Around the region

25-foot inflatable, blue ape stolen from car dealership\n\nGREENWOOD -- He towered over rows of shiny cars and trucks. But Big Blue -- "King Kong" of the car lot -- has come up missing.\nA 25-foot-tall inflatable blue ape, known as "Big Blue," was stolen this month from its display at a J.D. Byrider store along U.S. 31 just south of Indianapolis.\nEmployees let its air out every night before they left and did not know it was missing until a worker reached for the air pump the morning of Sept. 7 and found only an extension cord.\n"I keep waiting to see it go up and down 31 on the back of somebody's pickup truck," said Ron Daeger, the dealership's finance manager. "Sooner or later, it's gonna surface."\nHospital board votes to allow abortions\nVALPARAISO -- Following weeks of public debate, officials at Porter Memorial Hospital voted to allow abortions to continue to be performed there.\nThe hospital began reviewing its 30-year-old abortion policy after members of Porter County Right to Life in June urged the hospital to ban all abortion procedures.\nSince then, hospital officials have received hundreds of e-mails, letters and phone calls for and against the proposal. Hundreds of people attended a public forum on the policy last week.\nThe hospital board voted 4-3 Wednesday night to retain the policy adopted in 1973.\nPorter County Right to Life members will continue to boycott the hospital and may picket, said Julie Wheeland, the organization's president.\nWheeland said the group also will ask the state's medical licensing board to investigate doctors who fail to report abortions, a problem she contends exists at the hospital.\n"We are not going away," Wheeland said. "There are a lot of unanswered questions.\nPlanned Parenthood of Greater Indiana, which had asked the hospital to continue allowing the procedure to be performed, commended the board for "recognizing the health care needs of the women in their community."\nMethodist Hospitals in Gary and Merrillville are the only other northwest Indiana hospitals offering abortions. Planned Parenthood performs only first trimester abortions at its Merrillville clinic.\nBedford woman charged in shooting of 7-year-old\nPAOLI, Ind. -- A woman was charged with attempted murder and criminal recklessness, accused of wounding a 7-year-old girl while firing a gun at someone else.\nApril Domeck, 28, of Bedford, could face up to 58 years in prison if convicted of both charges. She was being held Wednesday night in the Orange County Jail on $100,000 bond.\nTember Napper, 7, was in fair condition Wednesday at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, Ky. She was airlifted to the hospital for treatment of a bullet wound to her abdomen following the shooting Sunday near Paoli, about 45 miles northwest of Louisville in southern Indiana.\nState police said Domeck drove to a mobile home where her boyfriend, 27-year-old Josh Whitman, was staying.\nThey argued, and Domeck retrieved a gun from her vehicle and fired a shot at Whitman, who was standing on the porch, police said. The bullet missed Whitman and struck the child, who had been standing inside by the front door.\nOrange Circuit Court Judge Larry R. Blanton entered innocent pleas on behalf of Domeck. Her trial was scheduled for March 18.