South Bend bar to end wet T-shirt contests\nSOUTH BEND -- A bar has agreed to stop holding wet T-shirt contests after city officials accused the owners of violating an adult business ordinance.\nAssistant City Attorney Ann-Carol Nash filed a lawsuit against the Inferno bar's owners last month that sought a court order prohibiting activities such as the T-shirt contests.\nNash and the Inferno's lawyer, James Korpal, reached a settlement approved last week by St. Joseph Superior Court Judge Michael P. Scopelitis -- the same judge who ruled Dec. 21 that some sections of the ordinance were unconstitutional.\nThe agreement requires the bar to cease all wet T-shirt contests and any other activities that fall within the definition of adult entertainment.\nNeighborhood residents urged the city to take action after the bar began holding the contests late last summer.\nThe city's lawsuit maintained that the contests constituted adult entertainment in violation of the ordinance. The law forbids such activities within 500 feet of property that is used or zoned residential.\nA few other Indiana communities, including Dyer and Whiting, began considering similar ordinances after South Bend adopted its measure. The Gary City Council passed an ordinance a year ago, which led to a court challenge.
Mysterious animal in Hoosier National Forest\nHARRODSBURG, Ind. -- A scientist who said a mysterious creature sighted in the Hoosier National Forest might be an ape said the animal was more likely a bear after examining its footprints.\nAnthropologist Dick Adams had theorized that the animal could be a pet orangutan that escaped its owner.\nFour people reported seeing a hairy, five-foot-tall creature crouching along a remote road earlier in the week.\nDale Moore and Penny Howell had driven to the house of some friends, Rick Deckard and his sister, Sue Taylor, on Wednesday when they reportedly spotted the animal about 200 feet away.\nThey said it had long, nearly black fur or hair and was standing in a sort of crouch on its rear legs. They guessed its height at about 5 feet and its weight at 200 pounds.\nWhen the creature saw them, it turned and moved into the woods, they said.\nAdams and his son took photos and poured plaster casts of the creature's four-toed, clawed tracks Friday.\nAdams said the tracks were too large for those of a badger and could not be those of an American black bear, which has five toes.
Many homes still without power four days after icestorm causes outage\nAbout 4,000 northern Indiana homes and businesses whose power was cut off by an ice storm Thursday remained without electricity Monday morning.\nAmerican Electric Power said on its Web site that about 2,200 of its customers in South Bend and 1,200 customers in Elkhart were still without power as of four a.m. Monday.\nAEP crews had restored power to more than 111,000 customers in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan since Thursday's storm, the company said.\nThe company expected to have power restored to 99 percent of its customers Monday night and to all by Tuesday night.\nAbout 600 Northern Indiana Public Service Co. customers remained without power at 8:20 a.m., utility spokesman Dave Ryan said. Most of those were in Goshen and Angola.\nNIPSCO expected to restore power to all customers on Monday.\nAbout 20,000 NIPSCO customers were without electricity at the peak of the outages.
Indiana House passes plan to restructure taxes, close budget deficit\nINDIANAPOLIS -- By the bare minimum of votes needed, the Indiana House on Monday passed a sweeping Democrat-drafted plan to restructure taxes and close a state budget deficit projected to top $1 billion by July 2003.\nThe House voted 51-47 for the plan, mostly along party lines, and sent it to the Senate. Only one Republican, Rep. Dean Young, R-Hartford City, cast a yes vote, while three Democrats voted against the proposal. Democrats control the chamber 53-47.\nThe plan would raise sales taxes, increase taxes on cigarettes and casinos and suspend two tax cuts approved in 1999. Some of the new revenue would be used to shore up the budget deficit, but some would be used to cut property taxes to protect homeowners from the effects of the unfolding reassessment.\nThe proposal was stalled in the House last week as Democrats tried to muster the 51 votes needed for passage. Republicans were almost completely united in their opposition, saying the plan had too many tax increases to fix the budget deficit.\nSenate Finance Chairman Larry Borst, R-Greenwood, said major changes would be made to the plan in the Republican-controlled Senate.
