April 2005
Badgers bump Illinois
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Cynthya Goulet won at singles and doubles and Momei Qu also earned a victory, but fourth-seeded Illinois couldn''t rebound at the Big Ten women''s tennis tournament, losing 4-2 to fifth-seeded Wisconsin on Friday.
"That''s the way the whole year has gone," said UIcoach Sujay Lama, whose team has lost 4-3 five times this season. "The effort has been incredible. It''s a matter of execution, and that''s where we''ve struggled this year. We''ve battled, we''ve played close. It just comes down to execution."
Major is home after 16 months of service
CHAMPAIGN – There will be French toast again in the Rose home, after a 16-month drought, because Maj. Yvette Rose has returned home to her children after spending several months directing emergency calls in the Iraq war.
Rose, 36, of the Army National Guard, pulled 12-hour shifts in the middle of the night as "night battle captain" at Camp Virginia, an Army base near Kuwait's border with Iraq.
Pilots from Illinois, other states prepare planes for crop dusting
MATTOON – Clipping along at 140 miles per hour, the school-bus-yellow prop plane dips low to the ground with pink plumes trailing behind it.
Minuscule droplets from the pink spray (which is water blended with dye) land on a cotton string stretched across a strip of grass at the Coles County Airport and onto cards placed on the ground.
Arrest made in 1998 death
URBANA – An Iowa man is in the Champaign County jail in lieu of $1 million bond in connection with the 1998 death of a Rantoul man.
Jamie Picken, 34, of rural Ottumwa, Iowa, was arraigned Friday on charges of aggravated vehicular hijacking and concealment of the homicidal death of Otto Haack, who was 77.
Who''s that Illini?
I was an 18-time All-America selection in women''s track from 1987 to 1990. I was a member of the U.S. 400-meter relay team at the 1995 World Championships, where we captured the gold, and a member of the 1997 U.S. World Championship team. I still own school records in the 200 and the 400.
Scientists expect more from plants
A world population already near 6 billion is expected to be 9 billion by 2030 and, perhaps, 18 billion by the end of the century.
Meanwhile, the annual rate at which agricultural yields are increasing has been declining steadily, to the point where it is below the rate needed to keep up with the population growth.
UI sends lengthy report to NCAA
URBANA – The NCAA will spend the next few months reviewing information about how American Indian symbols are used by the University of Illinois and other schools.
The UI this week sent a self-evaluation of its use of Chief Illiniwek to the NCAA. Any response by the NCAA likely won't be made before August, when its executive committee meets to review recommendations on the issue.
Illinois star prides himself on outworking the competition
URBANA – If he were a basketball player, you'd call Ryler DeHeart a gym rat.
He's the kid who takes his work home, the one who stays late after practice. It just happens that DeHeart is a tennis player, the sort who practices his forehand swing as he crosses campus between classes.
Social Security blues
Fri, 04/29/2005 - 3:57pm | Jim DeyGiven the problems President Bush is having selling his plans for Social Security, it's becoming increasingly clear that we'll be stuck with a bad program for a long time.
Sleeping with the fishes
Fri, 04/29/2005 - 3:48pm | Jim DeyNew University of Illinois Chancellor Richard Herman paid me a surprise visit this week, one motivated by an April 23 News-Gazette column reference I made to him.
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