kimblr.com

FRANKLIN, Ind. — Floodwater forced many people from their homes, breached dams and closed major highways, yet officials said the worst could still come as rivers in south-central Indiana kept rising.
Gov. Mitch Daniels declared emergencies in 10 counties yesterday, after storms dumped up to 10 inches of rain on already soggy ground. Interstate 70 was closed in Clay County in west-central Indiana, and Interstate 65 and another major route, U.S. 31, both were closed near Franklin, just south of Indianapolis.
Authorities were evacuating Columbus Regional Hospital yesterday because of rising water, Indiana State Police said.
Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville was told to expect seven of the evacuated patients, said Mary Jennings, a Clark hospital spokeswoman. As of 10:30 p.m., none had arrived.
The Republic newspaper in Columbus was reporting on its Web site that other patients were being sent to King’s Daughters’ Hospital in Madison and Schneck Medical Center in Seymour.
In all, about 100 patients were being transported by school buses and ambulances, the newspaper reported.
State Homeland Security Director Joe Wainscott said that officials had no idea of the scope of evacuations but that at least several hundred homes and businesses had been affected.
Ninety percent of the small town of Paragon, southwest of Indianapolis, was under water, Wainscott said. Flooding was also extensive in Terre Haute and Spencer, he said.
No injuries or deaths were reported.
Daniels said that although flash flooding was receding in places, others would be hit even harder when rivers started cresting. Four to 10 inches of rain fell south of Indianapolis overnight and yesterday, the National Weather Service said.
A scuba team performed swift-water rescues and helped evacuate homes in Johnson County, south of Indianapolis, sheriff’s dispatcher Zachary Elliott said. Dams in the county failed, threatening the town of Nineveh about 30 miles south of Indianapolis, County Commissioner Tom Kite said.

courier-journal.com

Harrison Ford was surprised that he could still remember how to use his whip in the new Indiana Jones movie.
The actor reprised his role as the adventurous archaeologist in fourth instalment Kingdom of the Crystal Skull after 19 years away from the franchise.
He told the official Indiana Jones Magazine: “The whip came back pretty easily. I was surprised because it is a relatively uncommon skill. I wasn’t terribly good at it, but I was good enough for showbusiness when we did it before.”
He added: “I’d lost touch with the first whip trainer that I used, so we had a new whip trainer who had a different technique. I was able to bring it back in a couple of weeks of pretty diligent application.”
Co-star Ray Winstone recently praised Ford, saying he could hit a dot on a door from 20ft away.

digitalspy.co.uk

(AP Online Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Chesney after ACM win: Fan votes shouldn’t decideLAS VEGAS (AP) _ Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year for a fourth straight time Sunday, then promptly took issue with the way the Academy of Country music awarded the honor: through fan votes. For the first time in the show’s 43 years, the top prize _ traditionally decided by ACM members _ was determined through online voting. With the win, Chesney ties Garth Brooks and trails only Alabama, which won five in a row.
ABC’s `Desperate Housewives’ wraps fourth seasonNEW YORK (AP) _ In the closing moments of its season finale Sunday, "Desperate Housewives" flashed ahead five years. And while there were no hints to the White House’s occupant or the state of the economy in 2013, viewers got a few clues about Wisteria Lane’s future.
Review: Good to see Indy, but `Skull’ is a messYou see the hat before the hero _ that famous fedora, the one that stays put through every tricky situation, or at least at arm’s length for a hasty getaway. And of course he still has the whip, the paralyzing fear of snakes and the catchy John Williams theme song that will surely gnaw at your brain for hours afterward. Yes, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" dives headfirst into the iconography of the franchise, which will bring a smile to your face and warm you with nostalgia. It’s admittedly a pleasure to see Harrison Ford back in the role.
K-Fed attorney: Intense interest has its benefitsLOS ANGELES (AP) _ Kevin Federline’s attorney can’t complain about the intense interest in his client’s child-custody battle with Britney Spears. He doesn’t grumble about the television trucks and news reporters swarming the courthouse every time there’s a hearing, or the paparazzi who hound the pop princess every moment there isn’t. And he’s certainly not opposed to the TV reports, tabloids and Web sites that have documented every shred of the case that has consumed him for the past 18 months.

