Mcalarney Punishment Hot Topic on Campus SOUTH BEND -- Kyle McAlarney's suspension is what everyone is talking about at the University of Notre Dame. Students think the university acted consistently by suspending the starting point guard on the school's basketball team but are divided over whether the punishment fits the crime. The university's student affairs committee on Monday suspended the sophomore point guard for the spring semester for his late-December arrest and subsequent misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. During a routine traffic stop, McAlarney was arrested and charged with reckless possession. He entered a pretrial diversion program, and the charges will be dropped if he meets the conditions of the program. [continues 58 words]
Students Divided Over McAlarney Decision The University decided Monday how to deal with Notre Dame basketball player Kyle McAlarney's marijuana possession charges - suspension from Notre Dame - but students are still grappling with the case and its outcome. Many students said they support the decision to suspend the sophomore guard - who was pulled over and arrested near campus early on Dec. 29 - - and hailed it as consistent with du Lac, while others expressed frustration with what they saw as unfair aspects of University policy. [continues 531 words]
Twenty-five days. That's how long it took Notre Dame basketball player Kyle McAlarney to hear from the University as to how he would be punished for his late December arrest on misdemeanor marijuana possession charges. That's quite some time, especially considering that it took St. Joseph County only 18 days - until Jan. 17 - to rule that McAlarney should enter into a pre-trial diversion program. Yes, the arrest occurred over winter break, so it probably took the Office of Residence Life and Housing significantly longer to handle the case. And yes, Notre Dame isn't allowed, under federal law, to comment on individual disciplinary proceedings. [continues 339 words]
Irish Point Guard To Miss Spring, Summer Semesters Following December Possession Charge Notre Dame basketball player Kyle McAlarney was suspended for the spring and summer semesters Monday and is currently on his way home to Staten Island, N.Y., his mother said in a phone interview Tuesday afternoon with The Observer. Janice McAlarney said her son - a sophomore who was charged with possession of marijuana Dec. 29 - was not dismissed from the University, but the news of a two-semester suspension came as a shock. [continues 960 words]
McAlarney Suspension Saddens Hoops Coach Two days after Notre Dame suspended sophomore basketball player Kyle McAlarney, the University had not released official information, although head coach Mike Brey commented on the situation after the team's 71-68 loss to St. John's Tuesday. Brey - who spoke about his developing bond with McAlarney as the season progressed - said he was devastated when informed of the Office of Residence Life and Housing's decision to suspend the guard for the spring and summer semesters. [continues 226 words]
SWITZ CITY - White River Valley Junior-Senior High School students got to see a pair of real people talking about their real lives, who were able to tell the real facts behind illicit drug use because they have experienced the trials and troubles for a good part of their own lives. Todd and Christy Johnson, of Lyons, are recovering drug addicts who have been "clean" for two years, 27 days and counting. They talk from experience not to be boasting, but to offer help to the students they are addressing. [continues 1522 words]
Legalize It! It shouldn't be hard to tell what this column is about from the title of it. It's about marijuana, a drug that's much less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol and yet is demonized for reasons that befuddle this writer's mind. I'm not going to lay out the same old tired argument that potheads have used for the past half a century. But you won't see homeless potheads sitting on street corners begging for five bucks to get a bag of weed, or you won't hear about a couple stoners robbing the local gas station to get money to buy some pot. You won't hear about the hundreds of thousands of dead because of its use. My argument for why marijuana should be legal comes from a strict monetary outlet. The United States can be making so much money off taxing legalized marijuana that a sizable chunk of the federal deficit could be erased within years. [continues 329 words]
MONTICELLO -- The Twin Lakes School Board may make eligible for drug testing hundreds of students between grades seven and 12. If an idea discussed Tuesday is implemented, the school corporation would enter certain students into a pool for random testing. Included would be students who play sports, participate in clubs, drive to school or take drivers' education courses. A community forum on the issue will be held at the school in late February, but no vote on the matter has been scheduled. [continues 299 words]
When I read letters from smokers whining about not being allowed to suck on cigarettes in public, it makes me wonder if all their synapses are clicking. Here are these poor addicts crying about not being allowed to destroy their health and the health of those near them, wringing their hands and ranting about future government interference, never realizing how absurd they sound. My mom used to tell me not to stare at such people. It was hard then, and it still is. [continues 601 words]
When I read letters from smokers whining about not being allowed to suck on cigarettes in public, it makes me wonder if all their synapses are clicking. Here are these poor addicts crying about not being allowed to destroy their health and the health of those near them, wringing their hands and ranting about future government interference, never realizing how absurd they sound. My mom used to tell me not to stare at such people. It was hard then, and it still is. [continues 610 words]
