The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 1

Fascination, enthusiasm keep Sentrai Illinois Radio Society flying high GO! Eastview's senior pastor hands the reins over to successor Life i I www.pantagraph.com Cf I Bloomington-Normal SUNDAY rt rtfi ELECTION 2008 june 3, 2007 jfu rrrrr Eagle watch IbllllfillllllslIlllS (G(lM(lf Day 41: Beauty and Mathata, the bald '''flV'' eagles at Miller Park Zoo, continue to AH -tfjr-; sit on their nest with one egg. Check 11 1 out photos, video and previous stories I P. iJL atwww.pantaqraph.comeaqlewatch. 101011011 (Ct f4! HllCr I fU Hi flfl fl fl )S A webcam with up-to-the-minute V( 1 ZLjj v( I I III I views of what's happening is at I jL pl I i 1 1 14 1 ft I flZ 1 1 II II I I www.pantaqraph.comeaqlewatch VI VCJ UUUU wUVmUU I Uf eaqlecam.php. i.7 rv Million-dollar debt a heavy payload as Heartland considers taking command 1 1 1 1 1 1 VI Associated PressDAVID LIENEMANN Democrat John Edwards has persistently focused on the plight of the poor and working class in his presidential bid.

Airport terror plot Federal authorities announced Saturday they have broken up a suspected plot to destroy New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. NationWorld, A3 mm Ri, lP rs 1 Powwow's return Visitors and participants welcomed the return of the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park powwow near LeRoy. Local, B1 politics, poverty Edwards, others try to get plight of poor on voters' agenda Six straight? The Extreme take on the Evansville BlueCats and try to add to a franchise-record, five-game win streak. Sports, D1 Ecofriendly construction A growing number of Twin City buildings are adopting "green" standards.

Money, Fl PantaqraphSTEVE SMEDLEY Above: Challenger Learning Center lead flight director Janet Moore gives directions to sixth-graders from Peoria during a school field trip last month. Below: Cathy Bissoondial, Prairie Aviation Museum board president, is seen In the center's space station simultator. BLOOMINGTON Late last month, students from Peoria's L'indbergh Middle School took their turn on one of the more popular Twin City field trips: joining about 20,000 visitors who have taken part in simulated missions at the Challenger Learning Center at Prairie Aviation Museum. On this visit, sixth-graders sat on stools poised in front of computers, video monitors and other "space station" equipment. All eyes were on Janet Moore, the center's lead flight director.

"Listen: Mission control is sending us a message," said Moore, dressed in a NASA-like blue jumpsuit and pointing to sixth-grader Josh Carter of Peoria, who waved from the communication panel station. Red warning lights flashed. Emergency alarms sounded. Time was running out. Using math and science skills, students problem-solved their way to safety.

Warning bells stopped, lights returned to normal, and the kids cheered. The crew's fate here depended on creative problem-solving under stress a handy lesson for the Challenger center itself as it faces its own battle. Here, no red warning lights flash, no emergency alarms sound. But for the educational center that arrived to great fanfare four years ago, time is running out. The center is looking for a new owner and a solution to its million-dollar debt.

Will Heartland Community College in Normal be part of the answer? Realizing Challenger's load This spring, the Prairie Aviation Museum, owner of the center, announced it no longer could afford to keep the center. SEE MISSION BACK PAGE READ MORE. A list of Challenger center programs Back page A weird year for NASA may get back on track Page A7 Weather 4 -j. Large debt uncommon for centers By Michele Steinbacher 4 V' By Mike Doming CHICAGO TRIBUNE WASHINGTON, D.C. This presidential campaign may offer a test of whether poverty can make a comeback as a political issue.

