Ivy Tech holds political public forum\nIvy Tech-Bloomington will hold the O'Bannon Institute for a day-long free public forum featuring leading experts in politics, education and non-profit organizations. Former Indiana First Lady Judy O'Bannon will be the keynote speaker. The event will take place at Ivy Tech State College-Bloomington, 200 Daniels Way, and will feature a free lunch. For more information call 330-6005 or contact mshoward@ivytech.edu.
Jeffersonville panel OKs plans for river front tower\nJEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. -- City planners have approved a developer's proposal to build a 10-story condominium near the Ohio River.\nWhile city leaders have praised the project as a way to boost development along the riverfront, opponents have said the building's 150-foot height would be out of character with historic homes and businesses in the downtown area.\nThe city Plan Commission voted 8-0 to recommend approval of the project, called The RiverView, which is estimated to cost $26 million and include a fitness center, a restaurant and office space on the first two floors.\nConstruction could begin next month if the City Council votes to allow the zoning change.\nGreg Sekula, of the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, said officials needed to consider how new buildings would affect neighborhoods with structures dating to the 1850s and earlier.\n"We're continuing to see the erosion of historic buildings," Sekula said. "We would hate to see the loss of these historic resources for higher-density development."\nReal estate broker Barb McDonald said she has preliminary agreements to sell 14 of the 80 condos, including a $715,000 penthouse. Demolition of a vacant building at the site is scheduled for the second week of May, she said, and the tower could be under roof by December.\nGreg Fifer, an attorney for project developer Realty Equities LLC, said the new condominiums would cause a negligible increase in downtown traffic and that a larger nearby development creates less traffic than a string of restaurants on the riverfront.
Boyfriend of woman charged in murder plot accused\nNEWPORT, Ind. -- The boyfriend of a woman charged with trying to hire someone to kill her child's father has been accused of the man's beating death.\nJeremy M. Schmitt, 29, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of fatally beating Scott A. Williams on April 19 at Williams' home in western Indiana.\nSchmitt allegedly climbed through a window of Williams' St. Bernice home before killing the 39-year-old in his bedroom, said Vermillion County Sheriff Kim Hawkins.\nWilliams' body was discovered later the same day by his mother as she returned home from work. Preliminary autopsy results suggest the disabled man suffered more than a dozen blows to his head and upper body.\nSchmitt and his girlfriend, Teresa K. Cox, were scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Vermillion County Circuit Court at Newport. They were being held without bail at the Vermillion County Jail.\nCox, who was charged last week with trying to hire at least two other people to kill Williams, is expected to face a murder charge, authorities said.\nInvestigators suspect that Cox, 37, drove Schmitt to an area near Williams' home before the killing. Police have seized her sport utility vehicle.\nHawkins said she believes the motive in the killing was a custody dispute between Williams and Cox over their 2-year-old daughter.\nA court document filed last week describes the dispute, stemming from a paternity and visitation lawsuit Williams filed in 2001, as "unusually bitter and acrimonious."\nHawkins said Cox had been involved in a previous custody dispute involving her two older children.\n"I think the fear of losing her baby girl to someone else ... was a big deal to her," Hawkins said. "I just think she wanted the problem to go away."\nSchmitt, who dated Cox over the past three or four months, had been a suspect from early on and was questioned a day after Williams' body was discovered, Hawkins said.
