Bloomington native Christin Wurth-Thomas placed third in the 1,500-meter run in the Athletissima track and field meet at Lausanne, Switzerland Tuesday. Her time of 4:05.09 trailed Gelete Burka (4:00.67) and Maryan Yusuf Jamal (4:01.99). Wurth-Thomas returns to action on Friday at Rome.

ISU football coach Brock Spack is attacking recruiting with the same aggressiveness he has shown in guiding his current roster. (Read more…)

The traps … need trappers?: Fans of the movie classic, “Caddy Shack,” no doubt remember hilariously unhinged golf course assistant Carl Spackler (actor Bill Murray) blow up his course trying to rid it of one pesky gopher.

OK, minus any plastic explosives, let us fast-forward now to Bloomington’s Highland Park Golf Course and actual real-life.

Rather than gophers, there’s a fox problem where a local trapper (Chad Schieler) has been called in to appease the growingly unhinged (not Bill Murray) and try to catch the foxes (queue the Kenny Loggins music) that reportedly have been burying the rabbit parts they (Read more…)

Family reunions, exotic vacations, beautiful landscape. Summertime events are too fun to be forgotten and capturing the moment with photos has never been easier.

Digital cameras allow even the most amateur photographer to create wonderful keepsake pictures that allow summer memories be relived over and over. Here are some tips for making your summer pictures turn out even better. (Read more…)

Scott Richardson
July 5, 2009

Dawn Dieckgrafe, 46, doesn’t like to do things halfway. She’s run three marathons of 26.2 miles each after taking up running a decade ago.
But she decided the half-marathon distance of 13.1 miles suits her running style and fitness level just right. She’s set a goal to run half-marathons in half the states in America. So far, she’s completed events in 11.
Recently, her effort took on greater importance. After hearing a close friend of hers, Sara Donahue, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Dieckgrafe decided to run for Team in Training, a program to encourage endurance athletes to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Volunteers can train to run or walk a full or half marathon, triathlon, century bike ride of 100 miles or do a hiking adventure.
A Team In Training information session will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Bloomington Library Community Room. Learn more at http://www.teamintraining.org. More than 823,000 Americans are battling the blood cancers.
Dieckgrafe hopes to raise $4,000 before taking part in the Nike San Francisco half-marathon on behalf of the society on Oct. 18.
The story took an odd turn after she joined Team in Training. Dieckgrafe learned her paternal grandfather died of leukemia when she was just 1.
“I’d always thought he died of diabetes,” said Dieckgrafe, of Bloomington, who works at State Farm. “That was kind of weird.”
Dieckgrafe once enjoyed team sports like volleyball. But she turned to running for exercise when time constraints made getting to games tough. She got involved in the Lake Run Club when she moved to the Twin Cities in 2000.
Dieckgrafe describes herself as a “back of the packer.” So, if she can’t run faster than others, she decided to run farther. She completed the Chicago Marathon twice. Her third came during the Goofy Challenge at Disney World in Orlando, where runners complete a half-marathon one day and a full marathon the next.
Some of her friends have committed to the 50-State Club. They pledge to complete one marathon in all 50 states. But that goal seemed a little extreme to her. Doing half-marathons in half the states seemed more doable, she said.
“I’ll never win any awards for short races, but just being able to finish a half-marathon is something most people can’t do. There’s such a sense of accomplishment,” she said.
She’s run half-marathons in Phoenix; San Antonio; Orlando; Nashville; Louisville; Indianapolis; St. Louis; Green Bay, Wis.; Minneapolis; and Fargo, N.D.; as well as events in Illinois, including Mahomet, and this year’s first-ever event at the University of Illinois.
Where exactly the other half-marathons will be done in her quest depends on where her friends decide they want to race. She tentatively plans to do a half-marathon in Dayton, Ohio, another in Indianapolis and the Nike event in San Francisco yet this year.
“I decided to do this fund-raising one. Otherwise, I don’t think I would have chosen one with such big hills. I like flat stuff,” she said.
Donate online and track her progress at http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/nikesf09/ddieckgraf. Contributions are tax deductible. Confirmation of the gift is made by e-mail.
Scott Richardson is Pantagraph outdoor editor. Contact him at (309) 820-3227 or email srichardson@pantagraph.com. Share stories and read past outdoor and fishing columns at www.pantagraph.com/blogs