For more than two years, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina has persistently focused on the plight of the poor and working class, joining strikers on picket lines, campaigning for an increase in the minimum wage and, before he officially launched his presidential campaign, working part time at a poverty center he founded. As a candidate, Edwards unabashedly speaks of poverty as "the great moral issue of our time." He has committed to a plan that he says will eliminate poverty in 30 years. The nation's response to its 37 million poor, he decreed in a speech to the National Press Club last year, "says everything about the character of America." The top-tier Democratic presidential contenders will be asked to squarely address the issue of poverty on Monday evening. Edwards and Sens.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Barack Obama, will appear at a forum on moral values and poverty broadcast on CNN and sponsored by Sojourn-ersCall to Renewal, a liberal religious group that concentrates on social justice issues. The Republican presidential candidates have their own plans for energizing the economy But Republicans and conservatives Challenger center, by the numbers Today's weather symbol was drawn by Carly Ringer, Oakdale Elementary School, Normal. High: 78 1 Low: 59 Complete weather: Back paqe 24-7 updates: Pantaqraph.com $400,009 $260,000 Annual revenues About 70 percent comes from fees for mission programs, ft Other 30 percent comes mostly from donations, grants and souvenir sales. PMAGRAPilC Annual expenditures ft CLC lease is about $3,200 per month through 2010. ft Bulk of costs is lease and payment of loan, of which $900,000 remains.

Did you know that the Pantagraph publishes a monthly magazine demoted to the finer things in life and that it's available online at www.tcstyle.com? SOURCES: Numbers are estimates from December 2006 Prairie Aviation Museum newsletter, Pantagraph archives and interview with board members BLOOMINGTON On Jan. 28, 1986, millions of people watched on TV as the Challenger Space Shuttle blasted off on a mission hailed for sending schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into orbit. Tragically, seconds later, the world watched, the Challenger explode and fall back to earth, killing all seven crew members. Soon after, the crew's families started an organization to promote the ideals of that mission. Twenty years later, the Challenger Center for Space Science Education boasts more than 50 centers spread across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

In late 2003, a Challenger Learning Center opened at Bloomington's Prairie Aviation Museum. Each is an independent nonprofit affiliated with the national group. Some are freestanding centers, while others are part of a museum or college. Each uses teachers and simulated software programs to introduce communities to space exploration with math and science. The Twin City center, now owned by the Prairie Aviation Museum, may become part of Heartland Community College if that school's board OKs a proposal now being considered.

1 Other CLC directors think a center associated with a college could encourage the learning mission of SEE CENTERS BACK PAGE Taking flight across the country Find SEE. POVERTY PAGE A4 Abby G6 Movies Books G5 Obituaries G4 H1 Scoreboard D6 Crossword G5 Sudoku H6 Horoscope G5 Viewpoint C1 The Challenger Learning Center network consists of more than 50 CLCs across the United States, Canada and United Kingdom. ft First site-was built in a Houston museum in 1988. All but two are in the United States, ft Most sites see about 10,000 visitors a year, although some, like one in Peoria, had as many as 40,000 in 2005. ft There are two CLCs in Illinois, one in Bloomington and one in Woodstock, ft Bloomington's CLC saw about 10,000 visitors in 2005, and 20,000 since its 2003 opening.

Challenger center in U.S. Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton, left, and Barack Obama have yet to directly concentrate many speeches on poverty. Monday Long-term care help More nurses-are needed in long-term care settings, and two Bloomington-Normal based institutions Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University and Heritage Enterprises -are trying to do something about it. In Life. Pantagraph graphic SOURCE: Challenger Center for Space Science Education's "Annual Report 2005" Studies: Ginseng, flaxseed may aid cancer fight LEE ENTERPRISES $1.75 "Our findings are compelling, but they're preliminary." Wendy Demark-Wahnefried Leader of study on flaxseed's ifnpact on prostate cancer Administration, even though no good studies confirm the benefits they tout.

"One of the most common tilings patients ask me is about these things they have snookered away in their purses" and medicine chests, said Dr. Bruce Cheson, a cancer specialist at Georgetown University Hospital. "They'll come in with big bags of this stuff." SEE CANCER PAGE A4 people should not take it. The research was reported Saturday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference. The ginseng and flaxseed studies are small and preliminary, and specialists warned against making too much of them because the substances tested are not the same as what consumers find on store shelves.

By Marllynn Marchlone ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO The first scientific tests of some popular alternative medicine products hint that American ginseng might lessen cancer fatigue and that flaxseed might slow, the growth of prostate tumors. But a big study proved shark cartilage worthless against lung cancer, and doctors said III 1:1 6 2 Copyright Pantagraph 2007 Bloomington, III. 9 sections, 58 pages or side effects. Americans spend millions on these products, which are not approved by the federal Food and Drug But the results suggest that some herbal remedies eventually may find niches for treating specific cancers, symptoms.