tmcnet.com

Summer is the time of popcorn entertainment at the multiplex. Rule of thumb from mid-May through August: You’re not going to get much sustenance out of the biggest blockbusters.
This year might be different. Already, “Iron Man” has emerged as both a box-office smash and the year’s best-reviewed film so far. In the wings: the first “Indiana Jones” picture in nearly two decades (with Harrison Ford darn spry as Indy) and “The Dark Knight,” the sequel to “Batman Returns.”
Want something for the kids? How about “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” or Pixar’s “Wall-E”? For comedy, the buzz is good on Judd Apatow’s “Pineapple Express.” For romance and urban sexual angst, try the film version of “Sex and the City.” Also promising: Will Smith’s “Hancock,” with its sardonic take on superhero films.
It looks like a solid summer, with these films the most intriguing:
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” opening May 16.
The basics: The Pevensie children from 2005’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” have been away from Narnia for only a year in their time, but 1,300 years have gone by in the magical land of the White Witch and Aslan the lion. When the Pevensies return, they are swept up in a rebellion against the despot Miraz, led by Prince Caspian (newcomer Ben Barnes).
Heat factor: High. The first “Narnia” film took in a robust $292 million and garnered mostly strong reviews (while neatly avoiding writer C.S.
Lewis’ more obvious Christian allegories). Getting things right twice in a row can be tricky, but there’s no question that anticipation for the film is high.
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” opening May 22.
The basics: Nearly 20 years after “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the man with the fedora and the bullwhip is back in action with the principal players — Harrison Ford, creator-producer George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg — in place. The film does not hide the fact that Ford will be 66 in July, so the tale is set in the 1950s, with Communist spies and a touch of Area 51-style paranoia. Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s main squeeze in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a greaser-biker who may be Indy’s love child, also play roles.

mercurynews.com

With Monday night’s last-minute change to Lafayette’s smoking ban, restaurants that cater to both smokers and families are left with a tough choice — families and no smoking or smoking and no families. What are local restaurants going to do?
For more, see the Wednesday edition of the Journal & Courier.
If the pungent smells of bright tree blossoms are not enough to show that spring is finally here, evidence of one of the great journeys in nature is a sure sign.
During the past few weeks, monarch butterflies have reappeared in the Midwest as they progress on a 4,000 mile journey across North America from their winter habitat in Michoacan, Mexico.
The first official siting in Indiana was reported in western Tippecanoe County on April 20, according to journeynorth.org.
The habitat of the monarch butterfly, their eggs and larvae — or caterpillars — is under threat both in Mexico and the United States. Conservationists, entomologists and a growing number of concerned citizens and students are now working to preserve the future of the orange and black butterfly and its young.
For more see the Wednesday edition of the Journal & Courier.
Innovation, financial incentives and shaking off the fear of failure are important elements as Indiana and the United States try to continue making progress in the global game of advanced manufacturing.
That’s the message several speakers presented Tuesday during the seventh annual advanced manufacturing summit at Purdue University.
“We need the researchers. We need the bright people at Purdue … and we need the entrepreneurs — the people who will go out there and take a risk,” said Alan Hubbard, a former assistant for economic policy to President George Bush a former executive director of the Council on Competitiveness.
For more see the Wednesday edition of the Journal & Courier.

jconline.com

by Mark Silva
Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has carried the North Carolina Democratic primary election in a two-state contest with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York that was still undetermined in Indiana soon after the polls’ closings tonight.
Regardless of the results, the outcome of these contests in North Carolina and Indiana would be a continuing contest between Obama and Clinton, carrying their fight to the remaining several party primaries ending on June 3 and ultimately to a battle for the backing of the party’s “super-delegates” who will settle the protracted contest between the candidates.
A two-front primary contest between Clinton and Obama played out today in two states that the GOP hopes to include in its winning columns in November. And in both places, Clinton and Obama had fought for the rural and working-class Democratic voters whom their party hopes to court in a heated fall contest with Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
In Indiana in particular, the two Democrats fought over a federal gas tax that Congress appears unlikely to suspend this summer.
Clinton played her support for a “gas-tax holiday” from the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal levy as a matter of sympathy for working-class voters facing soaring gas prices, and Obama dismissed the plan as another Washington “gimmick” that won’t really alleviate gas prices.
“What’s happened to Barack Obama,” the narrator of a Clinton campaign ad asked. “He’s attacking Hillary’s plan to give you a break on gas prices… because he doesn’t have one… Barack Obama wants you to keep paying, $8 billion in all… Hillary is the one who gets it.”
“Hillary Clinton, pandering for votes, and not telling the truth,” replied the narrator of an Obama-supporting ad run by Friends of Earth Action. “Clinton’s siding with John McCain on a gas tax plan that will do nothing to lower the cost of gas… On Tuesday it’s time for a change.”

