American Profile: Lights, Action...Bicycles!

Steve Dodds was just starting his bicycle repair business in Bloomington, Ind. "I had a truck that I would drive around to do repairs," he recalls.

Daniel Stern was hoping to break into movies. "I had just sold all my furniture trying to pay the rent in New York," the actor says.

Then something came along that put both of them in the spotlight.

The movie Breaking Away, filmed in the hometown of Indiana University and released in 1979, launched the movie careers of Stern and fellow actor Dennis Quaid, who starred alongside Dennis Christopher and Jackie Earle Haley. And dozens of Bloomington residents, including Dodds, found themselves in the film's intersection of real life and Hollywood.

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Almost Time for Little 500

To start what will be a few weeks worth of posts here and there on this year's Little 500, I'm going to throw out this little nugget:

Philanthropic aspects of IU's Little 500 taking on more meaning; races to run April 24-25

The organizers of Indiana University's annual Little 500 bicycle races say they are seeing rising interest in this year's events -- both on and off the track -- due in part to the current economic downturn.

While both the men's and women's Little 500 races on April 24-25 are expected to again be competitive, IU Student Foundation leaders say the event's true mission -- to raise money for student scholarships -- has become particularly relevant.

Read the full article here.