldn't relax at all. We knew there was still a 170 laps to go."

Arnesen's four years in the Little 500 have been a mixed bag, from being named Rookie of the Year as a freshman, to being penalized for impeding when he drifted too far right in a sprint to the finish against Cutters in 2004.

"This is a great pinnacle of all four years I've been riding in this face," Arnesen said. "It's a miracle to go out on top like this. I just wanted to have fun and have a good race today, and this couldn't be any better."

With first place all but conceded with 20 laps to go, the excitement lay in the race for second. It was a four-team affair as Chris Chartier of defending champ Dodds House edged Acacia and Phi Gamma Delta.

The rest of the top 10 included Delta Upsilon, first-year team Black Key Bulls, which qualified 22nd, Forest, Beta Theta Pi and Phi Kappa Sigma.

"I think a lot of teams had some bad luck," said Kevin Moore of Dodds House. "And we were trying to go with ATO and lap the field, but Hans just rode a monster set and he rode away from us. After that, he kept jumping from group to group and he just did a great job.

"Eventually, we couldn't hang and we just had to fall back to the pack."

Top qualifier Cutters overcame two wrecks and two penalties to place fifth.

"Everything happened so quickly, which is what our strategy was," Cutter Alex Bishop said. "We wanted to keep it fast as hell the whole time. But we just ran into some really bad luck. Our first exchange Sasha (Land) was bringing it into Dave (Caughlin) and some guy just ran into him and it gave us a five-second penalty.

"And ATO saw that and of course they were just going to lay it down. Everyone was going to lay it down as hard as they can once they saw something was wrong with us."

A crash on turn three of lap seven knocked No. 2 qualifier Phi Kappa Psi out of the title hunt and left Chas Pall of Portage with a broken collarbone and his right arm in a sling.

Phi Kappa Psi was 13th.

"Someone told me Major Taylor came out … whoever it was, they hit me and I got knocked loose and I controlled that," Pall said. "But then my momentum went over (to the right) and I rubbed wheels with Acacia and there was just nothing I could do. I went straight down.

"As soon as I hit the ground, I heard it snap. And then when something falls apart that early …"

MEN'S LITTLE 500 RESULTS

1. Alpha Tau Omega, 2:08:11

2. Dodds House, 2:08:46

3. Acacia, 2:08:46

4. Phi Gamma Delta, 2:08:47

5. Cutters, 2:08:52

6. Delta Upsilon, 2:09:25

7. Black Key Hills, 2:09:25

8. Forest, 2:09:25

9. Beta Theta Pi, 2:09:33

10. Phi Kappa Sigma, 2:09:28

11. Sigma Pi, 2:09:27

12. Cinzano, 2:09:02

13. Phi Kappa Psi, 2:09:20

14. Briscoe, 2:09:27

15. Alpha Epsilon Pi, 2:08:58

16. LiSiHi, 2:09:21

17. Pi Kappa Phi, 2:08:58

18. Collins, 2:09:32

19. Evans Scholars, 2:09:01

20. Major Taylor United, 2:09:03

21. Chi Phi, 2:09:04

22. Achtung, 2:09:08

23. Wright, 2:09:24

24. Parrothead Cycling, 2:08:57

25. Sigma Alpha Mu, 2:09:21

26. Lambda Chi Alpha, 2:09:28

27. Rainbow Cycling, 2:09:22

28. Delta Sigma Pi, 2:09:28

29. Sigma Chi, 2:09:06

30. Pi Kappa Alpha, 2:09:12

31. Delta Tau Delta, 2:08:55

32. Theta Chi, 2:09:31

33. Ashton, 2:09:32

Little 500 weekend brings fewer arrests this year; About 170 people report to special Sunday court
By Bethany Nolan
April 24, 2006

Nearly 200 people showed up at the Monroe County Justice Building Sunday morning for a Little 500 institution — court.

On the steps in front of the building, Ball State University sophomore Cayla Bratten said she was disappointed with her underage drinking citation.

Excise officers told her she blew a .01 on a breath alcohol test — a far cry from legal intoxication levels. "I came here for a good time, and I wasn't even drinking when I got arrested," she said.

About 170 people were arrested or cited over the weekend, which is less than in recent years, said Sue Head, executive director of the Monroe County prosecutor's office.

"The numbers are down and everything's going smoothly," prosecutor Carl Salzmann said.

Most arrested or cited choose to go through a pretrial diversion program that allows offenders who promise not to be arrested for a year to pay a fee and perform community service to keep the arrest or citation off their criminal record.

