Product Liability Is Getting A Bit Out Of Control

While all the foes of tobacco were reveling in the settlement reached in Washington, I said to myself, "Self, this product liability stuff is really getting out of hand." Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore, who was on a mission against the tobacco industry and was the lead negotiator for the tobacco foes, called it "the most historic public health achievement in history." Aside from being silly and redundant, I think that statement is a bit of a stretch.I'd probably go with the discovery of penicillin or the polio vaccine as the most significant public health achievement in history, but what do I know? And when you get right down to it, where do you suppose most of that $360 billion over 25 years will go? Do you think it will go to victims of cigarettes? To the survivors of victims of cigarettes? It's supposed to go to pay for health care costs incurred because of cigarettes.It's supposed to pay for programs aimed at getting people to quit smoking.

Lancers Find Chink In Knight's Armor

Winona Lake -ÊTuesday night, in a pivotal game that decided who was to become the sole possessor of third place in the Mid-Central Conference, the men's basketball team of Grace College was able to get the "W" when they faced off against the visiting Marion Knights by an end score of 69-63. This is not the first match-up these two teams have had this year. Tuesday night, Grace was able to avenge themselves of an earlier loss in the season, when Marion was able to score a victory as Grace visited Indianapolis.

Bow Hunters Selected For Deer Reduction Effort

Bow hunters who will assist in deer reduction efforts in Warsaw for the next three weeks have been selected. Four of the hunters who were selected began hunting in declared nuisance zones Monday and one deer was taken, according to Deer Task Force chair Jeff Grose. There were 27 hunters who attended a training session Dec.2 at the Warsaw Police Department to qualify to hunt in declared deer nuisance zones in Warsaw. The potential hunters were required to fill out an application form and have an approved background check conducted by the WPD. The hunters also were required to attend the training session at the department to learn about bow hunting safety, reduction zones, and bow hunting guidelines and rules and regulations for the reduction effort. There were 20 of the 27 hunters who were notified by phone Dec.15-16 by the task force management committee informing them they were selected, Grose said.

Grace Takes Off Vs. Taylor

WINONA LAKE - Granted, Grace College caught Taylor University in the midst of the its worse stretch of the season. That doesn't taint the Lancers' performance Tuesday one bit. Grace broke away from a tie game with a 17-2 run late in the second half and got a 66-51 decision at the Lancer Gym Tuesday in a big Mid-Central Conference win. With the 15-point win, Grace avenged an earlier 23-point win by Taylor (67-44) this season, making it a 38-point reversal. Taylor, who was simply dominating opponents early in the conference schedule, dropped its third straight MCC contest.Grace pulled to within one game of Taylor for third place in the MCC with a 6-5 conference record.Taylor is 7-4. The score was tied at 45 with 7:45 left when the Lancers decided to speed the tempo up a little bit.The result was outscoring the Trojans by 15 points over the next six minutes to gain a 62-47 lead.

Tigers Hit Century Mark Vs. Memorial

Warsaw found the perfect defense to Elkhart Memorial's potent offense - simply outscore them. The Crimson Chargers entered Saturday's game at the Tiger Den averaging over 75 points a game, but it was the Tigers' offense that was clicking on all cylinders. Warsaw continued its hot shooting, hitting on 41 of 57 from the field (72 percent) in burying Memorial 100-66.It marks the first time Warsaw has hit the century mark in a game since 1995. "We started off this year trying to come with a varsity defense," Warsaw coach Al Rhodes said."Our offense has come a long way since the Elkhart Central (first) game.The one thing we have done all year is shoot a tremendous field goal percentage.Even though we have turned the ball over a lot, that is why we have still been able to win.

Hot-Shooting Valley Vanquishes Wabash

WABASH - Valley's performance against Wabash could be summed up with two names: JayDee Parker and Eric Love. The two combined to score 50 points, with Parker scoring 29 of them, as Valley cruised over Wabash 77-67 Friday night. The first quarter was a foreshadowing of what was to come from Valley.Off the opening tip, Love came down the court and nailed a three.He added another five points in the first quarter to help Valley to a 17-9 first-quarter lead. Wabash was led early and often by J.R.Hensley.Hensley picked up the offensive slack for the Apaches by pouring in 13 first-half points. Despite Hensley's scoring, Valley refused to relinquish their lead.When Love began to miss from the field, Parker stepped up.Parker had 13 points in the second quarter, but Wabash continued to hang around.

Mothers Deserve Their Day

Sunday is Mother's Day. I think it's highly appropriate that mothers have a day.They deserve it. I consider myself fortunate to have three great moms in my life - my mother, my wife and my mother-in-law. All three of them are wonderful people. My mother is one of the kindest people I know.She can be firm when she needs to, but she's really a softie deep down.She spends a great deal of her time helping others.It's what seems to make her happiest. You know the stereotype about the overbearing mother-in-law? Nothing could be further from the truth in my case.My mother-in-law is humble, sweet and caring. Both of these women are in their 80s.They're octogenarians.I lovingly refer to them as "the octos." Then there's my wife, Mary.Sometimes I think our kids don't realize how good they have it.They couldn't have asked for a better mother. Just this week, our son came home from college for the summer.You should have seen the twinkle in Mary's eyes.

