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HOT JOBS IN EVANSVILLE
Aces Continue Momentum at MVC Championship
The University of Evansville women’s swimming and diving team continues momentum during day three of the 2020 Missouri Valley Conference Championship.
UE sits sixth in the team standings with 166 points, 38 points ahead of Arkansas Little Rock.
Sonsoles Aguayo led the way with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, posting a 1:51.30 race time. Andrea Ramis also finished in 17th place at 1:54.88 in the event.
The Aces took sixth place in the 400-yard medley relay, teamed by Kasey O’Rourke, Sage Moore, Maya Cunningham and Sonsoles Aguayo, posting a 3:52.80 time.
Earning b-final results, Maya Cunningham finished the 400-yard IM in 4:31.99, while Ashton Adams took 12th in 4:32.87. Nicolette Wickes took 18th in the event with a 4:43.57 race.
In the 100-yard butterfly, Kara Steward (57.96), Emily Vasquez (58.99) and Allison McDonald (59.57) finished 19th through 21strespectively.
Marking finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke, Sage Moore (1:05.11), Alaina Sylvester (1:05.03) and Allison McDonald (1:08.02).
In the 100-yard backstroke, Kasey O’Rourke took 17th place in 56.94, followed by Kristy Kupfer took 22nd at 58.93.
The final day of the MVC Championship will begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow with prelims, followed by finals at 5 p.m.
Softball scores season-high 14 runs to open weekend
Aces belt two home runs in the win
Facing one of the top pitching staffs in the nation, the University of Evansville softball team put on a clinic, erupting for a season-high 14 runs to pick up a 14-8 victory over Georgia Southern on Friday evening at Eagle Field in the Eagle Round Robin.
Entering the weekend, the Eagles (8-3) ERA stood at 0.73, one of the lowest in the NCAA. Evansville (5-5) did not let that statistic deter its efforts, scoring seven runs in the first three innings. Freshmen Jenna Lis and Kat Mueller combined for nine RBI, four hits and four runs. Lis was 2-4 with five RBI, including her first home run, which was a grand slam. Mueller had a 2-3 game with four runs batted in. Each scored twice. Jessica Fehr added three hits in five at-bats. She registered her first homer of the season and four RBI on the night. Alyssa Barela and Hannah Hood added two hits each.
“I am extremely proud of the way the ladies hit the ball up and down the lineup. We had a good game plan going into the game and the ladies really executed it,†Purple Aces head softball coach Mat Mundell said. “We have been hitting the ball hard all year; we told them to trust the process and the hits would fall. Tonight they did.â€
Georgia Southern got on the board first with a pair of runs in the first, but UE did not waste any time fighting back. Katie McLean hit a leadoff double to open the top of the second before Lindsay Renneisen reached on a walk. Both crossed the plate when Kat Mueller belted a 2-out double. Jessica Fehr followed up with a single that scored Mueller for the third run of the inning.
The Eagles retook the lead in the bottom of the second with three more runs, but Evansville struck again in the third with four runs on a Jenna Lis grand slam. Haley Woolf and Renneisen both reached base on GSU errors while Hannah Hood was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Lis, who delivered the hit that would put the Aces in front for good.
In the fourth, Fehr hit a leadoff home run before Woolf added an RBI double to extend the advantage to 9-5. The 10th run of the night crossed the plate in the fifth thanks to a Mueller sacrifice fly. Georgia Southern inched closer with two runs in the sixth before UE slammed the door in the seventh, adding four insurance runs to finish with the 14-8 victory. Lis and Mueller had RBI singles in the frame while Fehr brought home two runs with a single to center.
Pitching five innings of relief, UE sophomore Izzy Vetter picked up the win, her second of the season. Emily Lockhart tossed the first inning before Vetter threw five strong frames. She allowed four runs, just two earned, on four hits. She struck out three batters. Erin Kleffman threw a scoreless seventh.
Two games are on the docket for Saturday, beginning with a 9 a.m. CT game against Furman. The Aces finish the day with a 2 p.m. contest versus Maryland.
