Incumbents Beware?

At first glance, one might think some incumbents might be in for a rough time this November. Frankly, I thought it was a bit shocking that Joe Lieberman, the Democrat Senator from Connecticut, lost his bid for re-election in the primary this past week. In 2000, as Al Gore's running mate, he was just a few Florida votes shy of being the Vice President of the United States. In 2004, he was a formidable candidate for his party's nomination for a presidential run against George Bush. A three-term incumbent, he was highly respected by his peers on both sides of the aisle in the Senate. He is the ranking Demo on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chaired in 2001 and 2002. He also serves on the Armed Services, Environment and Public Works and Small Business and Entrepreneurship committees. He was very popular in his home state and he's no moderate.

Warsaw Has No Problems With Goshen

A few years ago, Sheryl Crow had a hit with the song "A Change Will Do You Good." Maybe Warsaw girls basketball coach Will Wienhorst listened to that song this week as he prepared the Tigers for the game with Goshen Saturday. The Tigers changed defenses almost every time they headed down the court.And that change did the Tigers good as Warsaw (9-5, 3-1 NLC) kept the Goshen (3-12, 0-5 NLC) offense off balance and downed the Redskins 83-35. After the Tigers got the ball off the tip and scored to begin the game, the Tiger defense went to work.Goshen got the ball past the half-court mark once in its first three possessions, but each time Warsaw stole it back and capitalized for the score.

How Things Have Changed In School

Summer break for students is usually a pretty good time. Some students have to work, but lots of others just sleep in, get up and hang out at the beach. Lots of teachers pick up summer jobs to supplement their income.Others play lots of golf. Also in the summer, some states offer training programs for educators to hone their teaching skills. But this summer, the tragedies in Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Oregon have raised the bar on these summer sessions. Now states are offering training programs like "school safety" and "crisis management." The following tidbits were gleaned from a story that moved on Scripps Howard News Service. • Florida is helping large and small, rural and metro school districts develop localized school safety programs. • In Missouri, school and law enforcement officials got together to develop a plan to address school violence and juvenile crime.

Cigarettes Now, Fat Later?

I know I have touched on this before, but the jury award in California last week to the dying smoker is just so ridiculous I felt compelled to revisit the topic. The smoking thing has been way out of control for a long time now, but this latest judgment defies comprehension. Everybody knows - I know, kids know, teen-agers know, adults know, senior citizens know, probably some of the brighter of our pets know - that smoking is bad for you. No matter. Comes now Richard Boeken, who got lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for 40 or so years. He tells a jury - and this is a pivotal issue in his case - that he didn't know, DIDN'T KNOW, that smoking was bad for him until the mid 1990s.

Big First Half Puts Warsaw Past Whitko

The first half Tuesday against Whitko might have shown the best the Warsaw girls basketball team has to offer.The second half might have shown the worst. But the first 16 minutes were enough to push the Tigers to a lopsided 59-26 win over the overmatched Wildcats at the Tiger Den. Warsaw (10-4) used its superior size and strength inside to totally dominate the first half and run up a 42-10 advantage over Whitko (4-8).The Wildcats struggled on offense, turning the ball over 17 times and getting only 23 shots at the basket. The Tigers, on the otherhand, had no problems offensively.Tiffany Ross scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the first half on 6 of 8 shooting from the field.Warsaw owned the boards with a 22-11 advantage, including 15-3 in the second quarter.

Southwood Surprises Valley

MENTONE - Tippecanoe Valley had the guns blazing against the Southwood Knights, at least for one quarter.After the opening period, however, the Vikings lost the shooting touch and the ball game, 76-65, Tuesday. Valley head coach Gregg Sciarra put it about as simply as it can be said."We hit everything." In the opening eight minutes that is as Valley scored 27 points, knocking down seven of nine three-pointers, and opening up a 12-point lead. Darren Parker led the first quarter attack by hitting on all four of his three-point attempts.Eric Love added three bombs of his own, all in the first four minutes. But then Southwood began to chip away at the deficit with a little help from the Vikings.

Warsaw Girls Work Their Way Past Whitko

SOUTH WHITLEY - On paper, this matchup seemed about as lopsided as it could get. On one side you had Warsaw, a 7-4 team receiving honorable mention votes in the latest Associated Press poll.On the other side you had Whitko, a 4-7 team coming off of a Saturday loss to 2-10 Wabash. The Tigers are a veteran team with several key returning players from last year's squad.Whitko is a young team - five sophomores and a freshman receive most of the minutes on the varsity squad - now made even younger.Melissa Sands, Whitko's only starting senior, is out with a stress fracture above her right ankle.She leads the team with 10.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. And to no one's surprise, Warsaw beat Whitko 53-39 Tuesday evening.Warsaw's trio of 6-foot-2-inch Katie Elliott, 5-10 Tiffany Ross and 5-9 Sherri Ross combined for 39 of Warsaw's 53 points. The Tigers took control by halftime.