Scott Richardson
July 2, 2009

Fishermen have been troubled by high, dirty water by rain that seems constant this year.
The McLean County Bass Club met that challenge late last month to win the Illinois Bass Federation Region 2 Six-Man Team Tournament on the rain-swollen Mississippi River at Pool 19 at Fort Madison, Iowa.
“The fishing was terrible. More rain came in last week (the week before the event) and while we were there and everything was muddy,” said Jeff Henson, a member of the team.
Still, the club of Henson, Bryan Thrasher, Jason Waldschmidt, Art Griggs, Chase Myers and Steve Tatum weighed in 30.02 pounds of bass.
“The key was finding the cleanest water you could find,” Henson said.
Here are some tips:
*In rivers, Henson said, take time to search for backwater areas with no feeder creeks emptying in. Some team members made a 90-mile round trip to lock through to Pool 18 to find cleaner water. Bass were on lay-down trees and stumps;
* Also in rivers and reservoirs, check incoming tributaries and smaller creeks that drain from harder-bottomed areas with cleaner runoff;
* Factory discharges can dump cleaner water into a river;
* Water generally cleans clears to dams first;
* Whether river or reservoir, as a general axiom fish move shallower as water rises and move back to dropoffs as the water drops.
Tournament notes
Terry Brown and Mike Blake won the Thursday Night event at Lake Bloomington a week ago with three bass weighing 7.68 pounds. Greg Bayles and Chris Marquart were second. The team of Scott Bree and Dave Whalen were third and had big bass of 3.68 pounds.
Brown and Blake hit the mother lode of bass on Saturday when they won the Strike King EverBloom Tournament on Evergreen Lake with a five-bass limit that weighed 19.06 pounds. Their big fish was 6.13 pounds. Brown said the team caught 14 keeper fish during the day and had their limit by 7:30 a.m. Jamie Maisenbacher and Brad Norris were second. Bayles and Dave Norris were third.
Fish kill
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources estimates more than 72,000 catfish, smallmouth bass, walleye and other fish like carp and buffalo with commercial value totaling $272,000 were killed on the Rock River stretching from two miles north of Grand Detour and ending nearly 50 miles down stream near Prophetstown.
Officials say the kill started on Father’s Day weekend.
IDNR has already re-stocked more than 50,000 young smallmouth bass. More are planned. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Attorney General’s office are investigating.
Scott Richardson is Pantagraph outdoor editor. Contact him at (309) 820-3227 or email srichardson@pantagraph.com. Share stories and read past outdoor and fishing columns at www.pantagraph.com/blogs

Chicago has the Magnificent Mile, Navy Pier, the Cubs and Sox. Peoria has a riverfront. Springfield has Abe, its 200-year-old tour host.

Bloomington-Normal?

Perhaps the greatest joy of summer — next to TV reruns and poison ivy — is trying to figure out where to take your house guests who ask to see our “sites.”

There are the obvious stops — the zoo, the David Davis Mansion, the history museum, the aviation museum, the children’s museum. And then there’s …

 Those wind turbines

They aren’t quite Dutch windmills or something for Don (Read more…)

The state’s new fiscal year began Wednesday with no budget in place.

Social service providers are laying off workers because they don’t know if the state will pay them to provide services to the neediest of Illinois’ residents.

Gov. Pat Quinn could call the General Assembly back to the Capitol to force lawmakers to come up with a satisfactory spending plan.

He sounded like things were urgent on Wednesday.

“We cannot dillydally,” Quinn told reporters.

But he’s not calling them back.

Rather, Quinn is deferring to the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate, who don’t plan to call the legislature back to town until July 14, a day before the first round of paychecks is due to be paid to thousands of state workers.

It was a puzzling decision that drew catcalls from Republicans.

“The governor needs to act decisively, stop being afraid of the House speaker and the Senate president and bring [lawmakers] back to the Capitol to finish their work,” said Republican state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, who is gearing up for a gubernatorial run.

The clock is ticking.