Leonhardt tosses CG shutout, but Eagles fall in nightcap
University of Southern Indiana senior pitcher Jennifer Leonhardt tossed her 35th complete-game shutout as the Screaming Eagles opened the Midwest Region Crossover with a 2-0 win over Northwood University at Grand Park Friday morning. USI, however, suffered an 8-7 walk-off loss to Ferris State University in the nightcap.
Game 1
Leonhardt (2-2) racked up eight strikeouts and held the Timberwolves (2-1) to just four hits as the Eagles earned the 2-0 win in the opener. Senior shortstop Taylor Ricketts had a two-out, RBI-double in the home half of the fourth inning to break a scoreless tie, while an RBI-single by freshman second baseman Rachel Martinez in the fifth frame put the Eagles up 2-0.
The Eagles (4-3) were held without a hit throughout the first three innings of the game, but a single by freshman pitcher/first baseman Allie Goodin to lead off the fourth got things going for USI’s offense.
Game 2
USI was a victim of not having the last at-bat in a nightcap that featured five lead changes. Ferris State (2-4) struck first, gaining a 1-0 lead with a tally in the bottom of the first inning, but USI capitalized on Ferris State errors in both the second and third innings to surge in front, 3-1.
The lead turned out to be brief as Ferris State scored twice in the last half of the third to tie the game before scorching USI for three runs in the fourth inning to take a commanding 6-3 advantage.
USI, however, wasted little time in responding to the Bulldogs’ surge as the Eagles scored four two-out runs in the top of the fifth inning to retake the lead, 7-6. Ricketts, who drove in a run in the second and third innings, had her third RBI of the game when she drove in the Eagles’ first run of the fifth on a sacrifice fly. Sophomore pitcher/infielder Katie Back had an RBI-double in the next at-bat to get the Eagles to within a run, while freshman catcher/infielder Sammie Kihega followed two batters later with a pinch-hit, two-run single to put the Eagles in front 7-6.
Once again, the Eagles, lead was short-lived as Ferris State capitalized on a lead-off double and a two-out, USI error to push across its seventh run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning.
After a scoreless sixth inning, Ferris State got a one-out, walk-off home run off the bat of sophomore first baseman Kaitlyn Orme to hand the Eagles their third loss of the year.
Back (0-1) was charged with the loss after giving up five runs, four earned off five hits in 3 1/3 innings of work. Goodin started the game, giving up three runs, two earned, off four hits in three innings of action. Both finished with three strikeouts.
Notes
Sophomore catcher Courtney Schoolcraft went 1-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI-double, while Leonhardt had a seven-game hitting streak come to an end with an 0-for-4 performance at the plate against Ferris State…Friday’s games were back an hour due to frigid temperatures in the Indianapolis area.
Up next
The Eagles return to action Saturday when they take on Ohio Dominican University and West Virginia State University at noon and 2 p.m. (CST), respectively.
Commentary: Losing Local News May Cost More Than A Subscription
By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS— The tweet to The Indianapolis Star from someone with the handle “VelociraptorOfLove†was full of outrage.
“This VITAL PUBLIC INFO is behind a pay wall shame on u @indystar,†it read.
The story? It was about changes to IndyGo bus routes, the kind of news you will not get from The New York Times. The kind of news that takes a local reporter hours to do interviews, cover meetings and write, a photojournalist to help it come to life with pictures and editors to copy edit and publish. It takes, in short, newspaper employees who are not volunteers.
Yet across the nation, local journalism is in trouble. People want news about their community — but have gotten used to getting it for free online. Print subscriptions are drying up and the advertising dollars that once kept those subscriptions low have not been replicated in digital formats. Newspapers that in the 1990s saw their websites as novelties to supplement the print edition now regret having given away their work product. People who got their news online for free for decades balk at paying for it. And people who still subscribe grumble about cancelling because the paper has shrunk — a direct result of the routine and massive layoffs that have affected newspapers across the nation. Fewer dollars equals fewer reporters equals less news coverage.
It’s a downward spiral that so far shows little sign of rebounding.
Steve Key, executive director of the Hoosier State Press Association, said that when he first joined that group in 1992, it had 190 member newspapers. Today, as papers have shuttered, there are 150, of which 60 are daily newspapers, down from 70. Two counties have no local newspaper at all: Crawford and Scott.