IU Holds On For 81-78 Win

BLOOMINGTON - In the past few week, at seemed as if Indiana was missing something. Not no more. With its key players, Luke Recker and A.J.Guyton, coming together and playing well at the same time for the first time since Big Ten play began, the No.23 Hoosiers put away the upstart Northwestern Wildcats 81-78. Recker led Indiana with 28 points, and Guyton added 18. Recker's slashing and driving to the basket was contrasted with the jump-shooting ability of Guyton, giving the normally solid Northwestern defense a fit.The Hoosiers' 81 points is the most the Wildcats have given up in the Big Ten this year. Michael Lewis added to the effort with inspired play to add 14 points and 11 assists. Northwestern, no longer the doormat of the Big Ten, put up a fight, coming back from 16 down with 10 minutes to go in the game.

Raiders Roll Over Tigers

Northridge's boys swim team entered Saturday's meet rolling toward its third straight Northern Lakes Conference title. The Raiders faced the one team - Warsaw - with the best chance of knocking them off.Northridge entered 7-1, while Warsaw was 7-0. But Northridge proved why it has won two titles in a row is in line for its third.Northridge's boys swim team beat Warsaw 108-78, while Northridge's girls swim team beat Warsaw 110-76. The Northridge boys improve to 6-0 in the NLC, while the Warsaw boys drop to 5-1 in the NLC. "We would have had to swim our best to win," Warsaw coach Chris LaLonde said, "and even if we did, I had the meet scored 20 points different." The Northridge girls up their record to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the NLC, while the Warsaw girls fall to 5-5 overall and 3-3 in the NLC.

Kids Learn By Example

Here's a chilling quote for you: "If the president can do it, why can't we?" That quote was delivered to a Time magazine reporter by a middle school student.Out of the mouths of babes flows truth. And that, in a nutshell, is what is probably most troubling to me about the whole Monica Lewinsky affair. I wrote a couple weeks ago how I thought Bill Clinton has set us back morally as a country. He basically has shown us that you can lie and cheat your way to the top with little or no reprisal. Take a look at the polls. The president's approval rating stays high, even though most people say they don't trust him.

Saint Francis Beats Grace 79-55

FORT WAYNE - If you aren't careful, the statistics might fool you. Despite St.Francis defeating Grace 79-55 Wednesday in college women's basketball, the win means little to the NAIA No.1 ranked Cougars. Meanwhile, for the visiting Lancers, it was another statement for the character of the squad. Forget the 24-point margin.St.Francis' points-to-possession ratio was excellent.But it doesn't matter.Team shooting was 50.8 percent, but that's deceiving too.Don't look at the 15 assists, 14 steals or the 10 turnovers. USF coach Bruce Patterson was not amused with the lack of intensity and the effort displayed by the NAIA top-ranked Cougars. "For their sake, I kind of wish they would have lost," Patterson said."Obviously you don't wish for that, but if we play like that we will lose." Grace coach Lori Wynn says what the Cougars may have lacked with intensity, the bench was enough to cover. "They've got a few more guns then we do," she said.

Petty Thefts Symptom Of Larger Problem

I'm going broke keeping my son in school supplies and shoes these days. It's not that he's wearing them out at an alarming rate.It's that they're being stolen. At the beginning of this school year, Evan needed new shoes.He had to have what was cool - Airwalks.He's generally a really good kid so this was a kind of pre-middle school reward. We got him the Airwalks.Sixty bucks. We also got him a combination lock for his gym locker so when he changed into his gym clothes he could lock up those prized, cool Airwalks. A few weeks into the school year the lock refused to lock anymore.We had another one at home - we got the two-pack - but Evan forgot to tell us his lock was broken. That is, of course, until his prized, cool Airwalks were stolen out of his unlocked gym locker. Ouch. Within a week, Evan - now wearing last year's too-small, beat-up tennis shoes - leaves his binder and science book sitting out.They get stolen.

Let's Make The Best Of A Taxing Situation

Last week I wrote a column regarding the use of tax dollars, and I think - even at the risk of beating a dead horse in the minds of some readers - I need to elaborate. (Frankly, I think the horse is far from dead.It's galloping along at a full clip.) You see, I've been in the newspaper business since 1980.I've worked at big newspapers and small newspapers that have covered good news and bad news. I've seen plenty of bizarre, tragic, silly, heroic, even unbelievable stories over the years. But the one thing I have always tried to do is not lose sight of the role of newspapers - large or small - in our society, in our culture. There's a reason they call a free press the Fourth Estate. In my view, the single most important thing a newspaper does is keep track of the actions of public officials.I take that very seriously.