Keeping lists

Among House Speaker Michael Madigan’s biggest beefs is that Quinn keeps changing his position on issues.

During a press conference Wednesday, Madigan listed four examples of how Quinn hasn’t been consistent, including the governor’s decision to praise a pension borrowing scheme in a Tuesday speech and then hours later calling on senators to vote against it.

“It’s not good to do flip-flops,” Madigan said. “They are not helpful to his credibility.”

Later in the same press conference, Madigan was reminded about John Filan, a much despised Blagojevich budget chief who was removed from his state job by Quinn at Madigan’s request, but then was given a consulting contract by the Quinn administration.

“Thanks for giving me a fifth item for the flip-flops,” Madigan said.

Garden of eatin’

Given the success of First Lady Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden at the White House, there is a move afoot to have similar gardens installed at state capitol buildings across the nation.

The trouble with this concept in Illinois, is that no one in charge would be able to decide what to plant.

Republicans would want a no-growth garden.

Democrats would only want to raise taxes.

Secretary of State Jesse White oversees that Capitol grounds. His spokesman, Henry Haupt, was aware of the concept but said there are other issues facing the state that supersede the garden issue. Like, the lack of a state budget.

“It’s not on our list of things to do,” Haupt said.

Senate race

A former top adviser to Gov. Rod Blagojevich is poised to run for the same U.S. Senate seat that landed Blagojevich in hot water with the feds.

Chicago Urban League chief Cheryle Jackson last week formed an exploratory committee for the race.

The former chief spokeswoman for Blagojevich is seeking to become the second black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. Carol Moseley Braun held the same Senate seat from 1993 to 1999.

The current seat warmer is Roland Burris, but he has not made it clear whether he will seek a full term in 2010 after his controversial appointment by the now-indicted Blagojevich.

Others Democrats to watch for in the race include Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias and Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy, a son of the late New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan also is toying with a run and recently trekked to Washington D.C. to talk about the post with the former holder of the seat, President Barack Obama.

Prior to working for Blagojevich, Jackson was a spokeswoman at Amtrak.

In other words, she’s very familiar with train wrecks.

Winning by losing

The way things work in Illinois politics, a run by Jackson could be good for her pocketbook, even if she loses.

Just look at Democrat Colleen Callahan, who ran, and lost, in the race to replace Ray LaHood in the 18th Congressional District.

Last week, Callahan landed a $125,000-per-year job as Illinois state director for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She joins another central Illinois congressional wannabe in the Obama administration. Mike Kelleher, who ran, and lost, his bid for Congress in the 15th district, works in the White House office of correspondence.

Kurt Erickson can be reached at kurt.erickson@lee.net or 217-789-0865

Last week my boys ran inside and said, “Mom, it’s so hot outside! Can we see if it’s hot enough to cook an egg on the sidewalk?” The practical side of me started to say no, but I caught myself. Why can’t they try it? Why can’t I say yes? Is it “wasting” an egg, or simply using it for a different, but just as valuable, purpose?

I finally said, “Sure. If you want to try it, go ahead! Just make sure you wash off the sidewalk when you’re done.” They got an egg from the refrigerator and ran out of the house to try their science experiment. (Read more…)

My childhood friend Muriel Ann Glitzengelder loves the Fourth of July.

She gets excited seeing those big fireworks exploding overhead into colorful starbursts, pinwheels and smiley faces. She’s as excited as a kid before Christmas waiting to see what new amazing spectacle the pyrotechnicians have come up with this year.

While Muriel Ann is a fireworks nut, her husband is at the other end of the enthusiasm spectrum. He’d rather stay home than fight the traffic, sit on the hard ground and get a stiff neck from looking upward to see flashes of detonated chemicals. For him, fireworks are window-rattling, dog-scaring, sleep-preventing noise pollution. And year after year, he gets coerced sitting through “the same old thing.”

Determined to transfuse her enthusiasm into her mate, Muriel Ann “oo’s” and ah’s” over every colorful burst and points out how wonderful it is to listen to patriotic music synchronized with the explosions.

“Isn’t it moving?” she asks.

He says, “It’s swell… if you like tubas…”

Yep. The world is so complex at times and yet on other days, it appears to be so simple. The planet is divided into two: those who love fireworks and those who don’t. And they’re usually married.