weblogs.baltimoresun.com

Clinton boosted her campaign for the nomination when she won the Pennsylvania primary on April 22.
While Obama has sought to distance himself from controversial remarks made by his former pastor, support for Clinton in North Carolina has grown, eroding Obama’s lead in that state.
Clinton is also leading Obama 49 per cent to 43 per cent in Indiana, according to a Suffolk poll with a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
Clinton has argued that she is the Democrats’ best hope winning the White House, in part because she is more popular with the party’s working-class base.
The candidates clashed on Monday over Clinton’s plan to suspend the federal vehicle fuel tax, with Obama saying that his rival’s proposal to suspend the levy over a holiday period was a “stunt”.
But in a campaign advertisement aired on Monday, Obama said that Clinton was offering “more of the same old negative politics”.
Clinton’s advertisement claimed she is “the candidate who is going to fight for working people”.
A combined 187 delegates are offered in the two primaries, but due to Democratic party rules the delegates are shared out according to the proportion of the vote received by each nominee.
Each nominee requires 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination to run for the US presidency.
With neither candidate likely to reach 2,025 delegates by the final primary vote in June, the contest is likely to be decided by superdelegates – high-ranking Democrats that can vote for their preferred nominee regardless of primary and caucus results.
From contests held so far, Obama currently holds 1,746 pledged delegates to Clinton’s 1,611, according to MSNBC figures, including superdelegates who have already pledged their allegiance to the candidate of their choice.
The 16-month battle between Clinton and Obama has raised concerns in the Democratic party that it will appear disunited to voters ahead of the November general elections.

english.aljazeera.net

The chance of being hit by lightning, or winning the lottery, is in the same field as the possibility of being a high school basketball player who wins an ESPY, ESPN’s award for someone whose television sports highlight is the most outstanding of the year. Thus, the odds of being possibly a two-time ESPY winner is astronomical; but the University of Minnesota’s Blake Hoffarber might be that two-time lottery winner.
During the Big 10 Tournament game between Indiana and Minnesota, Hoffarber scored the winning basket as time ran out, converting a turnaround, left-handed push shot from thirteen feet with three Hoosiers around him after leaping to catch a 77-foot pass inbounds from the opposing baseline. The improbable play started with Minnesota down a point and only 1.5 seconds left in the game.
Minnesota had led the game by as many as 16 points, but the Gophers were missing several of their top players due to injury and foul trouble, and Indiana slowly crept back. Even though the Hoosiers missed five of their last six free throws, Indiana still scored the last six points of the final minute and a half, and D. J. White’s free throw broke the missed streak and gave his team the point lead, setting up Hoffarber’s shot.

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“We looked at 20 to 25 houses,” says Dye. After being shown a lot of big new houses that just weren’t their style, she began to doubt they’d ever find the right place. Then her realtor suggested this empty-nesters’ house on a leafy block brimming with children. It hadn’t even gone on the market yet. “We had a soul-mate-y thing with our realtor,” says Dye.
THE BEFORE PICTURE
The previous owners had layered the house with 25 years of affection. Wallpaper everywhere, tired carpeting in the master bathroom, a sunken bath and lots of mirrors. The “Love, American-Style” hot tub in the basement was a bigger problem. Even the kitchen, rehabbed in 1992, didn’t work. Its biggest stumbling block was a large, double-sided fireplace that divided the kitchen from the family room. “Both Chip and I love to cook,” says Dye. “We wanted the family room open to the kitchen.”
SIX MONTHS TO OVERHAUL AN ENTIRE HOUSE. GO!
“It’s a lot like love,” says Dye getting a bit teary about her relationship with decorator Jordana Joseph of jorje interior design and contractor Tim DeVries of Scheeringa & DeVries. The choice of interior designer was a no-brainer since Joseph had helped the couple with their Bucktown home, but finding a builder they could connect with took longer. “I was a renovation magazine junkie,” says Dye, “and everything I read said to get at least three bids, then toss out the high bid and the low one and go with someone in the middle.” In the end, DeVries was chosen not for his middling estimate, but for his can-do attitude. Most contractors were skeptical about taking out that big kitchen fireplace. But DeVries, Dye recalls, said: “This is going to be great. I love this kind of job.”

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