There may be a difference in opinion as to whether heroin has become the drug of choice in Wabash County or merely that, with more police resources devoted to combating it, more arrests have issued. Regardless, the very lively Chicago-to Wabash connection in the heroin trade was one of the top stories in Wabash County this year. Our newsroom selected it the ninth biggest story. The Wabash Police Drug Task Force thought the pipeline serious enough that early this year they shifted some of their resources from the old standbys - meth, cocaine, marijuana, prescription drugs - - to heroin. [continues 140 words]
The Greene County Commissioners went on record Tuesday morning supporting a county-wide methamphetamine public awareness campaign planned later this month. The commissioners approved and signed a resolution of support for what is being billed as "Meth is Death Week" in Greene County. The campaign is sponsored by Greene United Against Meth (GUAM), a pro-active grassroots organization that has been involved in educating the public about the perils of methamphetamine-use in the community for more than three years. The campaign is set for Jan. 21-27. [continues 827 words]
On Christmas Eve morning, Pastor Robert Mays sat alone in front of his church's piano and played a battle hymn. Although he didn't know it was a battle hymn at the time, he knew he was at war. "This church is in what I call a spiritual war zone," he said. "There are drugs, drug dealers and drug abusers all around me." Mays was ready to take another step in his plan to win back his community. [continues 673 words]
Thousands Of Troops To Set Marijuana, Opium Fields Afire In Latest Crackdown APATZINGAN, Mexico -- Thousands of troops rolled into a Mexican drug stronghold Tuesday to set fire to marijuana and opium fields and round up traffickers. The forces were sent by President Felipe Calderon to restore order in a region where smugglers have defied authorities with beheadings and large-scale drug production. Navy ships were patrolling the Lazaro Cardenas port, a hub for drugs arriving from Central America and Colombia on their way to the United States. Cornelio Casio, one of several generals overseeing the operation in the western state of Michoacan, said 6,500 soldiers and federal police were deployed. The campaign echoes crackdowns by previous Mexican presidents who repeatedly ordered mass firings of drug-corrupted police, revamped courts, sent troops to battle traffickers and accelerated drug seizures -- without making much of a dent in the quantity of narcotics crossing the U.S.-Mexican border. [continues 77 words]
An Indiana congressman who has led the U.S. House drug policy panel said the country needs to be prepared for a long-term fight against methamphetamine abuse even though the drug's spread seems to have slowed. One frustration Republican Rep. Mark Souder said he has had was that several states, including Indiana, had to pass laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine - a key ingredient used to cook meth - before Congress took action. The federal Combat Meth Act took effect this year. [continues 231 words]
Prisons And Crime - New Data Show That Locking Up More Criminals Doesn't Always Bring Down Crime Rates It seems to be so self-evident, so intuitively correct: The more criminals are locked up, and the longer they are held behind bars, the more crime will decrease. That is the reasoning behind "get tough on crime" laws in many states that are intended to keep offenders off the streets for many years. But there's one problem with this reasoning: It doesn't always pan out in the real world. [continues 376 words]
Number Of Cases In 06 Could Hit 700, Nearly Double Last Year's INDIANAPOLIS -- Authorities say heroin has become increasingly easier to find in Indianapolis and other parts of the state. The Indiana State Police estimate they will investigate nearly 700 heroin cases this year -- twice as many as last year and triple the number of cases in 2004. "I'm seeing a lot, lot more heroin," said Jamie Guilfoy, with the Indianapolis Police Department. Guilfoy and other IPD narcotics investigators have confiscated more than 2 pounds of heroin this year, more than 10 times what they seized in 2005. [continues 212 words]
INDIANAPOLIS -- Heroin has become increasingly easy to find in Indianapolis and other parts of the state, authorities say. The Indiana State Police estimate they will investigate nearly 700 heroin cases this year -- twice as many as last year and triple the number of cases in 2004. "I'm seeing a lot, lot more heroin," said Jamie Guilfoy of the Indianapolis Police Department. Guilfoy and other Indianapolis narcotics investigators have confiscated more than 2 pounds of heroin this year, more than 10 times what they seized last year. [continues 211 words]
INDIANAPOLIS -- Authorities say heroin has become increasingly easy to find in Indianapolis and other parts of the state. The Indiana State Police estimate they will investigate nearly 700 heroin cases this year -- twice as many as last year and triple the number of cases in 2004. "I'm seeing a lot, lot more heroin," said Jamie Guilfoy, with the Indianapolis Police Department. Guilfoy and other IPD narcotics investigators have confiscated more than 2 pounds of heroin this year, more than 10 times what they seized in 2005. [continues 213 words]
NEW YORK -- Shell-shocked conservatives should embrace the unfinished agenda of a 5-foot-tall free-market giant. Milton Friedman -- 1976's Nobel economics laureate, and both an elevated theorist and fathomable popularizer of capitalist ideas -- passed away Nov. 16 at 94. He leaves behind the PBS series "Free to Choose," some 25 books and hundreds of articles, much of this co-produced with Rose, his wife of 68 years. Thousands of think-tank scholars -- inspired by his faith in individual liberty, limited government and private enterprise -- advance his libertarian philosophy. [continues 643 words]
Inside Indiana