On The Court Basketball Previews

Warsaw Wins Wild One Over Wallace

Warsaw Community High School math teacher and resident boys' basketball guru Al Rhodes certainly could fill his time crunching the numbers that came out of the Gary Wallace-Warsaw game Tuesday in the Tiger Den. In a game postponed from Friday, the staggering numbers told the story of Warsaw's 92-78 win over the Hornets. The numbers looked a little like this. 170 - points scored by the two teams. 111 - free throws attempted by both teams. 81 - field goal attempts by Gary Wallace. 75 - free throws attempted by Warsaw. 73 - fouls committed by both teams. 62 - free throws made by both teams. 47 - fouls committed by Gary Wallace. 44 - free throws made by Warsaw. 6 - fouls attributed to Gary Wallace's Herman Ezell (4 personals, 2 technicals). 5 - Gary Wallace players that fouled out in the game. 3 - Gary Wallace players that fouled out in the THIRD quarter.

Wawasee Bounces Back To Top Whitko

SOUTH WHITLEY -ÊAfter the excitement of Shanna Zolman breaking the girls state scoring record Saturday, Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman knew it would be a challenge for his team to come back and play Tuesday night at Whitko. "We were all on such a high after Saturday, it's really difficult to come back and play," said Kem Zolman."But you still have to come out and play.We came out flat." Whitko coach Mike Sands had the opposite problem -Êkeeping his team calm in front of a packed house. "The girls were so excited we were bouncing off the walls," said Sands."I was really concerned before the game because the girls were so excited.But once they got out on the floor, you couldn't tell." The Warriors pulled out a 71-46 win, but it was not easy. The Wildcats came out ready to to play.Christa Badskey drained a three to open the first quarter and give Whitko a 3-0 lead.

Frigid 5K Run Results

Despite drizzle and clouds, 40 people participated in Wednesday's first Kosciusko Community YMCA Frigid Five run. The New Year's Day event was a five-kilometer run that began at the YMCA, headed down Country Club Road and back to the YMCA. The overall winner was Pete Fussle with a time of 18:43:03.The fastest couple award went to Summer and Paul Boyd. Categorical (male and female) winners included: Mike Block in the 10-and-up group; Ian Fussle and Summer Boyd in the 11-15 group; Will Woodward in the 16-20 group; Pete Fussle in the 21-25 group; Mark Landes and Julia Rosdad, 26-33; David Dorais and Ellen Schwendlemann, 34-42; Neil Tate, Patty Schwartz and Deb Kunish, 43-49; Heinz Fussle in the 50 and above. The event also recognized the largest family of participants.That went to the Fussles, who had six family members and a dog participating. YMCA health and fitness director Tom Coxey said they plan to make the Frigid Five an annual event.

DeGeeter Leads Warsaw To Win Over Carroll

Obviously, Warsaw girls basketball coach Will Wienhorst was pleased that his team improved to 13-1 with a 61-58 win over Carroll Wednesday night in the Tiger Den. Strangely enough, he would have been okay with a loss, too. "This was a great game for us, win or lose," said Wienhorst."This is the first time we have seen a box-and-one, and that is very good for us.We wanted to see that type of defense, and we got some really good experience with it tonight." After fallig behind early, the Tigers clawed their way back from a 12-point deficit early in he third quarter to earn the three-point victory in the highly anticipated game against the Chargers.

Small Town Politics At Its Very Worst

What a contentious primary election we have this year. I have been in small town newspapers for 18 years and I can honestly say I have never seen anything quite like this. I am referring, of course, to the race for prosecuting attorney on the Republican ticket. The sheriff's race is hotly contested with lots of candidates out to get your vote, but the GOP's prosecutor's race is a real doozy. And somehow I have been dragged into it. A local judge just this week accused me and this newspaper of having a pro-David Kolbe bias. This, I assume, because of a story we ran about a couple cops who got into hot water in the Dating Dynamics case. An attorney for the owner of the dating place says the cops were doing a little Kolbe-bashing on the job.The attorney says they asked the owner to write a derogatory letter about Kolbe to a magazine.

Deficits Threaten Economy

An important deadline passed on April 15. No, not the Internal Revenue Service deadline for us to give them money.There was a deadline in Washington.And, as it has 24 out of the last 30 years, Congress missed it. It was the deadline for the U.S.House of Representatives and U.S.Senate to pass a joint budget resolution. You know, that kind of annoys me.I work in a deadline business, so I am really in tune with the concept of a deadline.If I missed my deadline 24 out of 30 times, I'd be in big trouble. And if taxpayers miss deadlines, they're in big trouble.Why doesn't Congress ever get in trouble? Seems they can just bumble along any old way they please.Oh, I know the voters have the final say.If members of Congress screw up, they can be voted out of office.