Around the Region

14 former lawmakers sign up for health insurance plan \nINDIANAPOLIS -- Fourteen retired lawmakers have signed up for health insurance coverage that is estimated will cost the state more than $114,000 this year, a newspaper reported Sunday.\nIndiana's two top lawmakers last year -- Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, and former House Speaker John Gregg, D-Sandborn -- activated a dormant state law to give retired legislators taxpayer-subsidized health insurance.\nThe coverage costs each former lawmaker about 5 percent -- or $400 -- of this year's $8,011 average cost for individual and family coverage.\nThe move last summer came just two months after the Indiana Senate failed to summon enough votes to override Gov. Frank O'Bannon's veto of legislation that would have created a dedicated fund to pay for the benefit. The money now is coming directly from Indiana's shrinking general fund.\nFourteen retired lawmakers have purchased the coverage, according to House and Senate officials. One spouse of a deceased lawmaker also signed up for the coverage, which applies to all legislators who served in parts of four, two-year legislative sessions and left after Dec. 31, 2000.\nThere was no cost estimate completed for the new law at the time.\nUsing state insurance data and details of the health plan, The Indianapolis Star estimated taxpayers will pay at least $114,150 this year to provide the coverage. Costs of the lifetime benefit could balloon as more former legislators join.\nMan sentenced to one year for role in fake ID scheme\n WEST LAFAYETTE -- A 22-year-old man who took part in a scheme that helped Purdue University students obtain fake IDs has been sentenced to one year in jail.\nKelly C. Boyle, 22, was ordered Friday to serve one year of probation, pay a fine of $100 a month during his probation period, continue ongoing counseling and submit to random drug screens.\nBoyle, who pleaded guilty to forgery as a Class C felony, must also and perform 20 hours of community service.\nHe was ordered to report to the Tippecanoe County Jail to begin serving his sentence on May 21. That will give him time to complete a real estate class he is taking at Ivy Tech State College.\nHis sentence is more severe than that received by his co-defendant, Austin J. Templin, 22.\nTemplin, a former student at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, was recognized as the organizer of the fake ID scheme, which provided false Ohio drivers licenses to dozens of underage people in Tippecanoe, Vigo and Monroe counties.\nBut Templin was sentenced in November to only two years on probation.\nBoyle testified Friday that he helped Templin make eight fake IDs by taking photographs and information from people during a visit to West Lafayette.\nExcise police began an investigation in January 2002, after a clerk at a Lafayette liquor store turned over a suspicious-looking Ohio drivers license taken from a female customer.\nThat information eventually led police to Templin and Boyle.\nIraqi war and US security-related news from around Indiana\n SOUTH BEND -- A northern Indiana businessman whose company markets plastic funnels designed to quickly fill sandbags is donating 500 funnels worth $11,000 to American troops in the Persian Gulf.\nDavid Fulmer, the owner of Mishawaka-based Sandtech, made the donation after hearing about soldiers' troubles filling sandbags for protective bunkers in Kuwait.\nHe developed his "Ultralight Quick Response Sandbagging Tool" system about seven years ago to aid in the speed and productivity of filling sandbags.\nHis funnel begins as a piece of plastic able to be stored flat. Within seconds, the funnel can be formed, held together by plastic clips commonly used in the automotive industry.\n"The funnel is more flexible and mobile than any other device used for sandbagging," Fulmer said. "It creates less work on the back and arms, and eliminates injuries."\nFulmer estimated 1,000 personnel divided into four teams of 250 can bag 75,000 sandbags in one hour.