Most Little 5 revelers opt to go through the program, which cost $421 this year.

But a few don't. In an upstairs courtroom Sunday morning, one woman burst into tears as she explained she wanted to go through the diversion program but couldn't get the money in time.

Through an agreement with deputy prosecutor Jim Trulock and Monroe Circuit Judge MaryEllen Diekhoff, she agreed to complete her community service Sunday but pay her fee today.

People who participated in community service worked from about noon to 3:30 p.m. on road crew, cleaning up trash left behind by Little 5 revelers.

About 30 court staffers worked Sunday court to make sure things ran smoothly.

County clerk Jim Fielder said his employees started work at about midnight Saturday night in order to process all the paperwork in time for court 8 a.m. Sunday.

"We try and get our paperwork done and run to the Waffle House for breakfast and get back in time," he said with a smile.

Immigration and industry; Hostility toward, debate over people coming to America not a new issue
by Marcela Creps
Hoosier Times
April 23, 2006

Some came looking for work. Others were fleeing religious persecution. Still more came to earn money and return home with a nest egg. And often they were not welcome.

If this sounds like a current debate on immigration, it is not. The story is one that has played out in American history for years, according to John Bodnar, professor and chairman of the history department at Indiana University.

"We have different actors today and different people coming from different places, but the conflict was somewhat similar," Bodnar said.

"Basically, some of this conflict has been rooted in traditional ethnic conflict and religious conflict," he said.

Bodnar explained that hostility among groups was one reason why immigration became an issue. Moving into the 19th century, the country's founding northern European nationalities began to take note of newcomers or immigrants.

Some of the early debates were not about race.

"Excluding the issue of race, in the early 19th century probably the most fundamental division over who is coming to America and who we should keep out revolved mostly around religion," Bodnar said.

In its early decades, the United States was mostly populated by Protestants.

"One of the fears of native-born Americans, as they were referred to in the 19th century, was this increasing wave of immigrants from Catholic countries," Bodnar said.

"The increasing numbers of Irish Catholics were considered a threat before the Civil War," he said. "There was hostility towards them. There was violence. There were beatings."

Loyalty was an issue. Many Americans at that time believed Catholics would be more loyal to the pope than to the United States, he said.

But the reasons why people came to the U.S. in the 1800s are similar to the reasons people still come.

"Throughout American history, there have always been people who immigrated to America because they thought they'd have a better life," Bodnar said.

He said many immigrants would come and go from their home countries often and never had intentions of living in the U.S. forever. Bodnar said that in Italy, as many as 30 percent of immigrants returned to their home villages.

For the Irish, moving to the U.S. was an opportunity to escape famines, while East European Jews were seeking refuge from religious persecution. Although some faced discrimination in the U.S., Bodnar said life was still generally better here than in the immigrants' home countries.

During the construction of the railroads, Bodnar said, there was overt racism toward Asians, who came and worked on the railways.

"As American employers desired cheap immigrant labor, people were vehemently opposed to them," Bodnar said.

The argument against the Asian workers centered around two factors: economic and racial.

"There was a perception that immigrants work for lower wages and take jobs away," Bodnar said.

He said there was also a level of discrimination or racism from Americans who thought the Asians were strange.

For some immigrant groups, the early 20th century brought more problems.

"The 1920s was a period of tremendous hostility towards immigration," Bodnar said.

The Immigration Act of 1924 set up a quota system based on the census data from 1890. Use of such data severely restricted the newest wave of immigrants that was coming from southern and eastern European countries.

"There was still the dislike of immigrants, because they thought they would lower wages," Bodnar said. "The laws favored northern Europeans and disfavored people who came after the 1890s."

The quota system was an intentional move to keep out certain groups of immigrants who were deemed "undesirable."

"These are highly highly discriminatory laws that are not overturned legally until the great immigration reform act of 1965," Bodnar said.

The Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 removed laws that favored northern European countries, making way for the immigration of people from other parts of the world, including Asian and Latin American countries.

New technique screens for oral cancer; Dentists can now detect cancer at an earlier stage - when it is more treatable
Associated Press
April 23, 2006

MISHAWAKA -- For years, conscientious dentists have done more than look for cavities when they peer inside their patients' mouths. They've also used their eyes and fingers to hunt for signs of oral cancer, a malignancy expected to claim the lives of about 7,400 people in the United States this year.

