Time flies. An athlete transfers to another university. Witnesses graduate or drop out …

It now appears Iowa officials will not seek to extradite John Culbertson on his warrant for allegedly shooting into an occupied car while he was at Iowa State in 1984. Seemingly, not enough witnesses can be found.

Maybe now The Northern Star can get on with doing its job. Star reporters covering the men’s basketball team have been getting dirty looks from players, coaches, alumni and fans since the story came out Nov. 30. Coach Jim Rosborough stopped talking to the Star for a week and instructed his team to do the same. Rosborough and Culbertson threatened the Star with lawsuits for running the story.

But they were not the only ones taking shots at DeKalb’s Only Morning Daily.

Former interim Athletic Director Jim Mellard called the story “shabby.” A letter was even received at the Star office later that week. It said the newspaper should apologize to Culbertson, his family and the entire NIU community.

Now it’s becoming a non-story and everything should return to normal. Rosborough and his team are talking to us again, although not about the incident. Culbertson can presumably go back to playing basketball without looking over his shoulder for the Iowa police or Star reporters.

Only one question remains: Should the story have been run in the first place?

Rosborough can answer that question himself. In one of his first press conferences last year after a loss at the Rockford MetroCentre, the Huskie boss asked the room of reporters, “Who’s here from The Northern Star?” After the Star reporters raised a hand each, he said, “You don’t have to be cheerleaders. Just tell the truth.”

Well, the stories on the Culbertson warrant told the truth. The Northern Star reported Culbertson was wanted in Iowa and gave the details of the incident as described in police reports. We were not “out to get” Culbertson or the basketball program as some people have accused. The story fell in our lap and, as journalists, we couldn’t ignore it.

Others have argued the incident was 3uu years old and shouldn’t have been brought up since it was all but forgotten by the authorities. That’s a strange way to look at law and order.

If Culbertson was innocent, he should have tried to get the situation cleared up. Wait, I forgot something. Some administrators have told the media Culbertson might not have known the warrant existed. That’s funny, because a handful of people have told The Northern Star they (the sources, not necessarily the administrators) knew about it as far back as two years ago.

The coaches and players at NIU complain whenever they feel their team isn’t getting enough coverage. Then when the Star covers their games they cry foul the first time something goes wrong and we report it.

Another prime example of this is wrestling coach Ed Vatch. He called around this time last year and said his team wasn’t getting “enough ink.” Soon after, a reporter was put on his beat and the wrestling team received more coverage than any other non-revenue sport. Vatch was happy.

Now comes the switch. The Northern Star recently heard some of his wrestlers were suspended. Team members had allegedly been stopped by police on the way back from a meet at Minnesota and were found to have open alcohol in a university vehicle. When confronted, Vatch confirmed there had been suspensions, but would not say whom or why. In effect, he said it was a team matter and no one else’s business. Consequently, last Tuesday’s story was incomplete.

Situations like these should be dealt with in the open or else people get even more suspicious of what goes on behind the scenes. Perhaps the coaches should consider that.

Just tell the truth.

Dave Tuley’s column will appear every Tuesday and Thursday.