Does it matter? Of course. In fact, a 2018 study done by three economists from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Illinois found that when newspapers close, government borrowing costs go up. No watchdog, they found, led to concerns that the investment was riskier, leading to higher interest rates. Other research has found lower participation in elections when news coverage evaporates, along with increased government corruption.
“I’m optimistic journalism will continue to be still a needed and wanted commodity,†Key said. “The danger is: What happens to our democracy?â€
It isn’t just closures. It’s the slashing of staffs.
The Herald-Tribune in Batesville has been named Indiana’s best non-daily paper twice since 2008. But this month, it’s already tiny newsroom staff was cut from three to only two, including managing editor Debbie Blank. The lone sports reporter — the only person who is going to cover local sports in what Blank told me is “a sports crazy town†— was let go.
“Every day is stressful as we two remaining reporters try to make the newspaper great,†she said. They publish twice a week—Tuesday and Friday.
So far, their website has no paywall.
“Local readers respect the work we do, but I’m not sure those getting our news for free now would be willing to pay for it online,†Blank said. “I think residents of small towns will miss newspapers when they’re gone — because where else will they ever bet able to get truthful local news?â€
When I asked Dave Hill, editor of the Greenfield Daily Reporter, if anyone would cover the mayor, council, sheriff, school boards and sports team if that paper folded, his answer was blunt: “No. Nobody would.â€
Indianapolis media may pay attention to big news there. But the daily and weekly events that make up the life of a community? That’s the Daily Reporter’s lane, with print editions five days a week.
They, too, let people read their online stories for free. No wonder that online readership is “fairly robust†while, he said, the paid print circulation drops every month.
Still, Hill said, “we remain bullish on local journalism.†His paper’s owners, AIM Media Indiana, own six papers in small to mid-sized communities in Indiana providing news that their communities cannot get elsewhere.
“Our company is committed to doing the best we can with the resources we have,†he said.
Bravo. Committed owners matter — but committed readers even more so.
Which brings me back to VelociraptorOfLove. After a civil back-and-forth with an Indianapolis Star editor, the person got to read that bus route story after all.
Because they bought a digital subscription.
FOOTNOTE: Mary Beth Schneider is an editor at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.
Senate Democrats Pushing For More Oversight For Virtual Schools
Senate Democrats Pushing For More Oversight For Virtual Schools
Haley Carney
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—Senate Democrats say it’s not too late to enact legislative guardrails that will stop future virtual schools from spending tax dollars without any accountability.
Minority Leader Tim Lanane of Anderson was joined by Sens. Mark Stoops, D-Bloomington, and Eddie Melton, D-Gary, called for lawmakers to enact legislation that would provide more oversight for Indiana’s virtual schools.
The lawmakers were reacting to a state Board of Accounts report that found that two schools—Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy—collected tuition reimbursements for thousands of students who never attended the schools as well as other fees they weren’t entitled to. In all, the schools combined collected about $86 million that the state is trying to recoup.
“We need to have some guardrails. We need to have some accountability,†Lanane said of why lawmakers need to act on bills that Stoops and Melton had proposed in the past.
In addition to the money, the Board of Accounts also found that the directors who were responsible for operating the schools had conflicts of interest because of connections between them and some of the for-profit vendors that provided the educational services.
The schools, which operated under the authorization of Daleville Community Schools, closed in 2019 because of the fraud allegations and the FBI is among the agencies investigating them and those connected with them.
With about three weeks left in the session, Stoops and Melton said they hope to persuade the Republican supermajority in the Senate and House to approve their amendments to existing education bills that would provide for more oversight.
That hope was short-lived. Shortly after the press conference in the Senate Education Career and Development Committee, the Republican majority voted against an amendment to House Bill 1066 proposed by Stoops. That amendment would have would require authorizers to sign a bond so that in the case of fraud the state will be paid back, show they are a valid operator and be clear about what they are trying to achieve. The amendment lost in a 5-8 vote.