Over at the house of another married couple, Lucy and Matt, the same conversation is taking place. Only this time, Lucy is the one who dreads hanging out with the gang all afternoon and evening, waiting for that first puff of smoke as the pyrotechs ignite the fireworks’ fuses.

“By the time it gets dark, I’m ready to go home,” she says.

What? You don’t love sitting under the stars on a warm summer night waiting for the sky to ex-plode?

“The only thing that is ready to explode,” she says, “is my temper. It will ignite into a colorful display, but it won’t be suitable for children.”

Most people agree that hearing the sound of crack, boom and pop is OK between 9 and 10 p.m., but when kids set off firecrackers underneath your bedroom window at 2 a.m., it’s permissible to grumble. It’s even acceptable to open your window and tell the kids to scram. Unless it’s your neighbors’ kids. Then you can do what Muriel Ann’s husband does: you stay silent, knash your teeth and mow the lawn at 5 o’clock the next morning.

Personally, I think you gotta have fireworks on the Fourth of July, just like you have to eat corn on the cob. How can you celebrate the nation’s birthday without eating sweet corn?

Not enjoying fireworks on the Fourth of July because of the noise is like not eating sweet corn because kernels get stuck in your teeth. Some things in life are worth the price. One of the great pleasures of the universe is eating buttered sweet corn at a Fourth of July picnic.

At least here’s an area where Muriel Ann and her husband agree. They both savor the summer treat mixed with butter and salt.

“Have you ever read anything by Garrison Keillor?” Muriel Ann asked me. “He wrote, ‘Sex is good, but not as good as fresh sweet corn.’”

Muriel Ann and I chuckled over the phrase.

Then her husband said, “Well, let’s not get carried away.”

After all, married couples may disagree on the appeal of fireworks, but that doesn’t mean the spark is gone.

Today we celebrate Independence Day. If weather permits, we will spend much of the day outside swimming, participating in sports, enjoying picnics or perhaps attending an outdoor concert.

Such activities often bring us in contact with mosquitoes — those pesky, droning insects whose bites produce itching, swollen welts or, more seriously, transmit the West Nile virus. Only female mosquitoes bite; males feed on flower nectar. (Read more…)

At Christmas, there’s the sound of carols, and ringing bells, and Santa Claus toiling at the shopping mall.

At New Year’s, there’s the sound of noisemakers, and champagne pops, and Dick Clark at 11:59.

Then there’s July the Fourth.

It is, without question, our most famous holiday devoted to sound and the human eardrum.

“KA-POOOOW!”

“KA-BAM!”

“KUH-BOOOOM!” (Isn’t that also how Billy Mays sounded?)

Those sounds are, of course, immediately followed by Mormon Tabernacle-sized (Read more…)

Nearly two years ago, Barry Bonds shrugged off a firestorm of steroid speculation and added the career home run record to the single-season mark he already owned, thus putting his name ahead of the legendary ones of Aaron, Ruth and Maris. Back then, some guy who resembles the one I see frequently in the mirror wrote about a brighter future when the name “Rodriguez” would supplant that big-headed Giant’s. (Read more…)

Doesn’t it seem like the glass in the new balconies at Sears Tower should be more than 1.5 inches thick? I guess it depends how long and wide the panes of glass are, but, wow, that is pretty scary. I think I’d want six inches of glass at least to feel secure on a transparent balcony that high off the ground.

Still, sounds like a pretty cool view. I haven’t been to the Sears Tower in years. I might have to make a trip of it.

COLUMN DIARY, a check of big headlines, small wonders and other worldly events:

June 2009

1. Conan O’Brien begins going to work an hour earlier.

2. Last survivor of “unsinkable” Titanic rejoins her ex-ship mates. She was 97.

3. Day after last survivor of “unsinkable” Titanic passes, Air France Flight 447 suddenly vanishes in Atlantic Ocean, too.

4. Uh-oh(prah). Angelina Jolie dethrones Winfrey as world’s most powerful celebrity, Forbes magazine says.

5. NBA finals become Disney World vs. Disneyland as (Read more…)