A new technique is now available to help them find cancer at an earlier stage, when treatment is more likely to cure and less likely to disfigure.

Dentists Jeff Feltzer and Scott Hewitt, of Michiana Center for Restorative Dentistry, are among those offering the ViziLite system for oral cancer screening.

It uses a special light source to reveal abnormal cells that might be cancer or may become cancerous.

Patients swish a solution containing a small amount of acid that makes those cells glow white under the light, Hewitt said.

The system does not give a diagnosis of cancer, he said. Instead, someone who receives a suspicious ViziLite reading test that can't be ruled out as benign is urged to go to an oral surgeon for a biopsy, he said.

"This is a safe, effective screen for catching oral cancer in the early stage when it can be cured," Hewitt said.

The drawbacks are cost and taste.

Dentists are charging $65 on average nationwide for the screening, according to the ViziLite Web site, and so far only one insurance plan has opted to provide any coverage for it. The solution patients swish has a vinegary taste some people find unpleasant.

Those drawbacks, however, have to be weighed against the risk of oral cancer.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be about 31,000 new cases of oral cancer diagnosed this year.

The risk is higher for men than for women. About two-thirds of oral cancer cases occur in men, making it the eighth most likely cancer for them. Overall, oral cancer will account for about 3 percent of new cancer cases among males, the ACS estimates.

Risk factors include using any form of tobacco, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes and smokeless forms, and excessive consumption of alcohol, according to the ACS. But more than a quarter of oral cancer cases occur in people with no risk factors.

Sol Silverman Jr., a spokesman for the American Dental Association, is disappointed that the five-year survival rates for oral cancer have not improved much in the last decade.

Only 59 percent of people diagnosed with oral cancer are alive after five years, compared to 88 percent for breast cancer and 64 percent for colon cancer. That means oral cancer kills about 40 percent of people who get it within five years.

"That's why this (screening) is important," said Silverman, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Dentistry.

Improvements in screening could help reduce the death rate for oral cancer because, like most cancers, it's much easier to cure in the early stage, said Susan Zunt, an oral pathologist for the Indiana University School of Medicine.

She said ViziLite is recommended yearly for people in three risk groups: those 40 and older, current and past smokers, and heavy users of alcohol.

"It's not something dentists should do for every patient," she said.

Sometimes normal, noncancerous tissues will also glow white under the ViziLite, Zunt said. That includes cut or wounded tissue in the cheek or tongue that's in the process of normal healing.

In fact, tissues that glow white under ViziLite are noncancerous about 75 percent of the time, according to Dale Johnson, a spokesman for Zila Inc., which markets ViziLite.

A dentist, however, can usually recognize tissue that's actively healing.

"If they can't tell for sure, they may have the person come back in a week," Zunt said.

At the same time, ViziLite rarely misses cancerous cells. If they're there, the test will make them glow more than 97 percent of the time, Johnson said.

Dr. Rudolph Navari, an oncologist and director of the Walther Cancer Institute at the University of Notre Dame, said the same basic technique -- an acetic acid solution wash followed by examination under ultraviolet light -- was invented for screening for cervical cancer.

From a biological standpoint, the cells that make up the epithelium, or surface, of the cervix are similar to the cells that line the oral cavity. That's why the technology works for both, he said.

"I think it's a good technique," Navari said. "It's very solid."

Navari said dentists must continue to do the conventional exam, whether or not they also do the ViziLite.

"The acid is a bonus thing," he said.

Anonymous caller reports gunfire; no evidence find
by James Boyd
April 22, 2006

More gunfire reportedly erupted in the city, this time coming Friday morning, but no one was injured or even hit in the alleged incident.

And perhaps even worse, the caller who alerted Indiana University police to the incident didn't even want to provide her name or any detailed description because she said she feared possible retribution from those involved.

According to IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger, the female caller notified authorities just before 3 a.m. after she saw a man firing several shots from a handgun in the area of 14th Street and Indiana Avenue.

Minger said the caller said she saw a man get out of a dark-colored sport-utility vehicle and fire three shots from a handgun.

She wasn't sure what the man was firing at, but no one else called to report the shootings.

An IUPD officer was in the vicinity of the shots and didn't report hearing anything at the time, Minger said.

No shell casings were found at the scene where the complainant said she saw the incident.

The caller described the person she saw as a light-skinned black man, approximately 5 feet, 11 inches tall with a medium build, wearing jeans and a black shirt.

Anyone with information can contact IUPD at 855-4111.