Around The Region

One dead, two injured after Porter county bank robbery Tuesday\nBEVERLY SHORES, IND. -- At least one person was killed and two others were injured during a bank robbery Tuesday in Porter County.\nTwo people were believed to be in critical condition and one person was dead following the shooting around noon at First State Bank of Porter, said a spokeswoman for the Porter County Sheriff's Department who declined to give her name.\n"There was apparently an attempted bank robbery. Shots erupted. And I have heard that there were some people injured," said 1st Sgt. Scott Beamon of the Indiana State Police.\nLeonard Miller, an internal auditor for the bank headquarters in Porter, confirmed that there was an attempted robbery at the bank's Pines office about 50 miles east of Chicago.\n"It's over. I don't have any more information than that, but I can confirm that it is over," Miller said.\nPolice were looking for at least one robber and possibly two, television station WMAQ of Chicago reported.\nSecret Service looks into felon's position as fund benefit officer\nINDIANAPOLIS -- The Secret Service has joined a criminal inquiry into a convicted felon's management of the $11 billion state retirement fund.\nWalter Kevin Scott was hired in November as the fund's chief benefits officer, beating out 36 other people for the position that carries an annual $95,000 salary.\nState officials suspended Scott Aug. 13 after they learned from The Indianapolis Star of his 1996 conviction on federal bank and mail fraud charges. He resigned the following day.\nScott served two months in a Kentucky federal prison and spent three years on probation for stealing the identities of two people.\nThe Secret Service, a branch of the Treasury Department that investigates financial and identity crimes, was examining whether Scott broke any federal laws during his nine-month stint at the pension fund.\nIndiana State Police officers were conducting a separate investigation.\nScott had access to the Social Security numbers, addresses and birth dates of more than 200,000 retired and working public employees. So far, state officials have not said how or why he was chosen for the position.\n"This is going to be a complex, long-term investigation," Mark Parkman, a Secret Service official who heads the Indianapolis field office, told the Star for a story Saturday. "It appears at this time that there's no immediate danger to the pension system."\nE. William Butler, executive director of the pension fund, declined to comment.