Neither Flu Nor Whitko Can Slow Zolman

SYRACUSE - Shanna Zolman's legend continues to grow. As the old story goes, Michael Jordan had to be helped off the floor by Scottie Pippen.In an NBA Finals game against the Utah Jazz Jordan scored 55 points despite fighting off the flu and a near 100-degree temperature.Thursday night Zolman, Wawasee freshman and the state's leading scorer, played under similar conditions. While fending off a flu that has plagued her the last few days, Zolman scored 30 points, 18 in the second half, to lead the Warriors over Whitko 54-50.Michelle Lamb and Kara Price added eight points each in the win that improved Wawasee's overall record to 14-6.Whitko was led in scoring by Tisha Rowland's 14 points.Monica Sands came off the bench to score 12 and pull down eight rebounds.

Vikings Win Sectional

OSSIAN - Tippecanoe Valley's girls basketball team has become the avengers of 2006. After avenging an earlier loss to Elmhurst Friday to advance to the championship game of the Norwell Sectional, the Vikings overtook the host Knights 36-35 Saturday, winning their fourth sectional championship in five years and advancing to the Peru Regional. Norwell, which beat Valley 71-70 in last year's sectional title game, beat Wayne 63-28 and Peru 57-28 to advance to the final game. "We wanted to come out and stop the run they had on us last year," said Valley coach Gary Teel."In the championship game last year they went up 15-0 and threw our whole game plan out the window.This year we wanted to keep that from happening." Rachel Sitts picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter and had to be sat.Jessica Rice entered the game and also picked up two fouls.The game's pace remained the same.It was a tough, physical game between the two teams.

Eagles Chill Tigers

The trend held true. In the war known as the Columbia City-Warsaw girls' basketball rivalry, the team that wins the regular season battle and enters the sectional as the more experienced, higher-regarded team is the one that tends to come out as the loser in the postseason. The Eagles, with only two starters back from last year, avenged a pair of one-point losses to the Tigers (58-57 in last year's sectional and 45-44 in this year's regular season) with a 54-39 win in the semifinals of the Warsaw Sectional Thursday. With four starters back from last year's sectional championship team, it was Warsaw that was expecting big things this year and with a young team, it was Columbia City that looked to be rebuilding this season. That fits the profile to a tee.

Warrior Gymnasts Defeat Squires

SYRACUSE - After the gymnastics meet between the Wawasee Warriors and Manchester Squires, both coaches talked about using the competition as a learning experience. "Our varsity was not as as dynamic, with the exception of Angi Beer, tonight as it normally is," said Nika Prather, Wawasee head coach."We had a better meet overall at Elkhart Memorial last week. "Tonight we had several stops on the bars that we don't normally have, and we were shaky on the beam." Wawasee won 92.7-74.75. Beer led all competitors last night, earning first place on each of the apparatus: beam, floor exercise, uneven bars, and vault.Because she was first in each category, she also won first place in the all-around category.Megan Goshert led the Manchester squad, placing third in the all-around competition by placing second on the beam and third in the floor exercise. Like many other schools, both the Warriors and the Squires were battling illness and injury.

Bethel Grounds Grace

Photo By Gary Nieter, Times-Union One mistake is all it really took against Grace Tuesday at Lancer Gym. The Lancers, who led by one at halftime, 36-35, were trailing the Pilots 57-56 with just over 9 1/2 minutes left in the game when Bethel's Jeff Clay was fouled by Grace's Brent Damer.Clay's layup was good, and he had a free throw coming. Damer got the ball after the basket and slammed it to the court in frustration.The ball got away from him, and the official near the play called a technical.With the personal and the technical, Damer went to the bench with five fouls.Clay went to the free throw line and made three free throws to give Bethel a 62-56 lead. It was the opening the Pilots needed.Sensing the Lancers were down emotionally from the exchange, the Pilots went on a 18-4 run and never looked back in their 82-67 Mid-Central Conference win. Bethel is now 20-3 overall and 6-1 in the MCC.Grace falls to 16-8 and 3-4.

The Ups And Downs Of Corporate Greed

It's been kind of fun to watch the GE/Honeywell merger attempt. I don't profess to be a corporate/business/finance expert or anything, but here is my humble understanding of the situation and what I perceive to be a little ironic. GE wants to merge with Honeywell. Those guys - among many other things - make airplane parts like jet engines and controls and stuff. In Europe, the airlines are owned and operated by the government. The European Union is afraid that if GE and Honeywell merge, the prices of airplanes might go up. Since the EU doesn't want to pay more for airplanes, it refused to give the GE/Honeywell merger anti-trust clearance. And my guess is the EU is putting pressure on airplane manufacturers, too. The EU might suggest to Boeing, for example, that if Boeing doesn't discourage the GE/Honeywell merger, the EU will buy its planes from Airbus.