Committee Chair Jeff Raatz, R-Centerville, said everyone should be sad about what happened with the virtual schools, but “the Department of Education had the obligation to make sure those students enrolled were in fact there and making sure they were doing curriculum.â€
Stoops and Melton said they would also try to amend their proposals into House Bill 1204, which currently sets mandatory guidelines for a student to be in a virtual charter school and requires them to withdrawal from enrollment if those guidelines are not met. That bill is to be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.
“Democrats have had, in the past, bills which we feel would have prevented this situation from ever occurring,†Lanane said. “We still have that legislation, which is available now and which we are asking to be heard in yet the remainder of this session.â€
Both Melton and Stoops offered up bills during the 2019 and 2020 legislative sessions aimed at providing more oversight to virtual charter schools, but they never received committee hearings.
Melton’s Senate Bill 183 from the 2019 legislative session would have capped the number of students that could enroll in a virtual charter school, which could have prevented a school from inflating enrollment numbers. It also would have changed the reimbursement formula for virtual charter schools to justify funding amounts and added more oversight to ensure state funds be used for valid educational expenses.
Melton said SB 183 from last year would’ve put necessary transparency and accountability provisions in place to protect taxpayer dollars from being funneled to virtual charter schools with no regulations.
“In light of the $86 million that have been misused, I know that we should be offering this again as another option,†he said. “And we can do that yet this session. I hope this misuse will be a lesson learned to the General Assembly that we should address this as soon as possible.â€
Senate Bill 431, authored by Stoops, would have placed restrictions on the entities that authorize charter and virtual schools.
“I’ve authored proposals for the last four years that could have prevented this $86 million loss to taxpayers and students,†he said. “And my bills have been denied hearings each year. It is more important than ever that these accountability measures get put into place.â€
FOOTNOTE: Haley Carney is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
YESTERYEAR: Majestic Theater
Majestic Theater
by Pat Sides
When the old Igleheart Mill moved to First Avenue in 1904, the building it vacated at Fifth and Locust streets was converted into a theater, one of about thirty that operated in Evansville in the early twentieth-century. Named the Majestic, the theater was rebuilt in 1909 and offered vaudeville shows, concerts, and other live entertainment. Â
In August 1931, the Majestic became a “talkie house†when a film starring James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson played there, attracting standing room only crowds. When the blockbuster film “Gone With the Wind†premiered in Evansville in early 1940, the Majestic hosted the event, decorating the theater with pillars to resemble Tara for the special occasion.
As larger and more modern cinemas opened around the city by the mid-century, the Majestic’s business steadily declined, leading to its closure in the fall of 1973. The building was razed a year later to make room for a parking garage.
IU Dupre Wins Gold On Day Three In Iowa City
Dupre Wins Gold on Day Three in Iowa City
 IOWA CITY, Iowa – The No. 23-ranked Indiana University women’s swimming and diving team compiled three more podiums during the third day of competition at the 2020 Big Ten Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on Friday.
With one competition day remaining, the Hoosiers remain in third place with 680 points. No. 19 Ohio State continues to lead the pack with 1,016 points, and No. 5 Michigan is in the second slot with 855 points.
Freshman Cora Dupre brought home the first gold medal of the meet for the Indiana Hoosiers in the 200 Freestyle Championship Final. She touched the wall first with a career-best time of 1:43.61, a Campus Recreation and Wellness Center Pool Record and the third-fastest time in program history. She is the first Hoosier to win the event since Kennedy Goss in 2015.
Senior Maria Paula Heitmann nabbed a fifth-place finish with a time of 1:46.04 in the 200 free. Junior Josie Grote (1:47.15) and freshman Ryley Ober (1:47.68) finished 13th and 16th, respectively, in the 200 free Consolation Final. Finally, junior Laurel Eiber (1:47.58) and senior Cassy Jernberg (1:47.71) finished 19th and 20th, respectively, out of the C Final.
Freshman Emily Weiss finished runner-up in the 100 Breaststroke Championship Final with a career-best time of 58.78, while Peplowski powered through for a lifetime-best time of 58.91 to finish fourth. Both times are NCAA B Cut marks. Weiss and Peplowski become just the third and fourth swimmers in program history to swim sub-59 seconds in the event.
Junior Abby Kirkpatrick finished fifth in the 100 Breaststroke Consolation Final to claim 13th overall in a time of 1:00.54.
