Shipshewana shop owner to rebuild\nSHIPSHEWANA, Ind. -- The owners of the Davis Mercantile, destroyed by fire last month, plan to rebuild but are not sure of a location.\nThe Feb. 29 fire destroyed all 11 businesses in the Davis Mercantile building, including the century-old Old Davis Hotel. Building owner Alvin Miller said Tuesday he has talked with LaGrange County economic committees and the town of Shipshewana about relocating.\nThe northern Indiana town of Shipshewana, about 40 miles east of South Bend, draws tourists to its arts, crafts and specialty shops as well as its outlet malls.\nMiller said there is "a lot of draw for us to rebuild" at the site, but issues of parking and semitrailer traffic might influence him to change locations.\nMiller said he would like to make the next building a bit bigger to give his tenants more space but he is not looking for new tenants.\nA print called "Raise the Alarm," by Will Moses, was the only item not destroyed in the fire. It depicts a burning hotel with a community running around trying to save it.\n"It is kind of connected," Miller said.\nThe cause of the fire has not been determined.
Trucks carrying $1 million in computers stolen\nWHITELAND, Ind. -- A truck hauling $1 million worth of computers was stolen from a truck stop and may have been targeted by a new breed of sophisticated, quick-acting highway thieves.\nClues in the theft of the 2000 Mack truck last Friday from a Johnson County truck stop suggest it wasn't a random act, said Johnson County Sheriff's Lt. Mike McElwain.\nPolice said James Edward Reynolds Jr., 50, pulled off Interstate 65 in Whiteland, about 10 miles south of Indianapolis, to get a cup of coffee. Returning five minutes later, he found the truck was missing.\nMcElwain said the driver left the keys in the ignition, but the rig was locked, as were air brakes that require a separate key. Whoever stole the truck also disabled a device that lets the owner, a Virginia company named Warrior Xpress, track it.\nPolice in another state later pulled over a different truck and found the stolen computer monitors, but the truck remains missing, McElwain said.\nDon L. Rondeau, director of security for the American Trucking Association, said modern-day highwaymen recently have developed methods to target specific types of cargo and networks for quickly unloading their loot.\n"They know the difference between a truck with shampoo and a truck loaded with a million dollars of technology equipment," he said. "And there's clearly a criminal supply chain in existence that allows for criminals to funnel stolen product into the mainstream."\nCargo theft, an unmonitored but costly problem for the trucking industry, happens every day, said Rondeau, who works with the industry's largest cargo theft task force.
Indiana Army Reserve Unit returns home from Iraq\nLAFAYETTE -- The 209th Quartermaster Company that has been deployed for 14 months in the Middle East is expected to be back next month, officials said.\nThe 108-member Army Reserve unit is expected back in early April, said Dennis Nunnally, 209th unit administrator.\nTheir actual return date can rotate or change a few days either way, depending upon availability of aircraft, he said Tuesday.\nLourdes Edmondson of Lafayette said she has been praying for the safe return of her husband, Staff Sgt. James Edmondson.\n"Boy, I tell you, I'm really, really happy," she said. "I can't even believe he's coming home. I've been waiting for this day for a long, long, long time."\nThe first of two groups of the 209th began the convoy out of Iraq into Kuwait Monday. The second group is expected to move Saturday, Nunnally said. The convoys are each expected to take three to four days.\n"Everyone knows once we get them across that Iraqi border, they're basically as safe as being back here," Nunnally said.\nFrom Kuwait, the unit will fly to Fort Knox, Ky., where soldiers will undergo a week of processing before being allowed to return to their communities.\nThe unit's family support group intends to meet in the next two weeks and will begin making plans for a homecoming celebration.