When Things Go Wrong In Iraq

I get the sense that the Iraq thing is going poorly. I know lots of people thought that from the outset.I was not one of those. I didn't disagree with W's assessment of Saddam Hussein. I would have liked to see a larger coalition.And I would have liked to see the U.N.'s blessing, but I always thought that the world would be a better place without Saddam running a Middle Eastern country. As for WMDs (big bombs), it's hard for me to blame W for believing Saddam had them. After all, everyone in the world believed the same thing.I mean everybody.All the other countries, the United Nations, all the prominent Democrats in this country - everybody. They all said the same thing.It was unanimous.Not one person was saying, "Hey, you know, maybe Saddam really doesn't have any big bombs." So it's difficult for me to blame W for believing that Saddam had big bombs.

Triton Hangs On For Win Over Whitko

Bourbon - Early it looked as though Friday's boys basketball game between the Whitko Wildcats and the Triton Trojans would be less than riveting. That quickly changed as both teams battled tooth and nail for four quarters. Triton held the lead for most of the game but lost it late in the fourth quarter.The Trojans were able to charge back and recapture the lead for good as they held on for a 46-45 win. The game started off slowly as both teams traded early baskets with Whitko's Jeff Martin and Triton's Brandon Zeider scoring for their respective teams.Both teams then went on a scoring drought for the next three minutes until the Wildcats' Ben Ryan broke the tie with a jumper. After Ryan's basket, the Trojans quickly stormed back with a 14-2 run that lasted until the opening moments of the second quarter.Triton was led early by senior Matt Savill, who had nine first-half points, giving his team 24-16 lead at the half.

Warsaw Wrestlers Win Sectional

PLYMOUTH - Five individual champions led the way for the Warsaw wrestling team to win the Plymouth Sectional Saturday. The Tigers won 21 individual matches to earn the championship, 18 of which came by way of pins, two by technical fall, and one by a decision. En route to its second straight sectional title, Warsaw finished with 207 points, followed by runner-up Plymouth with 194.5. Culver Military finished third with 191 points, followed by Triton (179.5), Culver Community (168.5), Rochester (137.5), Bremen (133), Wawasee (102.5) and Tippecanoe Valley (42). Through the first round of the Plymouth Sectional, all of the Tigers who advanced did so by fall and suddenly the team had a chance to win the event.

On The Court Basketball Previews

On The Court Basketball Previews

HARDING AT MANCHESTER Tip-off: 6:30 p.m.Saturday in North Manchester Coaches: Al Gooden (Harding), Gary Goshert (Manchester) Records: Harding 10-4 ; Manchester 13-3 Last Game: FW Wayne 69, Harding 66; Manchester 57, Wawasee 39 Last Year: Manchester 61, Harding 52 Matchup: Manchester is on a four-game winning streak and hopes to continue the trend when they host Harding ...Eric Swan leads the Squires with 19.9 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game ...Rex Reimer, Manchester's three-point leader, averages 11.7 points, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game ...Chris Betten chips in 7.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game. Gooden: Gooden could not be reached for comment.

Tiger Girls Win Sectional, Set School Record For Wins

Far from a masterpiece, a game that at times couldn't have been uglier for Warsaw's varsity girls basketball team, the outcome couldn't have been prettier for Will Wienhorst and his Class 4A No.2 Tigers. A game in which Miss Basketball candidate Jaclyn Leiniger took just five shots from the field and scored 15 points below her average, Warsaw scored but two points in the third quarter and only hit 24 percent of its shots from the field for the game yet still won the sectional championship with a 39-34 victory over Carroll Saturday evening. "Carroll is a very well coached basketball team," said Wienhorst."We had good shots, it was just like there was a lid on the basket.Even with as many shots as we missed, we were still only down six points." Carroll coach Lisa McBride, whose Chargers were playing for their third straight sectional championship, was unavailable for comment after the game.

Manchester Squires See Season End

WABASH -ÊMaconaquah brought the Manchester Squires' girls basketball season to an abrupt end when the Braves defeated the Squires 49-48 in the Northfield Sectional Thursday. Although Manchester netted the first basket of the game, the first quarter belonged to Maconaquah as the Braves outscored the Squires 17-8 in the frame. "We knew they could score points quickly, so we made sure that we didn't panic after the first quarter," said Nichols."We kept our heads up and got back in it." Manchester was down, but not out as the Squires made a comeback in the second stanza, Jennifer Jester started the quarter with a spark as she sank a three-pointer with 7:25 remaining in the half. Then Megan Eckert stepped up.In the last seven minutes of the first half, Eckert helped the Manchester squad go on a 18-2 but scoring 13 points.At the half, Manchester held a 29-21 lead over Maconaquah, and Megan Eckert had 18 of her total 28 points.