The 200 freestyle relay team of freshman Ashely Turak, Dupre, junior Grace Haskett, and Eiber finished third with an NCAA A Cut and school-record time of 1:28.37. Turak led off with a 50-split of 22.40, an NCAA B Cut.
Sophomore Mackenzie Looze led a pack of three Hoosiers in the 400 IM Championship Final with a fourth-place finish. She coasted in with a time of 4:08.79. Junior Bailey Kovac (4:11.16) and sophomore Noelle Peplowski (4:15.17) finished sixth and eighth, respectively. All three swimmers collected NCAA B Cut marks, while Kovac lowered her career-best time for the second-straight session.
Haskett finished eighth in the 100 Backstroke Championship Final with a final time of 53.17.
Senior Shelby Koontz finished third in the 100 Butterfly Consolation Final to claim 11th overall with a time of 53.82, while freshman Carla Gildersleeve finished 23rd overall out of the C Final with a time of 54.62.
Sophomore Alyssa Wang finished eighth in the Consolation Final with a final score of 247.65. She finished 16th overall in the event to mark her first-career points at the Big Ten Championships.
UP NEXT
The 2020 Big Ten Women’s Championships continue on Saturday with the last morning of prelims. The action gets underway at 11:00 a.m. ET with the prelims of the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststrokes, 200 butterflies, platform dive, and 1,650 freestyle.
@IndianaSwimDive
Be sure to keep up with all the latest news on the Indiana men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams on social media – Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
EPA Awards Grants to 18 Student Teams for Innovative Technology Projects
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced approximately $447,000 in funding for 18 teams of undergraduate and graduate students across the country through its People, Prosperity, and the Planet (P3) Student Design Competition Program. Each team will receive a Phase I grant of up to $25,000 to develop their sustainable designs that will help solve important environmental and public health challenges.
“The innovative ideas that these P3 teams are bringing out of the classroom and into the real world will help solve some of our nation’s most pressing environmental challenges,â€Â said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “From creating a simple at-home test for consumers to detect lead in tap water to designing a system to remove toxic chemicals from landfill gas, the fresh thinking behind these projects will result in tangible products that will help Americans for generations to come.â€
These teams will showcase their projects at EPA’s National Student Design Expo on June 29-30 at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. Following the Expo, the P3 teams may compete for Phase II awards of up to $100,000 to further implement their designs.
Grantees include student teams from the following universities:
- Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Penn., to create a paper test to detect lead in tap water.
- Howard University, Washington, D.C., to design and test a pollution control method that will reduce nutrient emissions that cause Cyanobacteria Harmful Algal Blooms.
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., to develop a low-cost portable desalination system using wave and solar renewable energy, that can be modified for personal use or the use in small communities.
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., to use electrical properties of carbon filters to improve the efficient removal of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contaminants from drinking water.
- The University of Alabama, Huntsville, Al., to develop low-cost adsorbents for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) for safe drinking water in homes/offices.
- University of North Carolina, Charlotte, N.C., to develop eco-friendly membrane systems for water purification.
- University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., to design a system for removing toxic chemicals from landfill gas.
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., to develop an environmentally friendly approach to make recyclable paper coatings.
- University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop a sawdust that can selectively remove Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) from drinking water.
- St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, Texas, to advance an efficient solar concentrator to produce electricity.
- Tarleton State University, Stephenville, Texas, to use biochars to remove bacterial toxins in drinking water sources.
- University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, N.M., to develop approaches for sidewalk construction using recycled materials that use less energy and limit heat storage capacity.
- University of Texas, Dallas, Texas, to design low-cost air quality sensors and provide them to local communities.
- University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg, Texas, to develop a low-cost filter to be used as an alternative to expensive commercial water filter systems.
- Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, Mo., to build a portable biofilter that removes freshwater harmful algal bloom toxins and heavy metal ions from water.
- Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colo., to develop a portable system to provide accurate and rapid detection of waterborne bacteria and the genotypes of the bacteria population in water systems.
- University of California, Berkeley, Calif., to develop a method to remove arsenic from contaminated groundwater to help improve water quality in public water systems in rural California.
- University of California, Riverside, Calif., to develop construction material out of wheat straw.