Around The Region

Second pension worker charged with ID theft\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A temporary employee at the state pension fund has been charged with using a state worker's identity information to obtain a store credit card.\nAuthorities said Shaunna L. Stone, 34, of Indianapolis, applied for the credit card using the Social Security number and other personal information of an employee at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility near Carisle.\nStone was being held Wednesday in Marion County Jail. Prosecutors charged her last week with forgery, identity deception fraud and attempted theft. She could face more than eight years in prison if convicted on all charges.\nThe pension fund's former chief benefits officer, Walter Kevin Scott, resigned about six months ago after state officials learned he had been convicted for stealing the identities of two Ohio residents.\nAuthorities would not say whether they were investigating a possible connection between Stone and Scott, who faces federal charges that he stole the identify of a man with a similar name to pass a state background check.\nBoth Stone and Scott had access to the Social Security numbers, birth dates and addresses of more than 200,000 working and retired public employees.\nStone worked from September 2001 to May 2002 in the benefits department overseen by Scott, but he was not her direct supervisor.\nLeak might have started fire at BP Amoco refinery\nWHITING, Ind. -- A leak might be the cause of a fire Tuesday at a BP Amoco refinery in northwestern Indiana, a company spokesman said.\nThe fire started about 12:15 p.m. CST Tuesday and was put out by company fire crews within an hour, BP Amoco spokesman Scott Dean said. Three people suffered minor injuries, were taken to the hospital and released, he said.\n"There was no outside impact to the surrounding community," Dean said.\nThe fire occurred in the catalytic cracking unit, where middle-grade petroleum products such as kerosene and heating oil are refined into gasoline, Dean said.\nThe refinery is near Lake Michigan, a few miles east of the Indiana-Illinois state line.\nThe overall facility can process 420,000 barrels of oil a day. The catalytic cracking unit, which can process 100,000 barrels of oil a day, will remain shut down indefinitely until the cause of the fire is determined, he said.\n"The important thing, though, is that the refinery continues to operate, Dean said.\nAccused man accepts life without parole for murder of sheriff's deputy\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A man accepted a sentence of life without parole in pleading guilty Tuesday to killing a Marion County sheriff's deputy.\nProsecutors had been seeking the death penalty against Michael Shannon, 21, for the September 2001 shooting of Deputy Jason Baker. A trial on the murder charge had been scheduled to start Tuesday.\nJerry Baker, the deputy's father, said he supported the plea agreement because it spared the family from years of court appeals by Shannon.\n"This isn't about closure," Baker said. "It's about moving forward."\nShannon admitted to killing the 24-year-old deputy during a car chase and gunbattle on the northeast side of Indianapolis.\nShannon was riding with three other men when Baker tried to pull their car over, but the car took off and gunfire soon erupted from it.\nBaker died after he was hit by three slugs from a high-powered rifle.\nThe car's driver, Allen Dumperth, 20, was shot and killed by SWAT officers after the vehicle crashed.\nCharges against the other two passengers were dropped. Prosecutors said neither man was directly involved in Baker's shooting.