Julio Alonso's transition from the head of a major city department to director at the Hoosier Hills Food Bank ( HHFB ) was predictably smooth. Hunger-relief work, it would seem, is in his bones.

Before spending two years running the Bloomington Department of Public Works, Alonso served three-and-a-half years as executive director at the Community Kitchen of Monroe County.

"I did some very important work and got the opportunity to work with some great people at City Hall," he said. "But there was something missing. I missed the gratification that doing work like this gives me."

Indiana's branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is tackling Indiana's drug legislation on two fronts — medical marijuana and industrial hemp.

Beth Soloe, head of Indiana NORML, presented her medical marijuana bill to State Sen. Vi Simpson (D — Ellettsville) on May 12 at her Indianapolis office. Soloe's bill, which is designed after California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996, would protect medical marijuana users, their physicians and licensed medical marijuana growers and distributors from prosecution.

Accompanying her was local Bloomington gynecologist Dr. Clark Brittain. Brittain, who has practiced medicine for over 25 years, is an expert on medical marijuana and called it "one of the safest pharmaceuticals we could hope to have."

Viviane Saleh-Hanna, outgoing president of the IU African Students Association, was enjoying a cup of coffee at Soma and working on her dissertation on May 2nd when she received an e-mail notifying her that the African American Cultural Center Library was going to be closed.

"I was outraged," she said. "I knew that something had to be done."

That evening, Saleh-Hanna, along with other organization leaders and dozens of concerned students, staged a sit-in at the library, which is housed in the Neal Marshall Black Culture Center (NMBCC).