Happy Halloween, Everyone

Uniondale Homicide

Three teens and a 22 year old from Adams County apparently drove over to Wells County to meet with Justin Sprow, 19, and ended up killing him.  One life ended and so many ruined.  It's been a difficult couple of years for Northern Wells County.  A soft, quiet prayer, a swift, soft peace for these families and the many others affected yesterday, today, and over the previous years.

God Rest Her Soul

Update: Tyler White found guilty of killing Amy Meyer White on 10-3-2011

It's hard to think of an event more sad than the death of Amy Meyer White, killed by her estranged husband out on county road 100 South outside of Bluffton. Accidents are one thing, but murder... double murder since she was pregnant.... is another.

Tyler White played varsity basketball for Bluffton on the 1999-2000 team. Amy (Meyer) White played for South Adams, scoring over 1,000 points in her career and going on to play in college and coach, God rest her soul.

Update: Pulled from the comments...

USF players honor slain assistant coach

In honor of her life and dedication to sports, the USF Cougars gave Meyer's old uniform and five shooting shirts to the Meyer family. It was followed by a moment of silence.

"Amy was such a great person. She always had this kind of an infectious smile and laugh. And she always had a positive attitude and always worked hard. You know, we just wanted to tell her family how much we thought of Amy and let them know, you know, we're still thinking of them," said head coach Gary Andrews.

Meyer's grandfather Jack Meyer couldn't contain his emotions as he received the shirts on behalf of his family.

"It's hard to put it into words. But when she went to school here, it was sort of like a family," said Meyer. "It's just great to see them do this."

The Meyer family has established a Scholarship in Meyer's memory. The Amy Meyer Memorial Scholarship Fund will be given to a graduating female athlete from South Adams High School.

Nice.

The Media Death Spiral

Megan McArdle believes the newspaper business in America is dying. I think the truth is that the Newspaper business in America is giving away too many free copies over the Internet.  Oh, I'm sure the days of the great National Newspapers -- like the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune, are over -- you can't make too much money printing news everyone already knows and opinions nobody wants to read, after all.  But the newspaper business isn't over, they just have to print news people don't already know and sell it instead of giving it away.  I think I've said before that the Bluffton News-Banner seems to be a nice model for how papers can survive. The Banner covers local news, schools and sports in-depth, utilizes modern technology like Twitter and Facebook and Blogs to not only find news, but gather customers and interest, and (most importantly) they don't give away their product for free on the Internet.  The Banner has a nice mix of free stories of public interest and teasers where you have to subscribe to read the whole story.  It may be that newsprint will die one day in favor of online newspapers... but as long as well-written local news exists  (and isn't free), local people will buy it.

Norwell falls to Harding in the Sectional

Norwell 21, Harding 28.  Norwell ends the season 8-2:  a terrific year.

Congress takes on College Football

The picture above was snapped on the floor of the Senate recently as the Senators went about the business of reshaping America.

"Wars, what wars? Economy? We don't see anything wrong with the economy. Jobs? What do you mean, we all have jobs. Utah isn't National Champion? Crisis, Crisis! Yes, yes, of course we'll cut doctors' payments and CEO compensation ... where's my calendar... yes, we'll save you a bunch o' money in 2020, you'll see. Just trust us, we can see far, far ahead."

Life Magazine

Google has scanned in every page of every issue of Life Magazine, from 1936 through 1972 when it ended its run.  What a great resource of what Life was like in America then... even the ad pages are fun to remember.

50 Years of Space Missions

From the National Geographic.  Make sure you click on the picture to see it full size.

Norwell 48, Columbia City 21

Norwell brings home a share of the conference title and Fiechter brings home a record six touchdowns in one game.

Fiechter set a school-record with six touchdowns in a 48-21 victory over the Columbia City Eagles to wrap up the regular season. Fiechter scored on runs of 2, 35, 5, 13, 40 and 36 yards on the way to breaking the previous school record for single-game touchdowns (four). "I owe it all to the linemen," said Fiechter afterwards. "They opened up some big holes, and the wide receivers and fullbacks did a nice job of blocking tonight, making my job easier."

Nice.  Good luck in the Sectionals, guys!

Crossing Over

Four itinerant explorers have accomplished a feat never before attempted... they have crossed every bridge over the Wabash River.  Sevens members might recognize the official photographer, "Ansel A."

Bohemian Rhapsody with Mnozil Brass

How will Senator Bayh vote?

Senator Bayh meets with President Obama